Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Kris Marshall, Sally Breton, Zahra Ahmadi, Barbara Flynn, Dylan Llewellyn, Felicity Montague, Mark Heap, Tamla Kari, Seann Walsh, Rosalind Adler, Amalia Vitale, Austin Taylor, Chizzy Akudolu, Simon Nagra, Jade Harrison, Melina Sinadinou, Sami Amber.
The maxim of perfection is placed upon such an unachievable high alter when it comes to certain traditions and celebrations. We place too much emphasis on the desire to see life, especially on the festive period, as one of the picture perfect, unspoiled, and flawless; and if something should go awry then the arms are raised in exasperation and the hysterical use of ‘Christmas is cancelled’ or ‘It’s ruined’ as though every cog that makes up the holiday dare not suffer a malfunction that does even impact the operation of anything else within the sphere of control or enjoyment.
Life is not perfect, life is chaotic, sometimes brutal, often haphazard, and it is surely one we must look upon as just having enough expectations to see us through the day. The same is to be said of families, of those that we bring into this world and the ones that become welcome extended additions, and even then, as grieving widower Bob Holland soon finds out, the memories of love can be ones revisited that cause us pain, even perhaps drive us to the brink of insanity.
The 2024 Christmas special of Beyond Paradise is one that isn’t afraid to not tread the same route of other detective dramas, nor of his parent show, Death In Paradise, one in which murder is avoided, a crime still committed, but where the sensibilities of the time in which it is placed offers a sense of goodwill and clean spirits rather than asking the audience to delve once more into the murky world of notional death at the hands of the ravaged mind.
That’s not to say the sense of imperfection from the supposed lack of homicide investigation is telling, indeed what it shows with grace is a sentiment of understanding crime has many variables, and strangely one for its Christmas message is one that is received, understood, and enjoyed for all the right reasons.
Families can break you; a good family can give you the opportunity to heal, but they go in tandem, hand in hand there is always someone who has your back, and then there is the one person who sees your fortune or regret as a misguided attempt to make themselves rich. It is to this that the good-natured episode places its trust, and one to which the cast, especially the guest stars of Mark Heap, Tamla Kari, and Austin Taylor excel with the usual cast members on screen.
In the end a good detective drama is about chemistry, and whilst we hope to see a restoration of justice, what Beyond Paradise provides is a restoration of the human soul.
Ian D. Hall