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.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e08 – Hidden Gems

Now I’m confused. I thought the difference this episode—when all of Ebony Vagulans’s jokes at Lucy Lawless’s expense land instead of miss—was because of director Katie Wolfe. But she also did the previous episode, where they all flopped. Must be writer Claire Tonkin.

There are a handful of good ones for Vagulans, who otherwise spends the episode in reduced support because they’ve got a name guest star to center. And this time, the guest star’s actually in the episode, not just Zooming in a performance.

The guest star is Bill Bailey, who’s not in a comedy role, just a sympathetic oddball one. He’s a potential witness and possibly a potential murder suspect in Lawless’s latest case. Though his tall tales and endlessly annoying presence might make him another victim by the end.

This time it’s a straightforward murder mystery, no questions about the cause of death; it’s just a jewelry robbery gone wrong, with no suspects, no motives, no opportunities, and copper Rawiri Jobe needs some help. Or maybe he just wants an excuse to hang out with Lawless. The first scene, where Jobe always gives Lawless the cases, is particularly rife with chemistry this episode, which is nice because Lawless has got a lot of frustrations.

In addition to the case itself being a stumper, Bailey’s an underachieving rich kid who’s desperate to be relevant and keeps getting in her way. Plus, she’s got brother-in-prison Martin Henderson pestering her about bonding. Plus, some third act reveals.

A lot is going on, and it’s all pretty great. Like, Bailey’s a lot of fun, the other guest stars—Antonia Prebble and Cian Elyse White—are good. And then the character development moments all connect. It took the show eighteen episodes to realize it can keep details about Lawless’s present obscured for dramatic effect instead of just ignoring everything about her past. So maybe it is Tonkin’s script.

The script is definitely the winner for the case; no questions there. The resolution is perfectly threaded throughout the episode, with some great visuals on top of Lawless’s expository dump. It feels a little too forcefully centering Bailey the guest star; the finale more than makes up for it. And there are a lot worse things than more Bill Bailey than you actually need.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e07 – All the Better to See You

This episode is one of those “for my sins they gave me one” situations. Most of the episode is character work for Lucy Lawless, and it’s really cool for a while, and then it goes to pot. It’s a bummer. It’s also not a particularly good mystery. Malinna Liang’s script has got all the right details and a whole lot of black humor for them. Unfortunately, the mystery has to get unnecessarily complicated to drag out the investigation and red herrings. Worse, even though the postscript’s kind of funny, it’s funny so it doesn’t have to do any character development for Lawless.

I got what I wanted, and they screwed it up.

Joy.

It’s another suspicious death and widow-bonding episode, only this time there are two widows, and Lawless knows one of them. An actor dies when the prop knife fails to engage the spring, his costar (Greta Gregory) doing the stabbing. Gregory’s not just the costar; she’s also the mistress, so she’s widow number one. Widow number two is Lawless’s childhood New Zealand bestie, Sara Wiseman, who she abandoned when they had to skip out thanks to Lawless’s dad being a conman. Regrettably, Lawless and Wiseman never get past character revelation exposition to character development because they tend to drink and get into trouble while hanging out.

Despite Lawless being a widow literally one of the show cornerstones, it’s never something to be explored.

The death (or murder) happened during a filmed performance—and it’ll turn out the case could’ve been closed earlier if copper Rawiri Jobe had done a better job watching the YouTube—at a cultural fair. So there’s a subplot about Ebony Vagulans bonding with all the artistic types while Lawless rolls her eyes at creative expression. It’s a bunch of busywork to kill runtime, but at least there’s personality to it. Lawless and Vagulan’s investigation—there’s Gregory, the obvious suspect since she actually stabbed the guy, and stagehand and understudy Jordan Mooney. Wiseman’s in the clear because she was out of town. And she didn’t have a motive. Or at least she didn’t know she had a motive.

Lawless and Vagulan go over the case erratically so as never to discover too much because then there wouldn’t be an episode. Or if Jobe had just asked two more questions during the initial investigation.

