Endeavour (TV Series) Striker (2021) User Reviews

What Sunday nights are made for.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 12 September 2021]

Oxford Wanderers front man and star, Jack Swift has had his life threatened, on hand to keep him safe, Sergeant Morse.

I'd you're an addict of the show like I am, you'll have been looking forward to this for quite some time. Once again it's a three part series, and happily all of the main players are here.

Overall, a really fine episode, if you're a football fan, perhaps one that remembers the hardman years, you'll have an added interest in this episode. For general viewers, I'd say it's a very good episode, with a deep story.

Once again, the show isn't afraid to be controversial, what an absolute breath of fresh air that is in 2021, I'm sure this theme will continue through the series.

I liked the tension and the atmosphere created, you spend the first half wondering when, and the second half wondering who. It's a very different Morse here, he's almost shy, drinking, he's subdued and lacking his usual sparkle, events in Italy clearly had an effect on him.

Great special effects as always, the effects on the bomb damaged college particularly looked great.

Lewis MacLeod did a cracking job as Andrews, what a nice touch that was. The acting all round was as always first rate.

I am fascinated by Sean Rigby here, how much weight has he lost, guy looks awesome for it, I hardly recognised him.

A good start, 8/10.

Is Bright losing the plot?

[dellcelles · 8/10 · 20 September 2021]

With reference to an earlier review I am aware that filming took place under limited circumstances, some shots are cramped etc. Chief Inspector Bright, I believe, is supposed to be looking unkempt (long hair) and possible mental deterioration, hence the tunic badge error? Morse is changing too, as he must, into the cynical curmudgeonly drinker he would later become. This, unfortunately is his destiny. I believe Shaun Evans has said he won't be doing any more Endeavour. I believe that, with a gap, Matthew Rhys would make an excellent late 70's/early 80's Morse. I agree with Shaun Evans that no-one should try and join up the time periods depicted. Thanks to Shaun and all on Endeavour, it's been a wonderful bonus!

Morse enters the '70s in this fine season opener

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 13 September 2021]

This season opener starts with at a football match; Oxford are losing to underdogs, and local rivals, Cowley, when star striker Ulsterman Jack Swift equalises. Shortly afterwards a threat is made by somebody claiming to represent the IRA... if Swift plays in the replay they will shoot him in the head. Back in the city an explosion rocks an Oxford college killing a secretary who opened a parcel addressed to the Master of the College. Morse is somewhat frustrated when he is given the job of babysitting the footballer rather than investigating the murder which DS Strange is tasked with.

This episode turned out to be a fine season opener. I admit that early on it felt as if it was trying a bit too hard to emphasise that the '70s had started; we get tough football, IRA threats, musical references and even the footballer star helping promote a bike that looks just like that '70s icon the Raleigh Chopper! As the investigations progress these minor quibbles are soon forgotten. The two cases throw up various suspects and motives and when they are finally resolved things don't feel too obvious. As expected the cast all do impressive jobs. Overall a welcome return for this fine series.

Such good actors!!!

[taylormara · 9/10 · 22 October 2021]

I enjoyed this show so much, a bit dramatic but the acting is SUPERB!!! Want to see million of more episodes!! Can't seem to find where to watch season 8! Help. Absolutely brilliant.

Welcome Back

[dmgrace-37860 · 10/10 · 20 June 2022]

I prefer Endeavour when it's about the mystery and not conflicts between the main characters, when in some previous seasons got in the way of the story. There will be differences of opinions following the clues, but they don't have to be personal. I thought this episode to be one of its best in quite awhile.

Attention to detail

[peterzieminski-23321 · 6/10 · 19 September 2021]

A lot of effort usually goes into getting the period details correct however the wardrobe department failed to notice that Chief Superintendent Brights uniform insignia are upside down on both his tunic and coat - the star above the crown.

Not up to standard !

[Vindelander · 7/10 · 14 September 2021]

A rather disappointing episode in comparison with the usual high standard. Great cast as usual but story rather lacklustre.

Offside!

[xmasdaybaby1966 · 6/10 · 13 September 2021]

I have been a big fan of the Morse trilogy and had been looking forward to this as, it is probably the final series.

Football-related storylines are hard to do and, even the football is credible then there is just something lacking.

The show tries too hard to do the memory lane bit yet we barely see a car from the era even if it is nice to see girls showing off their legs in mini skirts and knee length boots, something rarely seen in modern times.

I appreciate it has been filmed during difficult times but it just seems too clunky to me.

