We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: The first episode of a new “cozy mystery” or “murder of the week” series almost always has a mystery that’s a bit undercooked. The show’s writers need to spend a lot of the runtime setting up the situation and how the main characters end up investigating murders in their small town or wherever they’re located. That’s what we saw in the new Acorn mystery series Blue Murder Motel.
Opening Shot: Grainy home movie-style shots of a beach town and a small motel. Then we see the sign for the Blue Motel.
The Gist: The Blue Motel, in the sunny and tiny New Zealand beach town of Mōwai Bay, is under new management having been bought by an Australian couple, Vanessa and Peter Coleman (Michala Banas, Brett Tucker). Both “Vinny” and “Cole” were police detectives in New South Wales, and they decided to leave their old life behind when Cole’s mental and physical health started to deteriorate from the pressures of the job.
Not everything is bucolic, though, as Cole and Vinny have to break up a fight by the pool; Devlin (Maaka Pohatu), Mitchell (Johnny Barker) and Ross (Matt Baker) are there to honor their friend who died a year prior. There is some annoyance that Ross has his new (and young) girlfriend Shaylah (Briar Troy) with him. Soon after that fight, though, Mitchell is found dead in an overflowing spa tub in Unit 3 when Saffron (Jamie McDermott), the motel’s employee, sees water coming from under the unit’s door.
Constable Jamie Haira (Jayden Daniels) arrives on the scene, and Cole and Vinny soon figure out that the young cop has no idea what he’s doing. He admits that he recently graduated from the academy, and he’s the only cop in town. This is when Vinny’s police instincts kick in, despite Cole telling her to stay out of it, and she starts asking probing questions to Devlin, Ross and Shayla.
As much as he doesn’t want to get involved, though, Cole manages to find an extra wine glass in Mitchell’s room, and the glass has lipstick on it. Saffron recognizes the lipstick as one worn by another guest, Maxine (Stephanie Tauevihi). When Vinny sees that Maxine is staying at the motel despite being a Mōwai Bay, that also arouses suspicion.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Blue Murder Motel, created by Kate McDermott and Steven Zanoski, is a lightly-funny cozy mystery along the lines of My Life Is Murder or Harry Wild.
Our Take: The setup of Blue Murder Motel is tailor-made for a cozy mystery. The motel owners are former cops, and the cop that patrols the town needs a lot of help. The only thing you need now is a small town with secrets, and it seems that Mōwai Bay is going to have a lot of them.
Will all the victims be guests or other people visiting the “Blue Murder Motel” as the sign says after some teenage vandalism? Maybe, but we don’t think the show needs to limit itself that way. The town is small enough, and Constable Jamie is overwhelmed enough, that he’ll likely look to Vinny and Cole to help him out when the murder rate suddenly spikes to… more than one, we guess.
As we said, the first mystery had some hiccups, with motives a bit muddled and past history between the principals that took a second for us to sort out. It was also pretty predictable. But we enjoyed the chemistry between Banas and Tucker, and we hope to get a little more of Vinny and Cole’s history as a couple and as cops to get some perspective on why they wanted to start a new life. We also like how, with Jamie, Maxine and others, the community around Vinny and Cole is already established and will likely grow as the new couple in town get to know people.
Performance Worth Watching: Michala Banas, who plays Vinnie, actually has the more physical role. As devoted as she is to Cole, she still has a lot of police detective in her, which is why she has no problem chasing down and tackling people she suspects of something, even though she’s a civilian now.
Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: As Vinny and Cole dance to a song on their new jukebox, sneaky kids run away after adding the word “Murder” to the Blue Motel sign.
Sleeper Star: Stephanie Tauevihi’s character Maxine is going to be more or less a permanent guest, waiting out home renovations that will never end. We like that she’s given a little bit of backstory in the first episode, and that she’s just enough of a buttinsky to help Vinny and Cole out.
Most Pilot-y Line: When Vinny tails Maxine into a store in town, the store’s owner, Andrea (Susana Lei’ataua), makes Vinny buy something before giving her info on what Maxine bought (it was a wine glass to replace the one with her lipstick on it).
Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re hoping that the community building we saw in the first episode of Blue Murder Motel is able to carry the show until the mysteries get a little better, because the first episode’s mystery was definitely a bit rough.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.