Duty and Honour Ep Chatter

[Ella]

Woot! I'm first again to start a new topic. Sure it wasn't the most interesting episode ever, but it must have produced some reaction.

War is bad. Bad war -go sit in the corner.

The horse running through the woods was really good the first couple of times, but then it just became overdone.

Stella was babysitting again -unbelievable, but she did get to leave the office a couple of times. Spence has always been a bit fashion forward, but he seems to change clothes about twice as often as Stella.

Joe Luke Boyd is scaling new heights of annoyance. Please tell me they didn't rewrite Joe Boyd to just become an extended lecture on homophobia.

[hotsewer]

I have to say that for the first time ever....I really found "Waking the Dead" boring last night. Can't say why but I really feel there is something missing in this series. Ok "Sins" was OK, but I am just beginning to get the feeling that like all great series we might be seeing the start of the decline.

Tim G

[Ella]

Did anyone catch what Stella said after her gloved encounter with Overton when she walked into the squadroom? It was when Spence had found the cctv footage of Shahla. I couldn't make it out at all. I'm hoping she explained what happened earlier.

[Plotter]

Did anyone catch what Stella said after her gloved encounter with Overton when she walked into the squadroom? It was when Spence had found the cctv footage of Shahla. I couldn't make it out at all. I'm hoping she explained what happened earlier.

She said 'Cherchez la femme'. It's French and means 'look for the woman'.
It's an expression.

Wikipedia explains:

The expression comes from the 1854 book The Mohicans of Paris by Alexandre Dumas (père). The original passage reads:

Il y a une femme dans toute les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: 'Cherchez la femme'.

Translated into English this reads:

There is a woman in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman'.

The phrase embodies a cliché of detective pulp fiction: no matter what the problem, a woman is often the root cause. The phrase has also come to mean more simply "Look for the root cause of the problem."

But it can also mean 'looking for sex (or comfort, or love)'.

[Plotter]

I liked it. Yes, the first part was a bit boring. There was in fact too much going on to keep track. The army clichés did not quite keep my attention. I did not like the homophobia and homoerotic sings, but I soon decided they wouldn't mean a thing.
In fact they were just a bunch of red hearings (in season I must say!).
I am getting used to Stella as the torture-girl, Spence as the exotic furniture and Eve as the special effects in the background. Grace, doing her wall paper bit, should keep quiet in future. Her crying out "But Boyd, he is a killer, this is dangerous" made her look crazy. What was she doing there?
All and all it became a boy story about Boyd. Which is not quite as nice as a team effort, but I liked it.
I liked his moods, his lines and his moves.
Can anyone please do some quotes? I laughed my head of, but can't remember the exact lines.
And I really liked the end. I love sudden death

[Plotter]

I have no idea what will become of the Luke/Joe story. In fact it feels as important (not!) as Mel's mystery did last year. Like it's not there for us, but for the writers, producers or in fact for Trevor Eve to feel even more important on the set.
It feels like a fifth wheel (Dutch expression). No advantage, just de disadvantage of the noise, friction and wearing out it makes.
I decided to ignore it.

[nachtfrau]

I am getting used to Stella as the torture-girl,

pity no Stella slapdown in the pub that would have been something, but then the whole "Lomax unravelling" wouldn't been complete *yawn*

Spence as the exotic furniture

but perhaps not for long, being seduced by APX solutions...

Armchair Profiler Grace Foley : Sue Johnston

though of late everyone's characters seem reduced to these caricatures

This whole season has just been a bit off for me, and this episode(s) didn't really grab me. I though there were waaaay too many flashbacks I agree that some things are filmed just to be edited out. As far as I'm concerned the whole JoeLuke plot does not exist, just like the mel thing.

I'm gonna go watch S5 again to remind myself of better times

[Plotter]

I'm gonna go watch S5 again to remind myself of better times

I have to disagree with you on this. I didn't like series 5 that much. Michael Mackenzie did a wonderful review about it. http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=67469 I couldn't agree more.
Especially this

In earlier years, Boyd's irascibility was countered somewhat by the ensemble feeling of the show, the impression given being that the rest of the team helped make up for his personality shortcomings.

There seems to be not much countering Boyd left in series 5. Grace is certainly not up to it.

I liked series 6 a bit better. Series 7 seems to be about what David Butcher tells in his preview of the upcoming episode in Radio Times

Luckily, the chief skinhead is played by Philip Whitchurch, who injects menace into what could easily become a caricature. While he and Boyd trade pleasantries, there's real edge.

Boyd is countered by the suspects. Strong characters and actors who bring out the best (worst) in him.
A totally different concept compared to series 1 to 4. Boyd could start a solitary unit of his own. He seems to be less depending on forensics, policing and psychobabbel.
But still really nice to look at.
Maybe, for the sake of our sanity, we should rename the series.
What about Waking the Dad?

[Ella]

Thanks for the cherchez la femme line, I was so focused on Stella explaining what went on with Overton, I just wanted to hear something that had to with him and subconsciously rejected all else.

I thought there were way too many flashbacks in this episode as well. Other stories have been flashback heavy, but they've contributed to the story, this time around it was just to reinforce that these guys were haunted by certain memories. They spent so much time on flashbacks, they never had time to develop the central characters. I suspect that combat scene may have been expensive and time consuming to film, so they wanted to make the most of it.

[Plotter]

I thought there were way too many flashbacks in this episode as well. Other stories have been flashback heavy, but they've contributed to the story, this time around it was just to reinforce that these guys were haunted by certain memories. They spent so much time on flashbacks, they never had time to develop the central characters. I suspect that combat scene may have been expensive and time consuming to film, so they wanted to make the most of it.

I hated the flashbacks in Towers of Silence. Could not cope with them in Straw Dog, though they were there for the sake of writing a back story for Grace (did not interest me at all).
I just missed the team as they used to be. The edgy moments they used to have together.
There was not quite enough in return to me.
I didn't like the angry Spence, Grace run out of theory so she started repeating herself inconsistently, Felix did not integrate and sexy Stella was not very interesting. Series 6 showed an interesting Eve, a new Spence and even Stella got more interesting. It felt better, though Grace was still out of theory, so she started baby sitting Boyd.

Now, in series seven, it seems clear it is not about the team or other characters at all.
The team members, the read haring characters, the flashbacks and semi science (Eve's discovery of roundworm eggs was a total crap), they all are just a decor. You can even take a pee and don't miss a thing. In fact: to solve the case you can miss out on the first part of the last two episodes.
The main cast seems to be shifted to Boyd + one or two suspects. Their interaction is what it is about.
Which is OK to me, though very different from what we started with.

[Ella]

what happened and why in Duty and Honour posted in the Evidence Room

[Drumchik]

I just watched this episode. The only explanation I can give for Stella's baby-sitting is that maybe because they keep giving her the kids, there's a storyline coming up there? Or are TPTB capable of that much foresight? LOL

She was great in this episode

I'm liking Eve more and more. She's fun, she's human. It's great.

I do agree on the horse running thing. It drove me nuts.