The first episode in the collection, "The Made-to-Measure Murders," features a killing at a local tailor's shop that is frequented by Tom's wife, Joyce (Jane Wymark). The murder occurs as the victim was on her way to a late-night confession. This particular case is an odd one, as not only is the community small and closeknit, but all of the land for the village is owned by an estate and as a result, everyone's livelihood relies on one man, the Lord of the Manor. All of these details add up to some dark secrets in the village's history that Barnaby and DS Ben Jones (Jason Hughes) start to uncover.
In "The Sword of Guillaume," Barnaby travels with Causton's officials to the city of Brighton. Barnaby already has a long-standing mistrust of his local mayor and he believes the real estate deal he is making with Brighton's mayor isn't on the up-and-up. When a property developer related to the deal is beheaded by an "ancient" weapon, Barnaby teams up with his cousin, DCI John Barnaby, to solve this murder and the ones that follow.
Midsomer Murders: Set 19's third episode takes on an interesting twist as the murders found in this episode take on an American West theme. The deaths start when a Wild West show has one of the performers dropping dead in the middle of the act. Barnaby and his detectives begin their investigation and quickly learn about a long-standing property dispute as well as the very popular Wild West Society.
This collection's final episode starts with Joyce and her daughter driving late at night. When Joyce sees someone walking across the street, she swerves and drives the car off the road. While the Barnaby ladies are both okay, Joyce is worried that she hit the person in the road. Her worries only increase when a body is found in a cemetery not far from her accident site. Outside of Joyce's worries, this case also involves a local closed-down hospital, a late-night cemetery tour, some local historians and a couple of love triangles that share a single point.
This being the first time I've had a chance to see Midsomer Murders in high definition, I was impressed by the way the English countryside really stood out on Blu-ray. This show frequently chooses great vistas near the various villages seen in the series and seeing them on Blu-ray only helps the show that much more. That being said, the special features are pretty light. Each episode has an introduction and there is a photo gallery, but those are the only extras provided on these discs.
Like all of Midsomer Murders, Set 19 contains a nice selection of feature-length episodes, but they always seem like too few to fully satisfy the British Mystery taste that most fans of the genre have, especially for the cost. That being said, if you are already hooked on the show, then you don't want to miss this particular set. Not only do we meet the replacing Barnaby, but they are just good mysteries in general.
