Endeavour (TV Series) Arcadia (2016) User Reviews

Good quality mystery.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 17 January 2016]

A young woman 'Lorraine Figis' departs Richardson's Supermarket, collapses outside and later dies, soon a young artist 'Simon Hallward' dies at home, when a cigarette catches in his studio and causes an explosion. A lead takes Morse and Thursday to a commune, House Beautiful, where Simon had spent six months. The team are joined by beautiful WPC Shirley Trewlove, who has a definite effect.

For the main I enjoyed this one very much, the 60's vibe was excellently captured as always, the Supermarket itself looked great, just as I imagined. I love the house doubling up as the Richardson's property, definitely used in other dramas before, it's stunning.

I'm a huge fan of Genevieve O'Reilly, she's a brilliant actress, loved the scenes between her and Shaun. My favourite performance too from Jack Laskey as DS Jakes, he really is a brilliant actor, it's no wonder his career is on an upward trajectory, a real shame this was his last one.

A few scenes were reminiscent of a Taggart episode from a few years ago, could be Dead Giveaway, not sure. The scenes with the baby food etc.

Almost small scale for an episode of Endeavour, especially in comparison to the opener. The usual mix of wonderful production values, great script, first class acting makes for an excellent ninety minutes. 8/10

another good "Endeavour"

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 27 June 2016]

Right out of the box, "Endeavour: Arcadia" begins with two deaths, that of a woman dying in the street after she exits Richardson's Supermarket, and a man killed by an explosion in his apartment when his cigarette catches fire.

Morse, back at work, doesn't think the explosion was an accident. The man's alarm clock stopped at 5 o'clock; it was the catalyst for a bomb. Morse and Thursday get a lead that the man lived for six months on a commune called House Beautiful.

People who shop at Richardson's are becoming ill, and it comes out later that the store has had threats that they ignored. As a result, the daughter of the owner is kidnapped and held for ransom. Also, there are protesters outside who believe the store is selling Rhodesian sugar.

As it turns out, the cases are connected.

Morse has some uncomfortable moments with Mrs. Richardson, who wants Morse to zip up her dress, I guess after she's taken it off. I noticed the character of Endeavour, who is as much like Inspector Morse as I am, is much bolder this year, more easygoing with women, and more sure of himself.

Anyway, it's very good and the two plots come together well. The acting is wonderful, and I'm sorry to see Jake Laskey leave as DS Jakes heads for America. A friendship has developed between the formerly nasty Jakes and Morse, and it was great to see.

Loved the '60s atmosphere too. Highly recommended.

Very solid stuff

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 5 July 2017]

Having recently been, and just finished being, on a roll reviewing all the episodes of 'Lewis', which generally was very enjoyable before having some disappointments later on, it occurred to me to do the same for 'Inspector Morse's' (one of my favourites for over a decade, and all the episodes were also reviewed in my first year on IMDb eight years ago) prequel series 'Endeavour'.

As said in my review for the entire show two years ago, 'Endeavour' is not just a more than worthy prequel series to one of my favourite detective dramas of all time and goes very well with it, but it is a great series on its own as well. It maintains everything that makes 'Inspector Morse' so good, while also containing enough to make it its own, and in my mind 'Inspector Morse', 'Lewis' and 'Endeavour' go perfectly well together.

Was very impressed by the pilot episode, even with a very understandable slight finding-its-feet feel (that is true of a lot of shows, exceptions like 'Morse' itself, 'A Touch of Frost' and 'Midsomer Murders', which started off great and were remarkably well established, are fairly few. The first season was even better, with all the episodes being outstanding. Season 2 took a darker turn, but once again all the episodes were great (even with "Trove" having one of 'Endeavour's' most far-fetched and over-complicated endings, great episode otherwise), with the weakest one "Sway" still being very good.

"Ride" started off Season 3 and was mostly a solid episode let down by the ending. The succeeding episode "Arcadia" is even better, this time having a final solution that makes much more sense and is easier to swallow, this one was pretty unexpected in terms of the identity of the perpetrator and how you feel about them after. It's not quite one of the best 'Endeavour' episodes with for my liking a few too many characters and red herrings that occasionally convoluted the story.

"Arcadia's" production values are faultless. It is exquisitely photographed and there is something very nostalgic and charming about the atmospherically evoked 1960s period detail. It was also a genius move to keep Barrington Pheloung on board, with his hauntingly beautiful scoring and immortal 'Inspector Morse' theme.

Writing, as has been said many times in my reviews for the previous 'Endeavour' episodes, is every bit as intelligent, entertaining and tense as the previous episodes and as the best of 'Morse', with the references to 'The Graduate' amongst others giving off a real sense of affectionate nostalgia. The story is very gripping, with two of the most tense scenes of any 'Endeavour' episode put together, those being the ransom drop off and the tunnel bomb threat (the latter especially was a nail-biter where one really cares what happens to the characters involved).

