Father Brown: The Complete Collection

Father Brown is a British mystery series that I’ve seen maybe once or twice over the years. It wasn’t really a show that I fell in love with so when I had the chance to review the series in its entirety I went in with high hopes that this grandfather of British mystery would be the blueprints for some of my favorite shows like Foyle’s War or Midsomer Murders. Not exactly. 

 

For those that know the British Acorn Media releases for older shows you’ll already know that the production quality is only a step up from the original source material. Sure, it’s digitally cleaned up, as is the process when going digital, but if you’re coming in expecting a completely remastered piece of work, forget about. Basically what you’re being offered is the chance to own the series on DVD as is. Even the bonus features are basically text based snippets that honestly any leisurely computer user could more then likely find on the internet. That being said, the series itself was a bit of a let down for me. 

 

Each episode begins with Father Brown showing up at some random place on business. He seems to find himself at the center of a murder and a bit of controversy to boot. He sits back most times and drinks in the information being doled out quite openly by the suspects or he stirs up the pot with questions of his own and gets people talking. They always end up talking. 

 

Where the show lost me is the way that each mystery ends. The majority of resolutions involve Father Brown simply figuring it out using logic that only he can possibly piece together. It’s not always a satisfactory resolution as he seems to just pull things out of thin air and solve the case, but on occasion there’s actually complexity instead of chance in him solving the case. 

 

As Father Brown, Kenneth More is an interesting character read. He’s not really an upfront character, usually hiding out in the background, occasionally, when he’s upfront, he isn’t aggressive in questioning but uses a lot of play acting to guide the group or person into admitting some little piece of the mystery. It’s strange that his character isn’t as lively, as the series is based around him, which is probably why he’s later accompanied by Hercule Flambeau (Dennis Burgess). Just one of those things that made the show not as interesting to me as it could have been. Overall a decent show with interesting characters, but all together forgettable for me.