Death in Paradise: Kris Marshall shows promise as he replaces Ben Miller in the Caribbean crime drama
From Unreality PrimeTime
SPOILER WARNING: A lot of the plot is revealed in this article
As the weather starts to deteriorate outside and the cold, dark nights drag on the majority of us are looking for a little bit of sunshine in our lives. Thankfully, BBC One have come to our aid with the third series of Caribbean-based murder mystery Death in Paradise. Tonight’s episode included a few big changes the first of which being the arrival of Kris Marshall as Saint Marie’s newest Brit abroad detective Humphrey Goodman. But Goodman’s arrival on the island is overshadowed by the murder of his predecessor, Ben Miller’s Richard Poole, a crime which he is tasked with solving.
Richard’s last minutes are documented at the start of the episode as we see him attend a reunion on the island with four old college friends. As fans of the show know, Richard isn’t one for frivolity so when a game of charades is suggested he goes out onto the veranda of his friends’ villa to read a book. An hour or so later, one of his friends goes to check on him and discovers that he’s been stabbed with an ice pick. Inevitably; Camille, Fidel and Dwayne struggle to cope in Richard’s absence and are struggling to come up with a feasible suspect for his murder. Though they initially believe that an intruder could have killed Richard they later deduce that there would be no way for a stranger to enter. Believing it to be one of the party-goers who 
murdered Richard, the trio are at a loss to why one of his friends would have killed him. Noticing that his officers require help in solving Richard’s murder, Commissioner Patterson hires a new DI in the form of Humphrey Goodman.
Goodman is instantly portrayed as a bit of a bumbling idiot as he struggles to sit on a swivel chair at the office and later falls out of a window while surveying the murder scene at the villa. In addition he is portrayed as quite disorganised; often forgetting to bring a pen and notepad out with him when questioning suspects. Camille is noticeably frosty towards Humphrey as she feels that Richard was irreplaceable. But Humphrey soon endears himself to Camille by telling her that he’s not here to replace Richard. He offers to help find out what happened to her friend and suggests that she can’t make her own mind up about him after they’ve solved the case. Another way in which Humphrey differs from Richard is that he seems to enjoy the island a lot more than Richard ever did. He is perplexed when Catherine offers him a cup of tea and instead samples some of the island’s rum, but is taken aback by how strong it is. We later learn that Humphrey is married and that his wife will soon accompany him to the island, but a final revelation changes our mind about him once again.
Once on the case, Goodman discovers several things about each of Richard’s old college classmates that change his opinions of them. He learns that Angela had unrequited feelings for Richard and, when he refused to come to the reunion, she decided to hold it on the island she knew he worked on. Though the rest of the group knew nothing of Richard’s presence of the island, Angela was hoping to spend more time with the man she was still a little bit in love with. However Richard only ever had eyes for Sasha, the other female guest at the party, and went so far as to help her with her dissertation. This irked her then boyfriend, and now husband, James who got into a fight with Richard at a restaurant just before the reunion. Finally Roger, the fourth member of the group, was also found to have a motive to kill Richard after he was kicked out of college after Richard reported him for cheating on a test. At the same time, all of the four provided alibis for the other as they all went to visit Richard at some point – to offer him tea, bring him crisps or simply to start the barbecue. But the most perplexing element of the entire case is that the book Richard was reading was in French, a language that he couldn’t speak. It was this book that provided the biggest clue in solving the murder and in turn exposing one of the four as a complete fraud.
Obviously the big talking point coming out of this episode is whether Kris Marshall will be an adequate replacement for Ben Miller. I have to say I did have my doubts when the casting was announced as Marshall really has never had to be the lead in a major drama before. In addition I felt that he was too young to be a convincing as a DI that was until I learn that he was forty years old. I did feel that Marshall’s initial performance tended to lean towards slapstick but he was quite endearing during the moments in which he had to bond with Camille. I feel that writer Robert Thorogood has done Marshall few favours in creating a character who occasionally comes across as a bit of a bumbling idiot. But, by the end of this first episode, I was satisfied enough that Marshall would at least be able to blend in with the show. The one issue I had was that at this point he has little chemistry with Sara Martins, who plays Camille, which is a problem insofar as the interplay between her and Miller was one of the strongest elements of the past two series.
To me Death in Paradise’s biggest strength is its luxurious Caribbean locations with Guadeloupe providing the ideal setting for a sun-drenched murder mystery. The cinematography throughout really captured this luxurious atmosphere and really made me want to go there on holiday at some point. Death in Paradise is also one of those show that you have to employ a certain amount of disbelief, mainly because you wonder why Brits would continue to travel to an island where so many of their number are murdered. Despite that, tonight’s murder mystery was gripping and I feel I cared a little more because Richard was the victim. Though I’d solved parts of it before Humphrey’s final revelations, the ultimate motive still took me by surprise.
Overall, I’m glad to have Death in Paradise back as the sunny locations provide a certain escape from the winter blues. The murder mysteries are primarily well-written and easy to follow with the revelations generally catching you by surprise. Meanwhile, Kris Marshall definitely showed promise as new boy Humphrey, however I am going to reserve my judgement until I’ve seen a few more episodes with him as the new DI on Saint Marie.
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EDITOR: “Death In Paradise” is shown in the Cayman Islands on WestStar Cable Channel #3 PBS on Thursday nights. Check Channel Listings for
