Midsomer Murders S25 Review - Cozy Killings Return Again

TL;DR

It’s still charming, still murderous, and still the only show where someone gets killed over jam-making competitions.

Season 25 is cozy, murderous wallpaper, comforting, predictable, and full of people who deserve everything that happens to them.

It won’t change your life. It won’t challenge your worldview. It will scratch that itch for charming homicide performed by people who look like your aunt’s bridge club.

A warm mug of murder.

Thinking of solving murders from your sofa? Do yourself a favour and get a TV that doesn’t look like it was purchased during the first Barnaby era.

Upgrade with Amazon’s best-selling 4K TVs, because if you’re going to watch polite British homicide, you might as well see every blade of grass they fall into.

Explore more crime TV chaos in our CRIMENET Crime Series Hub.

https://youtu.be/LmjzoZEa-cA?si=Vm82KRvnRt35lzpI

“Criminal Fantasy” - The Only Place Where Middle-Class Brits Go Fer feral

To watch Midsomer Murders is to witness the quiet collapse of British civility, like Downton Abbey, but with more stabbing and fewer functioning brain cells. Season 25 is basically a tourism ad for murderous gardening clubs.

Every episode whispers, “Yes, Barbara, go on… let the rage take you. Kill your husband with a novelty cheese wheel.”

And honestly? We root for them. Because Barnaby’s moral compass is so straight you could use it to tile a bathroom, while the killers at least do something interesting.

Plot & Pacing - Four Murders, One Cup of Tea, Zero Urgency

Season 25 drops four feature-length cases, each paced like the director thought time was infinite and viewers had nothing else going on.

It’s not slow, it’s Midsomer slow:

• Someone dies

• Someone lies

• Someone offers tea

• Someone else dies

• Barnaby sighs

• The vicar looks suspicious for absolutely no reason

• Case solved

It’s comfort food murder. You can fold laundry, cook spaghetti, and go through a midlife crisis between clues without missing anything.

Characters - The Usual Barnaby Show + A Parade of Beige Suspects

Neil Dudgeon’s Barnaby is still so calm he could diffuse a bomb while buttering toast. DS Winter remains his loyal Labrador in human form. And Dr. Fleur Perkins is still the only person in the county enjoying the rise in business.

The suspects? Imagine every small-town stereotype Britain has ever produced… then make them slightly worse.

Season 25’s guest cast ranges from:

• Passive-aggressive jam-makers

• People who’d murder over allotment boundaries

• Retired men who’ve clearly googled “how do I look mysterious?”

Reddit’s consensus: charming, but the show peaked when guest stars were A-list British lunatics instead of people you vaguely remember from a banking advert.

Dialogue - Not Shakespeare, But at Least It’s Not Netflix Beige

MM dialogue does its job:

• Barnaby asks questions

• Winter mispronounces something

• A suspect says, “Well, I hardly knew the man!” while hiding a blood-soaked past

It’s not clever. But at least it’s not written by the same AI that produces every Netflix thriller where people speak in riddles and cry in glass kitchens.

Here people talk like actual Brits: unhelpfully, evasively, and with a faint tone of disappointment.

World & Atmosphere - Murder Land™ (Come for the Scenery, Stay for the Killing)

The villages are so pretty they could be screensavers, which is perfect because someone always dies in front of the begonias.

Midsomer remains the only county on Earth where every cottage looks like an Airbnb and every citizen is one bad PTA meeting away from homicide.

You’ve never seen such scenic violence. A body could be sprawled across a duck pond and it still looks like a Hallmark Christmas card.

If Season 25 inspires you to become a murderous gardener, at least get proper equipment.

Grab a heavy-duty pruning shear on Amazon, the official weapon of choice for 87% of Midsomer killers (statistically unproven but spiritually accurate).

Want louder crime? Try our Top 30 Heist Games List instead, fewer teacups, more blood pressure.

Direction & Style - Reliable, Predictable, Comfortably Unhinged

Season 25 doesn’t take risks. It’s directed with the steady hand of someone who knows fans don’t want “bold creative vision”, they want:

• A corpse at minute 8

• A second corpse at minute 62

• Barnaby solving everything with a single eyebrow lift

No shaky cam. No neon lighting. No “cinematic universe.”Just murder. Proper murder.

Soundtrack - Whispery Tension and Mild Piano Panic

The music is perfect if you want to feel gently unsettled while making tea. It’s not epic, it’s not loud, it’s the audio equivalent of a raised eyebrow.

When the killer appears, the soundtrack politely clears its throat.

Morality & Madness - Absolutely Nothing Makes Sense, and That’s the Charm

No gritty moral dilemmas. No crushing societal commentary.

Just villagers murdering each other over:

• Petty jealousy

• Petty money

• Petty misunderstandings

• And once, definitely, petticoats

The motives are always so embarrassingly small that you start rooting for the killer out of sheer sympathy.

Rewatchability - Background Murder for People Who Iron Shirts

Perfect for:

• Sunday afternoons

• Folding laundry

• Recovering from hangovers

• People who love murder but hate adrenaline

Not perfect for:

• Viewers who need fast pacing

• Anyone with a TikTok-length attention span

Series Longevity — Still Alive (Unlike Half the Cast)

Is Season 25 reinventing anything? Absolutely not.

Does it need to? Absolutely not.

This show is the crime equivalent of a pub you’ve been going to since 2003 - the floor’s sticky, the menu’s the same, and you love it because it never changes.

Season 26 is already confirmed. Of course it is. At this point they’ll bury Barnaby in Midsomer and still release new episodes.

Still here? Good. Treat yourself to a crime game where you’re the criminal, not some cardigan-wearing villager with unresolved childhood trauma.

Pick up a discounted PC heist title at Green Man Gaming, because unlike Midsomer, at least you get to commit the chaos on purpose.

Or sink your teeth into our savage review of Caught Stealing, a masterclass in criminal stupidity we deeply admire.

FAQ

Is Midsomer Murders Season 25 worth watching? Only if you enjoy polite homicide performed by people who own too many gardening tools.

Is Barnaby still fun to watch after 25 seasons? Yes, he’s basically crime-solving wallpaper, but the comforting kind.

Are the new episodes exciting? Exciting? No. Pleasantly murderous? Absolutely.

Do I need to watch all previous seasons first? Only if you want to witness 200+ increasingly creative deaths involving baked goods and vicarage staircases.

Is Midsomer Murders scary? No. The scariest thing here is how petty the motives always are.