set your tivo

do you know about inspector lewis?  okay, until july i didn't either.  when i was in oxford this summer my british friends got in a tizzy because lewis (that's what hip kids call it - drop the "inspector") was filming on campus, IN one of the colleges at oxford where we worked.  i got hourly updates from sally about which actors she'd seen and how close she'd come to talking to them and, in essence, how excited she was.  i had never heard of this show before and people were AGAST at this.  so when i got home from england and was missing pretty pretty oxford i rented the first series (they don't call it a "season" because they are funny and british) and it is SO GOOD.  of course.  the premise: this other inspector (morse) who had a long running show died.  the guy playing morse died in real life, so they had to end the show, and lewis was morse's sidekick.  he gets promoted to inspector (i guess) and now has his own show.  lewis is your average joe and he doesn't really fit in in intellectual oxford, but his new sidekick, hathaway, is both attractive AND smart.  in every episode there is a murder, and there are always little puzzles with literary or historic allusions that only hathaway can get and are necessary to solving the crime.  it's different from american tv shows in that each episode is a full 90 minutes long, and it is funny and has lots of beautiful shots of oxford and it entertains me.  AND NOW THEY ARE SHOWING SEASON (oops, SERIES) TWO ON PBS.  set your tivo, friends.  it's called "masterpiece mystery," it airs on sunday nights, and you get to hear alan cumming announce each week's episode...and that should be enough to convince you to watch.

end of rant.