IMDb user comments for
"The Inspector Lynley Mysteries" Payment in Blood (2002)

3 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Burned Script, 10 August 2006

Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

This is the second Lynley I've seen, and the first that introduces the future love interest, Helen.

Now that I've seen several of these, I've gotten over the upset that the experiment in the books — that rather bold inversion of the detective role — has been completely flattened and replaced by a long-extant BBC template.

That inversion has us examining the detectives, by episodes discovering more and more about them. The mysteries exist in the books, but only as a series of events for us to reveal the inner depths of these folks and their situations.

Here, they are the standard: confusingly complex, undetectable if you try and wrapped up in clean knots by the end.

As with all BBC series, the creative crew is different for each episode which means some are good — on their own terms — and some bad.

This is a bad one. Its paced all wrong. The cinematic storytelling is muffed.

There is a core that's interesting, from the book. What we see is a BBC, wherein a murder takes place that involves and is prompted by a play. Suggested changes in the script suggest insight into a previous murder and prompt more.

Its a simple fold, perhaps the most common in detective fiction. Unfortunately, in the book it is not handled as elegantly as is usual, and the peccadilloes of the players and others are irrelevant.

As with all George's stories, the main sweep is one of complex fathering and lost children. All the components in George's work are fueled by black forces. Its not my thing after one. But here you have many of the motions without the demons. So its all watered down.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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