“Death in Paradise” is an entertaining, engaging, and very unique series that has elements of true comedy mixed with a few farcical elements and a great detective aspect to be a blend of both comedy drama and a detective series. “Beyond Paradise,” a spin-off of “Death in Paradise,” is also a series that deals with the same aspects of comedy drama and detective drama. The first episode of “Beyond Paradise” was released on February 24, 2023, the very same day as “Death in Paradise” released its last episode of season twelve.
Season 1, Episode 1 of “Beyond Paradise” focuses on the new journey of Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) as a new Detective Inspector in a rural part of Britain named Shipton Abbott. Humphrey and his fiancée Martha (Sally Bretton) decide to start over, as Shipton Abbott is Martha’s birthplace. Despite being stuck on a tree while hang gliding, the police department welcomes Humphrey as the new DI, and they start to investigate the crimes under his watch.
Apparently, with some rare comic timing and forced laughter and fart gags, the first episode of “Beyond Paradise” does not match the standards of “Death in Paradise.” But the season has just started, and it’s just episode one; therefore, it will be better to wait for the other episodes to be released. If you like the show “Death in Paradise” or if you like comedy-drama and detective drama, then this series is something that you’d like to watch. Here’s a short recap of the first episode of season one.
Spoilers Ahead
Kick-Start To A New Life
The first episode of “Beyond Paradise” focuses on the couple, Humphrey and Martha, who are ready to start a new chapter of their lives in Shipton Abbott. Humphrey goes on duty immediately after joining the Shipton Abbott police and looks into a few small-scale cases. While interrogating the burglar, Josh Woods (Chris Jenks), Humphrey advices him that he should not steal from others; material things will not change anything but can make a grand gesture instead and lets him go.
Old Mother Wheaten
The very first scene of the series shows a suspicious accident involving Gwen Tyler (Montserrat Lombard) falling off a ladder and suffering from spinal damage, which later proved to be a case of attempted murder. As Humphrey and DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi) start to dig up the accident case, they found several clues that indicate that this is not just a simple accident. The victim tells Humphrey and Esther that someone pushed her, and she saw the legendary, “Old Mother Wheaten,” dragging her after she fell from the ladder.
Esther then enlightens Humphrey with the story of the urban legend as she describes that the Old Mother Wheaten used to steal newborns from the village and take them to the woods to eat. She also mentions people claiming to have seen her in Shipton Abbott. Gwen Tyler’s husband, Ben Tyler (Davood Ghadami), gets interrogated, and when Humphrey and Esther visit the Tyler house, they notice there is a big painting of the urban legend Old Mother Wheaten. Ben tells the officers that his wife, Gwen, believes that if they acknowledge the presence of the urban legend, it will allow her spirit to settle. The Tyler house was built on the grounds of an old barn where an old witch was caught hiding during the witch trials of 1611.
Solving A Mystery
After gathering information, the investigators start to uncover the attempted murder. They begin to interrogate the friends of the Tylers, and after the interactions, Sarah Dodds (Nina Singh), Carol and Peter Meadows (Yasmine Akram and Fan Mersh), and Yvonne Wiley (Samantha Spiro) all get interrogated by the investigators, but their strong alibis make the case more complicated to explore.
After a long investigation, Humphrey finds various clues, and after thoroughly checking the security footage of the Tyler house, a leader emerges, which is a very critical factor in solving the case. Further, Humphrey gets a massive clue to finally catch the assaulter and eventually discovers the assaulter. Despite being funny and cracking jokes or having gags after farts, Humphrey has a very sharp mind, which makes him a good detective.
Car Thief
While the investigators were working on solving the attempted murder in Shipton Abbott police station, Police Constable Kelby (Dylan Llewellyn) and Office Support Margo (Felicity Montagu) were busy attending calls from multiple missing cars. Later, the police find the same burglar, Josh Woods, who got the advice from Humphrey to do something grand and stole those cars only to form a love sign as a grand gesture for his girlfriend.
‘Beyond Paradise’ Episode 1: Ending – A Trouble In Paradise?
Throughout the episode, Martha and Humphrey talk about Martha’s pregnancy and their upcoming baby, which makes them really happy. The couple hesitates to tell Martha’s mother, Anne (Barbara Flynn), about Martha’s pregnancy for some reason. Martha calls Humphrey in discomfort while he is working at the police station to solve the case, but after completing the investigation and catching the criminal, when Humphrey returns to the house to see Martha, he notices she is very upset and eventually bursts into tears. The scene indicates something bad has happened, and it is deeply related to Martha’s pregnancy.
The episode ends with a mix of emotions, and it would be interesting to see how the series develops and what happens in the upcoming episodes. The equation between the couple and the apparent tension will definitely be issues addressed in further episodes. One thing is guaranteed that there will be much more cases to solve for detective Humphrey and a lot of jokes to crack, but one hopes the comic timing of those humorous attempts will be much better as it fell short in the first episode.