#lewisabc

[muffinzelda]

Z is for (New) Zealand (reprise)

The end of the alphabet and the end of Lewis’ adventures… as promised, I have returned to finish Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis now that the conclusion has aired in the US.  

As Laura and James note to one another in series 8. once a copper, always a copper.  Robbie tells James that while it’s Laura idea to go to New Zealand where her niece is having a baby, it is his idea to see the world while they are still young enough to enjoy it.  Robbie, however, has second thoughts; Moody may not renew his consultant contract if he leaves.  He articulates a bizarre death wish to Laura- he wants to work ‘til he dies- and this is really saying something because he had just been caught in an explosion.  He is too scared to live free, so he’d rather die bound to his job.  Laura gets credit for making the most teary-eyed reference to Morse in the entire series. And so they let each other go be the strong-willed people they are: Robbie a single-minded copper and Laura an independent woman ready to travel.  She doesn’t even need Robbie to take her to the airport.  

Eventually, James intervenes and makes Robbie see sense.  Though he grovels for having treated Laura rather shabbily, Robbie never actually tells her “I love you.”  More specifically, he needed to say “I love you more than the job.”  Sorry, Robbie, but Laura deserves better.  Meanwhile, it seems that Robbie will be lucky enough to have his cake and eat it too.  He is forgiven by Laura *and* Moody leaves the door open for him to return after their trip.

Though I wish we could have done without the entire Robson row, the final scenes are beautifully shot. Hathaway reprises his role as airport taxi for Lewis and Hobson.  Lewis is wearing the shirt that Hobson once found to be so garish.  Their silhouettes move through the airport; Laura goes first representing both Robbie’s past and his future; next comes Robbie with all their baggage; and lastly James keeping vigil.  Together James and Laura give Robbie a nudge towards the security queue, a gesture that is both a benediction from James and a reassurance from Laura.  At long last, Robbie is moving on.  

[muffinzelda]

Z is for (New) Zealand

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 26! 

That is a zed for most of the world but a zee for those of us awaiting the PBS broadcast of Lewis’ final season tomorrow 8/7 9PM on Masterpiece!  

*sniff sniff*  The end of the alphabet and the end of Lewis’ adventures… I have written my thoughts on New Zealand but decided that as it is entirely a reaction piece to Robbie’s spoilery decisions I will post it after it airs on 8/21.  At that point, I’m sure I will need a cathartic tumblr rant/swansong anyway. 

The end is in sight now. Thanks for counting down the letters with me; and in case anyone is curious the letter with the most notes is H for Hobson. If you’ve got any dead or mutilated bodies, she’s your girl!  

[muffinzelda]

Y is for Yorkie Bars and a copy of Loaded

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 25

Lewis:  Are you… no.  It’s doesn’t matter.  [snip- awkward back and forth]  Are you gay?

Hathaway:  What does that mean? [snip- another awkward back and forth] Gay if you like shoes and musicals and straight if you read Loaded and eat Yorkie Bars.  

Lewis:  [snip- denial]  Loaded and Yorkie Bars, how stupid do you think I am, man?

Though Lewis makes it clear that if his son were gay it wouldn’t matter, there is still a lot of stammering that goes on as Lewis and Hathaway discuss the spectrum of sexuality. We get to know a little more about James’ decision to leave the priesthood in Life Born of Fire.  One of his gay friends has committed suicide, and their other mutual gay friends are suspects in a series of revenge murders that involve a church group that James was a part of.

Hathaway further challenges Lewis’ ideas of gender roles in Point of Vanishing, regarding Fiona McKendrick’s promotion to Scotland Yard.  “Here Lies Inspector Lewis, eclipsed by a woman of 28.”  “31, and what’s her gender got to do with it?” Hathaway ripostes.  This is also the episode where Hobson crudely ranks her colleagues by attractiveness- a traditionally male pursuit.  (Can any one explain to me what equine nine, means, btw? Does she think that Hathaway is hung like a horse?)  At any rate, Lewis takes the high road in that conversation.

There have been a few homosexual suspects every now and again (as the fake Esme Ford found out with humorous results), but Lewis hasn’t done a lot of exploring in the realm of same-sex couples.  Perhaps this is the police force is not an easy place to be gay, as Brendan Ward points out in Beyond Good and Evil.  His boyfriend, Neal Chadwick, was one of the original coppers murdered by Graham Lawrie.  Chadwick was married and Ward heard about his lover’s death on the news.  He couldn’t even attend the funeral.  Through this loss Lewis has something very powerful in common with Ward.  Ward struggled through a prison visit with Lawrie just as Lewis struggled to speak to Simon Monkford, the driver of the car that had killed Val.  

Hathaway should give Lewis a little bit more credit when it comes to being accepting of others.  After all is said and done with the Phoenix Killer, Hathaway spoofs himself in apology to Lewis by reading a copy of Loaded as he hands his governor a Yorkie bar to close the discussion.  