Morse and Thursday's father/son relationship, while even stronger later being more entertaining and heartfelt, has a lot of warmth, is so well written within the story and is a large part of the series' appeal. The pacing is restrained, but that allows the atmosphere to come through, and pretty much all the same it excels in that aspect. The characters are interesting, lead and supporting, with Morse displaying more recognisable character quirks with each episode and as aforementioned it is impossible not to love his relationship with Thursday.

Even more impressive here in "Arcadia" is the softer and heartfelt chemistry between Morse and Jakes, and the wonderful character development on Jakes. The new WPC character is a lively addition with a positive attitude and she gels quite well, though maybe she could have had a little more to do.

Shaun Evans as ever does some powerful, charismatic work as younger Morse, showing enough loyalty to John Thaw's iconic Morse while making the character his own too. Roger Allam is also superb, his rapport with Evans always compels and entertains but Thursday is quite a sympathetic character, as well as loyal and firm, and Allam does a lot special with a role that could have been less interesting possibly in lesser hands.

Jack Laskey's acting is similarly a revelation and there are fine supporting turns from Richard Dillane, Genevieve O'Reilly and sparkling Dakota Blue Richards (yes, former child actress Dakota Blue Richards of 'The Golden Compass' and 'The Secret of Moonacre' fame).

Overall, very solid episode. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A revealing character study of Endeavour

[barryrd · 10 August 2017]

I'm very impressed with this series and the acting of Shaun Evans in this prequel to Morse. In fact, Endeavour is a more complex, less one-dimensional character than Morse. He matures with each episode and this one shows his friendship with another detective named Jakes that pre-dates his later friendship (of sorts) with Lewis. Not to forget Thursday who is his mentor. Jakes leaves for a new life in America at the end of this show so we can only imagine the collaboration that might have followed with the two young police detectives. The Morse-Thursday relationship is interesting because we see in Thursday a man who is similar to the Lewis character: down to earth and hard-nosed but without the intellectual bent of Morse. Nevertheless, both Lewis and Thursday recognize the intuitive mind that Morse/Endeavour brings to his work. In this show, Endeavour and Jakes work effectively together and risk their lives for one another. We also see the young Morse as a man who is attractive to women and is quite open to their overtures towards him. Nevertheless, he resists the temptation here to give in to one who would compromise his investigation. He is quite a capable and smart young man although with a much softer side than the older Morse. This show is set in the sixties but Morse was not one to fall for the sixties' anti-establishment bias if he were to compromise his work. This show is a very carefully created character study of the young Morse (Endeavour). It is also a complex story involving corporate ethics, the racial policy of Rhodesia and its impact in the United Kingdom, as well as the confused idealism of the 1960's.

Morse investigates threats against an Oxford supermarket

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 11 January 2016]

This episode opens with two deaths; a woman collapses and dies in the street after shopping at Richardson's Supermarket and a man is killed by an explosion in his flat. The first case is initially put down as just a tragic event but the explosion soon looks suspicious; Morse notices that the dead man's clock stopped at exactly five o'clock. The cases are soon linked when the dead man is linked to a series of threats against Richardson's supermarket. The shop is closed but the threats don't end; the owner's daughter is kidnapped and a ransom demanded.

After last week's homage to 'The Great Gatsby' this is a far more conventional story; Morse is back at work and the case brings up a wide range of varied suspects including protesters who believed the shop was selling Rhodesian sugar, the shop's manager whose family had once been full partners in the business and a members commune on the outskirts of Oxford… of course the real culprit may be closer to home. The story is revealed nicely with Morse having some incorrect theories before the case is ultimately solved. The audience isn't patronised with exposition about what was happening in Rhodesia that led to the protests. There are plenty of tense moments including Morse running between phone boxes in Oxford to pay the ransom then the discovery of the kidnapped girl along with a bomb deep in some quarry tunnels… for a moment it looked as though one of Morse's colleagues wasn't going to make it. The final revelation is a bit of a surprise but not excessively so and the 'villain' is more sympathetic than one might expect. Overall a solid story that fans of the series should enjoy.

More Family Intrigue

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 27 January 2018]

A supermarket, owned by a very rich family, seems to be at the center of some bad doings. Right at the start, a young artist is killed when his apartment is set ablaze. Meanwhile, a young woman leaves the supermarket, begins to gasp and dies on the street. There is also a connection to a commune in the country. A young an seems to be the leader although he says he is merely the one who started it. In the midst, there is a kidnapping and a ransom demand. The grocery guy's daughter has been kidnapped. This man is a tyrant and is in a nasty marriage. His wife is lonely and seems to have her needs met outside the boundaries of marriage. She is attracted to Morse and comes on to him. There is a protest going on outside the store by some Rhodesian students and their sympathizers. It has to do with the purchase of Rhodesian sugar. Anyway, as is usually the case, a series of connections develop and Morse and Thursday are given the task of sorting it out.