It’s an unfortunate outing. There’s some mildly amusing not-flirting flirting with Lawless and Jobe at the beginning, but, just like almost everything else, it goes nowhere. Kind of like the play being an elaborate feminist critique of Little Red Riding Hood; the whole episode feigns being interesting but never delivers anything of substance.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e06 – Sleep No More

Lucy Lawless gets an arc to herself with brother Martin Henderson this episode, and it's almost enough to make up for a lackluster murder. It seems like it'll be enough, but the epilogue is a weird whiff and reminds of the show's inability to land certain things, like jokes at Lawless's expense from Ebony Vagulans. They fall flat, Lawless looks at Vagulans to acknowledge they fall flat, then the show just pretends they work. It's a very weird fail, and one "Murder" can't stop making.

The mystery this episode is a suspicious death at a resort hotel. Bruce Hopkins was locked in the freezer overnight, and copper Rawiri Jobe suspects foul play but can't prove it. So he sends Lawless and Vagulans on holiday to figure it out. Except Henderson's up for parole, so Lawless has to bounce between home and work all episode, allowing for her to look at computer intel because Vagulans apparently doesn't bring a laptop with her to the resort.

There are a handful of suspects. Son-in-law Ryan O'Kane, presumably daughter-in-law (presumably suspect not presumably daughter-in-law) Grace Palmer, and American real estate mogul William Shatner. The widow, Carmel McGlone, was out of the country at the time, which is good because she's super suspicious all the time. Shatner's only it to give Lawless a banter partner she doesn't immediately shut down before she and McGlone can bond over being widows.

It just takes a while because everyone at the hotel assumes Lawless and Vagulans are "dark tourists"—vacationers who go to murder scenes and snoop around—and not there in any official or even consulting capacity. Eventually, McGlone gets better material (while getting more suspicious), and she and Lawless can chill out and pass Bechdel, even with dead husbands to talk about.

McGlone and Palmer give good supporting performances, and then Lawless might give her best performance of the season—it's a muted personal—but it's too bad Vagulans isn't better. Some of it's obviously the material.

Also, O'Kane is a little bit too thin. You keep assuming he will have substance because they treat him like an actual suspect, but he never delivers any. Kate McDermott's script has herky-jerky pacing to it, without ever following through on event consequences, just hopping to Lawless's next interaction with the guest stars.

Despite the insubstantial mystery plot, there's still room for Lawless to deliver on the character front. But it's the flimsiest episode in a while.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e05 – Crushed Dreams

While Covid-19 doesn’t exist in “My Life Is Murder”—seriously, how long does it have to go on before someone might think they should address it even for reruns; we had to deal with flag pins for a decade—Zoom has still become a thing. Unclear how Zoom became ubiquitous in a world without lockdown, but since one of the show’s central conceits is Lucy Lawless’s four loaves of sourdough bread are all Joe Naufahu ever needs for his restaurant… there’s some obvious willful suspension of disbelief.

Anyway.

Zoom figures in a lot this episode, both in the case and not in the case, with first season regular Bernard Curry popping in to remind how one can simultaneously be affable and lack charm. There’s even bad timing from Curry. It’s not a bad cameo—and much better than I expected when they showed his name pop up on Lawless’s phone—but this season is such a joyful success; why remind of the wanting first season.

This episode has a complex—no pun intended—vineyard mystery. Young vintner Tatum Warren-Ngata dies in a horrible accident, but there might be something corked—pun intended—about it, so copper Rawiri Jobe sends Lawless to investigate. The vineyard’s on an island, which requires a sleepover at a bed and breakfast, so Ebony Vagulans tags along. There’s (presumably) free wine. And studly master vintner Jay Ryan running the show. Ryan’s got such a phony-looking mustache it seems like it’s going to be a Scooby-Doo reveal at the end, but based on a quick IMDb search, it might be real. It’s not important.

Because he quickly because a prime suspect just for the suspicious creep factor. Even if he’s not a killer—he’s got the best alibi, and it’s not even a homicide for sure—there’s something shady about his wine. The solution to the mystery is going to involve a whole bunch of wine talk. “My Life Is Murder” has been very comfortable being repetitive with exposition to keep viewers caught up, but this episode—writing credit to Shoshana McCallum—demands they pay attention to winemaking minutiae. They sort of simplify it for the finish, but it’s still full of… ahem… complexities.

While the vineyard’s away from the city and presumably the cast besides Lawless and Vagulans, Jobe and Naufahu do manage to keep showing up. Lawless and Vagulans are either in the apartment, baking bread and thinking through the investigation—the episode does an excellent job with the thinking through process, and both Lawless and Vagulans are getting really good at having eureka moments—harassing one of the suspects, or just hanging out with Jobe and Naufahu. At one point, they all have a glass of champagne together, with Naufahu naturally joining in even though he’s kind of just their favorite barista.

