MovieChat Forums > Grantchester (2015) Discussion > 2016 Christmas Special was weak (spoiler...

2016 Christmas Special was weak (spoilers within)


Anyone else think the xmas special was pretty weak?

First of all, I thought the mystery was lame. The killer was so obvious I was surprised they actually went with it and I don't understand why they made out it was some sort of twist.

Also, the reason for her killing her second victim (the bank manager) was pathetic. If he was going to dump her at the last minute, then, yeah, maybe that could be a plausible motive. But she managed to beat him round the head and strangle him because she was annoyed at not getting any money that night? What did she even need money for, it was the eve before their wedding and, besides, as his wife she would have been minted anyway? And her deal is that she's lonely and bitter? WTF is that?

I feel like the whole thing was mainly about Amanda and Sidney and that the mystery was really the second storyline. That's fine, but I don't give a rat's behind about their love story (which seems really forced anyway and obviously isn't going to work); I watch this for a good murder mystery, not some daft love story.

Finally, if we have to deal with the on-going melodrama between Sidney and Amanda, then I wish their were either:

a) real stakes
b) a realistic way their relationship could exist.

I'm not an expert of 1950s England, but I'm pretty sure a Priest cannot marry a divorced woman. Plus, not sure if she'll even be able to get a divorce (her husband needs to consent I think).

Also, when she was cut-off by her dad and none of her friends wanted to get involved, I felt pretty bad for her. It was one of those, 'oh no, what will she do!' sort of things, only it got resolved right away! She just happened to bump into Leonard and everything was fine.

So I felt like the first time I began to really feel for this character and was going to either see how brave/resourceful she was, or how bad life could be for a woman in her situation in the 1950s, instead it just got brushed over with a shrug and a grin.

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Agreed. Very lame. The crime story was weak. It was disappointingly sugar coated for Christmas. More like Heartbeat.
Thought it focused on Sidney and Amanda and this deviates too much from the books for my liking. What about Hildegard? Why so little attention on Sidney's introspection?
Shallow rubbish that has well and truly had the ITV treatment.

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