I do hope the standard will improve towards the end of the series as it has been a good watch over the years but always a shadow of the original show featuring the character.

Accents

[normanemailer · 7/10 · 18 September 2021]

Every character apart from Morse is sounding common. But they're accents are cod, cliched, and it undermines the storyline.

Language

[goudronmec · 3/10 · 7 December 2021]

Poor start as others have mentioned. No Brit either in the 60s/70s would've said Americanisms like 'mad' for angry as Jacke did...and other modern language. Standards have also slipped with the dialogue very pedestrian. Expected better.

Marred by Camera and Filming Technique

[ctgriffith-87722 · 7/10 · 21 June 2022]

We have enjoyed this show since its inception: the inspired and varied characters, brainy writing, set-design, music, clothing, and performances are always a fantastic treat!

That's why it's difficult for me to say the following:

Over the last season or two, the chosen camera (or, does it involve lens choice or some combination of other technical aspects?) has DRASTICALLY altered the appearance of the show, to its great detriment. Almost every scene looks cheap and tacky now, like one of those awful, tawdry of dramas you click past hastily on Espanol TV.

I hate to be unnecessarily critical, but this new filming approach has completely altered the viewing experience; it removes one from the immediacy of what's taking place onscreen, and significantly detracts from the credibility of what was one of the best projects that PBS has been involved with in recent memory. Extremely disappointing!

Welcome return of old favourite

[geoff-spurr · 7/10 · 15 September 2021]

The disappointing series 7 was shown just before the pandemic so it seems like an age waiting for my favourite show to return. Endeavour is showing signs of it's age (as we all do!), Striker had many of the qualities we associate with Endeavour but the plot seemed tired and too many characters were full of cliches. Football and TV drama don't mix well, the action scenes were weak (clean shirts was an avoidable goof). St Albans City's ground is a much loved non-league ground because it is little changed (since the 1970's) and retained it's character but wasn't convincing as the home for Oxford Wanderers and a big FA Cup tie and superstar player. This was filmed in April 2021 during a national lockdown, perhaps that explains Bright's long hair but surely they had special rules. Anyway everyone should be congratulated on producing drama in such difficult circumstances. The period references were, as usual, well done, especially the This Is Your Life scene. Morse is beginning to show more of the cynical, bitter and hard drinking traits of the John Thaw performance in the original series.

At times it felt like watching a favourite singer, whose voice is failing, energy diminished and lacking the inspiration of younger days, the favourite songs are still there and likewise our favourite characters are still in Endeavour (although Strange seemed to have lost a lot of weight). The incredible heights of series 2 will never be reached again, fans are understandably reluctant to let go but the time for the series to end is coming near.

Just OK

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 29 June 2022]

Things are set up pretty well with a bomb exploding, killing a secretary. This leads to a bored Morse having to bodyguard a soccer star. There is intrigue in the management of the clubs and a connection to the IRA. It is the 70's and audiotape is coming into play. All in all this was quite tedious and drab. I was disappointed.

Disappointing - save one thing...

[jamison0601 · 6/10 · 4 July 2022]

Have to say that this was a very lackluster start to a highly anticipated return. I had seen a behind the scenes trailer where Evans mentioned this would be the season they'd really begin to introduce the character quirks and flaws of the future Morse with intention. Especially the drinking, apparently. As far as the episode itself, I found it quite boring. Very little action, or the intense suspense that makes Endeavour so brilliant.

That being said, it was great to see Endeavour and Thursday back working together in peace. With the competition and acrimony that has built up over recent series, it was easy to forget that their partnership was one of the things that made it special. The climax of series 7 was truly brilliant and I'm glad that was the end of the rift that was becoming tiresome. Side note...there were so many references to Sam in this episode, seems we may see a return.

The last line of this episode made the whole show for me. Hoping next two episodes will improve, though based on the individual ratings, it may not happen.

Hope it improves!

[davyd-02237 · 5/10 · 19 September 2021]

I found it odd that Morse is drinking on duty, very late for work, cant keep tabs on someone he is supposed to be guarding. Something of a disappointing opener for S8 with the usual last minute revelations as to who did what etc. The writer doesnt know much, from this, about football, although the appearance of "Eamon" with his red book was well pulled off. This wasnt great viewing and some of the language/blasphemy didnt add anything to the enjoyment. This is the best ITV can do?

Awful

[davebbr · 3/10 · 19 September 2021]

What a waste of acting talent. Evans should stick acting. He messed this right up with his direction and editing. The script was lacking in depth and put modern language into the story. Nobody ever paid 149 shillings for anything. Juvenile and lazy research by Lewis.

