User Reviews

Father Brown returns for the tenth season and there have been a few changes. Mrs McCarthy has departed and so Father Brown is seeking a new parish secretary.

Inspector Mallory has had enough and gone as far away from Father Brown he could get. Chief Inspector Sullivan grudgingly returns.

The episodes are also now shown weekly instead of daily. It also has a celebrity fan in Bob Dylan

The first episode has a fun opening shot of Kembleford only for it to be a miniature construction of the village.

The Times They Are A-Changin' as a developer plans to build new houses that could change the landscape forever. For Kembleford this could be the End of the Line.

A misplaced model of a miniature person signifies the exact place a dead body is found. That of Jennifer Mossop, wife of one of the people who constructed the model village.

Pretty soon the main suspect is the man who wants to develop Kembleford like a Hurricane.

A second killing is a stabbing, someone who seems to have known his victim. Once again the miniature model of the victim was moved to the location in the model village where the body was found.

Mrs Devine is an enthusiastic sidekick and this was a bright opener. Father Brown recognises that someone has been moved to do evil things.

I found this particular episode slow moving. However, I have been a fan since the beginning. It's still better than anything else in US prime time. That's because with Father Brown, it's really the Story that is the Star. This has always been a fine ensemble. On the plus side, this new season was worth the wait, but on the downside, I wasn't ready to part with Mrs. McCarthy. I don't care for Mrs. Divine. I think the rapport between Mrs. McCarthy and Lady Felicia, that was built and matured over the course of years was proof of the behind the scenes people really hitting a homer.

I never cared for negative, mean, carping and corrupt Jack Deem's Inspector. Tom Chamberlain is the best. I just wonder how long my favorite show can go on. For a little town, Kembleford sure has its share of ne'er do wells. That's one continuity thing that always got me.

Father Brown is a great show all around. It's totally binge worthy. It's not too preachy and recognizes that humans are flawed, no matter who you are. Just look at the Archbishop. BBC hit this one out of the park. They could not have picked a better Father Brown than Mark Williams.

I have been an ardent fan of the cozy mystery series since the start but wasn't aware all the crucial characters who made the 'ensemble' work would be gone. Very disappointing.

I have only watched two or three of the episodes in Season 10 but have yet to warm up to it.

The fact that they brought in new characters but basically gave them the same dialogue as their predecessors is unacceptable to me and doesn't make any sense. Other shows have done this and when most visible, you can actually visualize the old character delivering the lines. "New Tricks" was very guilty of this at first until the new characters evolved into their own personas and we got more used to them and their camaraderie in general. Of course, none could 'replace' Jack and no attempt was made for there to be anyone. In my opinion, Sandra and her special relationship with the guys just didn't translate in spite of the producers and writers' efforts to cast a younger lookalike and give her Sandra's dialogue.

Hopefully, a similar evolution will be true of the new line-up in Father Brown but the show isn't as well written and the characters are basically 'comic book' so they haven't much room to develop. They have to fit the mold in most ways.

I was always disappointed in the changes to Sid's character over the years and he lost his eager, cheeky, roguish edge and actually seemed to just dial in his performances towards the end. He and Lady Montague were definitely long time favourites of mine (until he went to jail in the script and his character changed) and together they brought such a sparkle to every early episode. I was happy they would both flit in and out but he was never as good as he'd been as 'the ruffian chauffeur to Lady M'. She has always shone in every episode she was in.

I found Bunty really irritating at first but grew to enjoy her contribution. I couldn't stand the stupidity of Inspector Mallory, after Valentine and Sullivan, but even he grew on me to a certain extent because it was believable that he would never like Father Brown no matter how often he solved the cases for him. He, with his disgusting moustache, was basically an irritating, clownish character and usually too OTT for me. Sergeant Goodfellow and Mrs McCarthy were the glue holding the whole ensemble together. Their relationship with Father Brown was the magical ingredient that kept each episode special.

