My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e04 – The Village

I think this “My Life is Murder” is the most empathetic episode ever. When Lucy Lawless gets to the solution to her murder mystery, there’s a lot she doesn’t like about it and has feels. She also has feels because her brother, Martin Henderson, has gotten out of prison and hasn’t contacted her. He’s the gardener at her latest investigation, a suspicious drug overdose in an elite retirement community. The victim’s a former judge, introducing assassination potential, and her son, Kelson Henderson, is an entitled prick.

Luckily, Kelson Henderson’s only got the one scene. Lawless is really investigating because Rawiri Jobe gave her the case, promising an interesting mystery—the victim died of a heart attack while on LSD. Tatum Warren-Ngata is back helping Lawless out, but like last episode’s teaser promised, Ebony Vagulans makes her return. Vagulans doesn’t have time to help out with the case; really, it’s mostly wrapped up by the time she arrives from Paris (which the show seems not to be explaining). Having Martin Henderson participate in the investigation—Lawless’s reluctant man on the inside–also changes the chemistry.

It’s a more ensemble “My Life is Murder,” which is fine; the cast is more than enough fun to sustain it. Though Jobe doesn’t get much to do—he and Lawless are apparently on the outs, she won’t even go for coffee with him as the show continues to shroud their extra-professional relationship in bemused secrecy. The revelation of previously unknown brother Martin Henderson also causes some relationship bumps.

However, there’s a weird scene with Joseph Naufahu and Warren-Ngata in his café; he pesters her to buy something or stop using his WiFi. I sort of assumed if you worked with Lawless, you got to hang out at Naufahu’s. It just seems like an excuse to give Naufahu a scene, but he’s setting a weird boundary with Warren-Ngata.

All of the suspects are good. There’s husband Temuera Morrison (in a charming, brief cameo—they got him for an afternoon, it looks like), next-door neighbor Elizabeth Hawthorne, drug-dealing nurse Jessie Lawrence, and bent community manager Blair Strang. Any of them could have a motive, but having Henderson on site—doing more than gardening, it turns out—complicates Lawless’s investigation when he’s found out.

Lots of good acting. Strang’s hilariously put out once he realizes Lawless is a cop, and then Hawthorne’s fantastic. She and Lawless have a nice character arc. Lawless handles the more emotional stuff well—her scenes with brother Henderson, for instance; it’s probably her best performance this season.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e01 – It Takes Two

Between “My Life Is Murder” season one and season two, lead Lucy Lawless moved the production from Australia to New Zealand, which meant significant life changes for her character. Her sidekick, Ebony Vagulans, came over to help her out, and the show’s second season had a gentle plot about Lawless moving back home.

And then the overarching mystery became whether Lawless was knocking boots with police department contact Rawiri Jobe, something last season’s finale seemed to answer in the affirmative. But it might be possible they have slumber parties when Vagulans is out of town (she and Lawless are still living together). This episode makes their status no clearer, though they do get some charming sequences together.

Without a hook, “Murder”’s new season feels like another episode of the procedural, same as it ever was. No discernable time has passed; “Murder”’s one of those shows of the early twenties set in an alternate universe without Covid-19.

Or is New Zealand just over it because they took it seriously.

The mystery this episode—besides whether or not Jobe and Lawless are canoodling—involves murdered dance instructor Mikaela Rüegg. Jobe’s supposed to arrest local computer programmer and weird nerd Daniel Musgrove, but he thinks there’s something up with the dance school. Lawless, bringing hunky but also seemingly platonic pal Joseph Naufahu along as her dance partner, discovers the dance students are a high drama lot.

There’s sexy instructor Adam Fiorentino, his star student, Kimberley Crossman, a skeevy married guy, Mike Mongue, and then Fiorentino’s mysterious mom, Jennifer Ward-Lealand. The episode neatly lays out the suspects and paces Lawless’s various discoveries quite well. It’s a tidy mystery, script credit to Malinna Liang.

There are some excellent dance sequences, whether the stars or their doubles and the eventual solution’s both a stretch and not. The episode lays the foundation; it just does it subtly as opposed to everything else.

Lawless is still an excellent lead, Vagulans a fine Watson (who gets very little to do other than hack every computer in Auckland). Musgrove ends up being good, and it’s nice having more Naufahu.

