Pas de faire-part pour Max

Nikki Page (Jessica Lundy) is a newspaper obituary writer in San Francisco. She aspires to be an investigative reporter. She witnesses a murder in a neighboring apartment. Nobody believes her including the cops. She recruits reluctant mystery author Maxwell Beckett (Edward Woodward). She is a big fan of the former Scotland Yard investigator. His last few books have been disappointing failures and he's dealing with a contentious divorce.

The starting setup is perfectly fine. The first mystery of a murdered neighbor is somewhat Hitchcockian, but there are some problems right away. I do like both leads and Woodward is coming off of The Equalizer. I thought the show sets up the two to join up as writing partners of true crime novels like Capote. I don't like the newspaper element. The show should be about the two of them solving crimes together. When she's at the newspaper, she's usually without Maxwell. The team loses time together and the newspaper office never becomes a compelling workplace. Maybe he could get a job at the newspaper, but that would be too fake.

On the plus side, I like these two actors and their characters have fine chemistry. They're trying for some comedy. Lundy is good at comedic acting. Woodward is doing a mild grumpy old man and becomes a good mentor over time. The showrunner is William Link who is also responsible for Murder, She Wrote. Both shows have the same problem with all these cases falling into the characters' laps for no great reason. The show basically got canceled after eight episodes with the last three being burnt off. It probably deserves better... a little better.

The Equalizer becomes a whining thinker! Woodward plays a writer whose publisher complain that his latest works lack grit. A reporter goes to him to ask his help for solving crimes, hoping it will make him recapture his "grit" in writing. Lots of fun situations, specially one episode where Woodward plays the sarcastic butler to a rich matron. The crime resolutions are well-done and it's just fun to see this old geezer go after the bad guys without the need for guns or fisticuffs. Great show!