A strange way to start the year

[fpb]

Tonight's Jonathan Creek special, which I have just finished watching, is quite the most bitter piece of writing I have come across in quite a while. Not only is the method of murder enough to give anyone nightmares, not only do several complete innocents get murdered by it (one of them being the character whose disappearance started the investigation - and I hate to see mysteriously vanished friends turn up dead), not only is the climax of the story a terrible scene in which a likeable secondary character turns out to have been the accomplice of one of the murderers and to have been betrayed and nearly murdered (and then has to face up to what she has done), but the ending is completely and crushingly negative - two characters have their aspirations crushed, in a viciously humorous manner that leaves nothing better than a very sad smile on everyone's faces. Don't get me wrong, it is a fine piece of TV. But it is an oddly embittered and hopeless vision to start the year with.