Murdoch Mysteries – Television Show Review

This show is found on Hulu, and it’s quite popular considering all the seasons it’s been on so far. I’ve begun binge watching it, and I’m on Season Two already. It’s a police drama, but it’s not what you’d expect.

First, it’s set in Toronto, Canada. The people speak English. The police captain is from Scotland, and he has the accent and mustache to prove it. The time period is during the Industrial Revolution – the time of Thomas Edison, Marconi and Tesla – to name a few. In fact, in the episode I just finished, they were using the newly developed x-ray machine to prove a dinosaur fossil was fake.

Detective Murdoch is a straight shooting man who crosses himself whenever he first encounters a dead body. He believes in the Bible, but he’s also a man of science. He tinkers and makes things to help in his investigations. He doesn’t curse. In fact, the one time he came close to using the Lord’s name in vain, one of his men stopped him, and Murdoch thanked him for it.

Constable Crabtree is a young man prone to flights of fancy when trying to help his boss solve cases, but he does mean well. Not overly bright, he does come up with a good idea from time to time, and he’s quite willing to do anything Murdoch asks him.

Doctor Ogden is a female pathologist who tries to interject some humor into her rather gruesome job, and she fails most of the time. She’s quite charming and intelligent though a touch plain since she doesn’t wear makeup that much. Her sweetness more than makes up for it though. Murdoch doesn’t seem to mind her plainness as he’s more attracted to her mind. They make a good pair in solving mysteries. They’re also seeing each other by Season Two.

Inspector Breckenridge is a character. He doesn’t mind hitting people and yelling at them if it will help with solving cases. He’s not very bright, but he is a good policeman. He lets Murdoch do pretty much anything he wants, and there are times when he tries to help. He’s a good boss and a good man who tries to do the right thing even if his captain doesn’t want him to.

That’s the main cast of the show, and I enjoy them all. I don’t need blood and guts, swearing and gunfire, to enjoy a good murder mystery. I need a good mystery and a good cast of characters to move things along. So far, I’ve seen Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison, Nikolai Tesla, Buffalo Bill, and Arthur Conan Doyle on the show as guests who help Murdoch solve the mystery of the day. Putting these iconic characters in the show lends a bit of fun to them, imho.

Don’t take my word for it though. Check the show out for yourself!! I’ve found it on Hulu, but it could be elsewhere – you just have to look!

Till next time, see you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Lincoln Rhyme : Hunt for the Bone Collector – TV show

This show started in Januaryt of this year on NBC. It airs on Friday night, and I watch the rerun on Hulu since I work Friday nights. The show is based on Jeffrey Deaver’s famous book: The Bone Collector, and it uses a lot of the elements from the book. I especially liked they showed how Rhyme ended up paralyzed in the very first episode.

The show stars Russell Hornsby as Lincoln Rhyme. I first saw him on Grimm where he played Detective Hank Griffin, the partner to the main character. In this show, he gets to play a stronger character – the main lead in a cast of leading actors. He portrays Rhyme a lot like Denzel Washington did in the movie, but he also gives him some humanity.

Amelia Sachs, his “eyes and ears” on the scenes, is played by Arielle Kebbel. I’ve seen her in a couple of horror movies. She was also in a television show called Midnight Texas that didn’t last long. I saw a couple of episodes of it, and I think they could’ve done much better with it…. In this show, she also gets to play a strong character, one with compassion and strength as well as a bit of a reckless streak.

The Bone Collector, aka Peter, is played by Brian F O’Bryne. I think I saw him in Million Dollar Baby, but I’m not sure. In this show, the Bone Collector is known to the viewer, and he’s married which is why I know his name is Peter. In the first episode, you also see how the Bone Collector knows Lincoln Rhyme. I like seeing both sides of this particular conflict.

Due to its very name, I’m not sure how long this show is going to last – planned obsolescence comes to mind. A great many shows, here and in the UK, are being designed to only last a few seasons. Maybe the next season will be based on another Deaver book featuring Rhyme. That would be nice.

The show has episodes mainly about other cases to solve with the Bone Collector being worked in the back ground so, something is always going on. Lots of interesting scenes including one where Sachs builds a thermite bomb in a matter of minutes with Lincoln’s help. I like learning more about New York and its environs – its history features heavily in all the books featuring Rhyme. Makes me want to go visit just to see some of what they’ve talked about, including some of the subway stations.

