Endeavour has had a near perfect second season run. Yes, the season hasn’t packed the same emotional punch that the first did, but the mysteries have been intriguing and the most important aspect of Endeavour, its characters, have continued to develop and fascinate.
The exploration of character and character development on Endeavour has always been the show’s strongest suit. It has never been afraid to examine the darkest sides of a character’s personality. Endeavour (Shaun Evans) is sometimes a frustratingly closed off man, incapable of making human connections and often baffled by things that don’t concern his job or the puzzles he must solve. Since his shooting at the end of last season, his estranged father’s death, and his subsequent return home, he seems too have evolved, at least to a degree. He’s developed a relationship with his pretty next door neighbor, nurse Monica (Shvorvne Marks) and though he’s still the best at what he does, now he seems wearier, more aware of the changing world around him.
Endeavour has always had a quiet and understated edge to it, which really isn’t all that different from our main character. Still struggling with the effects of his shooting, Endeavour (Shaun Evans) is put on a case involving the murder of a museum worker with a ceremonial dagger and a girl’s boarding school in a small town called Slepe.
With so much time between seasons it’s easy to forget how stunningly brilliant Endeavour is. “Home”, the show’s first season finale, was one of the most devastating and perfectly constructed hours of television in 2013. Shaun Evans, given the daunting task of making a legendary character his own, consistently turned in a powerful, entertaining and lived in performance that is always affecting.
On the surface, Endeavour may sound like it’s full of tired clichés. Inspector Endeavour Morse (a brilliant Shaun Evans) is an emotionally damaged young detective who investigates complex murders in 1960s London. But Endeavour remains one of the most endlessly fascinating characters on television.
Created as a prequel series to Inspector Morse, which ran for thirteen years and starred John Thaw as the detective in his later years, Endeavour begins in 1965 as the young detective is writing his resignation letter. He’s never been one for dead bodies; he actually gets sick around them and doesn’t care much about attention and flashy cases. He simply likes the puzzle that cases represent and he often attacks them with a zeal that’s made him an outcast with other police officers. They feel he’s been given too much too young and is just plain weird.
Endeavour, Season 1, Episode 3: “Rocket” Written by Russell Lewis Directed by Craig Viveiros Endeavour, Season 1, Episode 4: “Home” Written by Russell Lewis Directed by Colm McCarthy Airs Sundays at 9pm (ET) on PBS “Rocket” the third episode of the masterful PBS mystery Endeavour starts off slow and builds around its many characters. Of …
Television is flush with mysteries, quirky detectives who don’t play nice with authority, and period dramas. So how is that a show which mixes all three of these themes works so exceptionally well? For one thing Endeavour takes a beloved character, cranky opera loving Detective Inspector Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans), and imagines him as a young handsome, brilliant but sometimes sullen character that’s frequently squeamish at crime scenes.