History YMMV / JonathanCreek

* {{Later Installment Weirdness}}: The final series of the show is quite unlike the ones that came before; in the three-year gap between "The Judas Tree" and "The Clue of the Savant's Thumb", Jonathan has left his windmill and the world of magic behind, married Polly and become a successful advertising executive. In "The Letters of Septimus Noone", Polly's father dies so the two move into her family home in a small village. This made the final series feel far different to what came before, as Jonathan's cases mostly took place within the village (with one being a ReverseWhodunnit, the only time the series had done this). Between this and Jonathan losing a lot of his quirkiness as a result of his change in lifestyle, the final series was received with a much more lukewarm reception than what had gone before.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Mostly averted, with the best-known guest stars more often playing victims (Creator/ColinBaker, Creator/BobMonkhouse, Nigel Planer), cops (Creator/RikMayall), witnesses (Creator/PeterDavison, Creator/JoannaLumley) or comic relief (Creator/BillBailey, John Bird). A few exceptions are [[spoiler: Maureen Lipman in "The Tailor's Dummy", Celia Imrie in "Gorgons Wood" and Creator/PaulMcGann in "The Judas Tree"]].

* EntertaininglyWrong: Jericho, whose mother believed her son to be a brilliant detective despite the fact that the information he gleamed from his SherlockScan led him to completely inaccurate conclusions; he believed Jonathan and Polly had just returned from Reykjavík based on shaving wounds and a watch with a flat battery, posited that an actress had been stabbed in her dressing room by a crossbow bolt made from her frozen blood (while doing ludicrous exercises) and finally accused the wrong person of committing the crime.

* CriticalResearchFailure: "The Problem at Gallow's Gate" has a woman identify a murderer from a line-up of suspects...''whilst in the same room with them''. She's actually escorted past them, giving the would-be killer ample opportunity for a good look at the key witness. This was actually a practice in police line-ups at one point historically, though should not have been by the time of this episode.
** "The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish" is resolved when Jonathan notes that two blue eyed parents can't likely have a brown eyed child and thus a character in the story is adopted and is secretly of RoyalBlood. [[http://genetics.thetech.org/how-blue-eyed-parents-can-have-brown-eyed-children This is false]], although Jonathan does acknowledge that it's rare. This may just be a case of showing their work, as Jonathan only says it's "most unlikely" -- which is true and which would have been enough to make him suspicious, but it's not enough for proof.

** Also, the sub-plot in "The Problem at Gallows Gate" about the BlindMusician who is not actually blind but uses his supposed disability as a cover for groping pretty women wouldn't fly today. Especially given that it's ''played for laughs'', although he does get his comeuppance in the end.

** Jonathan himself is surprisingly prejudiced towards women who do not meet his standards of beauty, for example in "Time Waits For Norman" he starts going out with a woman who is bright, beautiful and charming ... then breaks it off because he's weirded out by the fact that she wears a wig. In another, "Mother Redcap", Jonathan becomes fixated on the fact that a policewoman he has met who again seemingly has no major flaws at all apart from the fact that she sticks her tongue out when she eats pasta [[spoiler: (she's actually a murderer, killer but he doesn't know that yet)]] eats pasta by sticking out her tongue. Basically, for all the grief that Maddy puts him through, its actually kind of difficult to root for him to find a woman who appreciates him better as whenever he finds one he treats them poorly for petty reasons.

** In "Mother Recap", Creator/NicolaWalker plays a uniformed police constable who finds out about a series of murders committed back in the 1940s [[spoiler: (and uses this information to commit a murder of her own]]. Sixteen years later, she would play a DCI who investigated cold cases in ''Series/{{Unforgotten}}''.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Mostly averted, with the best-known guest stars more often playing victims (Creator/ColinBaker, Creator/BobMonkhouse), cops (Creator/RikMayall) or comic relief (Creator/BillBailey). A few exceptions: [[spoiler:Jay Benedict in "Satan's Chimney"; Maureen Lipman in "The Tailor's Dummy"; Celia Imrie in "Gorgons Wood"; Creator/PaulMcGann in "The Judas Tree"]].

* SeasonalRot: A lot of people felt the 2014 series didn't live up to previous seasons. And naturally there are also those who have nothing good to say about anything produced after Maddie left the show.