It does actually set up a later scene in the mystery solution, so well done, episode.

Also, Jobe appears to drink on the job a lot. And Vagulans now regularly teases him about a romance with Lawless, so I wasn’t the only one who saw the chemistry.

Good supporting performances from everyone at the vineyard—Ryan, Britain Swarbrick, Nicola Kawana, Graham Vincent. Not Warren-Ngata in her social media footage (seriously, vlogging has entirely changed flashback devices), but, well, it doesn’t really matter. It all works out.

“My Life Is Murder” definitely seems to have found its formula.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e04 – Look Don’t Touch

It may just be the museum setting or Lucy Lawless making fun of a woman with a dog in a stroller at the beginning of the episode, but I’m really on board with this season of “My Life is Murder.” The actual big difference—besides giving Lawless some backstory to drive her character and the move to New Zealand—is turning Lawless and sidekick Ebony Vagulans into roomies. They can’t avoid one another (more precisely, Lawless can’t avoid Vagulans), and so there’s a lot more banter.

Including Lawless dropping backstory bombs. She had to pick mom over dad and Australia over New Zealand—Vagulans doesn’t seem surprised to hear Lawless has a brother, even though it was new information for the audience last episode, so maybe she already knew. There’s a nice bit of implied gravitas to the relationship, though Lawless is still a jerk whenever Vagulans talks about her own family. Or to hottie restauranteur Joe Naufahu about almost everything. Though whenever Lawless and copper Rawiri Jobe meet up—including a chemistry-filled stakeout sequence—she’s nicely softer.

There’s no question of whether or not the case is foul play this episode—museum curator Josh McKenzie ends up dead in a river with blunt force trauma to the head—Jobe just can’t figure out motive or opportunity. Lawless and Vagulans head to the museum, where Lawless spent lots of time as a tween and has lots of memories, and start interrogating the staff. There’s working partner and ex-girlfriend Manon Blackman, helpful and flirtatious security guard Matariki Whatarau, and then head curator (or something akin to it) Anna Hutchison.

The mystery solution is relatively obvious (does Jobe even do his job) once all the facts come to light, but Lawless has to find them all. There are some missing security tapes, a mysterious symbol, and a lover’s quarrel or three.

Once again, the show leverages Lawless’s widow backstory to help her bond with Blackman, which becomes a slight character development arc for both of them. Blackman’s not in the episode very much—she’s the obvious prime suspect, and she bungles a North by Northwest alibi—so instead, flirty Whatarau and grieving mentor Hutchison get the most material. Both of them are good; this episode’s acting, down to bit player Wesley Dowdell, is quite good.

Plus the museum. Director Mike Smith really captures the grandeur of the open interiors while Lawless does an excellent job of being nostalgically touched.

It’s early, but I’m already hoping “My Life is Murder” gets another season. Especially if they stay in New Zealand.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e03 – All That Glitters

“My Life is Murder” has seven more episodes this season, and it’s entirely unclear how much more they can reveal about Lucy Lawless’s character by the end. In this episode, we find out not only does she have a brother (Martin Henderson), he’s a con man (a professional one like their dad), he’s in prison, and she moved from Australia to New Zealand to be some kind of a support system for him. All that information comes in one scene. Despite this episode going over all the mystery details twice like they’re trying to catch up with anyone coming into the episode late (seriously, was this practice a thing before streaming, and did I forget), the set-up on the brother stuff is phenomenally efficient.

Lawless isn’t much friendlier to Henderson than anyone else, and she’s just as cagey about what she’s filling her time in Auckland besides bringing him the occasional care package. “Murder” is usually a light, breezy, pretty mystery procedural, but Lawless is developing a rather interesting character this season. Though having a major backstory bombshell every episode helps.

The mystery this time is a dead drag queen (played by real-life drag queen Kita Mean), who may or may not have been murdered. It’s an unlikely electrocution situation, and copper Rawiri Jobe wants Lawless to figure it out, which means Lawless and Ebony Vagulans get to go clubbing. While Vagulans bonds with bartender Amanduh La (who’s delightful throughout), Lawless pisses off Mean’s widow, Elektra Shock, and her now promoted protege, Drew Blood, with all sorts of annoying questions.

