The Brokenwood Mysteries (TV Series) Shot of Love (2023) User Reviews

Based on true event in Beaumont, TX!

[aumadara · 8/10 · 11 May 2023]

Good episode and based on a true event! A man staying at a hotel in Beaumont, TX was found dead ... same circumstances as this episode. Victim was Greg Fleniken. The detectives had no idea it was a gunshot wound at first. Took a long time. They thought he'd been kicked in the testicles and had a heart attack. Luckily, investigators finally figured out some guys staying in the room next door fired a gun, while drunk, through the wall and the shot went right between the legs of the occupant next door. It seems so crazy, but it really happened. What a terrible way to die.

Gina was great as always. Mike's ex wife was too much.

Loving Season 9!!

[finland · 10/10 · 13 May 2023]

And Episode 5 (my favorite so far) is especially interesting, the regulars moving on with their lives in a meaningful way. Mike's Ex could be well meaning or not but I trust she has his best interest at heart though it is obvious their values differ and Beth should fully examine her feelings but I hope it works out for them. Gina is so wonderful, really smart, good at her job and should be appreciated. Kristin doesn't suffer fools (that guy last season who dubbed her a hick was so so wrong!); can't wait to see what is in store for her in the next Season hopefully. Chalmers and Missy are a beautiful couple! The mystery cases are all intriguing, quirky, entertaining. The whole team really works well together, likes and respects each other. Amazing series.. I hope there is more coming!

A high point in an excellent season

[jimmyfisher77 · 10/10 · 10 May 2023]

Not sure what prcmd was watching! I thought this episode was one of the highlights so far. Brokenwood occasionally does the split story and it's always unexpected. Really liked the way Mike's personal story resolved. In murder mysteries sometimes the main characters are bloodless. Getting a look behind the emotional curtain is nice sometimes. Loved Chalmers and Kristin and their double act. Going from strength to strength. Brokenwood is distinctive in that it's never truly formulaic. It takes risks. This season there's been a small serial element to Mike's life. Not overpowering just enough to make me intrigued. Can't wait for Episode 6 and more seasons to come - I hope.

Good story but felt really long!

[SunnyDaise · 10/10 · 16 August 2023]

This episode is fine - and tells a story rather than trying to make a point etc ... but possibly because some of it is over night times, it felt really long. The different balance / dynamic of this season continues here, which makes me think we're building up to a new era of Brokenwood Mysteries, but it still feels very much Brokenwood with the regular faces and their usual quirks. This episode is not as funny as the last one - which would be difficult to be fair, but overall I prefer a bit less drama before sleep, and this was more calming, albeit it still a bit emotional. Overall, I prefer this latest run more than previous ones.

Easily the worst episode in 9 seasons

[register-911-927945 · 1/10 · 11 May 2023]

Completely unbelievable depiction of Mike, powerless to get his ex-wife to sign divorce papers. The contrivances to extend that plotline were ridiculous, showing Mike as utterly emasculated and unable to stand up for his new relationship, with Beth in no better light buying into the absolute flake Tabatha's point of view. That Mike and Tabatha's relationship lasted for more than a week is beyond comprehension. The murder plotline is unremarkable but okay, though pigeon boy beibg the object of desire for both young women was also stretching suspension of disbelief.

I totally get that Mike is married to his work, and he was fooling himself and Beth about intentions of retirement, but there had to be a more dignified way to get to the goodbye scene at the bus stop.

Overall about enough content for a half episode stretched super thin. Disappointing entry.

Enjoying The Season, But This Episode is Poor and Boring

[jethrojohn · 5/10 · 26 June 2023]

This whole season we've had this Mike and Beth situation brewing, and honestly, Beth never really did anything to endear herself to me.

It all comes to a head here, as the two need to go to Mike's batty ex wife's place to get the divorce papers signed.

The ex-wife has a scheme, you see, to get Beth alone and unload on her all the "terrible things" that Mike did to her.

Which mostly consist of Mike doing the bog standard "working too much" thing that all TV shows do when they need some drama in a cop's family life. Apparently, Mike didn't turn up to the funeral of the woman's mother and she's held a grudge all these years, like the vindictive cow that she is.

And she is a vindictive cow. An awful woman that has cooked up this scheme to ruin Mike's new love life cause she's such an awful person.

Honestly though, since Beth is so willing to believe her story, we don't really want her around anyway. Cause she's so underdeveloped and boring that Mike is better off alone.

The mystery here isn't much of a mystery either. You can guess it as soon as the little moron kids show up and keep trying to cover their tracks like the selfish little sods that they are.

