Midsomer Murders: Set 14

Midsomer Murders, Set 14

Studio: Acorn Media

US DVD Release Date: February 23, 2010

Television Broadcast Year: 2007

Rated: Not Rated

Running Time: 372 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen

Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)

Subtitles: English (SDH)

Movie: 3 out of 5

Set in fictional Midsomer Country, a rural countryside community on the outskirts of London, Midsomer Murders is one of the longest running crime dramas on British television, and based on a series of novels by Caroline Graham. Each movie-length episode is a who-dunnit, and stars John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby and Jason Hughes as his partner, Detective Sergeant Ben Jones.

Set 14 consists of the last four episodes of season 10. While the cast is quite good, the writing and directing is a bit dry, at times sleep-inducing due to the slow pacing of the plotline. Another complaint is how the writers try to force Barnaby and his family into the first act of each episode to give them more screen time, when there is nothing yet to investigate.

Besides the cast, there are some amusing moments, especially in Picture of Innocence, where a group of old photographers are so dead set in their ways of using traditional film, that members of their photographers club are ostracized if they are seen leaving the local digital printing shop, and also blame everything on computers.

Although the box indicates each episode runs approximately 100 minutes, the actual running time is 93 minutes.

Video: 3 out of 5

Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, the episodes have a soft, film-like quality to them. Colors are somewhat muted, and there is some occasionally excessive grain, but these episodes were filmed in 16mm, so this is forgivable. Each episode is given its own DVD-5 disc, allowing for a healthy video bitrate.

Audio: 3 out of 5

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, encoded at 224 kbps, has decent fidelity with intelligible dialogue. The musical score, featuring the theremin, is spread out evenly when played back in Pro-Logic. Although this is a dialogue-driven program, discrete panning effects are present and are well-placed.

Special Features: 1 out of 5

The only feature provided on this set is a very brief, text-based biography of author Caroline Graham.

Overall: 3 out of 5

The overall pacing of the program may be a bit slow for most American viewers, but this is still an enjoyable show. The audio and video are about what you expect on DVD, although the special features are a bit anemic.