I watched the Season premiere on PBS last Sunday and have to say I agree with you SB. So many shows go out of their way and stray from reason in order to check off items on the PC list and this has become one of them. Up until now I hung in there, mainly because of Geordie/Robson Green as well as the ensemble in general. But Sidney is simply not a likeable or believable character anymore. The affair with the American preacher's daughter totally lacked chemistry and plausibility.

I agree with everything stated. The season premiere, last Sunday (which, incidentally, was my first-ever viewing of a Grantchester episode), ultimately didn't ring true, and felt decidedly forced, regarding the nonchalant romance storyline and its far-fetched outcome, therefore was, in my opinion, a fail.

I may give this coming Sunday night's next episode also a look, though wasn't at all "grabbed" by last weekend's season premiere, so doubt I'll be becoming a continuing viewer.

genplant29, I miss Endeavour!!! Because Grantchester was such a letdown, I've started re-watching it from the beginning.

That an African American woman, who's obviously close to her political-activist clergyman father and brother, would slip so readily into a sexual relationship with a barely-known white man was simply unbelievable, even if it was the eve of the Sexual Revolution.

Sidney/James Norton is on his way out this season anyway, according to media. But of course it's the writer's fault for excessive PC indebtedness, so the premiere was a bad omen on that score.

I'll probably give this coming Sunday night's new episode a whirl, as odds are that the series undergoes quite a significant vibe reset now that the Sidney character is gone. Maybe the new guy will prove a positive and ideal fit for the series.

Saw the first two episodes last night. I'm not sure what some of you are referring to when you mean PC. Is it just the relationship Sidney had with Violet? Or is it the whole 'civil rights' story?

I felt Sidney had been foundering since Amanda left. Violet seems to have helped to fill the hole in his heart. I think him going with Violet to America is a perfect exit story for him.

I personally didn't have any issue with the fact that the romance occurred (though to the extent that it did, and in a tiny English village, in the 1950s, would have been anything but either so casual nonchalant ordinary or accepted), but considered it thoroughly preposterous that Sidney supposedly was already so madly in love (instantly) that, by a day or so later, he's not only wanting to (completely out of nowhere) devote the rest of his life to and marry Violet, but up and move to the US with her. And the fact that he horned in on Violet on the night of her brother's murder was incredibly callous - which I can't imagine her not feeling the same (and then some). Yet she seems gladly ready and waiting (despite that her father was presumably in the next room!). It all played 100% falsely to me, from beginning to end.

It was rather charming, when they first met, and for a while, the little touches and the glances. But to think that in Grantchester, in the '50s, they'd then actually have dared act on their attraction - and (in particular) so very soon - just didn't ring true (IMO).

The writers played everything like in mindset and reality of 2019, rather than in the reality of a 1950s sheltered village. I'm pretty confident that in the 1950s no such couple would have decided, without giving the relationship considerable (as in weeks, if not months) time and contemplation, to marry, as there would have been any number of real concerns that a mixed-races couple would have had to take into consideration. That could have easily included not just Sidney, but Violet, winding up for all sorts of targeting - including very possibly of a violent and vicious nature. (In past generations sometimes women in interracial relationships were targeted for rape, to "teach them a lesson".) Too, there would have been the matter of inevitable eventual kids to think about, and what type of life would they be brought in to and have to face?

By the way, I watched the season's newest (the first post-Sidney) episode this past Sunday night and liked it sufficiently, so will again watch on this coming Sunday night, and maybe then finally will decide whether or not I'm going to become an ongoing viewer. At present I'm feeling like probably there's 60%, or a bit higher, likelihood that I will.

Question: Is it just me who thinks Leonard looks and seems like Pee-wee Herman https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/oWIDqLw6vefRI7KYkk9JCy2bJu4.jpg?

@genplant29 said:

I personally didn't have any issue with the fact that the romance occurred (though to the extent that it did, and in a tiny English village, in the 1950s, would have been anything but either so casual nonchalant ordinary or accepted), but considered it thoroughly preposterous that Sidney supposedly was already so madly in love (instantly) that, by a day or so later, he's not only wanting to (completely out of nowhere) devote the rest of his life to and marry Violet, but up and move to the US with her. And the fact that he horned in on Violet on the night of her brother's murder was incredibly callous - which I can't imagine her not feeling the same (and then some). Yet she seems gladly ready and waiting (despite that her father was presumably in the next room!). It all played 100% falsely to me, from beginning to end.

It was rather charming, when they first met, and for a while, the little touches and the glances. But to think that in Grantchester, in the '50s, they'd then actually have dared act on their attraction - and (in particular) so very soon - just didn't ring true (IMO).

