Death and Venice: Part Two

Honestly, there was a lot to forgive in most of the Lovejoy series: pedestrian scripting, superficial characters, convenient plot turns ... but it always seemed worth it, at least just enough, to keep watching. This episode breaks that trend for a variety of reasons, but most fatally by that one trope beloved of hack writers everywhere, the Evil Twin.

I know, I know; many viewers loved it all the same. But we were not among those viewers. We enjoyed Lovejoy for its occasional if erratic moments of decent, light-hearted entertainment, strung haphazardly over some mystery plot, and spiced with moments of humor that worked mostly, if not always. But when the good ship Entertainment sails over the Dumb Falls of Ineptitude, all good sailors will have to admit: they wish they'd bailed out at the last port of call -- which in this case, is any episode before this sagging if picturesque two-parter, which lacks everything of intelligence that makes the other episodes interesting, or even bearable. Avoid.