YMMV / Death in Paradise

• Complete Monster:
  • "Pilot of the Airways": Garfield Tourné, Saint Marie's most beloved television presenter and reporter, despite presenting himself as a charming, humble man of the community, is truthfully a narcissistic philandering sociopath driven only by lust and ego. Tourné regularly sexually harassed and attempted to assault the station's female runners, with him simply firing any who complained, and even attempting to assault his co-host Melanie Sparks. Discovering that Elmina Blondeau had lied about fixing the corrupted water pipes, meaning many residents were drinking contaminated water, Tourné struck a deal to bury the story and support her re-election campaign, in exchange for her authorising his latest vanity project of an entire college wing dedicated in honour of him. Discovering that Melanie was working to expose him, Tourné strangled her to death in her own home and attempted to stage it as a burglary gone wrong.
  • "Serving Up Murder": Stanley Drake, a famous celebrity chef and a successful hotelier, stands out as the least sympathetic victim ever investigated by the Honoré Police Department. Publicly presenting himself as a charming, attentive man who simply wanted to help others with their careers, behind closed doors Drake was really an abusive taskmaster and ruthless sexual predator who used his cooking contest to find young, vulnerable women for him to abuse. Thirty years previously, he raped Lucky Claybourne, traumatising her for life. Drake continued to prey upon an unknown number of victims, some as young as 19, up through the present. Looking for more publicity for his latest cooking contest, Drake tracked down Lucky, now herself a famous chef, and raped her again, then used the pictures to blackmail her into participating. The night before the contest, Drake went after his latest victim making it clear he would destroy her if she did not sleep with him.
• Covered Up: Few people know the theme song, "You're Wondering Now" is not an original composition, but in fact was originally recorded in 1964 by Andy & Joey (not the Skatalites, the Specials or Amy Winehouse for that matter).
• Critical Dissonance: The programme is constantly derided as being nothing more than meaningless fluff in the press, yet its audience numbers have been remarkably steady over ten series and four lead actors.
• First Installment Wins: While all part of the same series, despite the later detectives having higher on average ratings, Poole and his team (Camille, Dwayne, and Fidel) are the most iconic and emblematic of the show's original pitch. On Archive Of Our Own, Poole and his team have more fanfiction stories about them than the Humphrey, Mooney, and Parker eras combined, while showrunner Robert Thorogood has written several novels focusing on cases Poole did.
• Follow the Leader: The Mallorca Files is more or less the daytime version of this show, but with British female lead detective teaming up with a male sergeant from Germany to solve crime in Spain instead.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "A Stormy Occurrence" centers on a case being solved during Hurricane Irma. Just four years later, a real-life Hurricane Irma ravaged the Caribbean, including where Saint Marie would be if it was a real place.
• It Was His Sled: Humphrey's first case is Richard Poole himself, who dies in the third season premiere.
• Memetic Mutation: In a similar vein to both Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders, the sheer amount of murders that take place on a small Caribbean island has become a Running Gag in British pop culture.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: In 4x07, "She Was Murdered Twice", one of the suspects was played by Matthew Lewis (best-known as Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies), though they attempt to disguise him - or make him less conventionally attractive - with some atrocious facial hair. You might want to sit down for this next bit. He confesses 20 minutes in. He shot the victim. Except we know it's too early, so it can't be him. We learn she was already dead, smothered by someone else. Wait, no, he had already smothered her, and he shot her because he knew he'd only get a few years for attempted murder. For bonus points, it turns out the character is a conman, which means...he's an actor.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Season 2's "Murder on the Plantation" features David Ajala before his recurring roles on Supergirl and Star Trek: Discovery.
  • In the Season 3 episode "The Early Bird", one of the suspects is played by a pre-fame Hannah John-Kamen.
  • Season 4's "The Perfect Murder" features Dominique Tipper, who would become a regular cast member on The Expanse as Naomi Nagata, which premiered later the same year. The episode's guest cast also included Lashana Lynch, years before her roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, No Time to Die, The Woman King and Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical.
• The Scrappy: Series 11 introduces Izzy Parker, Neville's sister. Right off the bat, however, she's irritated fans due to being incredibly obnoxious, selfish, and entirely superfluous. She had only been in one episode when fans had took to social media to demand she be gotten rid of. She managed to hang around for most the of that series before she left the island.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • "An Unholy Death" includes a Cut-and-Paste Note that has clearly been printed as a single image, rather than actually cut and pasted.
  • "Death of a Detective" features old photographs of Richard and his university friends, which haven't been composited together as convincingly as they might have been.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In "An Artistic Murder", Fidel confesses that he cut off contact with his dearest friend because he thought his friend's job as a male escort reflected poorly on him as a police officer. After the friend's murder, Fidel is quietly crushed that he'll never be able to make amends.
  • Poole's death in the Season 3 premiere.
  • The death of Florence's fiancé, Patrice in "Beyond the Shining Sea, Part 2".
  • Neville breaking down into Catherine's arms in Season 12, Episode 7 after discovering that his relationship with Sophie was all a lie and that she was the person who framed him for murder.
• Unexpected Character: Who could have imagined Richard Poole would make a return after his abrupt exit?
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The crossed batons on one of Commissioner Patterson's rank insignia fell off midway through the show's run, but they weren't replaced for several years.

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