The writers played everything like in mindset and reality of 2019, rather than in the reality of a 1950s sheltered village. I'm pretty confident that in the 1950s no such couple would have decided, without giving the relationship considerable (as in weeks, if not months) time and contemplation, to marry, as there would have been any number of real concerns that a mixed-races couple would have had to take into consideration. That could have easily included not just Sidney, but Violet, winding up for all sorts of targeting - including very possibly of a violent and vicious nature. (In past generations sometimes women in interracial relationships were targeted for rape, to "teach them a lesson", or because they may have been perceived as "easy".) Too, there would have been the matter of inevitable eventual kids to think about, and what type of life would they be brought in to and have to face?

By the way, I watched the season's newest (the first post-Sidney) episode this past Sunday night and liked it sufficiently, so will again watch on this coming Sunday night, and maybe then finally will decide whether or not I'm going to become an ongoing viewer. At present I'm feeling like probably there's 60%, or a bit higher, likelihood that I will.

Question: Is it just me who thinks Leonard looks and seems like Pee-wee Herman https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/oWIDqLw6vefRI7KYkk9JCy2bJu4.jpg?

Yes TPTB rushed the story a bit (time constraints), but 'interracial' relationships happened far more than we think in the UK back then. For one thing it wasn't illegal in the UK like it was in the US.

As for Leonard, they need to give him a serious story line.

Leonard gets quite a lot of feature screen time in the next episode you'll see, in fact serves as Geordie's criminal investigation sidekick throughout much of that episode.

@genplant29 said:

Leonard gets quite a lot of feature screen time in the next episode you'll see, in fact serves as Geordie's criminal investigation sidekick throughout much of that episode.

I think TPTB have made bit of a buffoon out of him. I'm sure that want a bit of 'comic relief', but not at his expense (IMHO). I'd rather it be Mrs. Chapman/Mrs Maguire, to be honest.

The episode that PBS aired last Sunday night (which will be the next one you see) played largely seriously for Leonard, but definitely has some comedic moments.

@genplant29 said:

The episode that PBS aired last Sunday night (which will be the next one you see) played largely seriously for Leonard, but definitely has some comedic moments.

Saw episode 3 last night. Loved Geordie's new suit (very slick), didn't know that Geordie knew Leonard was gay. I thought that Mrs. Chapman was going to have a stroke when she saw Leonard kissing his 'fella'. Loved seeing Cathy 'coming into her own', but was surprised by the boss attacking her (I thought he was gay). I'm hoping that she doesn't quit, but handles him herself. Because we all know what Geordie would do if he found out.

I do miss Sidney!

I have to say I don't miss Sidney at all! I'd grown weary of his Hamlet-like behavior with Amanda, his drinking problem and all around desultory personal life. SO, his impetuous move to the US was implausible yet welcomed as far as I'm concerned! Buh BYE!!!

So far I like Will/Tom Brittney better and hope he's not as laden with as much psychological baggage as Sidney was. Having said that, it sounds like we're in store for some troubling background revelations about Will so who knows?!?!

And even though Leonard's sexuality issues are part of the [IMO] excessive PC allegiance of the writing, I've always liked his character and find him interesting and compelling, perhaps because Al Weaver's so fine in the role.

@brat and @merry - as well as to anyone else who may be reading and interested - since this thread has during the last week begun covering new Season 4 episode-to-episode developments that occurred subsequent to Sidney's departure, and has moved on from the original topic of discontent with the season's premiere, I've created a new thread https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/61457-grantchester/discuss/5d413e8cb87aec61c23c0fab (that has a now better suited Subject line) for discussing Season 4 in general and overall, for we viewers continuing to watch the series. I've added responses to each of you on that new thread.

@genplant29 said:

Question: Is it just me who thinks Leonard looks and seems like Pee-wee Herman?

No. It's not just you. Leonard gives off Pee-wee vibes the way sonar gives off pings.

@strangebedfellows said:

The PC train has pulled into Grantchester - and will no doubt ignore the reality of the era with it's super soapy silly everybody's lovely depictions of racial and sexual tensions. I am sick and tired of truth being the first casualty of these series. I am on the bus out of here.

Yeah. I tend to agree. I found it an iffy "wrap" for the Sidney character. Even so, I know it's a "product" to be sold like any other. I’m not surprised about these cover-all-bases storylines, since the overwhelming majority of viewers are 25-34…while the 50’s were 70+ years ago.

Maybe if more 70+years-olds, who remember these times (and spend $$$ like a 25+year-olds) were watching, THE BEAN COUNTERS would be less likely go give us these altered-history storylines.