“Murder” might be familiar, but it’s a very sturdy familiar.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e10 – Pleasure & Pain

Well, I certainly hope we get another season, especially since we don’t get an answer about a particular couple of characters’ relationship status, any resolution for Lucy Lawless’s brother (who doesn’t appear in this episode), or just her life in general. In fact, this episode sort of walks back some of the character development from the last episode. Or at least ignores it. Or seems to ignore it.

The hook of the episode is Renée O’Connor guest-starring, reuniting with Lawless from “Xena.” Instead of friends, O’Connor is a suspect, or at least would be if it weren’t a locked room murder. Or maybe murder.

O’Connor runs a wellness cult; her husband, Michael Hurst, died during a sex game with their chief assistant, Shoshana McCallum. But it’s apparently not murder; self-induced, as it were. Only copper Rawiri Jobe doesn’t believe it—the cult’s too weird, especially with O’Connor professionally embracing husband’s mistress McCallum—and so Lawless and Ebony Vagulans investigate.

The initial part of the investigation is fun; Lawless acts like a rube to ingratiate herself to O’Connor and McCallum. Meanwhile, Vagulans buddies up with O’Connor’s son, Miles Muir (also O’Connor’s real-life actor son, no explanation why they don’t have accents), who runs all the computer stuff. Vagulans then finds out Muir’s got a crush on McCallum and fought about it with his dad, who cut him out of the will.

So everybody’s got a motive if Lawless can just prove there was an actual murder and not an accident.

But in trying to establish the crime, the relationships change between Lawless, O’Connor, and McCallum and cease being much fun. O’Connor’s doing an actual creepy cult leader thing, not like a fun reuniting cameo. She’s too good of a villain for it just to be a smile. Her performance is fine too, ditto Muir. Neither of them is great, but they’re fine. McCallum’s good in an impossible part (a relatable cult devotee).

There’s not really a B plot; Lawless is bitching about social networking this episode, resulting in some amusing scenes, and there’s some nice camaraderie stuff between her and Vagulans, but again… they’ve already done this character development.

I wonder if this one’s airing out of order.

Regardless, fingers crossed they get another season. If it’s back to Australia for a refreshed supporting cast, something might get lost overboard in the Tasman.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e09 – Wild Life

As the second season draws near the close, I find myself unexpectedly and unfortunately invested in “My Life Is Murder” and its prospects for renewal. The season’s given star Lucy Lawless a surprisingly good character arc, including in this episode, and she and Ebony Vagulans have become an excellent detecting duo.

And if the season finale delivers on some more of the promises this episode makes regarding the still unspoken relationship developments… another season would be quite welcome.

Most of this episode, not just the excellent little character moments, is quite good. It’s Lawless investigating with purpose, trying to clear a murder suspect (Haanz Faavae Jackson) as a favor for her favorite copper, Rawiri Jobe. Jobe is Jackson’s mentor. Jackson’s a Maori kid, and there’s so much racism bubbling under the surface in the episode there are times you expect someone to get slapped.

Well, not just “someone,” but very specifically Morgana O’Reilly, the victim’s fiancée, who can’t keep her racism quiet even around not-white Vagulans. O’Reilly’s great in an actually repugnant performance.

So then Lawless is invested for Jobe’s sake, and Vagulans gets interested because she sees similarities in her story and Jackson’s. Jackson and Vagulans are good together in the subplot, even if it gets cringe-y at the end, not because of the actors or even the plotting, but the show’s got some respectability politics to play.

Anyway, the case involves adventure tourism, so many stunning New Zealand locations, and the episode even does the old trick of opening on a cliffhanger for Lawless and then catching up to it. Very retro, very well-done.

The entire guest cast is excellent—Matt Whelan as the victim’s brother, Scotty Cotter as Jackson’s coworker, and then especially Madeleine Sami as Whelan’s wife. Sami acts the hell out of her first scene, and it seems like a one-off, just flexing in a procedural questioning scene; she comes back later and is even better than before. Same with Whelan. Lots of nice layering to the performances in this episode.

Especially for the main cast. Some exquisite—not a word I ever thought I’d be using for “Murder”—moments for the main cast.

I really hope they do a third season. With the caveat it needs to build off what they’ve done with this season. It’s an impressive amount of character development for a “lighter” procedural. Lawless deserves the bulk of the credit, but Vagulans and Jobe have also done some superb work.