Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Special Feature: Inspector Lewis: The Academic Body Count, Intro


If you’re a fan of mysteries, you might well watch PBS’s Mystery (does anyone who’s not a fan of mysteries watch that show?  If so, why?).  If you watch Mystery, there’s a good chance you’ve seen at least some of Inspector Lewis, which chronicles the crime-solving adventures of DI Robert Lewis.  Lewis might be my favorite British TV mystery franchise, and the title character is certainly my favorite British TV police inspector.  This blog series won’t review Lewis, exactly.  Rather, it will analyze a particular aspect of the show: its relationship to academia.

Of course, Lewis is set in Oxford, England, home of the one of the world’s most famous and prestigious universities, so the crimes Lewis and his “dishy sergeant” Hathaway solve often involve students, faculty, and staff.  In fact, according to Lewis, Oxford is a very dangerous place to study or teach. 

But how dangerous, exactly, and for whom?  Should you give up all hope of that most prestigious of degrees or jobs if you wish to remain alive?  Are students or faculty more likely to be killed?  And what about staff and administrators?  And who among your university acquaintances is most likely to kill you?  Clearly, there are a lot of questions to be answered, here, and in the coming weeks, The Mysterious Scholar will break down the numbers and let you know who, in Lewis’s world, is most likely to be murdered and, even more importantly, whom to watch out for.

Note: This series of posts will contain spoilers for Inspector Lewis.  I’ll tell you who died and reveal the identity of the killer.  If you haven’t seen the show or a particular season/episode and plan to, I recommend watching it before you read.  The whole show is available with Amazon Prime streaming.  If you’re not a Prime member, you can get it electronically or on DVD at Amazon or from your preferred video source.  Also, I’ll be using the American series breaks and numbering, which are for some reason different from the original British ones.

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