Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Inspector Morse mysteries were perhaps the finest television mysteries ever developed. I loved Morse and enjoyed every episode and ultimately purchased them all in the complete DVD edition. The Inspector Lewis mysteries are equally excellent television. They are a fine successor to the Morse series and deserving of five stars and my firm recommendation. I would like to buy a complete set of these, too, and I may, but from Amazon UK. Then I'll have to buy an all-region DVD player. So why did I rate this DVD set only two stars? As the other reviewer discovered and wrote about, PBS is cutting about ten minutes from each episode to leave time for the extra introduction and to keep the entire length at 86 minutes, leaving time for PBS commercials. Each Inspector Lewis episode in the British DVD sets (Region 2) is 93 minutes. Each episode in the PBS version is 86 minutes which includes the extra introduction by PBS host Alan Cumming. The PBS Series 2 run time is listed as 602 minutes because this includes seven episodes, the four in British Series 2 and the first three in British Series 3. The last episode of Series 3, Counter Culture Blues, is omitted. But that's not all. Again, as the reviewer said, these Inspector Lewis sets are one or more years behind schedule for U.S. patrons. The complete Inspector Lewis Series 1-3 DVD set has been available in the UK since April 2009. Here's a complete list of what's actually completed and available: Pilot Inspector Lewis Series 1 Whom The Gods Would Destroy Old School Ties Expiation Series 2 And The Moonbeams Kiss The Sea Music To Die For Life Born Of Fire The Great And The Good Series 3 Allegory Of Love Quality Of Mercy The Point Of Vanishing Counter Culture Blues The pilot episode is available by itself (in full length of 95 minutes) or as part of Series 1 with four DVDs in box. The other two series have four episodes/DVDs each. All three sets are available for less than $17 each on Amazon.co.uk, quite a bit less than the PBS price. I strongly urge PBS to issue FULL-LENGTH episodes when they get around to selling the complete series box set. Update (2009 October 8): I did purchase Series 1-3 of Inspector Lewis plus an all-region DVD player from Amazon UK. The process was painless, no different from ordering from the U.S. Amazon.com. I give these Lewis DVDs 5 stars. While the original Morse episodes were better due to the outstanding acting skills and persona of John Thaw, both Kevin Whately, who plays Inspector Lewis, and especially Laurence Fox, who plays Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, are excellent actors whose character relationship works well. There is no reason to rate these full-length episodes less than 5 stars. Update (2010 April 28): Today I pre-ordered Series 4 from Amazon UK; it will ship in May. Needless to say, this DVD set is not available from PBS at all and the episodes haven't even been shown on PBS yet (but will be this summer as revealed by previews). A synopsis of each episode is available on the Amazon UK site. Here are the titles: Series 4 The Dead Of Winter Dark Matter Your Sudden Death Question Falling Darkness