Muffinzelda's Musings

The Muffinzelda family is just finishing the second series of The Crown, and we were thrilled to see Dr. Hobson pop up on the screen!  (Complaining about Lewis’ home repair skills?)  

My local PBS just rebroadcast the 1997 Rebecca, and I noticed that a secondary WGBH station is playing it tonight (9/21/17) at 9 with 2AM repeats on the main WGBH; so check your local listings!  

Anyway, I didn’t realize before all the little nods to Rebecca in the Inspector Lewis episode Life Born of Fire.  The reappearance of Rebecca is probably because it stars Game of Thrones actors (Charles Dance, Diana Rigg) but of course, there is also Emilia Fox looking just like Girl Hathaway.  (I am still mad that Laurence’s cousin Emilia Fox didn’t play Nell Hathaway in series 9.  It would have been too perfect!)  And Emilia Fox’s mom Joanna David also played the 2nd Mrs. de Winter in a previous version; Joanna David played Morse’s ex-fiancée Susan.  So there’s already a lot of fun Morse-verse connections before even considering Life Born of Fire.  

Words can’t adequately express my gratitude to this man and his legacy.  Colin Dexter’s creation has brought me much joy and many new friends through the Morse/Lewis fandom.  Thanks, everyone, for re-blogging his kooky cameos today.  That has been a treat to see.  May he rest in peace.  

Robbie Lewis’ guide to gift-giving

‘Tis better to give than to receive, and Robbie Lewis is an expert.  Looking for a get-well-soon gift?  Why not a baggie of kiwifruit?  Need a gift to thank your hard-working and lonely sergeant whose husband has left for an extended work mission in Canada?  Look no farther than your local taxidermist- it’s Tony the Tabby!  And what to offer a new mum?  A dodo onesie so the little one can learn about extinct species.  And bonus- this gift doubles as an “I’m sorry I was such a tosser” peace-offering to your girlfriend.  No need to thank him, Lizzie and Laura.  Robbie Lewis is just that awesome. 

The end of the alphabet and the end of Lewis’ adventures… as promised, I have returned to finish Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis now that the conclusion has aired in the US.  

As Laura and James note to one another in series 8. once a copper, always a copper.  Robbie tells James that while it’s Laura idea to go to New Zealand where her niece is having a baby, it is his idea to see the world while they are still young enough to enjoy it.  Robbie, however, has second thoughts; Moody may not renew his consultant contract if he leaves.  He articulates a bizarre death wish to Laura- he wants to work ‘til he dies- and this is really saying something because he had just been caught in an explosion.  He is too scared to live free, so he’d rather die bound to his job.  Laura gets credit for making the most teary-eyed reference to Morse in the entire series. And so they let each other go be the strong-willed people they are: Robbie a single-minded copper and Laura an independent woman ready to travel.  She doesn’t even need Robbie to take her to the airport.  

Eventually, James intervenes and makes Robbie see sense.  Though he grovels for having treated Laura rather shabbily, Robbie never actually tells her “I love you.”  More specifically, he needed to say “I love you more than the job.”  Sorry, Robbie, but Laura deserves better.  Meanwhile, it seems that Robbie will be lucky enough to have his cake and eat it too.  He is forgiven by Laura *and* Moody leaves the door open for him to return after their trip.

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 26! 

That is a zed for most of the world but a zee for those of us awaiting the PBS broadcast of Lewis’ final season tomorrow 8/7 9PM on Masterpiece!  

*sniff sniff*  The end of the alphabet and the end of Lewis’ adventures… I have written my thoughts on New Zealand but decided that as it is entirely a reaction piece to Robbie’s spoilery decisions I will post it after it airs on 8/21.  At that point, I’m sure I will need a cathartic tumblr rant/swansong anyway. 

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 25

Lewis:  Are you… no.  It’s doesn’t matter.  [snip- awkward back and forth]  Are you gay?

Hathaway:  What does that mean? [snip- another awkward back and forth] Gay if you like shoes and musicals and straight if you read Loaded and eat Yorkie Bars.  

Lewis:  [snip- denial]  Loaded and Yorkie Bars, how stupid do you think I am, man?

Though Lewis makes it clear that if his son were gay it wouldn’t matter, there is still a lot of stammering that goes on as Lewis and Hathaway discuss the spectrum of sexuality. We get to know a little more about James’ decision to leave the priesthood in Life Born of Fire.  One of his gay friends has committed suicide, and their other mutual gay friends are suspects in a series of revenge murders that involve a church group that James was a part of.

Hathaway further challenges Lewis’ ideas of gender roles in Point of Vanishing, regarding Fiona McKendrick’s promotion to Scotland Yard.  “Here Lies Inspector Lewis, eclipsed by a woman of 28.”  “31, and what’s her gender got to do with it?” Hathaway ripostes.  This is also the episode where Hobson crudely ranks her colleagues by attractiveness- a traditionally male pursuit.  (Can any one explain to me what equine nine, means, btw? Does she think that Hathaway is hung like a horse?)  At any rate, Lewis takes the high road in that conversation.

There have been a few homosexual suspects every now and again (as the fake Esme Ford found out with humorous results), but Lewis hasn’t done a lot of exploring in the realm of same-sex couples.  Perhaps this is the police force is not an easy place to be gay, as Brendan Ward points out in Beyond Good and Evil.  His boyfriend, Neal Chadwick, was one of the original coppers murdered by Graham Lawrie.  Chadwick was married and Ward heard about his lover’s death on the news.  He couldn’t even attend the funeral.  Through this loss Lewis has something very powerful in common with Ward.  Ward struggled through a prison visit with Lawrie just as Lewis struggled to speak to Simon Monkford, the driver of the car that had killed Val.  

