User Reviews

It's safe to say: the sixth season has not started as effectively as I would have wanted to. "Erupting in Murder" was decent, but had problems with the script. "The Secret of the Flame Tree" is fortunately better, though not much.

Let´s start with good, shall we?

. The production values are great as usual. The episode looks good at times and the music fits the scenery. The acting's solid too. Monica Dolan fares the best of the guest stars.

. The murder mystery is enjoyable and the humor's quirky enough to keep one watching. Especially liked the joke about Dwayne having not read a famous book.

But...

. The first 15 minutes or so of this episode unfortunately suffer from a weak direction. There are weird and messy areal shots, odd camera angles, which too me really off-guard.

. There could have been more development on the characters. The Wolfe couple, who are portrayed by good actors, do not have much to do on screen. Also, it would have been better if more was done with the fact: the victim was Florence's classmate. At the end there is a nice conversation between Goodman and Florence, but that is sadly it.

. Even though the identity of the killer (Patricia) was mildly-satisfying, the motive from the killing was, to say the least, mediocre.

Overall, yet another fin and kind of disappointing day in Paradise.

6,5/10 HK

Much mention of Patricia choosing not to visit UK on the several occasions Sylvie went, but no explanation of why.

Kemi-Bo Jacobs plays Esther Monroe, a very good friend of DS Florence Cassell (Josephine Jobert), and she meets an untimely end, and that causes issues and all.

Ramon Tikaram, who has a very cheerful imdb profile photo, guest stars as Oliver Wolf, and Monica Dolan plays Patricia Lawrence. I think Dolan is one of the few actors to have starred in Black Mirror and Inside No. 9.

One thing as a long-time fan of Death in Paradise I do wonder. I wonder how the Saint Marie police take the photos of the suspects for their whiteboard. Quite seriously, at the crime scene do they kindly ask the suspects to calmly pose for the whiteboard init, I don't quite get it really. Anyway, more credit should also be given to the two paramedics who turn up at the crime scene. They play a pivotal role.

I'd love for acclaimed actors like Danny Dyer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas to make guest appearances.

I usually rate episodes of this TV series 8/10. I only gave this one a 7, because before the murder was committed, I knew who the killer would be and how she would forge her alibi. At the festival, when Patricia Lawrence moves behind the edge of the stage so that the audience can see the images projected on a screen, it's too obvious to anyone who follows this series that she will use the time when the audience can no longer see her to commit the murder. At the time, I wasn't even sure who the victim would be, but I knew who the killer would be. This spoiled the rest of the story for me. Usually, the writers of this series don't give us such blatant clues.

Before I talk about this episode, I want to say that the first 4 seasons were perfection. The 5th season is where things started getting slower and lacking the same level of excitement and non-stop actions throughout the entire 60 mins. The 6th season seems to be continuing with the trend.

Now about this episode:

Without giving anything away, you could easily spot who the murderer is right off the intro. Not sure if it's my eagle eye, or the fact that the director wanted to make sure that we don't miss that quick scene which gives it all away. The rest was just trying to work out why they did it.

Hoping to still run into better episodes this season.

Probably one of the easiest whodunnits in the series. I'll just stand/hide behind this screen and no one will notice I've gone! 😂