The Straw Woman

First off, I'm binging Midsomer, I even joined Acorn so I can watch it commercial free. I either love or just enjoy all episodes except the ones involving Christians.

Second, the writing was just plain bad! Plot, story line and ending. Just plain awful. Was it just a bad day for them? Even the other "anti-Christian" episodes were tolerable.

Having said that let me say, I grew up going to church so I've known a wide range of Christians. A few along the way were nuts but not like MIdsomer likes to portray. It's as though they watched a movie about Salem Massachusetts and assumed this is what all "Bible" people are. If you meet one who's hateful, spitting and crazy, don't make the assumption we're all like that. Just like I don't assume a whole group is bad because of one person in that group, neither should a writer of a show. Do I still plan to keep binging? Yes! I Still love the show, but maybe I'll skip any future shows that start out as bad as this one did.

Maybe a little below avg for this series but still... Rewatchable, good character actors well cast.. You know, its Midsomer.

I've always had mixed feelings about The Straw Woman, there are some incredibly powerful and memorable moments from it, but it's as if they're all put together in the wrong order.

The start is hugely powerful, if ever a concept was taken from The Wicker Man and used to good effect it was this one, worthy of a scene from a horror movie, that stayed with me. The seemingly spontaneous human combustion of the Vicar was incredibly well done, you don't get more daring or realistic then that. As a big admirer of Jemima Rooper I'm always glad to see an appearance by her, even if she is underused. Richenda Grey as always was brilliant. Good use of straw dollies and themes of witch craft, but....

The main story was uninteresting, didn't flow, and largely made no sense, poor Keith Barron was given a dreadful character, he had nowhere to go, as did the glamorous Maggie O'Neill. The ending was atrocious, as was the discovery of the killer. I didn't believe in Scott's liaison with Liz, nor his reaction, but I'd argue it's Scott's best story.

I'm not normally one to comment on bad taste, but some elements of this story I thought were in rather dubious taste, draw your own conclusions there.

This could and should have been a classic, the elements were certainly there, just poorly executed. 6/10

The curate of the church in Midsomer Parva is burned alive in the effigy of the straw woman, which brings Barnaby and Scott into the village to investigate. Later, the vicar, the curate's lover, is also killed by burning to death, possibly the result of spontaneous combustion. On top of this, the presence of sex mogul Alan Clifford - played by Keith Barron - irks a lot of the village members, especially because He has plans for a mansion there, and people are nervous about it.

A rather poor episode due to the portrayal of religious people as hypocrites and not nice people. Also the story is too dark, even murder - a man encased in burning straw is too unpleasant. Midsomer Murder is a tongue-in-cheek murder mystery with eccentric characters and improbable murders. It's usually fun, but here that element is missing.

Everybody sleeping around, people catching on fire, writers bias against Christians. One of the series wildest, darkest stories. For me, I loved the episode Sure, the villian ending was silly. But it was fun. I watch British mysteries to be entertained. Thoroughly enjoyable episode. Vito S 10-15-19