Death in Paradise (TV Series) The Early Bird (2014) User Reviews

A mixed bag!

[harrykivi · 6/10 · 31 May 2020]

The third season of "Death in Paradise" has been unimpressive so far. Only solid episodes have been "Death of a Detective" and "Political Suicide". "The Early Bird" continues decent, but not great line. There are good aspects to this episode and some truly frustrating ones.

So let's start with good.

. The production values are great as always. The episode looks gorgeous - the nature on Saint-Marie is breathtakingly wonderful- and sounds good as well.

. The mystery's fun with some nice red herrings, enjoyable setting and jokes, which at times hit.

But I do have a lot to say about the frustrating parts.

. Am still "whining" about the humor. The clumsiness of DI Goodman is just not funny! When somebody is going to understand that? Kris Marshall does give a fine performance, but at times he can come off way too theatrical.

. Speaking of acting,"The Early Bird" is one of the few times in "Death in Paradise" when the performances are quite forgettable. The main cast and Ciaran McMenamin are good, but the rest not really.

. There are some evidences (cane and especially the mentioning of Vietnam), whose significance is figured out way too late in the story. If I would have been the detective, I'd solved this case far more earlier. I had everything sorted out and when the solution hit, was not surprised at all. It was very obvious that more than one person did the deed and Yasmin, Dan were responsible.

Overall, fun, but frustrating.

6/10 HK

A Good Mystery

[wjspears · 8/10 · 4 April 2021]

One of the enjoyable features of Death in Paradise, is that it is virtually always a variation on the "Locked Door" mystery genre. As DI Humphrey Goodman helpfully explains this week, "We need to figure out the How, Who, and Why of this murder". In most murder mystery shows, the "How" is not much of a conundrum (the word Dwayne uses, to announce what he is going to solve).

While "Locked Door" are not really my favorite genre of mystery--I do appreciate the extra effort that writers must put in to make a decent entry into this genre.

This week, a bird watcher is murdered virtually within minutes of seemingly being seen by his group. Since no one but the group could have been around, one of them must have been the murderer. But how? And who? And why?

While the "How" is not that hard to figure out (who the group saw minutes before running ahead could not have been the victim, but instead must have been the killer) the "Who" and the "Why" are much less easy to figure out.

The interaction between the police detectives makes this show work well. I would agree that Goodman is too clumsy, and the writers should dial back on that character trait.

I would like to see DS Camille Bordey doing more that simply staring in awe at Goodman's brain power. Camille's raised eyebrows are fun to watch, but Sara Martins is too interesting an actress not to give her more to do than simply look pretty and stare in wonder or disbelief at her boss.

Unlike other reviewers, I thought the mystery itself was engaging and it was not at all obvious who the killer, or killers, were. (there were some nice possible combinations of suspects at play in this episode)

What a joy to see Mark Heap

[planetpakua · 8/10 · 20 April 2022]

I loved him in Friday Night Dinners. Wish he was in more tv shows. He's a fine and engaging actor. Makes a change to see him with birds instead of a dog.

Wonderful Month Python tribute

[harrierncd-1 · 9/10 · 7 July 2022]

I enjoy this series without exception. Perhaps I am too little critical, but the episodes of this series, including this one, please me, entertain me. However, I am singling this one out because of the closing scene between Captain Jack and Dewayne. I loved their tribute to Monty Python's critically acclaimed and seminal Dead Parrot skit. It was a delicious tribute to arguably the most original comic troupe in British history and the icing on the comedic close to this episode.

An excellent and solvable mystery.

[lizzieqever · 4/10 · 12 February 2024]

A good solid, insolvable mystery. I will see I didn't find this one particularly hard to solve, though some people might. It had a sly impossible murder, like who could've committed it? The story was good. The characters were good. I thought the actors did a good job as usual beautiful location in San Marie.

Spoilers ahead...

The reason I say, this one wasn't that hard to solve was the initially showed the victim walking away, so he only saw him from the back. I've watched enough mysteries to know often if you can't see the victim, if it just looks like the victim from behind it may not have been the victim, this was the case in this mystery. As a mystery unfolded, it was obvious that the only solution was that someone had acted the part of the victim. That immediately meant that they probably had to accomplice, and the accomplice was the person who immediately flagged, the victim is walking away. Beyond that, as it flushed out once you knew that eggs were the reason for the theft. It became quite obvious that the killer or the other person involved was the hardened adventurer. So you had these two in it together, mystery solved.