Roman noir: Chasse au trésor

Why do I watch Mystery Woman? I don't know, except that I love mysteries no matter how bad, and I am a fan of Kellie Martin as an actress and as a person. This series was beneath her, not particularly well written, well directed, or well acted. That about sums it up.

The story begins with some soldiers in wartime, probably Vietnam, finding a treasure at a destroyed Buddhist temple.

We then cut to the present day. The bookstore is having plumbing problems which are being remedied by Tyler Dell, from a local company. A man named Jim Carter shows up and while he's there, a rare book goes missing, and Samantha calls the police. But the book isn't anywhere.

Jim Carter confides in Samantha that he is in town to connect with his daughter, but he's murdered later on. He's left Samantha a note for his daughter and a box with clues inside -- but what they lead to is uncertain. And why leave it to Samantha? The reverend who runs the homeless shelter has a few answers as Samantha and her assistant Philby, who seems to have once been a government agent with big connections, try to solve the mystery of the murder and the box.

The culprit is evident in the first fifteen minutes. To show how sloppily written these shows are, one character is using an assumed name. Talking about him in the past, he's called by his real name except during a flashback where, for some reason, he is called by his assumed name. Sloppy.

Mystery Woman is low-key to the point of sleepwalking, with Clarence Williams III phoning it in and Kellie Martin doing the best she can. The police investigator is unpleasantly aggressive, and I can't decide if he's overacting or just comes off that way because everyone around him is so underplayed. Bad direction, anyone? The sad thing is, if I spot another one I haven't seen, I'll watch it. I'm a sucker for mysteries, even if it's Mystery Woman.

This is the first "Mystery Woman" movie I have watched. The editing and dialogue of this movie is HORRIBLE.

"I need to ask you a few questions" "Sure" "Do you know Jim?" "Yes" "Do you know anything about him?" "No" "Anything else you can tell me?" "No" "Thanks" "Sure"

There are no gaps, pauses, or room to take a breath in the dialogue. It was obvious this is on purpose. In a two person exchange, one person is responding to an asked question before the camera edit can show the response.

Not a bad movie for a TV mystery but the editing is distracting.

As another poster pointed out, the background music is waaaaay too loud! At times it was so loud it drowned out the dialogue. The movie itself was entertaining for a cozy mystery, but the WAY TOO LOUD background really ruined it. It's like being in a chat room AND EVERYONE IS POSTING IN ALL CAPS while you are trying to communicate with someone.

The Mystery Bookshop is having some remodeling done courtesy of David Lascher and is crew and he's an old friend from childhood of Kellie Martin. But things seem to keep getting fouled up, but Kellie is indulgent blaming a lot of it on the loss of his father recently.

A stranger played by John Ratzenberger comes to town and after visiting Martin and Clarence Williams, III at the bookshop goes to a church that helps out alcoholics as their ministry. Ratzenberger is murdered and once again Martin and Williams are up against their irascible town police chief Casey Sander in solving it.

It all goes back to Vietnam and something these guys brought back from Cambodia. A most wealthy thing that they've elaborately hidden. Martin and Williams are reduced to following a lot of clues the late Mr. Ratzenberger laid down.

Not the best of the series, still has its moments.

7/10 - just what you'd expect from a Samantha Kinsey flick