“I was going to say ‘Mini-Me,’ but I don’t think you’d get the pop reference.” “Don’t be daft, woman. Even I’ve seen the ‘Italian Job.’”

"Mystery!", 1980–Present. Four Stars.

My friend Sarah got me into Agatha Christie (and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!) books, so when I happened across a Miss Marple episode, I just had to watch it.

Firstly, I’d always meant to start watching Masterpiece Mystery! ever since I found out that Edward Gorey did the opening sequence (the one currently used is different from this one). How rad is that?? So obviously any show with an Edward Gorey intro has got to be amazing.

Also, ALAN CUMMING presents each episode!! How long has he been doing that??

I LOVE Miss Marple. Her portrayal on the series is much more docile-looking than the character I had envisioned while I read the books, but I like her more than my version! The story I saw was one that I’d read before, but I forgot how it ended; despite the program’s “dry” “English” feel, I was totally in to the story and was really surprised by the ending.

The next week, I caught another Miss Marple episode; again it was a story I was familiar with but was still shocked by the ending. Then I caught a third episode, it was great, too!

Became officially hooked on Miss Marple and Mystery! The next few episodes I saw were Poirot mysteries; I don’t like him as much as Miss Marple, but it’s still Agatha Christie, so it’s still very good.

But then! There were no more Agatha Christie mysteries. Instead, this “Inspector Lewis” character showed up. I gave him a chance. Was immediately turned off; everything about it looked pretty dated (could be the lighting, and the terrible clothes that most of the Oxford students were wearing), and Lewis looked like he was going to be annoying. I think I watched my first episode in 15-minute installments.

But I’m glad I stuck it out… because Inspector Lewis is amazing too! I like how Lewis is so down-to-earth, yet he works in Oxford and has to deal with the hoity-toitys. And DS Hathaway, who kind of came from a similar background as most of the people in Oxford, is also an outsider. So we’ve got two outsiders fighting against all the jerks in Oxford. I love it!

My absolute favorite episode so far is “Life Born of Fire” (where the title quotes from this entry is from). Not only was the premise for the story really interesting (and even though I guessed it, the ending is awesome), but we get to learn more about Hathaway.

And I have such a crush on Hathaway!!!