Father Brown (TV Series) The Sins of the Father (2016) User Reviews

The Sins of the Father

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 3 March 2017]

Doctor Mordaunt Jackson, a psycho-analyst has arrived in Kembleford mainly to write and gives a lecture in the village hall. He has taken time to give a demonstration of his hypnosis skills on Lady Felicia.

Meanwhile an aircraft tycoon Robert Twyman is in receipt of a note telling him that that if he does not confess then his piano playing son Calvin will be killed. He is later found strangled. Twyman's butler is a suspect but when later a former journalist who gave up the profession to go into music is also found dead then Twyman becomes a suspect and is arrested.

Father Brown believes that Twyman once made dangerous aircraft and believes that the deaths could be linked to the accidents involving his planes and thinks Mordaunt Jackson's skills in hypnosis might hold all the right notes.

An intriguing episode although it might be deemed to be far fetched but enjoyable. You could sympathize with the murderer's motives.

Murder in A Minor.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 12 December 2017]

Mrs McCarthy is busy putting together a talent contest, what could possibly go wrong? Surely not murder..

I really enjoyed this strong episode, such a clever mystery, with some great character play. Paul Brown is excellent as Morduant Jackson, an actor I always look on as wet Malcolm from Watching, he's great in this. The scenes with Mrs McCarthy and Lady Felicia on stage may be a little corny, but are terribly sweet, the pair have truly developed into a great double act. The scene where Doctor Jackson takes away Lady Felicia's spirit is well played out, a far cry from his time on Watching.

The outcome was definitely unexpected, but cleverly devised, it does require a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but it's clever nonetheless. It's an enjoyable episode. 8/10

The sins of the father

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 20 March 2023]

Aircraft tycoon Robert Twyman is in receipt of notes stating that if he does not 'confess' his spoiled son Calvin will be killed; and indeed the boy is strangled. Twyman's butler, Wallace's strange behavior makes him suspect; but Robert believes the culprit is journalist Rosie Everton, seeking a meaty story. When Rosie is also murdered, Mallory arrests Robert; but Father Brown believes that visiting psychologist Mordaunt Jackson holds the key to solving the murders.

Farfetched yet quite a puzzling and engaging mystery with Father Brown determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Felicity has problems with singing and Mrs McCarthy tries to help her.

Lady Felicia and Mrs McCarthy

[safenoe · 7/10 · 16 September 2023]

The ending is very tender, with Mrs McCarthy joining a very nervous an discouraged Lady Felicia on stage. Definitely a highlight of this episode, The Sins of the Father. Anyway, here Father Brown has to work out how the killer got into and out of a securely locked house. I'm enjoying watching the early seasons of Father Brown, and seeing how Father Brown became Father Brown.

Really, my only suggestion is that the series could benefit from some big name cameos such as Sigourney Weaver (who was in Doc Martin) or Danny Dyer. Now that would be an explosive episode to have Danny Dyer in Kembleford init.

Disappointing patterns in a disappointing season

[Absalom1991 · 4/10 · 4 April 2018]

Other have reviewed the episode for details of plot. I would like to add my tuppence-worth to note a pattern that seems rather perverse.

Of course the conceit of a quaint all-Catholic corner of England in which the murder rate is higher than anywhere in the world and where the only competent mind to address the endemic homicide already strains the show. Part of that silliness - the filling of the churchyard in a quaint semirural setting - is common among cozies. However, the misrepresentation of simple demographics suggests a more perverse spirit at play with Rachel Flowerday and Tahsin Guner, the show developers, and their stable of writers.

The especially cruel nature of the deaths being shown, represented in this episode and numerous others in Season 4, are out of kilter. The frequent focus on murders of young men, usually shown in close detail, is nasty. In the context of the offensively cartoonish constabulary and the soothing (and neutered) main characters, the peculiarly hateful treatments suggest a lack of integrity among the team. Felicia is now sinned against by the earl and is not shown philandering, Sid just "plays" at being a low thief, Bridget is all heart under her bigotry and overreaching classism, the inspector is a fool, but let's show another young man strangled amid the outraged grief of his family, who naturally are accused of the murder.

The point is that the show already has debased Chesterton's vision for the Father Brown persona. Somehow Mark Williams holds things together with an overlay of intelligent (and perhaps too enlightened) faith. He is allowed, happily, to show an acceptance of human nature. But the creepily mean-spirited nature of the inevitable killings leave a terrible aftermath. The show treats its viewers with a stealthy disdain, replacing thoughtful themes in lieu of talent and will and respect for its audience with a brutal and graphic shake. The creators and writers offend their genre and in the process demean an excellent cast and a willing, if apparently benighted, audience.

Doesn't make sense to you? That's okay. Enjoy the show. But if you feel a little slimed afterwards and don't understand why, toss a pie into the smug faces of Flowerday and Guner. If it happens to be from a pasture, all the better for returning their favor.