Murder Call

Love the haunting music. Very Australian feel to the series.

I liked 'Murder Call'.It was a well crafted,workaday police procedural,except it had one flaw that drove me MAD.Each week Detective Tessa Vance (Lucy Bell) & Detective Steve Hayden(Peter Mochrie) would join forces to solve a grisly murder. Trouble was,the writers seemed to forget that the mark of any good TV police duo is balance- that each should have strengths and weaknesses that contribute to solving the case.Poor old Det.Steve NEVER got to solve the case.Instead of the two of them compiling the clues into a solid block of evidence,each case seemed to be solved by the same maddening plot device: in the final 10 minutes of the show Tessa would stare out to middle distance,have a flash of inspiration and then run to tell Steve of her brainstorm.I watched 2 series of this infuriating show and waited in vain for a single episode in which Steve would be the one to crack the case:he never did.The device got so bad,that every week at 10.20 pm(the show began at 9.30) I would say,"Only 10 minutes to go.Time for Lucy's puzzled expression." I knew it wasn't just me seeing this when a local comedy show parodied it for the very same reason.Clearly 'Murder Call' was in dire need of a good script editor to pick up on these things. A shame,as Mochrie,Bell & cast all gave charming,confident performances.It's too bad it's format wasn't re-tooled to iron out this issue.A good show killed by a lazy plot device.

I just picked up "Deadline" by Jennifer Rowe at a garage sale and on the cover it proclaimed "Introducing "Murder Call"'s Senior Detective Tessa Vance. I was instantly transported back 10 years. Even when it was first on television the station mucked about with the times - often it was on at 9.30 or later. But I persevered. It was so unlike any police show before or since. It was very "noirish" - the sets were often suffused in amber, the venetians

made the shadows slanted, the rooms were often dark - exactly like a 1940s detective movie. Lucy Bell's beauty was in keeping with the theme - dressed in Armani suits (or was it Gucci??) she had a blonde loveliness that set her apart.

It was advertised "Detective Steve Hayden (Peter Mochrie) solves crime by the book but Detective Tessa Vance (Lucy Bell) uses intuition" and each episode usually ended in a voice over from Tessa putting all the clues together and then calling Steve (usually in the small hours of the morning) with her solutions - which were always right!! The gruff Det. Inspector Malcolm Thorne was played by Gary Day, who cut his teeth on "Homicide" one of Australia's first police drama series. There was also Geoff Morrell as Lance Fisk in forensics, Glenda Linscott as "Tootsie" Soames - she did the autopsies and Jennifer Kent as Dee Suzeraine, the police photographer. They were all great and perfect in their roles. In the tradition of "Midsomer Murders" there was never just one murder - the crazy killer always had several people to dispose of.

I wish I had this series on DVD - I'd even settle for VHS!!!

Highly Recommended.

I was so disappointed to see that Season 3 was the last Season. The characters and actors were terrific. This really could have gone somewhere, but like the reviewer before me stated, there needed to be an even distribution of strengths and weaknesses in the solving of the murders. They gave a good deal of character development, without getting too involved with their personal lives, which I appreciated. They kept the language clean and maintained integrity in each episode.

I loved the fact that in each episode, they began with a murder. The music for each beginning murder was really well scripted and the theme music of murder call was classy.

I will follow up on the real life actors and actresses to see what they are doing now. I really enjoyed their roles and the particular murders presented in each episode. They were creative and not copied from other movies or series, and I have seen plenty!

I will really miss this show.

Joyce

This show is an actual police procedural, not a soap opera starring cops, like _NYPD Blue_. Very occasionally, the case will have something to do with one of the characters, but it was infrequent enough that it did not seem contrived, the way it does on most shows. And even then, it often, although not always, is implied rather than explicitly stated. It's not considered necessary to parade each and every detail of the characters' personal lives, past and present, in front of the camera.

I did take a couple points off because the look of the show diminshed in the second season. It became less film noir and more American-network-TV-ish. As an example, the lead's going blonde took away the framing of her face, making the edge fade into the background and giving her a less intense and thoughtful look, less the intuitive detective and more a fashion plate. I found it very distracting, like watching the series in a funhouse mirror.

ON EDIT: About halfway through season 2 (as Prime Video reckons it), the plots start getting histrionic and stupid. Too many of the plots link directly to the running cast's lives, and the rest are just ridiculous. It does become a soap opera about police officers at that point. From "Cold Comfort" (S02E16) on, go find another real procedural, such as _Homicide_.

So I took away another point.

So that the reader may try to correct for my biases, I am an autistic, asexual American woman in my late fifties who watches a lot of British Commonwealth TV.