Did anyone watch this? I’m a big fan of the Morse books and TV series, but approached this with some skepticism. Nonetheless, it was unexpectedly and smashingly successful in my books…they did a great job of hitting all the Inspector Morse themes, and I like the actor playing him.
We have watched two of them - I think I have a third on my DVR (PBS never tells the title or what the show is - just something like “Masterpiece Theater - A man is found dead in a cove” or something vague like that.)
The two we watched were quite good!
I am LOVING these shows. I love the setting in Oxford, the time period, Morse’s boss Thursday, and the tight-assed supervisor who thinks Morse is an idiot. And I really love the actor playing Morse. I wish HE were playing Sherlock Holmes instead of that other guy.
A hero who is supremely competent but possessing vulnerability and self-doubt is my favorite type of character (cf. Horatio Hornblower).
I’ve never seen any of the Inspector Morse shows, so all I know of him is these prequels. However, I will now look for and at them with interest.
Can you give me a little of his personal backstory? Was there a troubled romantic relationship that went sadly astray? What about parents/home town/education? Why the name “Endeavour”? I’m guessing he went to college and some of his insecure colleagues hold this against him?
I hope there are lots more of these episodes.
When you first meet Morse in the books he’s already an Inspector, and over the series you get bits and pieces of his backstory - though a lot of history is implied, not articulated. This first prequel episode answers some questions and tips a lot of winks to knowledgeable fans (for example, he’s an irredeemable drunk as an Inspector, and here you watch him drift from teetotaler to potential sot).
I’m inclined to recommend you stop right now and either read the first book or watch the first episode of the Morse series so you can enjoy the fun. 
But either way, it’s indeed good watching.
We are very much enjoying this new series, too!
We just watched the second one. The ending was slightly too Oxfordian for my taste, but overall it was still a great episode.
For US Apple device owners, PBS has an app called Thirteen that has all of these for free.
Thanks for mentioning this. I am in Britain, but somehow I missed hearing about this when it first went out, apparently last year. However, I see I can get it from teh ITV web site as streaming video for … hmm … looks like I can get all 5 episodes for £4.98. Not bad.
Personally, although I very much like the original Morse series, I think the sequel series, Lewis, was even better.
I was always pretty lukewarm about Morse, but I’m quite enthusiastic about Endeavour. I like the depth given Thursday and even the new tightassed station chief is not a mere cartoon.
The insight into 1965 Britain is also interesting, though I can’t comment on its accuracy the way I can Mad Men.
Yes. Lewis had (no more episodes coming, apparently) the best casting I’ve seen in a long while. The chemistry between actors Whately, Fox, and Clare Holman was extraordinary.
We had noticed and liked Laurence Fox in Island At War, but he made Lewis his own show. A great actor. Nice little in-joke of sorts in the final episode, having him appear alongside his uncle Edward Fox, as unrelated characters.
The Endeavour series disappoints me so far. Great acting and production quality, but predictable plot points and heavy-handed characterizations. The character of Chief Bright is cartoonishly one-dimensional and improbable, as was another key character in the “Fugue” episode.
I’ve enjoyed watching Endeavour, but the writing seems lightweight compared to the Morse and especially Lewis series.
In my opinion, of course.
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WHAT???
Dang. I really liked those. 
The seventh series of Lewis, which was broadcast by PBS in the US a few months ago, was the end of the series. Without spoilering anything, they wrapped up the working relationship between Lewis and Hathaway.
Morse’s father was a great fan of Captain Cook and named his son after one of Cook’s ships
By the way, in the Inspector Morse programme, his first name wasn’t revealed until, I think, the last episode. So is it possible for someone to conceal their first name? Presumably it’s on his official ID, driver’s license, paystub, etc. (There’s another show in which a character’s first name isn’t revealed but it appeals to a completely different audience, so I’d best not mention it here.)
Almost, yes. It comes out in “Death Is Now My Neighbour”; there are only two episodes after this one. I liked the comment from Lewis when it came out: “You poor sod”.
To add to Damfino’s explanation: Morse also noted that his mother was a Quaker and that they often name their children after virtues; Patience, Charity, and the like. Quaker mother + Cook obsessed Father = Endeavour.
That may be so, but it’s light years ahead of the crime/mystery shows on US TV right now.
What is the connection/relationship between Lewis and Morse?
Detective Sergeant Lewis is Detective Chief Inspector Morse’s junior officer / colleague / minion throughout the whole Morse series.
Several years after the end of the Morse series he returns to Oxford (now a Detective Inspector), and gets his own series and his own Detective Sergeant (in the form of James Hathaway).
Yep. That’s the reason I enjoy watching it, my complaints notwithstanding.
Something I’ve been struck by (I’m watching Rocket) is that they seem to be following the Midsomer Murders template of dropping bodies like a trail of corpse crumbs. I really like that about MM and I think it makes the show more interesting. I don’t think MM is on the same level as Endeavour but I like that plot device I guess you’d call it?
I also think they do a good job of capturing the super-8 color palette in the cinematography. At least that’s what I vaguely remember it to be. Although it could just be that the light engine on my old SXRD set is dying (or a combination of both). I really need to pull the trigger on a new HDTV, it’s just such a pain in the ass.
I’m watching the Inspector Morse series from the beginning and I’m on ‘Service of the all the Dead’ which was the third in the series. So far, 2 of the 3 have left a trail of corpse crumbs. Was this characteristic of the original series? I’m guessing this is a common motif in murder mystery writing and for whatever reason I just never noticed prior to Midsomer Murders.