A Remarkable Place to Die

I enjoyed the first episode very much. The New Zealand scenery is a huge bonus and the South Island of such great beauty, it adds to the atmosphere. I enjoy seeing different actors rather than the UK and USA actors I so often watch. I have seen Ms. Gibney in other series and she is always a great addition . There was a mystery to solve but also an ongoing one that will tie things and people to the plot line. And no car chases at least not yet. I certainly will continue with season one as it becomes available and hope for more. Chelsie Preston Crawford is most convincing in the role of Anais Mallory.

Love my NZ, Aussie and British murder mysteries. This was one is very promising, but there are a lot of disjointed issues. It feels like some departments got a better budget than others. The cinematography/scenery/drone department got the best budget as the vistas are gorgeous. The fact that the name of the Remarkable Mountain Range is in the title this makes sense. But other departments such as costumes, script writing, directing, and sets did not.

Script: show is episodic and serialized. Great! The detectives solve one murder per episode, but we have to deal with murder of protagonist's father and sister, which one is not resolved in last episode. This show wanted to be serious (One Lane Bridge, Toppo) but also quirky/funny (Brokenwood, My life is Murder) which is OK with me (don't enjoy One Lane Bridge) but it is done heavy-handily. The quirky character is usually the coroner or a nosey relative/friend, but here they loaded all the shows quirkiness on the poor youngest detective. Kudos to the actor who plays him and puts up with it.

Relationship between mother and main detective drove me crazy. If any viewer made a drinking game of how many times Anais went to her mom's house to make up with her or get help with the cases and got slammed out they would be sloshed. None of these scenes moved the plot forward or made any sense.

The details of the car accidents (both the first murder and detective's sister) and helicopter are played out forever in the first 3 episodes, but the finale was literally the last 10 minutes of episode 4. It happened so quickly I had to rewind to make sure i hadn't missed anything.

Anyway an OK way to see Queenstown and NZ outside a documentary compared to other murder mysteries, but not a top notch show.

This series is extremely slow to catch on to and the beginning of it hard to get the plot line. First of all, it's surprising that Queenstown has so many murders in just a small town in the middle of New Zealand. Then its obvious what the overall plot line is in the second episode and the third is finally a good well worth watching whole episode. The final episode ties up some of the very very loose ends and is quite gripping in places but spoiled at the very end when there is really no completion and "sewing up" of the overall plot. Also no aftermath, no real cliffhanger to lead on to another series. Not a complete waste of time if nothing else to do but not one to watch if you want real drama and plot line like I think only the Brits and Aussies can do.

I loved the slow build. People want everything served up in a neat, fast package. The real goal is to enjoy the storytelling and the journey to the end. I can't wait for episode 2. Hopefully there will be more than 4 episodes.

The scenery was amazing as well. Definitely added to the story. Acting was good at all levels. I don't believe there was a supporting character that wasn't believable . Which sadly isn't the case with a lot of shows anymore. Usually there's an actor that's cringe worthy or they've built an absurd character into the show on purpose. Either way it distracts from the show and that wasn't the case here.

This is a good show, it builds slowly but has a thread running through it that holds your attention well. I'm just disappointed that only four episodes have been released so far as it left a huge cliff hanger, just when we were getting the answers we needed. Nice range of established NZ actors and new comers too. The scenery of New Zealand's South Island is just exquisite, it becomes another character in the show. I like the 90 minutes episode format, it gives a lot of time to build for the storyline of the episode and the running thread. I will look out for the next lot of episodes to be released.