Over the years cops chasing the bad guy has been done to death. Jonathan Creek came in with an excellent new take on a whole genre bereft of ideas. Each episode starts off showing us impossible murders or other crimes, you have no idea how it has been done and neither do the police on the show. So they bring in this scruffy magician who operates almost like a modern Sherlock Holmes slowly piecing together slight clues leading to a grand reveal to conclude each episode.
The most notable thing about the show is the cast, every fan knows that the Caroline Quentin era is superior to the post Caroline Quentin one. Julia Sawalha to her credit keeps the series high standards going. After that the show does have quite a sharp decline, a handful of one of specials aren't too bad but the newest are very poor compared to the gold standard we were used to. The characters around Jonathan just aren't as good and the mysteries are just unimaginative.
In a roundabout way it tells you how great the original episodes are, it actually mattered to lose a part of it. I don't want to get too down about that, the episodes of Jonathan Creek that we got are very worth the investment of time. He is like Columbo in reverse, with Columbo you know how the crime is committed and watch as he figures it out. Here Jonathan Creek often has it figured out well ahead of everyone else and you are the one trying to work out how it was done.
The most notable thing about the show is the cast, every fan knows that the Caroline Quentin era is superior to the post Caroline Quentin one. Julia Sawalha to her credit keeps the series high standards going. After that the show does have quite a sharp decline, a handful of one of specials aren't too bad but the newest are very poor compared to the gold standard we were used to. The characters around Jonathan just aren't as good and the mysteries are just unimaginative.
In a roundabout way it tells you how great the original episodes are, it actually mattered to lose a part of it. I don't want to get too down about that, the episodes of Jonathan Creek that we got are very worth the investment of time. He is like Columbo in reverse, with Columbo you know how the crime is committed and watch as he figures it out. Here Jonathan Creek often has it figured out well ahead of everyone else and you are the one trying to work out how it was done.