[muffinzelda]

X is for MaddoX

Sort-of-Alphabetical Reasons to love Lewis, day 24

*This post will contain spoilers for series 9.  It’s hard not to write about stuff that aired 10 months ago! *

You know from my previous post that I am not a huge fan of series 8 and 9-- with one exception: Sergeant Lizzie Maddox.  In her first episode, she rambles on about husband Tony shooting a pheasant at a stag do and having no idea how to clean it while Hathaway couldn’t give a toss.  I really wish that we had more of her rambling about her relations, because that moment was the reincarnation of Sergeant Lewis and Morse.  She has Innocent and Hobson on her side, but it can be difficult for her to find a niche alongside the Chuckle Brothers.  (“I’ve heard them called worse, usually by me,” Innocent says to Maddox.)  Lewis gradually convinces Hathaway to give Maddox more responsibility.  Like Sergeant Lewis, she got beaten up pretty badly in series 8, but the girl who works hard plays hard too.  She likes to go out with her girlfriends and have too much to drink.  The best moment in series 9 is when she is trying to explain to Hathaway that she’s not a regular in the S&M bar where the waitress knows her by name.  Hathaway smugly places his fingers on her lips to shush her; it’s quite humorous and it’s the closest that Hathaway and Maddox ever get to having a rapport. Though to Hathaway’s credit, he does learn about her proclivity for pork scratchings and kiwi allergy.

While Lewis, Hobson, and Hathaway seem to have closure at the end of the series, Lizzie’s ending is unsatisfying.  Her husband Tony has signed on for another year working in Canada.  She does a poor job faking her happiness with that arrangement. No one should be surprised to find Sergeant Maddox single when/if Hathaway returns for his own show.  

[muffinzelda]

W is for Woodglue

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 23, OR things Robbie smells like, part two.

*Contains mild spoilers for series 9, but mostly spoilers for things that DON’T happen, because this post is pretty hypothetical about what might have been*  

Hobson: “I think I preferred it when you were building canoes.”

Lewis:  “No you didn’t; I was a bad-tempered old grouch who smelled of wood glue.”

Hobson:  “Yes, but you were MY bad-tempered old grouch who smelled of wood glue.”  

I rejoice that Lewis came back for two more series after the “final” episode, but I have to admit that series 8 and 9 didn’t give Robbie a lot of character development.  It is damned awkward to watch our beloved Robbie try to find his place again when everyone thinks that he should be sidelined. (I mean, each time Foyle came back he had new responsibilities or a new era to tackle, and the writers found plausible ways of keeping his and Sam’s paths intertwined, am I right?)  I wanted to see Robbie building that canoe like a boss and enjoying retirement so much that Jean Innocent needed to drag him off a lake in a police boat.  I wanted to see Robbie be lauded and heroic.  When Hobson said, “I think you should talk to Robbie,” in regards to the hammer killer, I wanted the response to be “yes please Inspector Lewis, we need you to reprise our Graham Lawrie investigation!”  But no, instead it seems that he missed an alibi and the lab bungled the DNA and everyone is like, “go away Robbie.” Ugh.  

By the time series 9 rolls around, Innocent is not even there to champion Lewis.  Chief Superintendent Moody didn’t add anything to the show, in my opinion.  What if Lewis could have taken over for Innocent on an interim basis?  Hathaway would have hated having Lewis as a boss again, and as Hathaway was pre-occupied with his dad, Lewis would have to step in- right on top of Hathaway’s toes.  Or, what if Moody had been crooked?  Hathaway would be eager to please his new boss and have blind faith in him, but Lewis suspects something is amiss.  So when Moody tries to sideline Lewis ostensibly for his age, it is really because Lewis is the only one capable of finding out the truth.  Lewis would get into a do-or-die situation with Moody, and Hathaway could save the day.  Laura would still smack Robbie around for putting himself in harm’s way.  But that’s not how it unfolds in series 9; instead it’s more of Robbie fighting to be relevant.

At the very least, I was glad to see scenes of Lewis happy at last with Hobson in series 8 (sniff, sniff, these are lacking in series 9).  I imagine that, even if he paid someone to finish the canoe for him, Robbie will have other woodworking projects and Laura will be enjoying the fumes for years to come.  

[muffinzelda]

V is for Val

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 22

Val Lewis is Robbie’s wife and the mother of his kids; she is the anchor of Robbie’s life throughout the tumultuous days of Morse. She pops up sporadically in the background of the show several times over the course of the years and is featured in many of Lewis’ stories.  (Why would she want to go see ‘Cats’ when she is allergic, Robbie wonders aloud.)  An adoring husband, Robbie says that he likes her a bit plump when Val is on a slimming kick.  Indeed, a few of Val’s outside interests intersect nicely with the murder du jour- not just the dieting cult, but the Greek lessons and the TV shows that she makes Robbie watch are a few examples.