** Jonathan himself is surprisingly prejudiced towards women who do not meet his standards of beauty, for example in "Time Waits For Norman" he starts going out with a woman who is bright, beautiful and charming ... then breaks it off because he's weirded out by the fact that she wears a wig. In another, "Mother Redcap", Jonathan becomes fixated on the fact that a policewoman he has met who again seemingly has no major flaws at all [[spoiler: (she's actually a murderer, killer but he doesn't know that yet)]] eats pasta by sticking out her tongue. Basically, for all the grief that Maddy puts him through, its actually kind of difficult to root for him to find a woman who appreciates him better as whenever he finds one he treats them poorly for petty reasons.

** In "Black Canary", Jonathan has something of a history with Charlotte; the two both have feelings for each other but nothing happens. By the time of "The Clue of the Savant's Thumb", he is married to Polly. Both characters were played by actresses — Kate Isitt and Sarah Alexander — who were in ''Series/{{Coupling}}'' (Gina Bellman also starred in another episode, but she played a love interest of Adam Klaus, not Jonathan).

** In "Mother Recap", Creator/NicolaWalker plays a uniformed police constable [[spoiler: who turns out to be the murderer]]. Sixteen years later, she would play a DCI who investigated cold cases in ''Series/{{Unforgotten}}''.

* SeasonalRot: A lot of people felt the 2014 series didn't live up to previous seasons.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Mostly averted, with the best-known guest stars more often playing victims (Creator/ColinBaker, Creator/BobMonkhouse) or cops (Creator/RikMayall). A few exceptions: [[spoiler:Jay Benedict in "Satan's Chimney"; Maureen Lipman in "The Tailor's Dummy"; Celia Imrie in "Gorgons Wood"; Creator/PaulMcGann in "The Judas Tree"]].

** In "Black Canary", Jonathan has something of a history with Charlotte; the two both have feelings for each other but nothing happens. By the time of "The Clue of the Savant's Thumb", he is married to Polly. Both characters were played by actresses — Kate Isitt and Sarah Alexander — who were in ''Series/{{Coupling}}''.

* HilariousInHindsight: After [[spoiler:exposing a murderous inspector on air]], Jonathan is shocked to find out ''Eyes and Ears'' wants him to do 26 more episodes on impossible crimes. ''Jonathan Creek'' ran for 27 episodes.

* ReplacementScrappy: Surprisingly averted after Maddy left the show. Although she is far and away the most popular sidekick, both Carla and Joey were generally accepted by audiences. [[TheScrappy Polly, on the other hand]], mocks Jonathan's fascinating and rare (former) career, gets rid of his duffle coat and thinks living in a windmill is childish... Although even she gets better, becoming the StraightMan to Jonathan's deadpan humour and occasional outright [[{{Troll}} trolling]].

** "The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish" is resolved when Jonathan notes that two blue eyed parents can't likely have a brown eyed child and thus a character in the story is adopted and is secretly of RoyalBlood. [[http://genetics.thetech.org/how-blue-eyed-parents-can-have-brown-eyed-children This is false]], although Jonathan does acknowledge that it's rare. This may just be a case of showing their work, as Jonathan only says it's "most unlikely" which is true which would have been enough to make him suspicious, but not enough for proof.

** In "Mother Recap", Creator/NicolaWalker plays a uniformed police constable [[spoiler: who turns out to be the murderer]]. Sixteen years later, she would play a DCI who investigated cold cases in ''Series/Unforgotten''.

** Also, the sub-plot in "The Problem at Gallows Gate" about the BlindMusician who is not actually blind but uses his supposed disability as a cover for groping pretty women (among them Adam's PA, played by a young Amanda Holden) wouldn't fly today. Especially given that it's ''played for laughs'', although he does get his comeuppance in the end.

* CriticalResearchFailure: "Murder at Gallow's Gate" has a woman identify a murderer from a line-up of suspects...''whilst in the same room with them''. She's actually escorted past them, giving the would-be killer ample opportunity for a good look at the key witness. This was actually a practice in police line-ups at one point historically, though should not have been by the time of this episode.
** "The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish" is resolved when Jonathan notes that two blue eyed parents can't likely have a brown eyed child and thus a character in the story is adopted and is secretly of RoyalBlood. [[http://genetics.thetech.org/how-blue-eyed-parents-can-have-brown-eyed-children This is false.]] (Although Jonathan does acknowledge that it's rare. This may just be a case of showing their work, as Jonathan only says it's "most unlikely" which is true which would have been enough to make him suspicious, but not enough for proof.)