Disappointing Start

[marklilley-62411 · 5/10 · 13 September 2021]

I was looking foward to the new series but the main story line for this was plain silly.

Anyone with a slight knowledge of football would know that Oxford has never had a major football team, yet one of their players was meant to be so well known player to be worth a "This is your Life" capture.

There were phones call being made from push button call boxes in 1970/1971?

The Chief Superintendent Bright wore an ill fitting uniform and had hair touching his colour, like some latter day William Hartnell. Whereas fifty years ago he would have been immaculate.

The other half of the plot "the bombing" was better, but hardly likely.

Penalty shoot-out

[DoctorStrabismus · 2/10 · 14 September 2021]

The long lay-off due to Covid allowed us to forget just how poorly the last series ended, with the weak Italian fiasco of the Talenti couple.

So with this chance to redeem things, and score a victory, Shaun Evans as director was no better than the England soccer team had been in the shoot-out against the Italians. Just how do you ever manage to miss so many?

A weak plot, in fact a double plot with two murders and two murderers.

For the umpteenth time in Morse-Lewis-Endeavour, in the first of these murders the Master of an Oxford college turns out to be a thoroughly bad egg. Well who would have guessed it? This has become such a laboured stereotype in the triple series that we knew it right away, as soon as we were presented with this unappealing wooden character pompously talking about "Septuagesima". Even though he didn't turn out to be the murderer, he was a key party in a corrupt plot which led to it, the horrible murder of his office junior. Oh dear!

Then there is the Irish terrorist theme, with a threat to shoot a soccer star. Endeavour is appointed his bodyguard, but is unarmed! He then fails to even bother keeping an eye on him during the match to which the threat specifically refers. No, he says he is not interested in soccer, and just sits out the game somewhere down in the changing room area. When the players leave the field, and he fails to spot the one he is supposed to be protecting, he just asks someone else where he might be, and does not go looking for him. Also unarmed is the special branch officer who comes to relieve him, and despite being unknown to Endeavour, this burly man is immediately allowed into the player's flat with absolutely no check of his identity.

The customary long discussion of the contents of Fred's sandwiches might at least have added a bit of realism and genuine interest, but we didn't even get that.

It's grindingly awful, with such poor production values and little attention to detail in everything from Bright's excessively long mullet hair style to a little portable typewriter placed in the Master's secretarial office. And then there are the soccer scenes! Putting sport scenes, especially soccer, into any drama is risky at best, and here it is laughable. This is meant to be the 5th round of the FA Cup (the serious end of the competition, the round of 16, by when few but the clubs of the top two divisions have usually survived) and we see a handful of extras trying to pretend they have half a notion of the game, trying to kick a ball around some small muddy suburban paddock.

England only scored with two of their five penalties, so allowing for the numerous yellow and red cards it most certainly merits, the episode deserves two out of ten.

As a footnote, the use of the name Fenner Fashions is clearly a tribute to Sheila Hancock, widow of John Thaw, whose first big TV success was in 'The Rag Trade in 1961, as a young dressmaking worker at Fenner Fashions!

But poor Colin Dexter must be turning in his grave!

Disappointing season opener

[joshgibbs-35276 · 4/10 · 13 September 2021]

After a climax and operatic end of season seven, one comes to expect something special in the opening of a new season. But what we get is an ordinary run of the mill regurgitated plot. I would have expected much more from Russell Lewis to carry on the torch for Colin with exiting ground breaking plots and characters.

Maybe it is a hiccup in the series after so many great episodes. We see how the season will progress.

Shoddy

[pawebster · 2/10 · 14 September 2021]

This was once quite a high-grade series, but what's happened?

I thought something might be amiss when I noticed early on a tiny thing: a totally anachronistic payphone. Very odd, when the rest of the set-dressing is meticulous. But that was nothing. The footballing was appalling. Production values close to zero. There was fog and floodlights shining into the camera to try to hide the fact that there were only about half a dozen players and hardly any spectators. The "stadium" was a sort of down-at-heel little amateur affair field suitable for perhaps a Sunday league. These were supposed to be sixth-round FA Cup matches with a player so famous that he is featured on This is Your Life and has a flashy lifestyle. Also there's some terrible hammy acting and the plot is a run-of-the-mill Morse-Lewis-Endeavour one with no redeeming features. I could go on.

