Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker

Having read all of the Teagarden mysteries. When they were turned into TV movies. I was quite excited. Unfortunately Candace Cameron Bure had other ideas.

She created a totally vacuous character. Unlike Teagarden in the books. Who continually evolves with each successive adventure. Bure set to defile the character and make her very unlikeable.

She always has to be right. She tampers with police evidence. She obstructs police enquiries. { I could not fathom why she was not arrested at least once ? } And is dangerous and destructive to all around her. With a ' friend' like her, you'd need no enemies.

Another observation is that the Teagarden of the novels, although chaste never appears sexually repressive unlike the Bure ' Teagarden ' Now I have not read any of the Ainsley McGregor books. But I will wager the Bure ' Mc Gregor ' is once again a fiction of her perverted imagination.

And since she is now pushing fifty. Isn't it about time she dropped the teenage character who resembles a ' gerbil on steroids ' ?

That aside, the script for this production was very tortuous. It wound all over the place and in and out. It was so easy to lose track.

Not helped by the incompetent sound engineers. They have very sophisticated equipment today. So why do they turn out such poor soundtracks ? Unlike their counterparts of the classical period of Hollywood.

Camera angles. Well there weren't any. It gave the impression of all been filmed on cell phones. Held by persons suffering from St Vitus dance. I'll make no comment on the lighting. But I think you would know what I might have said.

I have read other reviews about this production. From people who actually read the novels.

And with regard to the characters they appear to be in lockstep.

I do hope the production team is not contemplating throwing good money after bad. By filming further of these novels. Without they make very, very drastic changes.

I love CBB, I really do. I was happy to see her in another mystery. This one didn't get me hooked, but I'll watch a new one if they make any.

This film was a bit too character-wise, they were all over the place. Trying too hard to establish a fun quirky town.

Ainsley herself is a former criminologist, who teaches now. She opens a craft market and runs a book club. Her brother is locl sheriff. Her best friend's husband is a suspect. I wish the writers picked one of these reasons for her to be involved in the investigation. Way too much for Ainsley to do. Focus on one or two things: like she's the sister and the one who found the body. Or she's an off-duty criminologist who helps police in her free time. Etc.

And the book club looks a lot like Aurora Teagarden's club. Probably it's in the books, but I didn't read it. And I insist that it was a mess in this film. Their involvement seemed so forced.

The romantic line was a bit weird to watch. They didn't pretend Ainsley was a blushful maiden, even though the blurring filters were a bit too obvious. We knew she was a woman in her 40-s, he was a man in his 40-s. What's with the clumsy flirting?.. Making a big deal of a dinner invitation, then the whole come home for a cake thing (they really had cake), etc. I get it, these will ber uber-family-friendly films, but it's just way too weird.

As for the mystery itself it was better than I expected! So waiting for another one, hopefully less messy with more adult relationship.

The acting was pretty bad for the backup characters, with multiple times of "dead air". Not sure if this was for dramatic effect, but the scene by the car where they agree to meet at Dooley's for supper, was painful to watch.

The quality of the movie overall was far below what Candace previously had done on Hallmark and I know GAC is trying, but the quality of their movies just isn't there yet. Stop stealing actors and develop some actors for your series and movies.

The parallels between the Teagarden series is way too obvious - instead of an old boyfriend being a detective to work with, she works with her brother and then, the book club, which was so over the top, again made me uncomfortable and they forced it on us that they were going to discuss the murder and help to solve it, of course putting Ainsley as their leader since she has a criminal investigation background, but couldn't handle the situation so moved out of Chicago to the country. I rate it a 5, not a bad time waster, but definitely not a must watch like the Teagarden movies were.

Let's start of with this taking place in Texas. Nope, not even close. Nowhere in Texas looks anything like the location of this show. In fact, it was actually filmed in Victoria British Columbia, almost 1800 miles from the closet border of Texas. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this was supposed to be Texas. There are no lakes surrounded by mountains anywhere in Texas. Next, none of the characters sound like or dress like Texas. Plastering Texas flags all over the set cannot make up for the glaring 2000 miles difference. I'm just blown away by the cluelessness of trying to pass this off as Texas. Next, just to beat a dead horse, there are no Mexican Americans, even as extras. Are the producers so dense they don't know how many Hispanics there are in Texas. If you're going to try to continue this silly charade, at least bring some actual Texans to fill in as extras.

The tropes are overflowing. Civilian female "criminologist" is smarter than all the local yokel sheriffs (with four stars on his collar no less. Acting and writing are meh.

I haven't read the books, and I know that a new series requires dialogue that sets up to explain a lot of relationships and characters quickly. But this dialogue was rough. The interaction between Ainsley and the other booth-owners at the artist shop is very promising! But the interaction between her and her brother is flat and cheesy. They have a great opportunity there to make a little sibling banter or warmth so I hope that improves. The storyline was fine. Had enough suspects. It was a little weird that the wine owners were losing tons of money but didn't know how.

Ainsley did overstep quite a few legal boundaries inserting herself which as a criminologist she wouldn't have, but it was a catalyst in the story so necessary and easy to overlook :) We all know it's not a true crime type drama, it's a feel good mystery :) But the fact that she had to pepper in that she's too small to do harm or too little to make an impact twice and then that she is into fitness not sports three different times was weird.

Acting was fine, setting was pretty, plot worked, hopefully by the 2nd or 3rd movie they will have their groove! I'm looking forward to the rest of this series!