Emma Fielding Mysteries: More Bitter Than Death

It's the third episode of Emma Fielding Mysteries. Emma Fielding (Courtney Thorne-Smith) finds herself in another murder mystery when her supportive retiring superior Dr. Althea Harrison is poisoned during a banquet. The suspects include those fighting to take over. FBI agent Jim Conner (James Tupper) happens to be there after he got recruited by Emma for a speech. Meanwhile, her TAs Joe and Carey are growing closer and worked as servers at the party. The group is joined by pompous archeologist Duncan Thatcher with the bad British accent.

This is the best of the three episodes. It helps that the mystery is a fairly standard one. Essentially, someone is killed and all the suspects are in the room. It's classic. It also helps that the younger characters get their own romance. That takes the romantic pressure off the leads. While Tupper and CTS are really pretty people, their chemistry is set at a slow simmer. The younger couple is better and they provide a nice parallel relationship. This is not breaking any new boundaries but it is a very solid movie for Hallmark with the possibility of extending this franchise.

Jim Conner scrubs up well in a smart suit, compared with his persona as the scruffy FBI agent of previous mysteries, but then he does have to up the ante if he wants to compete for Emma's affections with the suave archaeologist with the Savile Row rip-off tailoring and the dodgy British accent. Meanwhile, as usual, she is more than capable of fighting off the villain herself leaving the rivals literally on the floor yet dapper as before. The mystery is why Courtney Thorne Smith's Emma would even give Mark Valley's Duncan Thatcher a second glance when she can have James Tupper's Jim Conner - the down to earth real man with a taste for burgers and casual wear rather than the fake Englishman with his tux, faux accent and caviar.

She just happened to remember a tunnel system they ran under campus buildings but when the museum was built no one thought to be sure it couldn't be broken into and the square in the floor was left there? And she lifted 2 blocks of flooring up like they we're nothing and yet nothing seemed to support them and no floor joists ran through those spots. What!!!????

Look... check your expectations before going into a movie like this. It's very light entertainment for sure and is full of holes but it does the job. Courtney Thorne Smith is a commanding lead and the supporting cast do well. These movies are a nice throwback to the 1990s and 2000s before Marvel came in and destroyed cinema forever.

Borderline unwatchable for all scenes involving Mark Valley whose English accent is so appalling it actually gives me a headache to listen to it.