In addition to theology and politics – is there a person behind this website? I want also to share things that I have been enjoying.
Since age five or so I have been a science-fiction fan. Read and watch almost nothing but. However the last few years I have more or less exhausted my favorite writers. I know there may be some good writers I have not yet encountered. But at this point I have my favorites.
So I have been branching out into mysteries. A good friend recommended the British television series “Foyle’s War”. About a seasoned police detective in the coastal town of Hastings in England during the Second World War. Sounds a bit boring right?
Television does not come much better than this. The stories are riveting. Only once have I been able to pause our video player and get to bed after midnight in order to finish that episode the next day. What is interesting is how nearly always there are two to three stories. There is the main story – the murder or other big crime. And then one or two other stories or crimes. That are unrelated to the primary story – and yet they are related. Often the minor crime leads the police to the major crime.
The stories tell us a great deal about life on the home front. And about the effects of war on human beings – those on the battlefield and those back at home. “Foyle’s War” often shows how badly war damages and scars human beings. Seething hatred of the enemy – even otherwise good men who just happened to be fighting for their own country and could care less about Nazism. Disfiguring wounds and injuries. Crippling psychological trauma. The death of parents children and spouses. The randomness of sudden and violent death.
The stories also reveal the sinfulness and brokenness of human beings. Is there heroism and nobility during a war? Yes indeed. But also selfishness and profiteering. Cowardice and deceit. Adultery and abandonment. Theft and even murder.
Often the episodes confront us with troubling moral dilemmas. What do you do when someone vital to the war effort has committed a terrible crime? Too many times Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle is told “you will not arrest this person – he is doing something that will help us win this war” until finally he has enough and resigns in exhaustion and disgust.
Well sort of. Foyle is played exquisitely by veteran British actor Michael Kitchen (whom many would recognize from James Bond films of the Brosnan era). I read that Kitchen set out to convey whole pages of meaning with the lifting of an eyebrow. Foyle is nearly always quiet and calm – even when explaining to the other person how and why they lied to him and betrayed his trust and so on. You do not need to shout or rant and rave. It is enough to speak the truth. I do not think he ever hits a suspect or fires a weapon. A master of minimal force to achieve maximum effect.
What is also fascinating is how the series portrays “appropriate” behavior particularly in the workplace. Often Foyle reminds others “you do not need to be talking about that – it is none of your business” (a particular case he is working on) or “if I ever hear you criticize a senior officer in my presence again I will have you reprimanded and possibly removed from the force” (when junior officers badmouth a particularly annoying police commissioner). Civility. Respect. Restraint. All these are basic values in “Foyle’s War”.
Compare this to how modern American tend to talk. We think everything is our business. Criticize a boss or fellow church member or member of the ministerial staff behind their back. Gossip. We do this all the time. “Foyle’s War” reminds us we do not need to. Nor should we.
The last couple years I have watched several British television series on video (often borrowed from our rather excellent public library system). There is something about British television – the writing and the acting – that seems better than much of the melodramatic fluff that we Americans come up with. Oh sure the British have their share of schlock on the tube. And Americans are capable of occasional brilliance. But in general – they just seem to know how to do television better than we.
In the meantime I cannot recommend “Foyle’s War” enough. Do make sure you get enough sleep however.