So, to bring back Inspector Sullivan but try to give him Inspector Mallory's attitude and lines just didn't work for me at all. After Father Brown had saved his life when on the run for murder, he had lost most of his dismissive attitude towards him so it didn't work to have him be back at square one, behaving like Mallory. Tom Chambers, himself, seemed uncomfortable in the role. Miscast as the stupid Inspector all too ready to arrest the first (and wrong) character a la Mallory, he had very little involvement in the investigation and solving of the crimes. Very little involvement in the story at all which kept Goodfellow's role minimal too. His inspector exams being a good excuse. Father Brown did it all for him in a much more obvious and methodical way than ever before. Better to have the Inspector question the suspects and look for clues only to be wrong and for Father Brown to bounce off those mistakes than not have the police investigate anything at all. For the intelligent officer Sullivan had always been and his years in Scotland Yard it didn't make any sense so I think they had to keep him in the background until they could perhaps take his character down a different path (brewing romance with Mrs Devine) and give it a whole new dynamic. Hopefully, he'll be more involved going forward as the interaction and unintentional 'collaboration' between them all is crucial to the enjoyment of the solving of the case. Father Brown's trio doing it all my themselves was almost boring and completely unrealistic.

I found the new Beth character totally annoying and, like Inspector Sullivan, they have basically given her Bunty's role and dialogue which makes no sense either. She has no history with the characters to make the kinds of judgements Bunty would have made and her 'street smarts' can only work up to a point. Obviously, the writers already had Bunty's lines written and the effort to make them identify with each other's 'naughtiness' upon meeting in Season 9 was a cheap shot at introducing her as her 'replacement'. She just delivered the same lines without the posh accent. I had hoped she'd leave with the guy she'd only just met and we'd never have to see her again.

Like Jack in "New Tricks", Mrs McCarthy can never be replaced and I hope she comes back into the series when Mrs Devine is cast in a play in the West End or the church affairs need more serious attention than her wayward sister.

Mrs Divine is, however, the brightest addition and, although also given most of Mrs McCarthy's 'presence' in the threesome, she has brought her own character to a very different role and is gung-ho to solve the crimes with gusto. Like Beth, who doesn't seem to do any housework in her new position, one can't imagine Mrs Devine keeping any church business in order or prompting Father Brown to write his homilies and to keep up with his religious duties in general. But she is a fun and spunky new addition. I can see Mrs M coming back to put the church affairs back in order and Mrs D moving more into a combination of Lady M & Bunty's roles.

I did find it rather surprising that Lady M and Flambeau had supposedly gotten so close she was prepared to run away with him and then equally as surprising she fell back in love with Monte at the end if Season 9. Even though we knew she still cared for him, in spite of her many dalliances, it all seemed a bit conveniently rushed.

I rarely write a review this early in the game but felt it necessary to air my views on this new line-up and the decision to have Father Brown investigate and solve everything by himself. There are lots more episodes in Season 10 to take the show in many different directions and I see there is a series 11 planned or already shot and airing so multiple changes can obviously still take place. Lady Montague and Sid always reappear when scripts get a little stale so, hopefully this will happen with all the 'old timers'. I couldn't believe I found myself actually missing Bunty and Inspector Mallory. Scary.

One of my fave shows over the years but it has been going downhill.. and i have no idea who does the contracts and the casting but constantly changing main characters or key roles is horrible! I cant watch this without mrs mcarthy. And omg thee worst and lamest excuse for her to leave.. no epic send off no nothing. Its unwatchable.you cant just bring back old actors for one show and be like hey look its fun again, remember these people who you liked in the story or were better in the series? Ya welll its only gonna be one episode then youll hav to forget about their characters again. Mrs mcarthy was central to the story,the overall flow of the village,the dynamic between her and the father and her hilarious comments and help with cases. Can you imagine half way through the harry potter series Hermine comes back as a different actress with little to no explination? YUCK.