Upon reflection, it seems that MM jumped the proverbial shark with the departure of John Nettles.
Ever since his replacement arrived, the "new" Barnaby, the show has taken an ever-spiralling descent into blandness.
The current sidekick, Winter, has been reduced to nothing more than an empty-headed embarrassment, forever looking sheepish under Barnaby's incessant chiding.
And Barnaby is shown to be a dead-beat boss, forever skipping out on paying a bar/coffee tab as long as Winter is around.
Any humour that was found in this show has been painted bright orange, with bright flashing lights and directional arrows, to ensure that even the dullest viewer will understand - oh! Laugh NOW!
Yipes.
But, there's always dependable Fleur, the pathologist, who shock! Has done EVERYTHING under the sun and is SO clever, i am surprised that she even needs the detectives around to solve the case anymore. The writers have not discovered that smugness is not a virtue, and yet, Fleur reeks of it. Yuck.
The worst part of any episode has Barnaby's now-brainless wife tut-tutting him over the slightest insignificant thing - what does her character contribute to the stories nowadays?
Sigh.
The show is no longer entertaining, on any level - it has not even the saving grace of being unintentionally funny.
Dracula finally died after having a stake driven through his heart - it's time for the network to do the same to MM - it's over, folks, over.