Rambling Boy is a masterpiece
Writing from Australia, in this year of the plague 2020, after seeing the Rambling Boy episode. Morse and Lewis are being replayed and Endeavour being played on free to air. Luckily, I'm working through Lewis on DVDs without commercials.I think that the Rambling Boy episode must be one of the high points of the entire Lewis project, on so many levels - reflecting Lewis' emotional health recovering, the next step of Lewis and the delightful Hobson, warmth of Innocent, reflections on the lifelong pain of losing a baby, the life-changing benefits of reaching out for and accepting help - all this and 2 murders and 2 attempted murders.
Rambling Boy has no particular literary allusions, but I think the number of character and emotional arcs in the episode more than makes up for it. On the DVD I have just rewatched the last 10 minutes or so (the academic sitting on the bench with her bag of welcome and pregnancy gifts, the wonderful scene in the pub with Lewis Hobson innocent and Hathaway, DC Gray (who's Black) giving life lessons to the young ones, and the closing walk together) 4 or 5 times.
The screenplay was by Lucy Gannon, her one and only Lewis episode. She and the storyline are not from the traditional Inspector Morse canon, but the emotional attraction and story arcs are enormously attractive. like the wonderful opera experience of shared songs, ;like Verdi's Libiamo .
or a Mozart of Rossini aria with 4 or more characters interweaving. So I believe that the emotional arcs cover more than adequately.
A pat on the back to colour grading on Lewis esp in series 3 on (I guess due to the influence of the Masterpiece American coproducers?). The warm colour temperature, giving every scene the golden light that we photographers love to capture, improves the emotional temperature of the entire series. The older Inspector Morse episodes with the daylight/colder/more natural? colour temperature) play as cooler/grimmer.
Watching all three series of the Morse universe (the Morse original, the Lewis sequel and the Endeavour prequels) is very satisfying, like re-watching the Ring cycle.
I do think that the later series of Lewis, when the producers and the concept and the performers got into the groove, are the most satisfying from my perspective. A warmer emotional tone than the often querulous Morse and the very downbeat Endeavour that had to lead in to Morse. I agree that later Lewis is the pick of the Morse universe.
score 10/10
stoltravel 5 September 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6066972/15061
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