Reviews

The beginning of "Magnum Opus" was intriguing and showed promise. Sad to say it never went anywhere. I was as confused at the end as I was at the beginning. Nothing was explained or resolved. There was a drop (or was there), a USB (that contained what), a person called Alice (who may or may not be one of the characters we've seen in the movie). I'm not sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys and who worked for whom. It was decently acted, but poorly written. Never heard of any of the actors in the movie except for Broadway's Norm Lewis who was wasted in the only two scenes he was in. Perhaps I'm dense, but little in this movie made any sense to me.

This was a tense episode but very manipulative and poorly written. I loved the books and the earlier series, but this was a pale shadow. Most glaring error. The scene where Bosch has to hassle Edgar to give him Dockweiler's address, comes not five minutes after a scene showing Bosch at Dockweiler's house leaving a note on the door and picking up a cigarette butt! He obviously alredy had the address. Did anyone read the script ahead of filming? You would think Executive Producer Michael Connelly would have choked reading that.

It's saving grace was seeing all those familiar characters again and Titus Welliver's definitive Bosch.

Magellan is simply the most formulaic mystery series I've ever seen, at least after season one. So, I've compiled a template for a budding Magellan writer.

Template for a Commissair Magellan Screenplay:

1) Open with short scene with the victim earlier the day of the murder.

2) Next scene, usually at night, the murder, tastefully done, little gore.

3) After stock footage of the town is standing in for the fictional town of Saignac, Magellan is at breakfast with his daughter and his nephew, Ludo. In the middle of the cute breakfast colloquy Megellan must get a call from his work colleague Selma telling him of the murder, to which he responds "I'll be right there" and he immediately leaves. (Note to screenwriter: The call about the murder must come at breakfast, not in the afternoon at the Police Station, or any other time.)

4) At the crime scene Magellan and Selma speak to several people who knew the victim and one gives them the name of a very likely suspect.

5) They go to interview that suspect, whom they determine is not likely to be the killer, but that suspect tells them something that leads them to another suspect, and it continues that way through several suspects.

6) One of the suspects should take a runner when he sees the two cops and Selma, being the younger of the two and in better shape, chases after him. This suspect is male and should not end up being the murderer.

8) While unraveling all sorts of family and business secrets among the suspects our two cops discover that the parentage of one of the younger characters is different than what everyone believes. (This is optional as it doesn't have to be in every episode, but the majority of them.)

9) Approximately ten minutes before the end of the episode the most likely suspect at that point must be murdered as he/she knows too much. But this second murder must quickly lead them to find the real killer.

10) During the course of the investigation there should be three scenes of Magellan at home with his daughter and live in comic relief character, the ne'er-do-well, insufferable Ludo. (Note to writer: These scenes should be cute and delightful, but so far they've been mostly ridiculous, silly and annoying.)

It should be noted that the Ludo character replaced prosecutor and Magellan's best friend Gavrillac, who was in the earlier episodes It was always unbelievable as to how the otherwise intelligent prosecutor could act so stupid. With respect to Ludo that's not a problem!

There is almost no deviation from the above formula in every episode, so if you are binge watching this night after night as I did, it becomes frustrating. Can't they do something original and break out of the mold, but they never do. Yet, despite all this I was hooked.

Indeed, it is a tribute to the writers can come up with such interesting plots and characters within these very strict guidelines.

Agatha Christies Criminal Games is a total delight despite the fact any relation to reality is purely coincidental. How many Police Inspectors have a beautiful, huge private office with a private secretary who bears a passing resemblance to Marilyn Monroe? None in the many other TV series I've seen. (Sorry, I don't know any Police Inspectors personally.)

Basically, this French series adapts Agatha Christies mysteries to fit three characters wholly made up for the series. Thus Piorot, Marple, et. Al. Are replaced by Inspector Swan Laurence (Samuel Labarthe), a rather somber, often insufferable, caricature of a 1950s male chauvinist. If he was the only major character there is no way I would have called the series delightful. Luckily there are two major female characters who give the show its sparkle. First off, Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril, a newspaper advice columnist turned reporter, who manages to insinuate herself into every case Laurence is investigating, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. If that challenges reality so does her frequent barging into his office at all times a day, seemingly having free reign at Police Headquarters, something even in France would seem out of bounds to a reporter. But, make no mistake, those scenes and her and Laurence's frequent bickering help make the series endearing. Certainly Ms. Bellavoir performance as Alice Avril is the highlight of the show. Then there's Elodie Frenck as Laurence's secretary, also a caricature, in her case, that of a dumb blonde. Her role got bigger as the series progressed and soon she too became endearing. Both actresses deserve accolades for lifting the series above the norm.

The mysteries are nicely adapted to fit these characters. Though light-hearted, and at times almost a semi-comedy, be warned some of the murder scenes can be gruesome. If you, like me, love mysteries, this series can be addictive.

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Some other reviews here have compared "The Brokenwood Mysteries" to "Midsomer Mysteries" and I agree there are similarities. Ultimately though, for a variety of reasons I find Brokenwood much more enjoyable. I've seen a lot of mystery series and read many (but not all) of the reviews here and am surprised none that I've read noted the most unique thing about Brokenwood that sets it apart from Midsomer and every other mystery series I've seen. While most other mystery series usually have one or two leading characters usually a Detective Inspector and his/her partner and a few other regular characters, such as a medical examiner, perhaps a spouse of the lead, etc., Brokenwood is the only series I've ever seen that has a whole host of recurring characters most of whom have nothing to do with Law Enforcement. Indeed, many start out as suspects in one episode and then show up in other episodes, sometimes as witnesses or suspects again in a different case, or for some other reason. The most notable is Frankie 'Frodo' Oades who is a suspect in his first appearance, then just happens to be closely involved in some others, even a suspect once or twice again. But there are lots of other. Jared, who is a suspect in the first episode, then helps Detectve Mike Shepherd start his grape growing enterprise and they become good friends. Or gay Reverend Greene, who is a suspect in two of the several episodes he appears in. Or Ray, the owner of the local watering hole, who for some unfathomable reason opens a Pizzeria, seemingly leaving his difficult sister to run the more profitable Bar. Then there's the town gossip, Mrs. Marlowe, whose information sometimes helps the detectives, sometimes leaves them perplexed. Perplexed is a good word to describe many of the detectives reactions to what they hear or see. This especially true of Fern Sutherland's Det. Sims. This just scratches the surface of the many recurring characters and suspects. Brokenwood must be very small town indeed.

For a mystery series this show is very lighthearted, but where else do the most hilarious lines come from the pathologist, in this case Russian Gina Kadinsky (played perfectly by American actress Cristina Serban Ionda) who has an unrequited crush on lead Detective Mike Shepherd. Neill Rea who plays oft married Shepherd anchors the show with a no-nonsense approach that belies the often quirkiness that surrounds him. I saw the first season on Prime's "shows to sample" last month (August 2022) and was so hooked I had to subscribe to Acorn to see the next seven seasons. I've now seen all the 36 episodes so far made (don't know iif they'll be more) and enjoyed them immensely. If you like British mysteries you/will probably love this New Zealand mystery series.

Like several other folks who commented, I only got through the first twenty minutes or so. Problem was compounded by the fact I was watching the DVD I borrowed from my local library (who decided to buy this turkey). The actresses were mostly mumbling and I couldn't make out much of what they were saying. To make matters worse the DVD had no subtitles! As high as I could turn the volume up I still couldn't make out much of what they were saying. From what I saw and from most of the comments here, the dialogue wasn't worth hearing anyway.