The Suspect

I just want to know why Rossif isnt as popular as his half brother Keifer. I am ashamed to say that I am not very familiar with him. However he is extremely handsome, tall, has a beautiful baritone voice. I find him very interesting to watch.

The first episode was decent enough. I do like Kristin but it seems she plays the same character (personality wise) in everything she does. It's amazing that she never ages. She is very naturally stunning.

The story itself was pretty interesting and heart breaking. Love the old man's spunk. It really added a lot to the show.

To be honest even if it wasnt that good, I would probably continue to watch just for Rossif.

Modern production sensibilities must mean it is OK for actors to mumble now. You won't have Tina Fey enunciating "cam-er-a" or "rural juror". Almost every character said something I missed. The closed captions were screwed up, coming 5 seconds late, and one word at a time. This meant when checking for what the actor said, you miss what is being said at the time.

Miraculously, 39 minutes in, during the Allstate commercial, the captions corrected. They came at the perfect time, and appeared as whole sentences, which is much easier to read, as opposed to single words scrolling onto a sentence.

I assume there is some AI evil going on, where the captions are late and single-word, until the algorithm has enough show buffered so it can present the caption properly.

I also noted the old guy had yellow teeth. This was refreshing. It used to really bug me watching Westerns where it looked like everybody just came from the orthodontist. Maybe the networks will go full British teeth in a few years.

It was nice that the women were not Hollywood airhead fluff-babes. They certainly were not whupped with the ugly stick either, but at least they didn't all look like JonBenét Ramsey.

The plot was nice, semi-Hitchcock, semi-Columbo. They did not reveal the criminal right away, but rather, half-way through. Nice touch, and nice ending, a little twist, but not full-evil sociopath Shyamalan twist. Also, no Law and Order Criminal Intent opening, with 12 different things happening that make zero sense.

I dislike the male lead. TV newscasters don't have beards since people have trouble trusting guys that hide behind a beard. They sure don't mumble. How evasive can you get? The female lead is nice, I might watch again for her and the other cops in the station.

Acting and production values are what you would expect from A-list network TV. I wonder if they shot it in British Columbia so they could use the Vancouver talent pool. If this was a non-union shoot, I am a little disappointed- I guess the strikes made a lot of producers mad.

OK, back to binging Bosch, that is a pretty good show too.

I live on the Sunshine Coast where this was filmed, and know people in the production, this turned out a really nice first episode. Not too dark, edgy or arthouse-y like a lot of mystery/crime shows on streaming sites, more cozy, mellow and lowkey. I rarely watch cable shows anymore but attended the premiere with some friends and family who worked on the show and we were all happy with the result. Our beautiful town was put to really good use location wise, Rossif Sutherland is charisma on low burn as the chief of police and adorable Kristin Kreuk contrasts his wry, stoic energy nicely with her bubbly, effervescent aura. James Cromwell does a quietly magnificent guest arc and nails a monologue that had our crowd pin-drop silent, always nice to see him show up, I hope this show gets a fair shot, so far it fits comfortingly into that niche of elegiac rural procedurals that don't expect too much of the viewer other than to immerse oneself in gorgeous Pacific Northwest scenery and straightforward, undemanding intrigue. Excited for the rest of the season.

After just watching the pilot episode Murder in a Small Town, I was more than impressed with the simple plot of a murder that the small towns' new Police Chief was thrust into solving having just recently joined the Gibsons Police force.

The new police chief. Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland) is an impressive murder investigator bringing his vast knowledge from a major city police force to the small quaint town of Gibsons.

Within the first episode we also get to know some of the characteristics of the other officers of the Gibsons police force, both rookies and seasoned police officers. All who look up to their new police chief, Karl Alberg.

One other key character in this new TV series is the town's librarian, Cassandra Lee (Kristin Kreuk) who meets Police Chief Karl Alberg through a dating web site service they both decided to subscribe to.

If the story line appears vaguely familiar to you (as it did to me) you may recall the previous former TV movie series Jessie Stone which delivered nine (9) TV films between 2005 and 2015 starring the aging but still appealing Tom Selleck. Sound familiar now?

Regardless whether or not Murder in a Small Town is trying to recapture some of the magic in the bottle of the Jesse Stone TV films, I really enjoyed this pilot episode and I am looking forward to the new story lines and the characters in the town of Gibsons.

I give the pilot a solid 8 out of 10 IMDb rating. I like it. Yes, I really did like this pilot episode. A Lot!