YES, THERE ARE SEVERAL SPOILERS HERE THAT TELL THE PLOT.
Others have reviewed aspects of this episode and I realize it is now (in 2015) seven-years old. However, I have been watching the "Inspector Morse" and "Inspector Lewis" series in chronological order, and on reaching this one ("Life Born of Fire") I decided to offer a few comments. If I use the present tense at times, it is because the show still is in production and I expect the trends I note to have continued.
"Inspector Morse" usually maintained a fair intelligence and seldom succumbed to overly showy or trite effects or dodgy characterizations. It wasn't perfect, but plotting had integrity relative to reasonable thematic arcs. Of course the episodes aligned fairly well with Mr. Dexter's novels. When Morse's character died and the series ended, it seemed timely - a degree of frustration had settled in as possibilities seemed to have been exhausted. And the lead and supporting actors maintained an authenticity that lent a remarkable seriousness to the entertainment. Morse was believably exasperating and sympathetic without insulting sentimentality.
"Inspector Lewis" has not gone completely wrong. It is entertaining but often lacks the bracing smarts of the Morse stories. The actors are quite good, and the Lewis character's promotion to lead works well with the Hathaway character as its foil.
But.
It pretends to an intelligence that the Morse series had built into it. "Inspector Lewis" seems to have been updated to meet what is assumed to be more contemporary tastes. Unfortunately this means simplistic and pretentious themes dressed in cheap finery, Grand Guignol deaths, implausible plots with unrealistic character connections, silly editing games, and repetitious travelogue shots of exquisite Oxford that show the same places over and over. Where "Inspector Morse" cleverly and casually placed the Headington Shark in the background without comment, "Inspector Lewis" relies on the Bridge of Sighs - repeatedly.
I understand all this. There has been a kind of Americanization of the series, and as an American I can say that it remains better than most network shows of its genre. It is not as good as it should be, which is usual. But it is not as good as it pretends to be, which undermines one's trust in the talent and discretion of writers and directors.
This episode paraded these flaws as a badge of honor. It managed to insult both gay people AND religionists. This viewer wondered if anyone associated with creating the episode had actually met a gay person, a transgendered person, a seminarian or priest of the last century, or a committed Catholic or Christian. Must every gay person in the show be a self-loathing mess, a murderer, a manipulative and spiteful academic, or a lavender stereotype? Must every woman find Lewis sexually attractive, for that matter?
Gay people do not undergo sex reassignments in order to snatch their guilty-to-be-gay lovers back. Sex reassignment surgeons - even in Brazil - do not haphazardly undertake their work without responsible vetting. However homophobic the Church remains, gay Catholic organizations in 2008 did not promote the type of bizarre, ritualistic reprogramming initiatives shown. They did not do so in 1978, for that matter.
Both the self-immolation of the gay suicide victim for political purposes and the subsequent elaborate serial killings belong in a teen slasher film more than they do in a show pretending to address bias, guilt and character revelation. Also, the manner in which Hathaway's sexual identity was treated was itself ultimately insulting. Never mind that his offenses in withholding information, and Lewis' own withholding of that fact, should have seen them both seriously reprimanded, at least.
Making Hathaway's character more-or-less directly responsible for the initiating suicide and indirectly responsible for all the grisly murders and suicide that followed was the last flaming straw on the tortured camel's back in this "Life Born of Fire." Morse was troubled. Hathaway is made to seem ready for institutionalization, and rightly so. Then he shrugs it all off with a smile.
Is it that the writers are bad? That the intellectual capacity of the audience is doubted? That intrinsic production standards have suffered while extrinsic standards - grounded in technology and superfice - have taken the forefront? That the wrong people have been in charge? Or is it that chick-flick and teen-horror modes are what belong in a crime show set in Oxford? The deaths in this episode would qualify as world news.
Whately and Fox deserve better. So does the audience, whether it knows it or not.
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