Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, Dakota Blue Richards, Jack Bannon, James Bradshaw, David Burnett, Rob Callender, Hermione Corfield, Sam Coulson, Darell D’Silva, John Draycott, Peter Forbes, Ben Lambert, Stefanie Martini, Amy McCallum, Milo Twomey, Eleanor Williams, Hugh Simon.
When a young woman goes missing off the streets of Oxford, the case almost becomes too much for Detective Inspector Thursday who sees the parallels in an investigation from four years earlier far too disturbing and too close to home to almost bear.
Endeavour has not been a series to shy away from certain elements of society’s ills and like its predecessor Morse, gives the television audience the feeling of being watched, of being hunted down, just as much as it allows the Detective the responsibility of keeping the viewer’s wits sharp and keen, to keep the eye out for the obvious clue carefully interwoven into the script. In Prey, the viewer is left wondering just who the cage is set for and if a terrific misdirection is about to come into play.
With such an impressive series name to live up to, joining the dots on the lives that went before is almost a required staple to the show, not only for the sake of the proper point in the drama’s procedure but also making sure that the fans who lived through Morse’s adventures in later live as the grizzled Detective Inspector understand how the man, and his closest friends became the men they were meant to be. With James Bradshaw’s Dr. Max DeBryn offering great insight into the case, the fine clinical eyes that were employed to great effect in the Morse series were given their early chances by the young Detective to shine. It is small touches like this that make the continuality from the past so important.
Prey is an episode in which Anton Lesser truly stands out. Long since the man who made the lives of his officers miserable, his own personal relationship with beasts that roam in the forest is the catalyst for redemption in his officer’s eyes and thoughts and Anton Lesser really brings the feeling of terror to the very heart of the matter, his bravery matching that of Morse and Thursday in bringing the matter to its conclusion.
Arguably the stand out episode of the series so far, quality of acting an assured bonus and a story line befitting what was to come in Morse, Prey suffers no fools.
Ian D. Hall