Just seen the new Death in Paradise. No time to review it at the moment, but generally I thought it was good. One weird thing: have they brought in a consultant or something to make the dialogue more authentic? Dwayne and Fidel seemed to have a few lines which were closer to creole than usual (or at least the creole I’m familiar with from a month mooching around Kingston and Treasure Beach). It had the weird effect of being simultaneously more and less convincing. It’s now more accurate, but it was a notable deviation from how the characters talked in previous series. Especially in combination with Danny John-Jules’ more consistent accent. I was reminded of Ross trying to impress his students in Friends.

Anyway, the mystery was the usual hotpotch of Christie tropes, but it’s always fun to see them used in new and interesting combinations. Given where we are in the genre’s lifecycle, it’s basically impossible to come up with a totally original mystery.

I’m not sure about next week’s, though. I only saw the teaser at the end of episode 1, but it looks like a film stand-in gets murdered. Which means I’m 99% confident how it will play out already:

1) Stand-in is murdered. 2) Actress who the stunt double was the stand in for claims SHE was the real victim. 3) More threats to the actress’s life, but she doesn’t die. 4) Stand-in was the intended victim all along, and the actress was the one who killed her/wanted her dead.

Has this ever played out any other way? What’s the first instance of this? Peril At End House? There are some good versions (A Murder is Announced, an episode of Foyle’s War), but I think this might be one trope that needs to be retired.

Maybe I wrong at next week’s episode will surprise me. But Death in Paradise is usually quite happy to keep the old classics intact, so I’m not too hopeful.