** In ''The Grinning Man'', there was a subplot about [[MoodWhiplash 3D skin flicks]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Sex_and_Zen:_Extreme_Ecstasy about a year and a half later...]]

* {{Narm}}: The infamous "flying cat" in ''The Judas Tree''. The script called for a cat to jump onto a picnic table, but to avoid any tedious waiting for the cat to jump up by its own volition, somebody simply stands off-screen and throws the cat onto the table-top. The trajectory is all wrong, and it results in a scene in which the cat is clearly not jumping up from from the ground but from mid-air, giving the impression that it's just flown in.

** Jonathan himself is surprisingly prejudiced towards women who do not meet his standards of beauty, for example in ''Time Waits For Norman'' he starts going out with a woman who is bright, beautiful and charming ... then breaks it off because he's weirded out by the fact that she wears a wig. In another, ''Mother Redcap'', Jonathan becomes fixated on the fact that a policewoman he has met who again seemingly has no major flaws at all [[spoiler: she's actually a vicious killer but he doesn't know that yet]] eats pasta by sticking out her tongue. Basically, for all the grief that Maddy puts him through, its actually kind of difficult to root for him to find a woman who appreciates him better as whenever he finds one he treats them poorly for petty reasons.
* ValuesDissonance: ''The Seer of the Sands'' comes nine years before gay marriage was legalised in the UK and as such Carla's shock reaction to learning that her husband was once married to a man is understandable. Watching the episode today however, (as he points out) her reaction does have stings of homophobia as it really does seem as if it's the ''gay'' part of the marriage that bothers her, not the fact that he hadn't told her that he had previously been married (regardless of the gender of the spouse). And this is followed up by Jonathan cracking a joke about buggery which would certainly net the episode a ton of complaints if it aired today.
** Also, the sub-plot in ''The Problem at Gallows Gate'' about the BlindMusician who is not actually blind but uses his supposed disability as a cover for groping pretty women (among them Adam's PA, played by a young Amanda Holden) wouldn't fly today. Especially given that it's ''played for laughs'', although he does get his comeuppance in the end.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Mostly averted, with the best-known guest stars more often playing victims (Creator/ColinBaker, Bob Monkhouse) or cops (Creator/RikMayall). A few exceptions: [[spoiler:Jay Benedict in "Satan's Chimney"; Maureen Lipman in "The Tailor's Dummy"; Celia Imrie in "Gorgons Wood"; Creator/PaulMcGann in "The Judas Tree"]].

** Fair warning--if you watch ''Series/{{QI}}'' before you watch this, you may find it difficult to take Alan Davies seriously.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Mostly averted, with the best-known guest stars more often playing victims or cops. A few exceptions: [[spoiler:Jay Benedict in "Satan's Chimney"; Maureen Lipman in "The Tailor's Dummy"; Celia Imrie in "Gorgons Wood"; Creator/PaulMcGann in "The Judas Tree"]].

** Jonathan himself is surprisingly prejudiced towards women who do not meet his standards of beauty, for example in ''Time Waits For Norman'' he starts going out with a woman who is bright, beautiful and charming... then breaks it off because he finds out that she wears a wig. In another, ''Mother Redcap,'' Jonathan becomes fixated on the fact that a policewoman he has met who again seemingly has no major flaws at all [[spoiler: she's actually a vicious killer but he doesn't know that yet]] eats pasta by sticking out her tongue. Basically, for all the grief that Maddy puts him through, its actually kind of difficult to root for him to find a woman who appreciates him better as whenever he finds one he treats them poorly for petty reasons.

** Also, the sub-plot in ''The Problem at Gallows Gate'' about the BlindMusician who is not actually blind but uses his supposed disability as a cover for groping pretty women (among them Adam's PA, played by a young Amanda Holden) wouldn't fly today. Especially given that it's ''played for laughs''.