MIDSOMER MURDERS: THE EARLY CASES COLLECTION

Midsomer Murders is hard to sum up, IMO. The first episode of the series is my least favorite of all because of the depiction of incest. However, I persisted and found that other episodes are much better. If one is too much for me, I skip it and watch the next one. I enjoy watching Tom Barnaby and Troy, especially, although I like all of Barnaby's sergeants. Neil Dudgeon does a good job in the lead in the newer episodes, I just prefer the earlier cases.The highlight of my purchase was actually the seller, Roundabout Books in New England. There was a problem with my order, but the seller responded promptly and provided outstanding customer service. I will be buying from them again when the opportunity arises.Overall I give the series three or four stars, but the seller gets five, hands down.

Mayhem lurks amongst scary chintz and the bucolic English countryside. Midsomer is a perilous place, unrivaled in its menace. Yet its citizens keep being replenished, somehow there is never a shortage of potential maniacs and victims. To repeat, Barnaby, we hardly knew ye. These are the Full Monty, as never seen on American television. Seeing the real thing, my addled wife can't stop calling you Barnabas, as we've watched so much "Dark Shadows." Or perhaps it's your added swagger and dark wit. These disks reveal a Midsomer we never viewed before. When aired here, they were abbreviated to accommodate room for commercials. Now, we get the uncut, well-seasoned bangers & mash of Barnaby's acerbic personality, English slang from Troy, and complete plot lines; no narrative is missing. What a treat! We finally understand why this series is such an international hit of great duration. The only clunker is "Destroying Angel," with too many puppets and (even for Midsomer) unlikely events, and a lack of humor between our favorite coppers. We relate to Barnaby's disdain for the insufferable clothing-clerk, preferring the excellent Marks 'n Sparks too (decade-old slacks from there still look good).Beware especially the residents of Badger's Drift, rife with hidden agendas, and well upholstered, over-chintzed women bearing tea. Settle down for a virtual escape to a bucolic English countryside strewn with mayhem. This long haul is best accompanied by plenty of goodies, as Midsomer delights in torturing its susceptible audience by lingering on tea-trays laden with countless delicacies, and scrumptious looking roasts with taters 'n gravy, sausages, pudding, well, you get the picture.A note on the fine packaging: I'd been worried about ordering this repackaging of the first four boxed sets, due to vociferous complaints by several reviewers here. They led me to believe that the packaging consisted of cardboard envelopes for the disks or worse, like "Avatar." Don't worry. The packaging is good, consisting of multiple plastic holders for the disks within a box. This common storage for longer series works just fine; no problem whatsoever.You'd likely also like the excellent  Vera , set in Northumbria, masterfully played by Brenda Blethyn, of  Saving Grace .

These are the Season one thru four of the series .. the description of the DVDs gave the title but not what season so of course I got duplication. I could have ordered the missing seasons if I had known what title was in which season... as is I now have several duplicated seasons. I found thatDVDS are often reissued in collections and different sources so you can get duplication of titles.THE MYSTERIES (original U.K. broadcast order)SEASON ONEThe Killings at Badger’s DriftWritten in BloodDeath of a Hollow ManFaithful Unto DeathDeath in DisguiseSEASON TWODeath’s ShadowStrangler’s WoodDead Man’s ElevenBlood Will OutSEASON THREEDeath of a StrangerBlue HerringsJudgement DayBeyond the GraveSEASON 4 FOUR :Garden of DeathDestroying AngelThe Electric VendettaWho Killed Cock Robin?Dark Autumn

The best best mystery season since Poirot. Well paced and acted. It's a real pleasure to see that it does not rely on shoot-outs and CGI as a substitute for real plot writing. Barnaby and the supporting caste present stories that keep your interest to the end, Recently I have found myself walking away from popular US productions after a few minutes because they are too dependent on action scenes and currently popular political Twitter screeds. I have bought all seasons featuring the Tom Barnaby character, and I am very pleases. The quality of production in these series is also top notch.

Early novels make a good introduction to this series.

