MovieChat Forums > Father Brown (2013) Discussion > Trendy slaughter?

Trendy slaughter?

posted 8 years ago by benbrae76
5 replies | jump to latest

Odd how there seems to be a modern trend to place spates of murder mysteries in particular villages and isolated areas. We have the villages in the fictional Midsomer county, then there's St Mary Mead, Kembleford, the town of Grantchester, the Shetlands, and other such places. I will even mention the American Cabot Cove in the list.

Two statistical examples of this trend is that to date Midsomer has had 222 murders, Cabot Cove 274 murders. I haven't checked the numbers of other series, but there have been quite a few in Kembleford.

Most villages in the UK never experience one murder within their bounds during their entire history. Ergo I find it strange how the authorities in the TV "murder villages" never query the reason for regular slaughter within such localised areas. Its all accepted that murder is the norm.

I recently spoke to an American friend who actually believed that village slaughter of this magnitude actually happened in the UK. He was really and I may say dubiously surprised to learn otherwise.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

What about that paradise island in the Caribbean?

It's that man again!!

[–] dmcdknf (16) 7 years ago

There wouldn't be much point to a murder mystery program if no one got murdered. It is presumed that we are supposed to suspend disbelief. My mum has a friend who is a mystery writer who once had her protagonist experience a mental breakdown because of how often she (sometimes literally) tripped over bodies. I think that American friend of yours was having you on! Here in California the city of Oakland is infamous for its murder rate and they only had 85 murders in all of 2016 with a population of not quite 425,000 (and many of those were gang related).

My husband and I frequently joke about Midsomer. I wonder that there is still anyone in Midsomer County who doesn't immediately leave any activity as soon as they realize that Joyce Barnaby had joined.

[–] BlueeyedSara (90) 7 years ago

Some friends and I were recently joking that we would never want to visit Midsomer due to the crime rate. :-)

[–] Stratego (30779) 7 years ago

Murder She Wrote had loads of murders in other parts of the world. Not every episode took place in Cabot Cove.