The Good

A well put together series that makes every show feel like a standalone movie.

The Bad

Sometimes I found the historical storylines a bit hard to follow.

In Foyle’s War: Set 4 we combine the worlds of history and mystery to bring Detective Chief Christopher Foyle’s (Michael Kitchen) stories to life. All 4 stories in this set examine the effects of World War II on the small English town of Hastings. However, this is put under a deeper magnifying glass when we examine the mysteries that Foyle finds himself caught up in. The four mysteries in this set are:

  • Invasion

  • Bad Blood

  • Bleak Midwinter

  • Casualties of War

Invasion looks at the relationships between the English and the Americans when an English barmaid turns up dead near Hastings. Bad Blood shows what can happen if biological weaponry is not used responsibly. Bleak Midwinter finds Foyle trying to figure out a link in a murder between a munitions worker and Paul Milner’s (Anthony Howell) wife. Lastly, Casualties of War finds Foyle trying to help out some family members who are highly effected by the war, as well as examining a possibly sabotage plot.

Features

The Historical Truth Behind Each Episode

I found this section to be a big help mainly because it dealt with issues and events that I didn’t know existed. For example, in the episode Invasion it seems that the English and Americans had a bit a rough time getting used to each other at first. Now, was it really like this or did this component just make for good drama? These Historical Truth pieces explain to us about what we’re seeing and let us know how truthful (or not) they actually were.

Making-Of Documentary

Ultimately, this is a break-down of how an episode in this series was put together. I was put off at first because it was very low key in tone, but considering that that is how this show is, I guess that it makes sense. This Making Of" features a mix of narration, production footage, show footage and of course a historical perspective. The most intriguing idea about Foyle’s War is how it uses fiction to open up the historical aspects of these murder mysteries.

Video

16:9 Widescreen. This show being a period piece, I was quite impressed with the production values being shown. I think a big reason why so many of these Acorn Media titles work for me is because they don’t look familiar. The surroundings, the locations, the actors are all foreign to me (literally), so I am able to watch these titles completely disarmed of the memories I have when watching U.S. shows. Compressed nicely to DVD, Foyle’s War: Set 4 looks quite good.

Audio

Stereo. Close Captioned. The audio on this show was good. I didn’t notice anything that really grabbed my attention in either a positive or negative way. Everything sounded about as solid as I could hope that it would sound, with the most prominent aspect of this show being its procedural, by the book quality. This gave Foyle’s War an almost stoic-like presentation, and all that served to do was bolster what we were seeing on screen.

Package

Michael Kitchen gets top billing on the front of this slipcase cover where he actually looks a lot like Dwight D. Eisenhower. The back of this cover showcases some images from the show, it provides a description of what Foyle’s War: Set 4 contains, a Special Features listing and technical specs. All four episodes in this series are on a single DVD and each of them is stored in its own slim case. The covers for each case are slightly different as they showcase who is the other main star of each episode, and the back covers serve up a nice description of what each show is about. Overall, I think this packaging is nice, I just wish that it was a tad more economical, space-wise.

Final Word

Overall, I think that Foyle’s War: Set 4 is a solidly put together set of shows. While I am not as up historically as I probably should be in order to fully understand what was going on, the acting and production values are highly top notch. This show is well acted, well composed and well written. Its biggest strength lies in its casting. Michael Kitchen leads the charge here and he does a tremendous job in the title role. The other actors all acquit themselves well and that is where the heart of this show lies. Its ability to entertain but also merge history is not something to be taken for granted. As I have said, I am not as up on the historical perspective of this show as I probably should be, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t able to enjoy Foyle’s War. I just simply had to assume that my assumptions about the characters and the history in question were correct.

If you like British mystery shows that also mix in an educational component, I am sure you will find Foyle’s War: Set 4 well worth your time.

Foyle’s War was released .