Val’s only spoken line is when she orders dinner in a Greek restaurant, and Lewis recruits Val’s Greek teacher to help in a murder investigation (Greeks Bearing Gifts).  Val must have made a lot of progress with her language skills as in Cherubim and Seraphim, Robbie asks his son where mum is and the young Lewis responds that “mum’s down at the wine store translating.  It’s Cyprus sherry week!”  There must be more of a story behind that…  

Val, killed in a hit and run as part of a failed robbery by Simon Monkford, is omnipresent in Lewis; her perfume on a victim; the mattress that hurts Robbie’s back but it’s all that’s left of his marriage; Robbie’s dislike of psychologists; and that picture of her in the red shirt that seems to migrate to every room of Robbie house and his office are all reminders of what once was.  “I loved me wife,” Robbie emphatically tells his former sergeant Ally MacLennon when she suggests that adultery was commonplace among married coppers.  Though Robbie gets some closure when Simon Monkford is brought to justice, Robbie admits to Michelle Marber years later that he still needs to talk to his wife every day.   And yet, in one of the last episodes (Ramblin’ Boy), Robbie doesn’t feel that familiar pain as he watches a family grieving at the crematorium.  At long last, Val is slipping away.  

***

PS, on the subject of Robbie’s man-pain, I recommend Joe Maddison’s War, starring Kevin Whately.  The story and setting are a bit different than Lewis, but there are many plot/family similarities too- it’s also written by Alan Plater who penned several Lewis episodes.   It has a personal approach, so if you need to see Robbie exploring his emotions, this is your best bet!

[muffinzelda]

U is for UST

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 21

Those clever Oxford students are always playing word games such as “I spy” with acronyms.  Jack Fox (Laurence’s brother)’s character points out the UST- Unresolved Sexual Tension.  He is of course referring to the couples that have gathered for a quiz weekend, but the same could be said of the show as a whole.  And just like the quiz weekend, many of the episodes feature UST interrupted by BFIW- body floating in water.  (Or just any dead body, I suppose.)

Robbie and Laura smoldered in a frustrating slow-burn for years, but when she threw herself at him at the White Horse, that kiss proved that there was nothing left unresolved between them.  But poor James is another story.  He has had a few fatal attractions that were never meant to be in Zoe Kenneth and Scarlet Mortmaigne, but they were both a little too eager to bed the sergeant.  A classic Lewis moment is when Hobson needs to point out to Lewis that Hathaway is pining away for his colleague Fiona McKendrick.  James must part company with his girlfriend who has been promoted to Scotland Yard. Lewis threatens to feed him to the stripper (?)  Battleship Potemka if he doesn’t do something about it. 

But Hathaway’s most thrillingly awkward encounter is with gardener Liv Nash.  “Did you just bow to her?”  Lewis asks as he had been watching from a far.   “Yeah, I think I did.”  Hathaway mumbles.  Despite Lewis’ urging that he needs a partner, Hathaway and Liv Nash don’t resolve their feelings at the end.  Hathaway just can’t shake that existential flu.  

[muffinzelda]

T is for Turnbull

Alphabetical Reasons to love Lewis, day 20, or the Many Foils of Robbie Lewis, part 4. 

Nicky Turnbull is Robbie’s fellow Northerner but the two could not be more different.  Nicky is a reformed criminal hacker who stole secrets and leaked secrets from MI5 and the Pentagon.  Following a stint in prison, he becomes a best-selling author when he writes his memoir- “confessions of a rock and roll hacker.”  Robbie is mortified when Innocent asks him to babysit/provide police protection to Turnbull who has been receiving death threats. Robbie pretends to be an old family friend from Tyneside but really bristles at Nicky’s attempts to reminisce about home.  Robbie hates how Nicky exploits the story of a boy from the wrong side of the tracks in Tyneside making it big.  “Humble beginnings… they love all that crap.”  Turnbull says.  Lewis complains to Innocent that “He’s everything I hate:  celebrity criminal and professional Geordie.” “That’s only two things,” she reminds him.  “Well it’s enough to keep me going!”  Lewis says.

Furthermore, Lewis heartily disapproves of Nicky’s plans for a three way sex romp with the young women who have invited him to speak at the Oxford Union.  It’s hard to feel bad when Nicky Turnbull is murdered on Robbie’s watch. Enter Mrs. Turnbull who arrives and recognizes our Robbie and tugs on his heart strings.  It turns out that Diane Turnbull was Robbie’s first girlfriend. Robbie, being a good boy scout, invites the grieving widow Diane to stay in his spare room.  

Robbie’s interactions with the Turnbulls reveal just how kind and decent Robbie is.  Nicky’s infidelities to Diane contrast with Robbie and Val’s solid marriage.  Nicky is reprehensible, and Diane is not entirely honest either.  She will bend the truth for publicity’s sake if enables her to make a profit.  There is one time that she calls it like she sees it though:  she is the first one to point out to Robbie that Dr. Hobson fancies him.