Lewis Series 5 Review

• 23rd Apr 2011

Lewis seems to have become very serious and grave in his old age. If you pick up a box set or search on the internet his steely glare is a far cry away from the awkward, squinty Lewis of the 80s and 90s. Although, I suppose, we have to forgive him for having a sense of gravitas: not only has he been promoted to Detective Inspector but he is sailing his way happily through Series 5 of what has proved to be a surprise hit programme for many; certainly if you’d suggested the idea of Lewis going solo to a fair few Morse fanatics a few years ago (and I do include myself in this!) it would have seemed as absurd and unreasonable as Delboy without Rodney or Hardy without Laurel.

Well, come Series 5 I am quite contentedly munching my way through a humble pie as the perfect comfort food accompaniment to Oxford’s newest, gruesomest dastardly duo, Lewis and Hathaway.  Having got over Lewis’ ‘big boy’ status, Series 5 is hot off the mark with a suitably convoluted murder plot in Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things. It’s a strong, safe opener to the series but there’s nothing particularly new or scandalous to get hooked on – just the same old story of the past coming back to haunt you with bloody consequences. The second episode Wild Justice gives us something a bit juicier; you can always count on a good romp when the clergy’s involved, and the college politics only make for more intrigue.

But it’s the second half of this short series which really stands out as being creative, original and above all, utterly perplexing: the sort of thing we have come to expect from all Oxford crimes after being spoilt for so many years. The Mind Has Mountains includes scandals of the highest order. Sex, drugs, ego, jealousy, obsession and madness all play their part in this case where love and loss seem to be the perpetrators of most of the crimes committed – and unfortunately for Lewis and Hathaway, these aren’t arrestable offences. What’s more, when clever-clogs Hathaway discovers Lewis has been duped by the true killer, there’s a race against the clock (albeit a very conservative, British one) to prevent them from striking again.

The interplay between Lewis and Hathaway really is a joy to watch throughout. No matter his rank, it seems Lewis is doomed to a lifetime of being outwitted and outsmarted by intellectual highbrows particularly in the series conclusion, The Gift of Promise, focusing on the loneliness and subsequent corruption which comes from being ‘on top’ in the brain stakes. The first half of this episode is cunningly misleading with the crux of the mayhem emerging from a most unlikely source. In the end all is restored to equilibrium (arsenic and all) and the fifth series of Lewis, the puppy no one expected to grow into a Jack Russell, let alone a Great Dane, draws to a smugly satisfied yet by no means finished conclusion. After the elegance and mystery of Series 5 I have every faith in Series 6 (and I do hope there will be one) proving to be Lewis and Hathaway’s most perplexing and ingenious yet.

Dani Singer