Family Practice Mysteries: Coming Home

I have always enjoyed the Hallmark Mystery franchises but the last two entries have been very disappointing. 'The Curious Caterer' has annoyed avid readers of the books with its unnecessary deviations and I just hated seeing two of my favorite strong lead actors struggling to get through it. Andrew W. Walker seemed so uncomfortable in his role.

This one was even worse. The two leads are not as strong in general so they had no chance of rescuing this dreadful and poorly directed script.

Amanda Schull is seasoned but here her delivery was flat and boring. There was no chemistry between her and Brendan Perry, the detective. She always seemed on edge and in spite of speaking very slowly and deliberately she lacked any emotion. She was a military doctor in the field before her husband's death so perhaps her restraint was how the director wanted the character to behave. But coupled with the poorly written dialogue it didn't work.

After her obsession took hold to find a murder where none was apparent, we no longer saw her doing any medical work with patients. She just plunged into pestering everyone for an autopsy and interviewing everyone as if she were the police chief once murder was established.

Brendan Perry was a one-man police force it seems. (It would appear they lost their 'police station' location or perhaps they couldn't afford it or the additional actors or the uniform rentals). He was also not a very good one and he gave her even more access to the investigation than Andrew W. Walker in 'Curious Caterer'. He wasn't at all upset by her discussing all the important details of an on-going police investigation with everyone she met. Of course, perhaps it was partly because he wasn't doing any of the investigating.

I couldn't understand why anyone would answer her questions and only once did the victim's brother ask her outright why she was interrogating them and accepted her lame excuse that she had been his doctor. Perry also allowed her to watch his official interrogations so I began to wonder what alternate universe we were in. Even a very small town would surely draw a line there.

The movie appeared to be a very low budget, rushed, indie production. Most of the cast were 2nd rate (probably local actors) and the few background actors they could afford were distracting in scenes by walking aimlessly back and fro or being poorly placed by an uninspired director. None of this helped Schull's wooden and Perry's bland performances. Even as a Hallmark rom com lead, he just delivers his lines as if he's reading them. He rarely "listens and reacts" ... acting 101.

The story was so lacking luster it's not worth describing. The murderer was obvious from the start. I fell asleep and had to rewind to finish it.

I enjoy most of the Hallmark Mysteries. Some are better than others, and all follow a bit of a formula, but the twisted and turns in each is different. The actors, almost without exception, are strong personalities that fit the roles well. Both the female and male leads and supporting actors bring excitement to their characters.

It's great to see new mysteries and this one seems real with its depiction of a military vet returning to civilian life. This will be a great addition, though we still miss some of our favorites like Gourmet Detective and Mystery 101. I look forward to seeing this and more of the coming mysteries on Hallmark.

When a doctor's healthy patient is found dead, she becomes suspicious. Former Army surgeon, Rachel, moves back to the states with her teenage twins after loosing her husband. Frustrated that the coroner isn't planning to do an autopsy on her former patient, Rachel pursues other avenues in order to get it to happen. Her father introduces her to detective Jack Quinn who gives her some ideas on how to put her forensic military team experience to use on this case. Slowly an interesting familial case unfolds.

I really like the actor Brendan Penny, who plays detective Jack, and I thought Amanda Schull did an excellent job as Rachel. It was interesting how involved her teenage twins got in the investigation. I appreciated that the victim was well liked and spoken highly of at his place of work.

This was a little more serious as far as Hallmark mysteries go and I enjoyed it. I would definitely watch more and can recommend it to hallmark mystery fans.

Let's begin clarifying that I found the characters appealing. Amanda Schull is lovely in her role. Dr Rachel is a kind, wholesome person. Brendan Penny has a charming, solid male role, as Detective Jack. Even their sentimental interaction is played with subtle, gentle touch.

The mystery is somewhat convoluted, yet acceptably engaging.

Where the shows falls apart is in the details, that some may want to overlook, if concentrating in the pleasantness of the characters, but disturbing to any viewer who approached the thriller with a critical mind.

As seen in other Hallmark mysteries, it makes poor sense that an amateur sleuth, a family practice physician in the present one, could go around meddling with official police investigation so easily. Why should all possible suspects even pay attention to her inquisitions? And why should the detective in charge let her get involved and share in his investigations?

Then, the highly intelligent and inquisitive physician is portrayed as a medical jackass. How could a physician ordered an MRI, just to please a patient, clinically in excellent shape, to screen for a prostate cancer? It is an idiotic abuse of an expensive test, and a choice that would make a physician fail any examination, besides never been approved by any Insurance plan. And how could she make a firm diagnosis of "diverticulitis" in a patient just admitted in hospital?. While the diagnosis should be suspected as a possible cause of symptoms, it would take time and complex testing to prove it. And How could a family practitioner spend considerable time meddling in a police investigation for days? Does she not have patients to attend?

Then, before the cause of the victim's death is known, Jack states that a suspect had a solid alibi. How does he know what time the alibi should cover?

Unfortunately, the above is nothing, compared to the main issue. The coroner in the case is made to look like an unprofessional idiot. How could a M. E. dogmatically state that a man, apparently in excellent health and found suddenly dead, has died of natural causes and no autopsy is needed? If the law has not recently changed, the event requires a certificate of cause of death by an attending physician. In this situation the only attending physician would and could not sign such document, in all conscience. By law, an autopsy should have been mandatory and exhaustive enough to keep searching for a cause. No coroner should be satisfied to declare the death as due to natural causes, if the initial results of the autopsy reveal no apparent causes. Where was Dr Quincy all this time? So, the entire drama of the first half of the movie, spent by family and authorities opposing to a medical examination of the corpse is total nonsense.

Finally, I hope I have not missed it, I do not recall if the movie explains how the poison was administered to the victim. Somewhere a hypodermic needle was mentioned.

If so, how could the victim let anybody do that to him? There was no evidence he was rendered unconscious, and the scene of the crime showed no evidence of struggle. Was not this an essential element in reconstructing the crime?

In summary, a reasonably entertaining show, with serious flaws. The script writer should be ashamed of putting together a story with absolutely no understanding of basic principles of medicine, medical legality, and logic.

I've been watching these Hallmark Murder Mysteries series for many years and try to go into each and every one of them with an open mind. Sure, they're low budget, shot in BC, with a mid-level stable of competent Canadian and American actors, and written by screenwriters with a background of churning out simple, paint by numbers scripts that are never profoundly clever (I know who the killer is and why they did it 20 minutes into each movie)...

But what really irritates me, as of late, is how Upper Middle Class, White and privileged the characters all are. Leads & supporting all have fabulous jobs and live in 3 million dollar homes, with granite kitchen islands, glorious bay windows, 4 bedrooms/5 baths and a back yard you can play football in. Their cars all cost $60k+ and their clothes are effortlessly classy. Frankly, I just want to bash their faces in!

Look, it's fine to watch aspirational characters onscreen, getting into trouble and solving crimes. But I've been a TV writer & producer for many years and very much want my characters -- all still clever, talented and determined -- to live in 2 bedroom rental apartments, work as a waitress, janitor or retail clerk, and get their clothes & home decor at Walmart! Audiences can RELATE to those people and not hate/resent them for living a lifestyle they will never, ever have.