Murder on the Menu

6/10 - not the most exciting HMM flick, but always good to see Holly Robinson Peete

This is the second one in this series I've watched and I was not disappointed. Fun characters, a budding romance and a who done it mystery, set in a lovely town, make this a pleasant relaxing entertainment. I had a lovely evening watching it.

I have not been able to enjoy this series at all, and this is another demonstration of why. Holly Peete and Rick Fox cannot act in dramatic roles. Both are good at giving each other warm knowing looks, but that's about it. Their acting is shallow and passionless. Holly has a gun pointed at her and her reaction is on par with a late breakfast. Boring, dull and no emotion. Heck if I had a gun pointed at me I would at least my eyebrows in alarm. With Holly, nothing.

Sorry, but Holly cannot act.

Ian Fox is not able to portray depth either. HIs lines are punishingly few, so one wonders what the producers expect him to do with them. Either way, the result is a flat, dull character. As they gave his character a family member to live with him, perhaps that will bring his character out of a coma.

The only actors with some life are Karen Robinson as the aunt, the man who plays the character with her and the dog.

I couldn't make it through. I finally fast forwarded it to the end and then happily ended my pain.

I just have to say kudos because the Detective/love interest is 5 years younger than Holly! It seems women age out much more quickly than male actors. So yeah to Hallmark for putting an actress with a younger man. The show is typical HMM fair. If you enjoy the other movie series, you will like this one too.

When sitting around with family someone for some reason turned this on. To say I was mystified was an understatement.

I get that Hallmark likes to release a dozen of these types of series a year based on some lady budding her way into crime investigations who works in a usually unrelated field, but this one is easily the worst I've seen. It just seems like the entire main cast doesn't want to be there.

The acting was wooden and lines were delivered in the flattest way possible. The plot depends on the bad guys being idiots and relies on so many overused Hallmark mystery tropes that I called the bad guy and their accomplices within 2 seconds. Seriously, why is it that the bad guys explain their entire plan, never shoot the hero and then trip over something just as the cops arrive?

Seriously, stick with the better Hallmark mysteries that have stars that look like they want to be there.

The only saving grace I found with this, other than it being hypnotizingly bad, was that some of the supporting actors were having a good time.