I realize that I haven't actually mentioned the crime solving being done by Chambers and Keating; it's still occurring and generally remains interesting but the personal drama is taking up more and more time in the episodes. It's fine to have some character building scenes, but I tuned in to see a crime drama, not a soap opera. I don't think I'll go on to series three, at least not right away. Maybe at some later date, when I forget how annoyed I am with it.
Okay, I finished the second series of Grantchester and it was... meh. It has a darker tone- especially one plot line which is carried over from the first series- which is fine, and some of the other story lines are pretty good, but still... meh. Frankly, it's the character of the vicar Sidney Chambers which is dragging it down for me. As I said in my review of series one, I'm not Church of England and have no great knowledge of what they would have tolerated in a priest in the 1950's. But I have a hard time swallowing that any parish would put up with the way Chambers behaves. In this series, besides his habitual neglect of his pastoral duties, he is publicly intoxicated on several occasions, engaging in a fist fight in one instance and, while drunk at the local pub, grabs a barmaid's butt and sloppily tries to kiss her. This happens in his own small community... am I supposed to believe that there would be no ramifications for this? He's briefly dated a couple of women- not counting a drunken one night stand he had in London- but keeps getting mixed up with his original girlfriend who is now married. In the final episode of the series, she leaves her husband although she's at least six or seven months pregnant and comes running to Chambers in Grantchester. In the final scene the two are passionately kissing on a public road. On top of everything else, are we to accept that he can openly carry on with a married woman- visibly pregnant with her husband's child- and still remain the town vicar? In rural England. In the 1950's. Sorry, that strains my credulity too far, and I'm someone who watches a lot of science fiction. It would be nice if some modern show at least made an attempt at realistically portraying clergy... I don't expect sainthood, but this is ridiculous. I realize that I haven't actually mentioned the crime solving being done by Chambers and Keating; it's still occurring and generally remains interesting but the personal drama is taking up more and more time in the episodes. It's fine to have some character building scenes, but I tuned in to see a crime drama, not a soap opera. I don't think I'll go on to series three, at least not right away. Maybe at some later date, when I forget how annoyed I am with it.
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