The Young Inspector Morse - Season 4 - DVD

Content: The Young Inspector Morse, the successful prequel series to the classic British crime drama Inspector Morse (1987 - 2000) enters its fourth round. And the series about young Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans), who laid the foundations for his career as an investigator in 1960s Oxford. We had already told you about the third season and more background on the series <link https: www.frankfurt-tipp.de kino s film der-junge-inspector-morse-staffel-3-dvd-grossbritannien-2015.html _blank> HERE. The dramatic events of last season's finale also have consequences for the new episodes. Plagued by guilt, Joan has left Oxford. Only now can Endeavour admit his feelings for Thursdays daughter. It's an almost tragic development for the character - after all, fans know more about Endeavour's sad fate in matters of the heart from the earlier series. Thursday and his wife also suffer as a result of Joan's disappearance, and you can tell that the pressure now on everyone involved is having an effect on their investigative work.

While Endeavour and Thursday are true professionals in their field, they don't allow their personal lives to affect their investigations. But in the fourth season of The Young Inspector Morse, they are made increasingly difficult to do so. It crystallizes here also more and more clearly the very great strength of the successful prequel: On the one hand, criminal cases are treated, which are constructed overall rather conventional, but simply timelessly well staged. On the other hand, the main characters continue to develop, which is not a matter of course in crime series. Especially with the knowledge of what kind of person and investigator Morse will be twenty years later and how his career and life will end, fills some aspects of the story with a certain tragedy here, but this is pleasantly subtly constructed.

Shaun Evans once again proves to be the ideal casting for the young Endeavour Morse. With a mixture of elegant cool and a vulnerability that he hides behind his emotionally detached façade, he becomes more and more the most interesting investigator that television has had to offer in a long time. Let's hope this great crime series stays with us for a few more seasons, if only to see how the characters will develop even further.

And that's what the very gripping new episodes of season four are all about:

DVD 1 - Episode 1: Death Masks

Joan Thursday secretly disappears from Oxford, leaving her family and Endeavour Morse heartbroken. But instead of despairing, Morse throws himself into work. Washed up on the riverbank is the body of Professor Richard Nielson, who has been missing for a month. Her condition reveals that the man has been dead for weeks. Nielson was part of the team that developed a chess computer. More and more drownings are being fished out of the water in Oxford. Morse suspects a serial killer. The pattern of deaths also suggests a killer with chess skills. Thursday, however, isn't much help in the investigation. He still hasn't gotten over his daughter Joan leaving the family. He takes his frustrations out on Morse. Due to an alleged error in sending out his exam papers, Morse has failed his sergeant's exam. This ties him to the Oxford City Police Station for another year - much to the delight of his superior Bright. (Text: ZDF)

DVD 1 - Episode 2: Irrationalities

Self-styled guardian of morals Joy Pettybon is visiting Oxford to promote her campaign to preserve society's morals. When she receives death threats in the mail, Morse is assigned to protect her. He also investigates the death of bricklayer Brian Finch, who appears to have been strangled with a rope. Then, at the autopsy, it turns out that he died of heart failure. Therefore, Morse suspects that the murder is a staging. Finch last worked in a mansion rented by the controversial pop group Wildwood. The mansion is currently filming for a popular TV show. Joy Pettybon finds the show offensive and would prefer to ban it. (Text: ZDF)

DVD 2 - Episode 3: Bed Ten

An unusually large number of patients die in a short space of time at Cowley Hospital, all of whom were in bed ten on the same ward. The latest death is prison inmate Terence Bakewell, whom Morse was supposed to be guarding at the hospital. Chief Superintendent Bright suddenly collapses in his office. He is admitted to Cowley Hospital and operated on by the elderly Sir Merlyn Chubb, who was also the doctor for all the patients in bed ten. After the operation, Bright is also taken to the deathly infirmary. In addition, Mrs. Zacharides, who lives alone, is found dead on her estate. Everything points to a natural cause of death. Her husband, who died six months ago, was also a patient at Cowley Hospital. From the couple's daughter, Morse learns that Mrs. Zacharides was at loggerheads with the hospital because some of her husband's belongings were stolen from the hospital. (Text: ZDF)

DVD 2 - Episode 4: Sunshine

When a body is discovered near Oxford, the police believe they have found Matthew Laxman, who disappeared five years ago. Thursday and Morse reopen the case. Laxman was last seen by a hitchhiker who reports that he was on his way to Bramford. However, when Morse tries to question the residents of the village about what happened back then, he is repeatedly faced with closed doors. Morse is also denied access to the nuclear power plant located nearby. The power plant could be connected to the case, as Laxman was a known anti-nuclear activist. To make matters worse, Morse's apartment is ransacked and vandalized by burglars. (Text: ZDF)

Picture + Sound: Compared to the third season, nothing has changed in terms of picture and sound quality: Sharpness, coloring and contrast matching are in the brighter scenes on a good TV level, only in darker moments there are now and then minor blurring and slight image noise. The stereo sound is absolutely convincing with the well understandable mixed dialogues and the appropriately tuned music. Good!

Extras: The first DVD features five interviews with Shaun Evans (approx. 5:02 min.), Roger Allam (approx. 3:27 min.), James Bradshaw (approx. 3:12 min.), Anton Lesser (approx. 3:28 min.) and Sean Rigby (approx. 3:10 min.) about their roles and their development in season 4. The second DVD then features similar interviews with Abigail Thaw (approx. 3:42 mins) and Dakota Blue Richards (approx. 3:25 mins), as well as short docs on the relationship between Endeavour Morse and Joan Thursday (approx. 6:26 mins), the filming in Oxford (approx. 7 mins) and Shaun Evans` first attempts at steady-cam (approx. 1:24 mins). Good!

Conclusion: The fourth season of the successful crime series The Young Inspector Morse not only offers again very exciting criminal cases with 60s flair. What makes the series so successful in its fourth year is the development of the main characters, which reaches a new dramatic climax in this season. The four feature-length episodes are on two DVDs in good picture and sound quality. As a bonus there are a few interviews and a look behind the scenes. Who appreciates British crime series of the particularly outstanding kind, may not miss this DVD: Absolutely recommendable!

Source: Sebastian Betzold, Synopsis: ZDF