"The Christmas Haunting" is Nelson's first appearance. In it, a ghost walk in what was once reputed to be the Most Haunted Village in England leads to a series of deaths that might be caused by a local ghost. Barnaby and Nelson will have to think a bit out of the box to trace down this murder before it claims more victims.
This episode is also our first glimpse at Sarah (Fiona Dolman) pregnant with the soon-to-be newest Barnaby.
In "Let Us Prey," a series of murders surround a village church whose fame is growing because of a recently uncovered fresco. The deaths themselves seem to mimic several scenes from the fresco, leaving some to believe that the killings might be trying to warn the villagers of something. Meanwhile, an impending storm puts the locals on alert as flooding is entirely possible. While the natural disaster could lead to a lot of property damage, what is on a lot of people's minds is how the water could damage the fresco since it is painted on a wall in the church's crypt.
As the investigation continues, and more people turn up looking like the bodies on the painting, Barnaby finds that more people might have motives than he originally believed. Could it be the vicar who will apparently do anything to protect her fresco? Could it be the first victim's husband who sometimes likes to talk with his fists? Or could it be someone else entirely? Well, followers of this series know that the obvious choices are rarely the right ones, and "Let Us Prey" seems to be particularly filled with red herrings.
Midsomer Murders: Set 25's third episode, "Wild Harvest," centers around a country house restaurant. When a local farmer is killed, Barnaby and Nelson soon uncover just how intermingled the people surrounding Wyvern House happen to be. The episode's first victim is the land owner of Wyvern House, while his daughter is one of the cooks supporting the restaurant's primary chef, who is married to the restaurant manager. The manager is the ex-husband of a local bar owner, whose son also works in the kitchen of Wyvern House. The tangled web of characters that Barnaby and Nelson have to work through shows that more and more people have a reason to commit the crime, but just as you think you've got the killer figured out, they get ruled out by being the next victim.
In "The Flying Club," a local airstrip becomes the focus of a murder investigation when a body is found in a lake that shows evidence of being dropped from the air. The victim turns out to be a part-owner in the airfield, and, as always, there seem to be several reasons people might want to kill the man. When it comes out that the other owners, a family known for delivering airplanes to the front lines during WWII, are looking to sell the land in order to get out of financial issues, the focus shifts to them. But, as always, more deaths mean the primary suspect changes and it's all a guessing game until the dust finally settles.
The set's final episode, "The Killings of Copenhagen," is also the show's 100th. In it, Barnaby and Nelson break out of their comfort zone some as they end up having to travel to Denmark when Midsomer locals keep showing up dead in Copenhagen. The first death is a poisoning where the owner of a local cookie factory is killed when someone sends him a tin of his own cookies covered with strychnine. Barnaby starts to investigate the cookie factory and not only looks into the victim's family, but also his employees. Soon, the poisoned man's brother, the new owner of the factory, disappears and ends up packed with a shipment of product in Copenhagen. It is then that Barnaby and Nelson travel to the other country to team up with a pair of female detectives.
Meanwhile, little baby Barnaby is ready to be born and when the DCI has to leave the country in order to work on the case, he is more worried than ever that he is going to miss his first born's birth.
Unlike most Midsomer Murders releases, Set 25 actually has several special features. For one, there is a featurette on the show's 100th episode. While some of the footage is reused in some of the release's other special features, this one goes more in depth as to why the showrunners decided to take the cast to Denmark. The decision stemmed from their personal love of Danish crime dramas and they thought it would be interesting to try and mix the Danish and British cultures.
The featurette also talks about filming on location and the attempts to "bring Midsomer to Denmark," as well finding the Danish actors to play their detectives, VPK Poulsen (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, the original Danish version of The Killing) and KA Anna Degn (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Borgen).
There is also an interview with Lee as Barnaby's new sidekick and a lengthy behind the scenes featurette that not only talks about Nelson replacing Jones as the show's Detective Sergeant, but it also touches on the making of "The Christmas Haunting," "The Flying Club," and "The Killings of Copenhagen."
All in all, this set is a good collection of mysteries, and while it is a shame to see Ben Jones leave the scene, Nelson seems to add a new direction to the show, especially in his interactions with Dr. Kate Wilding. Where Jones and the medical examiner seemed to dance around at a possible relationship, Nelson and Wilding seem to be moving fast in that direction. Set 25 is not only a good release for those who don't want to miss an episode, but also for the more casual viewer because it has the change-off to the new DS and the milestone 100th episode.
