"The Black Book" Oddity [possible spoilers]

Thanks for this reply. It's always nice to be "validated"!

I'll take the liberty of being slightly "off-topic" on my own thread:

Over the past few weeks, I've been watching MM on Netflix, which has several seasons available.

I first became acquainted with the series because a local Public Broadcasting Service has featured it for years. However, for long time they only had the older seasons available, e.g. the Troy/Scott era. My impression is that they didn't necessarily show their limited catalogue of episodes in order.

I think I started watching the series on Netflix from Season 7 or so. But, curiously, I find that as I've watched the shows more or less nightly, and in order, I notice the darker or more unpleasant sides of Barnaby and Jones's characters.

In a nutshell, during my sporadic viewing Tom Barnaby struck me as not only good-humored, but kind. And Jones came across as a sharp young policeman with an enthusiastic attitude. This "first impression" was probably due to Jones replacing Scott; I always felt that with Scott, both the character and the actor really didn't want to be there.

However, while watching the episodes one after the other, I notice that Barnaby has a bit of a mean streak that comes out in his dealings with Jones.

For instance, in "Talking to the Dead" he has Jones (in street shoes) climb a tree to find a concealed loudspeaker. Well and good. This is par for the course: young Jones is the subordinate expected to do the dirty work, and Barnaby is the stoic superior who isn't inclined to baby him.

But Barnaby turns his back and remains aloof when Jones runs into a bit of trouble-- literally putting himself out on a limb-- and falls hard to the ground. Jones gingerly gets up, haplessly dusts himself off, and limps and staggers after Barnaby. Barnaby seems to deliberately ignore Jones's very real (within the TV reality) distress.

I suppose this is meant to be slapstick comedy, but I've noticed similar moments when Barnaby crosses the line from "stoic" to a bit sadistic.

And with Jones, I also notice that what I used to think of callow naïveté is often ignorance or rudeness.

And sometimes, as in his non-relationship with WDC Stephens, he's just a jerk! I admit that I find Stephens the most personable police officer in Midsomer these days.

Funny, when I watched the show in sporadic bits and pieces, I used to dislike Joyce and Cully. I'm still not enamored of them, but they don't bother me now as much as Barnaby and Jones do.

In short, I seem to have unexpectedly acquired a "familiarity breeds contempt" problem with the two main characters.
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Back to Barnaby's letting that Simms hussy off the hook: I appreciate that well-written, realistic characters should be reasonably complex and have flaws and weaknesses.

But in police stories, I get put off when the protagonists' flaws directly contradict their professional integrity.

For instance, in "Inspector Morse" I was puzzled that Morse had a "thing" for being attracted to female suspects, or at least "persons of interest" in the crime he was investigating. When I posted this criticism on the "Morse" board, several exasperated fans explained superciliously that this was one of the character flaws Morse struggles with.

Well, obviously. But I still couldn't accept that Morse would indulge himself this way. Apart from the personal risk, it was simply bad police work; it didn't ring true that Morse would behave in a way that he'd never tolerate from a subordinate.

Likewise, especially since you confirmed my opinion, I find Barnaby's conduct in "The Black Book" to be a bit sordid.