Motive

Any story which has revealed the victim and killer before you have sat down is on a hiding to nothing, right? It is what I thought when watching the first episode of this TV series, but, I kept watching, and, by the end of the forty odd minutes it had me hooked. This series is like having dots joined together in real time by an odd ball bunch of police detectives and their medical assists, or, even better, being navigated through a maze of dead ends right into the middle.

There are, of course, the off story lines which build our characters lead by Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) a single mother of a teenaged son, and Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira) with whom she flirts just a little. But the main reason for my addiction is how cleverly pieced together the plots are. Now I'll admit to flaws, but they are dramatic license rather than incredible events, and the occasional bumpy rather than smooth ride through the evidence, but this show still has been enraptured by its ability to course through your veins like a superdrug.

Ms Lehman is a great actor and this series is a great vehicle for her skills.

Watch just one episode and see if you don't catch the bug.

Motive is a very special treat. I love how instead of figuring out "who dunnit" the show is based on "why they dunnit." It's such a great twist to try to come up with the motive. A show giving you the victim and the killer right up front is really turning the tables. You have to think in a slightly different way. It's a great concept that works. Sometimes murder mysteries are easy to figure out and very boiler plate. In Motive the acting is excellent. The stories are well thought out and don't follow a cookie cutter format. I look forward to every episode. I hope this show goes on for many seasons because quality TV is so very hard to find. This show is a gem! I highly recommend it!

I'm watching the reruns on Alibi, what a shame, another good series that was cancelled. Do US companies not like Canada? Although the storylines hold no real surprises the scripts are good and the characters are engaging. Unlike most of the US counterparts, the characters aren't all young and excessively glamorous; the characters are attractive but this is downplayed for interesting personalities. I love the relationship between Angie and Oscar - yes, it is possible for members of the opposite sex who work closely together and be good friends without any romantic interludes. I also love the way Oscar and Betty's mildly flirtatious encounters hint at a more intimate relationship. All of this is done with maturity without any overt sexual overtones, and these relationships do not take over the story but are finely balance within. I have grown to look forward to Canadian shows, they are much more interesting and a bit quirky, but sadly seem to get cancelled prematurely (see the excellent Travellers and as far back as Due South). I wish programme developers would give them a chance instead of sacrificing good programmes for a fast buck and short term gains.

I love a good crime show. Law & Order SVU is the highest standard for me when it comes to crime shows and Motive takes an original spin on the genre by showing you immediately who the killer is and also their victim.

As the episode progresses you find out more of the story (or motive) from backflashes or killer movements. The sub-plot with the detectives is also standard for these shows and it gels well.

My main criticism for the show is that I like to guess and have suspicion at who the killer is, not being told straight off the bat and thats where Motive really fails. Great acting, great detective characters (especially Kristin Lehman) and production values. I'll be watching curiously to see how it progresses but Episode 1 is really just giving the viewer a basic summary of what the show is about and how it works. It's not great, but it's not bad.

First off, let's address the issue of showing the killer at the beginning. Yes, Columbo did this, but so did other classic shows like Hawaii Five-O and Cannon, to name a couple. So what makes Motive different?

Simple...the idea of this crime drama is to figure out WHY the killer did what he or she did. It's an interesting play on things...the episode starts out with two different sequences, one ending with the word 'killer' appearing on screen, the other ending with 'victim'. The sequence with the killer usually portrays the person in a positive light, and conversely, the 'victim' sequence may portray that person poorly, creating a sense of sympathy for the killer and maybe a non- sympathetic light for the victim. After the two detectives, Angie Flynn (Kristen Lehman) and Oscar Vega (Louis Ferrara a/k/a Justin Louis) show up and launch the investigation, then we see events unfold as to just how the killer and victim wound up on a fatal trajectory. We gather all sorts of info and see all sorts of obvious motives, but quite often, the real motive for the crime comes out of left field. The motive is quite often something unexpected.

This is a Canadian-produced series, and I enjoy the way they tell stories. Between this show, Flashpoint and Rookie Blue, I'm beginning to think that our neighbors to the North are writing better cop shows than we are.