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THE MAGICAL WORLD OF JONATHAN
CREEK
by Christine Alice Corcos
The USA television series Monk has
been touted as highly original, well acted, clever and careful
(about its main character, an obsessive-compulsive detective
whose disability has disqualified him from further service as
a police officer). Monk is indeed well acted and scripted,
although some of the episodes are derivative of earlier shows
like Columbo.
In particular, Monk usually solves the crime by noticing that
one of the suspects has a particular quirk that guarantees that
he or she is the only person who could have committed the crime.
Monk, like Columbo, looks for one crucial characteristic or event,
and then identifies the perpetrator.
 By
contrast, the BBC series Jonathan Creek (broadcast here
on BBC America) emphasizes the "howdunit" rather than
the "whodunit" in order to solve the crime. Creek (Alan
Davies) is a furry headed and tennis-shoed young magician who
creates illusions for a self-absorbed stage performer named Adam
Klaus (played by Anthony Head in the first season and Stuart
Milligan in subsequent years) when he isn't being dragged into
the investigation of mysterious crimes by journalist and off
again on again love interest Madeline Magellan (Caroline Quentin,
who may also be familiar to American audiences via the series
Men Behaving Badly). Quentin left the series in 1999,
to be replaced by Julia Sawalha as publicist Carla Borrega. This
week, Sawalha's episodes hit the U. S. airwaves, with the episode
Satan's Chimney.
Jonathan Creek's knowledge
of stage magic makes him a perfect detective. He does not subscribe
to the idea that "seeing is believing." If what he
sees or is told about defies his understanding of the world,
he suspects a trick, and sets out to figure out how it is done.
Like Columbo and Adrian Monk, Creek is vitally interested in
the puzzle and its solution, but unlike them he stops often short
of involving the police. Since Creek and Maddy Magellan are
private citizens, they are much more concerned with justice than
with the law, and their desire to see justice done informs many
of their adventures. The episodes track the solution of the crimes,
but also the necessity to make victims whole as much as possible,
rather than to turn perpetrators over to the authorities. In
the episode The Scented Room, a valuable painting disappears
within 30 seconds from a locked room. Creek discovers how the
deed was done, but refuses to divulge the truth to the owners,
preferring to satisfy himself that his solution is the correct
one by confronting the thieves. Indeed, one might question whether
a theft really has occurred. As Creek reconstructs the crime,
the painting is actually taken from its frame and simply secreted
elsewhere in the room. The perpetrators deprive the owners of
the enjoyment of their property, but do they really commit a
crime, according to the letter of the law?
In the episode The Curious
Tale of Mr. Spearfish, Jonathan discovers why an otherwise
unexceptional young man believes that the Devil has taken his
soul. The young man and his wife have been having strange experiences,
as well as a remarkable run of good luck. Why? As it turns out,
no evil spirits need apply-the story has an utterly mundane,
if somewhat factually unlikely solution. Satisfied that his solution
is the right one, Jonathan does not reveal it to the young couple.
Instead, he ensures that they work out their marital problems
and then moves on. In The Omega Man, Jonathan solves the
riddle of the EBE (extraterrestrial biological entity), proving
that it is man made and blackmailing the U. S. military man who
has harassed his friend Maddy into giving him 60,000 pounds to
fund an animal shelter for Maddy's four-footed friends.
Jonathan Creek's notion of
ethics is an unusual one for American audiences used to the sometimes
excessively moralizing of law and order shows. Unless an innocent
person is physically or emotionally harmed, he is reluctant to
call in the police, and he cooperates very unwillingly with the
government, finding that police officers and other officials
are both inflexible and not very bright. His moral code is the
highlight of episodes such as Danse Macabre in which he
discovers that a daughter and her stepfather have helped a dying
woman to commit suicide. While Jonathan is not opposed to euthanasia,
he finds unacceptable the fact that the daughter's husband, a
minister, has been involved unwittingly and unwillingly in the
event. In addition, of course, the crime is technically murder,
and though Jonathan does not inform the police, he does confront
the daughter and stepfather in order to let them know that he
knows how the crime was committed. On seeing the husband's reaction,
we understand that he will very likely leave his wife, even if
he does not call in the authorities.
Jonathan Creek offers us a
picture of a more complex character than Adrian Monk or Lieutenant
Columbo, and consequently a much more complex view of the intersection
between law and justice. Creek is an even more neurotic Sherlock
Holmes, he is cerebral rather than active, and his involvement
is often reluctant. Maddy frequently needs to goad or dare him
into activity. He is also much less physically attractive and
picture perfect than other television magicians, such as Alexander
Blacke (Blacke's Magic, starring Hal Linden) or Anthony
Dorian (The Magician, starring Bill Bixby). Once he takes
an interest in a puzzle, however, he refuses to let it lie. He
is a good person in an increasingly bad world. Creek also emphasizes
critical thinking, a skill sadly lacking in many people today.
When faced with what seems to be an otherwordly or "impossible"
mystery, he does not automatically assume that the correct answer
is a supernatural one. In fact, he never assumes that the supernatural
is the answer. Instead, he looks for rational, real world explanations.
The episode Jack in the Box presents the type of "locked
room mystery" that typifies the Jonathan Creek series.
A once famous comedian is found dead in a locked bunker. Did
he commit suicide? If so, how? Creek decides that if he was murdered,
and the murderer could not have escaped the bunker, then "whatever
remains, however improbable must be the truth"-the murderer
must still be somewhere in the bunker. And so he solves the mystery,
and reveals a story of bitter revenge. The murderer has claimed
for many years that he was innocent of the murder of which he
was convicted, the murder of the comedian's wife. Through Maddy's
efforts, he was finally exonerated and released from prison.
As it turns out, he really did commit the deed-at the behest
of the comedian. Having decided that the ex-con must be the
murderer, Jonathan then unravels the truth.
What is most refreshing about
Jonathan Creek as a hero, and what seems to explain his success
as a cult figure in England and in the US, is that he is both
lovably nerdy and extremely competent. In addition, his own sure
sense of right and wrong leads Jonathan toward justice and toward
truth. He is no lawyer, but Jonathan Creek has a sure sense of
the meaning of equity.
Posted April 27, 2004
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