My Life Is Murder

Easy to watch, with a pro cast, well-directed and shot, this mystery series is lightweight but fun. The editing could be tightened up a bit as the current pace is a bit too relaxed for murder but other than that it's an enjoyable way to pass the time on a hot summer's night. I'd be curious to see what a season 2 might bring...

Australian commercial channels have a history of producing cheap, clickbaiting, police dramas, or worse: bad imitations (see the recent botched re-boots of Ms Fisher and Dr Blake). So I was curious about this one. As it happens, the first episode was watchable, and in parts enjoyable. The set-up for the series is based on a well-known formula: retired cop (for reasons undisclosed -this is presumably a red herring backstory that will be revealed one detail per episode) gets out of retirement because a former colleague needs help to close a case worthy of investigation. Said ex-cop accepts the assignment and gets paired with IT whizz sidekick with a personality twist or two (this one has a thing about car detailing and high-end vacuum cleaners). So far, it's standard cop drama / PI fare, and we've seen quite a few variations of this recipe over the years. What makes the series watchable is the acting lead, kiwi star Lucy Lawless (perhaps best known for her role as Xena) who delivers a good performance. The script for the first episode had the merit of not being totally obvious from the first five minutes, so keeping the viewer engaged. And the portrayal of the lead female character was engaging. But there are some flaws that need to be addressed. I'll skip over the McGyveresque level of unbelievability of the aforementioned whizz kid's online search prowess. More seriously, in this day and age, unless you are trying to wink-wink / nudge-nudge Amazon for international distribution, one should seriously consider naming the female lead character something other than "Alexa". I felt that was either cheap, low, unfair, or all of the above. Also, don't create a sub-plot about European appliances with an unreadable instruction manual, and then force the lead actor to deliver an articulate (scripted) phone conversation in the said language (German): if Alexa can have this level of interaction, then she could cope with the foreign language manual, couldn't she? (coz google translate would not be able to speak German that good, would it?). Overall a good first effort, but needs smarter/stronger scripts to rise to the level of Australian classics (Ms Fisher, Dr Blake, Rake, Janet King, Jack Irish, Mystery Road, and so on).

I truly enjoyed this series. I hope it gets a 2nd season. Lucy Lawless makes the show. I do like the supporting characters as well. Lucy did not want the main character to have some dark secret and dark background and it shows. The show has a good sense of humor and is quirky and positive. The cases are all cold cases. They tended to be a bit predictable. Hopefully that will improve. The show has beautiful location shoots and is fun. We need shows like this to balance out all the gruesome dark shows that seem to populate the airwaves these days.

They are going into season 4! Hurrah. Still loving it.

Watching Alexa solve crime is good entertainment. All of the regulars are good to watch, and doing a fine job.

Please replace the wardrobe team. Exactly what is the point of all the long flowy overcoats Alexa wears every day? And when the episode is featuring the extreme heat as a plot point, why are the actors in layers and long sleeves? Please, costume designers, pay attention and use some imagination.

After the first couple of episodes, I grew into this show and really enjoyed it. An easy going style of murder mystery, which is a pleasant change of pace, characters you can relate to and some nice views around Melbourne. Just looking at Lucy Lawless is enough for me, a woman who gets more gorgeous as she ages. Good cast all around, and I love the cat! This show has a life and I really hope there'll be further seasons to come!