Littlelep

My very favorite detective, by far, but Frost is partnered with my least favorite actor in the series. First, without her opening her mouth, it is difficult to look at her without feeling one's own lips and front teeth. Then, why the heck didn't the director and hair people do something in the first outdoor scene to keep her hair from blowing in her face if she was so concerned about it?! When she is attempting to portray intense concentration in listening to others, she just looks crazy. Then, she "stepped on" one of Jack's best lines in the episode by getting in the car before Jack finishes his sympathetic response to the victim's wife.

I tried, with some success, to block her out during the rest of the episode, but she seemed to have a negative effect on Frost as well. He lacked his usual energy and seemed to be going through the motions whenever she was in the scene with him.

As to the storylines, neither was up to the usual excellence of all of the preceding episodes. The dance theme actors completely overacted; it was just creepy. The double-life story was very poorly conceived and written.

The whole episode seemed contrived and was simply a vehicle to get another episode of Frost on the air. I hate it when marvelous actors are abused in such a way. Hope he was paid a gargantuan salary for lending his stardom to this can of tripe!

As any fan of Morse would attest, watching Lewis was mandatory. The cringeworthiness of Whately makes binge-watching almost impossible. The other main stars are so interesting and capable that it seems a shame that there was no choice for the writers and casting department but to go with Whately.

The writers somewhat highlighted his blundering to solutions, but they couldn't cover up that Geordie accent that just grates every time he says more than a few words. Then there is his walk - not a curious walk like Morse had, where you watch just that in an attempt to learn its provenance, but a bent-over kind of gangly, messy movement of his body. Reminds one of a pack animal going uphill with a heavy load - even when he is walking on a flat surface.

The writers and/or director probably thought they should give Whately something to do while he stumbles through the scripts, so they had him eating, ALL THE TIME. And no one ever ate quite as disgustingly as he does! His jaw moves in unreal fashion back and forth and he has a click every now and then that goes to one's spine. He would hold up in the air his sandwich or whatever he happened to be eating and say long sentences with the food suspended. He ALWAYS talked with food in his mouth.

Just a truly backwoods actor that hopefully was not a true depiction of his fellow Geordies!