@genplant29 said:

I finally started following this series at the beginning of the season before last (and, if I'm not mistaken, actually began with partway through the very last episode of the prior season). I had given the series a fleeting look-see at various earlier points, but never at all "took" to it either of those brief times. Finally it succeeded at appealing to, interesting, and hooking me when I happened to give the series a try, again, at the mentioned starting point.

As I'm a very late arrival to the series, I have no familiarity with what transpired prior to the mentioned point.

The question, therefore, is: Why is Joan Thursday estranged from her father? Did he commit some wrong towards her, or is there some other reason? Joan keeps freezing him out, and I never understand why.

gen, There are only 22 episodes (not counting the latest, series/season 6). You should binge them if you have access. As for Joan & her father, I've seen every episode & I'm still puzzled by it all. The 'estrangement' started at the end of series/season 3 after a robbery at the bank Joan worked at. She was 'traumatized' by it & left Oxford. Morse 'found' her in another town & discovered she was involved with a married man. Joan asked Morse not to tell her father, but Thursday discovered her address on a slip of paper. You can pretty much figure out what happened when they meet again. It's a bit convoluted & really has to be seen. But like I said, I'm still at a loss about it & I feel the same about the beginning of the latest series/season.

@genplant29 Which is the last episode that you watched?

Hi, brat and wonder. Thanks for your responses.

I've seen all of the most recent season, other than its finale episode that will be airing on PBS in the States this coming Sunday night. I watched all of the prior season (Series/Season 5), as well as most of one episode - I think probably the season finale - of the season just before that. (Whichever episode got me onboard was something to do with, if I recall correctly, a murdered woman found in a train car, or maybe it was an abandoned train station depot?) In the most recent (which is the "current" season airing in the States), I missed a substantial chunk of I think it was the 2nd episode, when an ill-timed phone call wound up taking over. That episode didn't subsequently rerun on either of PBS stations, therefore I don't know what have may transpired during the missed final half or so.

Where the current season has so far gotten to, in the States, is the episode ending with Endeavour observing, through I guess it's a pub's window, DI Fred Thursday laughing with his new co-workers. It's increasingly seeming like Thursday is slipping towards the dark side.

@genplant29 said:

Hi, brat and wonder. Thanks for your responses.

I've seen all of the most recent season, other than its finale episode that will be airing on PBS in the States this coming Sunday night. I watched all of the prior season (which I guess was Series/Season 5?), as well as most of one episode - I think probably the season finale - of the season just before that. (Whichever episode got me onboard was something to do with, if I recall correctly, a murdered woman found in a train car, or maybe it was an abandoned train station depot?) In the most recent (which is the "current" season airing in the States), I missed a substantial chunk of I think it was the 2nd episode, when an ill-timed phone call wound up taking over. That episode didn't subsequently rerun on either of PBS stations, therefore I don't know what have may transpired during the missed final half or so.

Where the current season has so far gotten to, in the States, is the episode ending with Endeavour observing, through I guess it's a pub's window, DI Fred Thursday laughing with his new co-workers. It's increasingly seeming like Thursday is slipping towards the dark side.

I have 2 PBS stations in my area, but can only get the red-headed stepchild (KBTC), so we are usually 10 days behind KCTS. But as for most PBS shows that orginate in the UK (Except for Victoria, we see it before the UK), we usually doe not get them in the states until about 6 months later.

I just wrote a huge (for me) answer for you about this & Grantchester over at the Midsommer Murders board & the whole freaking thing just disappeared (it came back?). So weird. I was recommending that you watch Grantchester from the beginning, so you will understand what is going on. There are 4 series/seasons with 6 episodes each, plus a Christmas special from 2016. Each episode has a stand alone story, but each episode contains things that pertain to the main character's stories. Also, sadly James Norton (Sidney Chambers) will not be in series/season 5 when it starts filming.

As for Thursday going over to the dark side, he was always there, but Morse helped to keep him from going too crazy. Remember the times. Police knocking around criminals was par for the course.

I'm wondering whether Joan Thursday and Endeavour not ultimately working out as a pair may eventually wind up having something to do with a predicament that her father winds up in, that perhaps Endeavour will do something, regarding it, that forever destroys his and Joan's relationship.

By the way, in addition to my 2 main PBS stations, there's also the secondary station of one of those that on Friday nights sometimes re-runs either a prior Sunday night's PBS Masterpiece episode, or sometimes broadcasts a series episode from a recent prior season. I noticed a week or two ago that that secondary station was rerunning an Endeavour episode, from last year, and now wish I had re-watched it. (It was the episode set largely on a military installation, if I recall correctly.)

@genplant29 said:

I'm wondering whether Joan Thursday not working out for Endeavour may eventually wind up having something to do with a predicament that her father winds up in, that perhaps Endeavour will do something, regarding it, that forever destroys his and Joan's relationship.

Who knows? In my mind, any hope of a relationship between them went out the window when she ran away to Leamington Spa.

@genplant29 said:

(It was the episode set largely on a military installation, if I recall correctly.)

S5E4 "Colours".

@genplant29 said:

(Whichever episode got me onboard was something to do with, if I recall correctly, a murdered woman found in a train car, or maybe it was an abandoned train station depot?)

S5E3 "Passenger".

@genplant29 said:

Where the current season has so far gotten to, in the States, is the episode ending with Endeavour observing, through I guess it's a pub's window, DI Fred Thursday laughing with his new co-workers. It's increasingly seeming like Thursday is slipping towards the dark side.

S6E3 "Confection". So, the next episode is the finale for series 6: S6E4 "Degüello".

Series 7 will air in 2020.

@genplant29 said:

I'm wondering whether Joan Thursday and Endeavour not ultimately working out as a pair may eventually wind up having something to do with a predicament that her father winds up in, that perhaps Endeavour will do something, regarding it, that forever destroys his and Joan's relationship.

I'll not comment on the last episode of series 6 (no spoilers). But I'll say that throughout the series 1-6 Joan appeared to be a rebelious woman of the sixties, with an overprotective father, who tried to find her true self, only to end up pregnant with an abusive married man.

She and her father were never mentioned in the "Inspector Morse" series, and if ever implied that the difficulties between Endeavour and Joan is the main reason why he never got married and have relationship issues with women, then the writers will have to come up with a story were the relationship with his great love Susan is explained (and not as a flashback-dream).

@wonder2wonder said:

I'll not comment on the last episode of series 6 (no spoilers). But I'll say that throughout the series 1-6 Joan appeared to be a rebelious woman of the sixties, with an overprotective father, who tried to find her true self, only to end up pregnant with an abusive married man.

It makes it interesting that we know, going in, that Joan and Endeavour don't wind up together, which adds an automatic extra layer of intrigue to the story.

@genplant29 said:

It makes it interesting that we know, going in, that Joan and Endeavour don't wind up together, which adds an automatic extra layer of intrigue to the story.

Let's hope that she doesn't end up dead or in prison, like some of the other women he liked, in "Inspector Morse".