Sort-of-Alphabetical Reasons to love Lewis, day 24

*This post will contain spoilers for series 9.  It’s hard not to write about stuff that aired 10 months ago! *

You know from my previous post that I am not a huge fan of series 8 and 9-- with one exception: Sergeant Lizzie Maddox.  In her first episode, she rambles on about husband Tony shooting a pheasant at a stag do and having no idea how to clean it while Hathaway couldn’t give a toss.  I really wish that we had more of her rambling about her relations, because that moment was the reincarnation of Sergeant Lewis and Morse.  She has Innocent and Hobson on her side, but it can be difficult for her to find a niche alongside the Chuckle Brothers.  (“I’ve heard them called worse, usually by me,” Innocent says to Maddox.)  Lewis gradually convinces Hathaway to give Maddox more responsibility.  Like Sergeant Lewis, she got beaten up pretty badly in series 8, but the girl who works hard plays hard too.  She likes to go out with her girlfriends and have too much to drink.  The best moment in series 9 is when she is trying to explain to Hathaway that she’s not a regular in the S&M bar where the waitress knows her by name.  Hathaway smugly places his fingers on her lips to shush her; it’s quite humorous and it’s the closest that Hathaway and Maddox ever get to having a rapport. Though to Hathaway’s credit, he does learn about her proclivity for pork scratchings and kiwi allergy.

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 23, OR things Robbie smells like, part two.

*Contains mild spoilers for series 9, but mostly spoilers for things that DON’T happen, because this post is pretty hypothetical about what might have been*  

Hobson: “I think I preferred it when you were building canoes.”

Lewis:  “No you didn’t; I was a bad-tempered old grouch who smelled of wood glue.”

Hobson:  “Yes, but you were MY bad-tempered old grouch who smelled of wood glue.”  

I rejoice that Lewis came back for two more series after the “final” episode, but I have to admit that series 8 and 9 didn’t give Robbie a lot of character development.  It is damned awkward to watch our beloved Robbie try to find his place again when everyone thinks that he should be sidelined. (I mean, each time Foyle came back he had new responsibilities or a new era to tackle, and the writers found plausible ways of keeping his and Sam’s paths intertwined, am I right?)  I wanted to see Robbie building that canoe like a boss and enjoying retirement so much that Jean Innocent needed to drag him off a lake in a police boat.  I wanted to see Robbie be lauded and heroic.  When Hobson said, “I think you should talk to Robbie,” in regards to the hammer killer, I wanted the response to be “yes please Inspector Lewis, we need you to reprise our Graham Lawrie investigation!”  But no, instead it seems that he missed an alibi and the lab bungled the DNA and everyone is like, “go away Robbie.” Ugh.  

By the time series 9 rolls around, Innocent is not even there to champion Lewis.  Chief Superintendent Moody didn’t add anything to the show, in my opinion.  What if Lewis could have taken over for Innocent on an interim basis?  Hathaway would have hated having Lewis as a boss again, and as Hathaway was pre-occupied with his dad, Lewis would have to step in- right on top of Hathaway’s toes.  Or, what if Moody had been crooked?  Hathaway would be eager to please his new boss and have blind faith in him, but Lewis suspects something is amiss.  So when Moody tries to sideline Lewis ostensibly for his age, it is really because Lewis is the only one capable of finding out the truth.  Lewis would get into a do-or-die situation with Moody, and Hathaway could save the day.  Laura would still smack Robbie around for putting himself in harm’s way.  But that’s not how it unfolds in series 9; instead it’s more of Robbie fighting to be relevant.

Alphabetical Reasons to Love Lewis, day 22

Val Lewis is Robbie’s wife and the mother of his kids; she is the anchor of Robbie’s life throughout the tumultuous days of Morse. She pops up sporadically in the background of the show several times over the course of the years and is featured in many of Lewis’ stories.  (Why would she want to go see ‘Cats’ when she is allergic, Robbie wonders aloud.)  An adoring husband, Robbie says that he likes her a bit plump when Val is on a slimming kick.  Indeed, a few of Val’s outside interests intersect nicely with the murder du jour- not just the dieting cult, but the Greek lessons and the TV shows that she makes Robbie watch are a few examples.

Val’s only spoken line is when she orders dinner in a Greek restaurant, and Lewis recruits Val’s Greek teacher to help in a murder investigation (Greeks Bearing Gifts).  Val must have made a lot of progress with her language skills as in Cherubim and Seraphim, Robbie asks his son where mum is and the young Lewis responds that “mum’s down at the wine store translating.  It’s Cyprus sherry week!”  There must be more of a story behind that…  

Val, killed in a hit and run as part of a failed robbery by Simon Monkford, is omnipresent in Lewis; her perfume on a victim; the mattress that hurts Robbie’s back but it’s all that’s left of his marriage; Robbie’s dislike of psychologists; and that picture of her in the red shirt that seems to migrate to every room of Robbie house and his office are all reminders of what once was.  “I loved me wife,” Robbie emphatically tells his former sergeant Ally MacLennon when she suggests that adultery was commonplace among married coppers.  Though Robbie gets some closure when Simon Monkford is brought to justice, Robbie admits to Michelle Marber years later that he still needs to talk to his wife every day.   And yet, in one of the last episodes (Ramblin’ Boy), Robbie doesn’t feel that familiar pain as he watches a family grieving at the crematorium.  At long last, Val is slipping away.  

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