Death in Paradise / Beyond Paradise

A thread for the two linked British Mystery of the Week cop shows (aka "The Paraverse"). Beautiful scenery, defective detectives and ludicrous twists.

(Third show Return to Paradise is on topic here too, as and when it arrives)

Please tag any spoilers for the latest season of each show.

Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 25th 2024 at 9:04:49 AM

Been a sporadic watcher of Death in Paradise since it started and I liked the bit I saw of Beyond Paradise (2023).

Not sure if this is the appropriate thread for it, but I've been thinking for a while (especially since they keep changing cast) that it would be cool for Death In Paradise to have the main detective character be a nerdy Black British guy who was still a Fish out of Water despite having Caribbean ancestry. Similarities with Anansi Boys would be very intentional.

Also, as a random note, I find clever the name of St. Marie as an alternate place. I don't know if there's Word of God, but I've assumed that it must be occupying part of Guadeloupe in our world - Because Guadeloupe was originally named by Columbus as Santa María de Guadalupe.

I embarrassingly just realized today that this mirrors Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue) and the Dominican Republican in our world.

Edited by Hodor2 on Mar 25th 2024 at 8:13:03 AM

It was mentioned very early on that St Marie was very near Guadeloupe

Absolutely. The premise relies on the lead being a fish out of water, but that doesn't meant they have to be a white British guy.

Plenty of scope to have someone from a Black British background that's very different to the island's culture. Or any other heritage, for that matter.

Having seen him in Ted Lasso, I think Nick Mohammed would be great in the role. I've seen suggestions of Diane Morgan and Romesh Ranganathan as other possible leads for the future...

Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 25th 2024 at 9:18:49 AM

Ooh yeah, Nick Mohammed would be great.

Also remembered something I found kind of interesting/amusing (spoilers here for a 100+ year old book).

So, Israel Zangwill's novel The Big Bow Mystery, which is one of the first "locked room mysteries" and a Trope Codifier has the solution involve the murder victim initially not really dead (just drugged) and being killed for real by the murder when they open the door to check on them.

Death In Paradise has used this solution a bunch of times. Which I'm not saying as a criticism. It makes sense since most of the show's mysteries are locked room mysteries.

On a tangent, for anyone who's interested, there's now an Image Pickin' discussion to discuss whether or not we update the wiki's Death in Paradise page image to use a pic of Neville and Naomi. It's just a logo at the moment.

Please comment or vote if you have a view - or make new suggestions, if you have another pic in mind.

Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 28th 2024 at 4:43:28 PM

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this week's episode isn't a spoiler - it's the use of an animated sequence to retell the local legend. Interesting touch.

On the other hand, Anne's new bloke being a two-timing wrong 'un isn't actually that surprising. Wonder where that's going — possibly he'll be involved in the finale's case?

Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 15th 2024 at 11:31:04 AM