Gone with the Winchester

This is the second episode that shows Arthur's barber serving drinks to customers. He gets recent ex-jailbird Toby on his way to a drunken night of revelry and reminiscing.

It's similar to the last episode featuring the barber, The Greatest Show in Willesden in Season 8. That time they talked about some long-ago Vaudeville-type act. This time they're recalling their days in a two-bit youth gang.

Toby's loose lips has Arthur thinking Dave behind the bar has been stiffing him over the years. He gets all bent out of shape about it. Which shows some nerve since Daley has spent 9 seasons of Minder offloading all sorts of worthless cr#p on Dave and as of this episode still hasn't ponied up the money for his share of The Winchester. And now Arthur is turning against his long-time buddy Dave in favor of some drunken crook that's been in jail for 17 years.

Like the previous two episodes here in Season 9, it's played all too seriously. Like it's some kind of mafia double cross. Instead of Arthur as the rapid-fire gadly and conman, he's acting like he's Corleone and only he can pull devious stunts.

After an unexpectedly great first season (Season 8 overall) to the Gary Webster era, and a strong start to Season 9, all of a sudden the series has grown much too dark. Literally and figuratively. Most of the scenes are shot at night or dim lighting. The stories are unnecessarily dark. This time around it verges on ruining all that came before it, at least between Arthurt and Dave.

Ray's semi-recurring girlfriend appears again. Barely. More screen time - regrettably - goes to Ray's stuttering dad, a terrible semir-recurring character.

Not sure why the producers veered dark in 1993. Was it a trend on British TV? Lovejoy managed to stay light while featuring a loveable rogue. What was happening in the Minder writing room?