Should be one of the milestones

[sherlockshen · 9/10 · 3 June 2022]

Suddenly, it became the last episode of DS Jack. More surprisingly, Jack shifted his setting of mean and stupid to reliable and bold then left with a good figure. No matter what, the leaving of a main character is profound. Stories of main line are always my cup of tea, that's why I decided to add another star for this episode.

Home on the Range

[ygwerin1 · 8/10 · 3 June 2022]

This is another episode related to specific political issues again that regarding Southern Rhodesia, by now it's blown up to a full blown international incident involving a trade embargo with Britain.

It impinges on Oxford in a rather tangled web having at its centre a local business family the Richardsons, the seemingly innumerable strands involving a kidnapping of the daughter for a large monetary sum under the pains of death.

A protracted campaign against the company possibly in relation to them trading in embargoed goods, that involved poisoning and contaminating food produce, produced by the company and sold through its stores.

The consequences of everything include explosions, murder and a lucky escape for a young baby from contaminated baby food, an abducted baby, and political intrigue.

A happy and momentous occasion occurs in the life of Cowley stations DS Peter Jakes, something that to all accounts comes completely out of the blue, a new love of his life, and new family, his new Spouse Hope has study, work, and family connections to the States.

Morse seems something of a rum cove, invited to his mates leaving do he prefers to lurk outside the pub, when Jakes asks why he's not inside, he rather lamely cites work.

Most peculiar especially as he has gone out his way to ensure that, he "someone single with no one in his life" should take Jakes place, in any possibility of danger.

Morse is not seen to be working rather lounging in his new home, but when Jakes and his new partner are on the bus out of town, he discovers a good bye note to Peter from Morse, accompanied by some postal orders for their new child's future.

Good acting and character development but flawed by obvious fake kidnapping

[nanonta · 7/10 · 18 December 2020]

Come on! Endeavour fans are too smart to fall for the worn out fake kidnapping plot twist. Also irritating was the unconvincing and creepy attempt to seduce Morse by Annette Richardson.

A strong improvement over the previous episode and a good movie in itself

[znatokdetectiva · 7/10 · 17 October 2020]

I really love the detective series "Endeavour", in my opinion, this is a great prequel to"Inspector Morse" (one of the best detective shows in fact) and a good show in itself. "Endeavour "started with a solid pilot episode and got even better with "Girl" and "Fugue", two very solid episodes of the show, after which the first season ended with two decent episodes of "Rocket" and "Home". The second season got even better and darker, with the only bad episode "Neverland". After the flawed, ridiculous, and wacky first episode of the Ride season, "Arcadia" is a marked improvement and just a good movie in itself. In fact, my only complaint about the episode (as with the entire season 3) is that it's not as dark and stylish as seasons 1 and especially season 2. In this particular case, I would like to see a little more rigidity and tension in the finale, given how superbly intense the episode itself was. However, "Arcadia" does a lot of things well and I really liked the character development of Jakes (in fact, it's one of the biggest advantages of the show that it develops each of the regular characters, which detective shows rarely do). In General, there is nothing to add here - a good episode. 9/10

And so It Ends Like This?

[lellensmanuel · 5/10 · 24 October 2019]

After a tender love affair between Ms. Hicks and DCI Morse, writers decide to end their relationship without any closure at all. No final conversation? No letter? Not even a messenger bird? While I realize not every relationship ends in a tidy, bow-wrapped package, I never got the sense that these two would end their relationship without even a proper farewell.

The best episode of this season is a pretty bad one, in all honesty

[yavermbizi · 5/10 · 28 June 2020]

My overall rating of "Endeavour"'s Season 3: 3/10

The villians' plan was stupid, hinged on some rather unlikely situations arising, and couldn't have been realistically executed the way shown by two 60s British gals - from knocking Morse out to assembling all these IEDs. And what's up with pre-recording the ransom message? Really, the plotline has no consistency nor logic, and Morse's and Thursday's pressure on the Richardsons seems like very anachronistic behaviour - I suppose it's been made clear that neither Thursday, nor Morse, especially, are racists, but I doubt any British coppers in the 60s would've handled that revelation the way they did.

It's sad to see Jakes go, but perhaps he simply couldn't stick around with the quality of the story being so low.

Trading in derivatives?

[allresearch-902-672045 · 5/10 · 14 September 2021]

More 'similarities.' Mrs. Robinson and the Graduate. Then Morse going full Dirty Harry with his holdall. Though Clint never thought of aniseed balls.

They still haven't matched the episode in which it was revealed that Thursday apparewntly trained with Sam Vimes on Discworld.

Still, I love the characters and - especially - the period. Nothing yet to match Neverland but way better than the original Morse.