One of the things I didn’t like was the casting of his wife, Danielle. They used Claire Coffee, another former cast member on Grimm. She doesn’t get much onscreen time as the Bone Collector’s wife, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t think she’s got that much talent. Her facial expressions are pretty limited. If she sticks to playing romance parts where she gets to smile and flirt and whatever, she’ll be okay. Playing a villian or anything else that requires strong emotion, I don’t see her pulling it off.

Don’t take my word for it though, check out the show yourself!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Dexter – the Television Show

That one’s a blast from the past isn’t it? Stars Michael C Hall and ran from 2006 to 2013 . According to the Wikipedia, Mr. Hall was undergoing treatment for cancer around the time he was in the middle of working on Dexter. Kudos to him for that!

Dexter aired on Showtime as a show for adults with lots of violence, some nudity, lots of foul language and sexual content. Quite risque for that time period in television in fact.

Dexter is a serial killer with a code of honor he adheres to no matter what, and he works for the Miami PD as a blood splatter expert in the Forensics lab. His sister also works for the Miami PD – as a homicide cop. I haven’t discovered if she knows the truth about him yet as I’m still on the first season.

What is Dexter’s code of honor and can a serial killer have one? Well apparently a fictional one can. Dexter was adopted by a police officer who found him at the scene of his mother’s death. Dexter witnessed it, but he had repressed the memory. Despite this, he had no feelings, no emotions whatsoever and his dad, Harry, had to teach him how to fit in so people wouldn’t realize he was different. Harry also taught Dexter how to channel his killing urges and beat forensics. His main lesson to Dexter, other than don’t get caught, is to only kill people who deserve to die – really bad criminals who have beaten the system. These people include murderers, drug dealers, coyotes who kill the ones they are supposed to be saving, and such like.

I am enjoying this first season which has one main case – the Ice Truck Killer – he and his sister are trying to solve with the Miami PD – while Dexter is also taking care of his own killer needs.

Oh yeah, he is also dating a young woman with two kids….

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver! We might need to fix something! 😀

The Stone Monkey – Jeffery Deaver

Look Ma, it’s a book review! Yes, snarkiness is allowed on my blog. 🙂

I finally finished this book and now, I want to share my thoughts on it with you!

This book was published by Pocket Books which is a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. in 2002. It is dedicated to all the folks we Americans lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

This is one of the books featuring Lincoln Rhyme. Ever since the movie version of The Bone Collector, Denzel Washington is who I think of as Lincoln Rhyme. In his dialogue in the book, I hear Denzel’s voice. 🙂 It makes the book more interesting to me, I think.

Anyway, in this book, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are hunting down a snakehead, a Chinese man who smuggles humans to America. This particular guy has been named The Ghost and is wanted by authorities in China and Anerica, as well as a couple of other countries, for crimes ranging from human trafficking to murder. They are joined by faithful colleagues from the FBI, the local NYPD and two newcomers: Alan Coe of INS and Sonny Li, a Chinese policeman from Fuzhou, China who has followed The Ghost all the way from China to the US to arrest him for several deaths in his own backyard.

The book is rich with sights, sounds, feelings and thoughts which Jeffery Deaver excels at! he draws you into the book by building a three dimensional world out of just words. Words full of deliciousness such as how Dellray dresses and speaks, how Amelia Sachs drivers her sports car and how Lincoln Rhyme feels ghost pains in places that no longer have feeling.

You feel for the poor families being tracked by the Ghost, by the loss of the elderly grandfather of one of the families and loathe The Ghost as he thinks of what he wants to do, not only to the families but also the woman he call Yindao.

There are lots of twists and turns, misdirection and Chinese wisdom in this wonderful story, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes criminal drama, Jeffery Deaver and/or Lincoln Rhyme.

I never give away too much of the plot or the ending so if you want to read the book based on what I have shared, fantastic! Let me know how you liked it, or didn’t. If you want to know more about the story before you actually read it, check out Jeffery Deaver’s official site: Jeffery Deaver-Official Site.

See you on the flipside my friends and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!! The spice must flow!!