Midsomer Murders Set Two

Rating:
Summary: I love the Midsomer Murders series...
Review: ....but I hate what they do to the DVDs. When I buy a DVD, I expect to get the entire show/episode but I am now watching DEATH OF A STRANGER on TV and there are scenes showing that are not on the DVD!!!! That totally ticks me off.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed edition
Review: As in the case of the first in the series this one does not have captions and therefore is useless for hearing impaired people.

Rating:
Summary: Midsomer Murders
Review: Awesome, I love thisseries it's the greatest. As for the reveiw stating people are tall and stretched, it is because the dvd is widescreen his tv is regular non widescreen, but his dvd player is set to widescreen. If the dvd player is set to 4.3 the picture would appear normal in a letter box. Anyway I must say Dead Man's Eleven, from set 2 and Deaths Shadow from set are my 2 favorites. I can't wait for Death of a Hollow Man to come out in W/S DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Midomer Murders
Review: I love Midsomer Murders. My local A&E television station began to show Midsomer Murders about a year ago. In the spring, they took it off the air. I was upset, but now with them on DVD, I can watch them whenever I want. I have both sets 1 and 2, and everytime I watch them, I always enjoy them just as much as when I first saw it. I love British mysteries such as Miss Marple and Poirot, but Midsomer Murders is my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: The murders continue in spite of good cops....
Review: Is there such a thing as a perfect English village? Just ask the average Anglophile and you are sure to find out the answer. Undoubtedly, the village is a Midsomer entity, where coppers Barnaby and Troy help maintain the status quo. What makes this series so delicious is that you can feel so cozy even while evil villagers creep about killing their neighbors. Barnaby's demeanor and Troy's earnestness put me in mind of Morse and Robbie at times, although Barnaby is much cozier than Morse ever was.

The `Midsomer' mysteries are a real treat for Anglophiles and provides hours of escapist viewing into a world that never was although we might believe it exists if we wish hard enough -- only you should never get to England and read a British newspaper, or view BBC-America's grittier dramas and newscasts.

I have purchased all four sets of the `Midsomer Murders' dramas and enjoy watching them fairly often. We will watch them many times in the future as they provide a reliable form of escapism - we don't play computer games or use other kinds of diversion - we rely on the English to entertain us.

Rating:
Summary: Great set -- just make sure your player is set correctly!
Review: The Midsomer Murders series is probably my favorite contemporary mystery series, with great ensemble acting, charm and wit, picturesque settings and plotlines that keep you guessing until the final moments. One thing I appreciate is that the character of Tom Barnaby is allowed to be human -- showing his devotion to his family, his occasional frustration with his partner Troy, and letting him go down the wrong path in his investigations from time to time. And this set is also noteable for featuring one of the first appearances of Orlando ("Lord of the Rings") Bloom in the episode "Judgement Day," which just makes it that much more watchable.

One thing to make sure of, though, is that your DVD player is set up correctly, as this is an anamorphically-enhanced presentation to accomodate those with widescreen television sets. Because widescreen televisions are becoming more and more popular, some players' settings default to "16:9 Widescreen" or "16:9 Anamorphic" (what it's called varies according to your player). If you don't have a widescreen set, and are watching on a standard 4:3 TV screen, here's what you do: go into your player's "setup" option (there's generally a "setup" button on your remote, or sometimes you can access these options via your "display" button), and look around the video-related choices until you find options labeled "16:9 Widescreen," "4:3 Letterboxed" and "4:3 Full Screen" (or a similar wording). Choose "4:3 Letterboxed." This setting basically tells your player that you're watching the program on a standard 4:3 TV set, and that you want to see the program letterboxed (the program was shot in a widescreen format, so you will see black bars at the top and bottom of the image). The 16:9 Widescreen option "squeezes" the image horizontally so that it fills the screen on all sides, and widescreen TV sets automatically "stretch" it back out to widescreen.

Rating:
Summary: Technical glitch keeps it from being a solid set.
Review: Yes, I'm a sucker for British murder mysteries and while the stories on this set aren't as good as on the first what really knocks the stars down for me on this set was the conversion.

When the series was converted from the original Pal to NTSC for us here in the US the picture was stretched, leaving everyone looking taller than they should. It's especially annoying in "Death of a Stranger" as the effect leaves the horses looking rather odd. What makes it even more annoying is that I know enough about video to know how easily they could have avoided the problem.

Still, if you don't mind tall horses ...