The charm of this series, thus far, is the low key nature of it. It has a slower pace, a methodical nature to investigation, as practiced by Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd (Neill Rea), who seems always on the verge of tipping into slovenliness, but never quite does, at least not so far.
The quiet country town of Brokenwood is like every other small town in "mysteryworld". It has every vice imaginable, and a murder for each, which needs to be covered up and misdirected.
The DVD cover refers to it as "A New Zealand Midsomer Murders", which I guess is inevitable.
But Mike Shepherd is slightly more disheveled than Tom Barnaby, as well as maybe a bit more mellow. Shepherd's dishevelment may be because he is not married, and in fact is divorced an indeterminant number of times. And Shepherd's mellowness may have to do with his love of Country Music, or more possibly because he is slightly more out of shape than Barnaby!
Detective Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland) is fun character, Shepherd's younger partner. But as of yet, the writers have not done as good a job of giving her depth compared to what the writers of Midsomer Murders have been able to do with Barnaby junior partners. Hopefully Sims will get more identity as the series progresses.
This episode revolves around the game of golf, and the egos and personalities that inhabit the game in Brokenwood. It was a well written and enjoyable "whodunnit" with numerous memorable suspects, and several gradually revealed possible motives.
I would recommend this series to anyone who has mostly enjoyed the Midsomer Murders series.
The quiet country town of Brokenwood is like every other small town in "mysteryworld". It has every vice imaginable, and a murder for each, which needs to be covered up and misdirected.
The DVD cover refers to it as "A New Zealand Midsomer Murders", which I guess is inevitable.
But Mike Shepherd is slightly more disheveled than Tom Barnaby, as well as maybe a bit more mellow. Shepherd's dishevelment may be because he is not married, and in fact is divorced an indeterminant number of times. And Shepherd's mellowness may have to do with his love of Country Music, or more possibly because he is slightly more out of shape than Barnaby!
Detective Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland) is fun character, Shepherd's younger partner. But as of yet, the writers have not done as good a job of giving her depth compared to what the writers of Midsomer Murders have been able to do with Barnaby junior partners. Hopefully Sims will get more identity as the series progresses.
This episode revolves around the game of golf, and the egos and personalities that inhabit the game in Brokenwood. It was a well written and enjoyable "whodunnit" with numerous memorable suspects, and several gradually revealed possible motives.
I would recommend this series to anyone who has mostly enjoyed the Midsomer Murders series.