Also, I've noticed that they tend to make Kristen quite dense when they need her to be in this season, so sue misses things. Her carelessness leads to her missing vital clues more than once. Something her character wouldn't do, but they need to prolong the "mystery", even though the audience has already guessed the solution by this point - mostly cause we're shown what Kristen misses.

Honestly, the overwhelming lesson this episode teaches us is that Mike should either date Gina or not date anyone at all. Cause good lord both Beth and the ex are awful. Nails-on-a-chalkboard awful.

Let's hope we never see either of them again, hey?

Great mystery, terrible subplot.

[Marble X · 1/10 · 22 May 2023]

Good whodunnit. A lone guy in a hotel room is shot and killed, no one knows how. Next door, three drunken half-wit kids are torturing a pizza delivery guy and playing with a loaded gun.

Kristin and Daniel did a good job without Mike there and they reached a satisfactory conclusion. Apparently the mystery part of this episode is based on an actual case.

Meanwhile, in the subplot. . . Mike is still trying to get his ex-wife's signature on the divorce papers (he could have just published locally and taken a default) but for some dumb reason, he decides to try to get her signature. Oh yes, and the ex insists that Beth go with him.

Here is where we see how truly gullible and malleable both Mike and Beth are. The ex refuses to sign the papers with a plastic pen and sends Mike out for an "organic pen." The ex then sends Mike off for a pumpkin and runs the "organic" pen dry so she can delay some more. She ends up stalling till the next day, when Mike appears with a box of wooden pens. I became unable after a while, to suspend disbelief that anyone, particularly Mike Shepard, would have spent more than a minute and a half with this idiot.

In the meantime, while Mike has been sent off, obviously to leave the ex and Beth alone together, the ex, still bitter that Mike missed her mother's funeral (he was busy saving some kids instead) uses every opportunity to poison pill Mike and Beth's relationship, which she does as well as any Iago who has ever hit the stage. There is a four letter word for people like her but I'm quite certain I'm not allowed to use it here.

I hated her from the moment I met her and knew exactly what she was doing. Pity Beth was dumb enough to believe it.

For season I0 I would love to see an episode where Mike's ex ends up dead and he is a suspect (but not the guilty party.)

A low in a very disappointing season

[prcmd · 1/10 · 9 May 2023]

A poorly constructed, too transparent, easy to solve mystery, poorly paced. Mike is turned into a pathetic non-assertive man when it comes to love.

Although there are two story lines, the crime solcing one is just drips and drabs with no tension otger than one gaving to guess which of the 3 consprators actually pulled the gun. The cause and result of nurder is too medically preposterous.

The show started off many years ago with intriguing, interesting, well constructed mysteries involving multiple subjects, all happening in the context of New Zealand and Maori cultures. There's nothing distinctive about it anymore.

The Worst Episode In The Nine Seasons

[urbanspaceman · 1/10 · 19 May 2023]

In season 9 we learn that Mike is still married to Tabatha and she's stalling signing the divorce papers. So Mike and Beth set out on an 8-hour road trip to Tabatha's house and we learn why Tabatha has been stalling and why she insists that Mike bring Beth along.

Tabatha is stilling holding a grudge for the time that Mike missed her mother's funeral for a work-related reason and now it's payback time.

After Mike & Beth arrive Tabatha employs various stalling tactics in order to get Beth alone. She uses that time to destroy any chance that Mike & Beth might have had. On the surface it might look like Tabatha is looking out for Beth. But don't be fooled, there's no altruism here.

I I agree with one of the other reviewers in that The Brokenwood Mysteries has lost it's way. I won't be watching episode 6 of season 9 and I won't be back if there is a season 10.

How much worse can Brookenwood get?

[simmons-4 · 3/10 · 14 June 2023]

The increasingly painful to watch series tonight, with "A Shot of Love", finally caused me to quit this episode less than halfway through. What started with a very promising mystery plot was ruined by all the b.s. With Tabatha and Beth and Mike's pathetic responses to Tabatha's "demands". It seems that the writers have moved the focus away from the richer, more intriguing crime solving that made this series so entertaining to an overuse of the subplot about Mike and his romance life.

It used to be a great show, but now it's just tiring. Trudy's brooding and snide interactions with Kristin, Frodo's ever stupid remarks and behaviour, and Gina's ever lusty attraction to Mike and disrespect of the other officers are no longer even mildly entertaining.

The change out of Breen for Chalmers seemed to freshen the show slightly, but the continuing amount of screen time given to the more irritating characters displays, for me, a lack of writing depth that used to make the show one I couldn't wait to see.

By the way, I gave this episode a 3 star rating only because it looked like it had a really intriguing crime to solve. Were it not for that, I'd have given it a 1.