I watched this series sporadically many years ago and enjoyed them, being a murder-mystery lover, and having read several of Colin Dexter's books. I recently started watching again on Brit Box and am really disappointed. The shows themselves are excellently done; the acting, the production, is all extremely well done and the characters are likable and believable, except, unfortunately for Morse himself. I don't recall, somewhat 30 years after reading the books, if Colin Dexter actually wrote Morse the way he is portrayed in these shows (I'm assuming he did). He is obnoxious, lecherous, rarely follows correct procedure, rarely figures out who is actually guilty, in fact he usually arrests and badgers the wrong person. Lewis usually figures out the correct answer, and does all of the work, while Morse drinks and makes a fool of himself pursuing every woman with a pulse, including suspects. Morse is pretty much a drunken buffoon, and I doubt he would last 5 minutes as a police inspector in real life. It's too bad because his surly clown of a character almost ruins an otherwise exceptional show.
Review of Inspector Morse