Three strikes you're out

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 9 December 2021]

'Inspector Morse' has always been one of my all time favourites and made me a huge fan of John Thaw. Also like 'Lewis' very much for the production values, music, fun intricate mysteries and the acting, despite my intense dislike for Laurence Fox as a person. 'Endeavour' from the very beginning is a truly wonderful and fascinating prequel series that goes really well together with the other two, more the earlier seasons though than the latter.

While it was inevitable that the quality was not going to be as strong as the previous seasons due to the circumstances, meaning smaller budgets and tighter time constraints, "Striker" was a disappointing premiere to Season 8. Don't think it is that bad, but it is well below 'Endeavour's' usual standards in too many ways. The potential was there, an interesting subject, Shaun Evans himself directing, a different time period and a great cast, but "Striker" doesn't live up to that potential.

"Striker" does have good things. Personally thought the acting was fine, Morse's character writing is darker and more tortured here and Evans brings that side out extremely well. Roger Allam has always been never less than excellent, not just on 'Endeavour' (where he has always been one of the main assets) but also his stage work, and he does not disappoint here. Anton Lesser and Sean Rigby (who does look great indeed) also put in strong turns, and the supporting cast are all solid. Lewis MacLeod a standout.

Did like the photography, which was very atmospheric, and the production design for the Oxford college murder plotline had a lot of evocative atmosphere too. The bomb damaged college again being a standout. The music is as haunting and melancholic sounding as ever and the main theme will always be iconic. Did think that the Oxford college murder plotline did have some tension and was suitably intricate. Some of the scripting is thought provoking, especially in the politics.

Personally found myself a lot less invested in the footballing plotline, for my tastes those scenes were pretty pedestrian, rather talky and thinly plotted. Like others, the sloppy production and the countless anachronisms were distracting. The pacing is messy in "Striker", dragging in the first half and rushing in the final third. The final solution did come over as over-stuffed and needed more time to develop, there was a feeling of realising that there needed to be a wrap up with 10-15 minutes to do and then cram in as much as possible. The two plotlines don't tie together enough and there is a two episodes in one feel.

This is actually not the first time Evans directed an 'Endeavour' episode. He also directed Season 6's "Apollo" and Season 7's "Oracle", which from a directing standpoint were much more accomplished visually and compelling dramatically. With his directing here, it has moments in the Oxford college murder plotline but the footballing/IRA plotline is something that one expects from someone inexperienced behind the camera. It doesn't take very many risks, seeming to go more down the nostalgia route but in the process playing it too safe and not providing enough suspense. The writing has moments but could have been tighter.

Overall, disappointing but not a complete failure. 5/10.

Did they lose their Tech Budget?

[Johann_Cat · 5/10 · 20 June 2022]

Something strange happened to this show in a technical/ aesthetic sense that is visible almost immediately; the effect was so striking I had to wonder if it were somehow intentional. That is, the interior lighting now looks like a soap opera from the 1970s--with many odd patches of brightness, and the overall contrast looking flat and with the garish "verité" of a consumer-level digital camera's video. The resolution is high, but the color tone and white balance are very like pre-digital video-tape. Also all cameras seem hand-held; this could almost be a second crew's work with phones filming what the main crew did.

Others here note other serious lapses in staging (the football stadium is tiny and barely populated; some police uniform insignia are upside-down, etc.) that suggest this was done on a showstring and/or with a minimalist crew. Very strange, uncanny visual tone to this, based on my experience of other seasons.

"Expectations?" (Morse, dialog)

[A_Different_Drummer · 5/10 · 5 October 2021]

Let us not forget that Conan Doyle actually tried to kill Holmes and (US readers only) Stephen Hunter tried to age his popular Bob Lee Swagger into a nursing home. So, almost a decade after this amazing series began, the writers seem more interested in transitioning the character into Morse The Elder than in the audience they are supposed to serve. This season starts weak ... and ends even weaker.

A cure for insomnia

[fredpolvere · 2/10 · 21 June 2022]

Hard to believe they opened the season with tis episode. I fond myself starting to doze off because I just didn't care what happened. Sadly, it never got better.

No Mozart, no Wagner, no coherent plot line. Even Endeavour looked bored.

Second Weakest Episode in the Series

[scottjtepper · 1/10 · 20 June 2022]

What a disappointment. After waiting for a couple of years this is the best Endeavour can do? Aside from the anachronistic episode dealing with viatical sales decades before that was legal in the U. K. (the writers had no idea!), this is clearly the weakest episode in the series. And it is very poorly directed.

Nothing in this episode was believable. Nothing was rational or reflected what actual human beings would do.

This series is ending at just the right time.

As for Shaun Evans, a director he is not.