These are nice stories. One could argue that there is an unnatural amount of mayhem in the rural areas, and that certainly is true. Some of the murders are kind of ruthless and gory. It is, however, a murder mystery series, and in the end you sacrifice the reality of nice sane rural people and instead find them willing to murder their neighbors in the most hideous manner over the most trivial thing. Let's be clear - this is not just a murder mystery, it's a comedy (albeit dry British comedy). When you keep that in mind, it's very funny and still a great whodunnit. DCI Barnaby, when speaking to his wife who wants to move to Midsomer, says something like, "I go to work and see kidnappings, blackmail, and murder - why would I want to live there?" In the end, she sees why not to live there and abandons the idea. The cost of this might seem high, but each episode is 100 minutes long and there are 19 episodes. in the end, that's quite a bargain. My major problem with this set is that there is absolutely no closed captioning, and my parents who enjoy this a lot have a hard time hearing the dialog. Given DVD production, it is really unforgivable that any discs sold are not captioned well, let alone not at all.

For years, I have watched bits and pieces of the Midsomer Murders series on TV. It's nice to have some of it now on DVD.I agree with lots of other reviewers about the general quality of the series.My only quibble is the pricing on Amazon.com and particularly on Amazon.ca (I live in Canada). Here's a comparison with Costco.ca:---------------------- Amazon.com ---- Amazon.ca ---- Costco.ca- The Early Cases: ---- $110.49 -------- $132.99 ------- $59.99- Barnaby's Casebook: - $101.49 -------- $139.99 ------- $93.99Furthermore, when available in-store at Costco in Canada, the prices are even less, by about $7. The products appear to be exactly the same in each case. The Canadian dollar is almost at par with the US dollar, and has averaged around par for at least 4 years. Beyond that, I bought The Early Cases on Amazon.ca at the end of November 2011 for $95.99! What goes on here?I have noticed that DVDs and particularly Blu-Rays are ridiculously more expensive on Amazon.ca than on Amazon.com, sometimes almost double the price. For example, IMAX: The Ultimate Wave - Tahiti [Blu-ray 3D] is currently 11.49 in the US versus 19.64 in Canada, but a few weeks ago the Canadian price was more than double the US price.So while I order lots of stuff from Amazon, I'm learning that their prices (a) fluctuate significantly in a short period, and (b) are not always even close to the lowest for the same item.

Loved it!

More of Caroline Graham's wonderful mystery books made into TV movies.A great evening can be spent with Inspector Barnaby and his assistants - there have been three or four along the way, each one of them a joy to watch in itself. The interactions between Barnaby and his assistants is only one side of the story - how they research the murder is another side that often is on many different playing levels for the two of them.These movies lack the massive gore and violence most of the movies of the 2000's contain - and for that reason - are a very enjoyable change of pace. Just enough mystery and questions as to be unsolvable until the last but enough of the seek and find to make them hard to look away from (you may miss something important!)A series that is sure to get you caught up in the whole Midsomer area of England, and I am so glad to know there is more to come - over 90 so far!

If you are a Midsomer Murders fan, this takes it all from the top. Love the acting, love the writing, all excellent programs. I bought this for my wife for Christmas (she was an avid Foyle's War fan and moved into Midsomer Murders afterwards) and she inhaled the series in 4 days. I'm glad her gift went over so well, but I had hopes it would at least last a week or two.Anyway, as with many quality English' series, the acting is excellent (although perhaps almost a little over-acted at times - that's theatre acting coming out) and the character developments are enjoyable to follow. Troy as the supporting officer is quite the act to follow, stay tuned for the many comments about his driving.Bottom line, if you're a fan and either haven't seen or would otherwise like to have the best the series has to offer, this package is the one to have.If you're just looking for a mystery series to try out, you could do far worse and would be hard pressed to find anything better with which to take a chance.

The first four seasons of MIDSOMER MURDERS (provided by ACORN) was shipped in timely fashion. These 90-minute to 2-hour episodes reconstruct a mythical rural county (Midsomer) in SW England in the 1990s. The first few seasons of screenplays were written by Anthony Horowitz, who later conceived and wrote most episodes of the impressive "Foyle's War" series. Plots are complex, and acting is at the usual high standard of British murder mysteries..