The episode takes a really, really long time to answer the cause of death question, and a lot of it is just Lawless or Vagulans hounding someone with questions. Usually, the queens’ manager, Michelle Ang, who alternates prime suspect with Blood. See, Ang wanted Blood to replace Mean the whole time, but it’s Mean and Shock’s show.

Blood’s acting isn’t great, but Shock’s pretty good (the episode avoids having too many scenes with Shock to delay important mystery components), and Ang’s kind of great. Though only as a foil for Lawless. Ang tries being hostile to her; Lawless brings it back tenfold, always smirking through.

Not a lot of material for Jobe, other than an excellent flirtation scene.

It’s a rather good episode for “My Life is Murder;” Lawless getting character development is doing wonders for the season.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e02 – Oceans Apart

On the one hand, the previous episode spent a lot of time reuniting Lucy Lawless and sidekick Ebony Vagulans to break them up here; this episode, Vagulans has hurt her leg while at a water park trying to stay cool because Lawless won’t get an air conditioner. So Vauglans is in the apartment for all her scenes, including a great one with copper Rawiri Jobe, while Lawless is out investigating the possible murder of a surfer.

And, so, on the other hand, the show all of a sudden does some actual character development on Lawless. We get a somewhat non-sequitur backstory anecdote, but they’re able to get a bunch of material from it. Reasoning behind Lawless’s behavior. She’s not eccentric, short-tempered, or rude; she’s traumatized. Obviously, the show’s constantly reminding Lawless is a widow, but it doesn’t really establish her being any different when she wasn’t one.

Of course, the change in scenery has a bunch to do with it. The backstory is particular to the case—turns out Lawless’s Aussie ex-copper is actually a dual citizen who spent at least summers in Auckland in her youth. She gets defensive about it when talking to Jobe. Lawless is actually a New Zealand native and is one of the show’s executive producers, so maybe she wanted to showcase home. And “My Life is Murder” is a definite showcase of New Zealand. It’s unbelievably beautiful and rather cool-looking in terms of architecture. I hope the film commission kicks the show some bucks or tax breaks for the commercial.

Though, what with the gorgeous scenery, the bread-baking, and the endless stream of hot dudes, “My Life is Murder” is kind of like Lawless’s “Eat, Pray, Love.” Plus, the added frustration of mentoring Vauglans.

The mystery this time is dead surfer Connor Johnston, who leaves behind a pregnant girlfriend—social influencer Courtenay Louise, who’s perfectly obnoxious in the part. Jobe’s able to prey on Lawless’s widow sympathy to get her on the case (Lawless doesn’t like the beach), only for Lawless to discover Louise isn’t exactly grieving. She’s too busy preparing her brand for the memorial service, barking orders at suffering kid sister Molly Leishman and making eyes at George Mason. Mason, the lifeguard who didn’t save drowning Johnston, is also a rival suffer who Johnston beat the year before in the nationals or whatever. Oh, and he and Louise used to be hot and heavy. So Lawless has a bunch to unravel to get to the eventually somewhat geeky solution.

The beginning is pretty pat and cheesy as far as genial murder mystery shows go, but it definitely picks up throughout thanks to Lawless and the other actors.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s02e01 – Call of the Wild

One can only feel so bleeding edge TV hip when watching shows from other countries when it turns out they’ve actually changed countries, and one—c’est moi—has no idea. This season of “My Life is Murder” takes place in Auckland, which is in New Zealand. Last season took place in Melbourne (Australia)—also, the whole “Mel-bin” pronunciation thing for Americans is just a white working-class “Barthelona”; rant over.

So now retired copper, widow, and artisan bread-baker Lucy Lawless is now in Auckland. She’s got a great apartment, she’s got her cat, she’s baking bread for a trendy eatery with a hot owner, all she needs now is some murder. Police detective Rawiri Jobe obliges, bringing Lawless a case to consult on.

Grieving recent widow and local shop-owner Robyn Malcolm gets up one morning and shoots her neighbor, Peter Feeney, five or six times during his morning run in front of witnesses. But something about the case just doesn’t sit right with Jobe, and he doesn’t want to put an innocent person in prison. New Zealand cops are such cucks, am I right? Just shoot her dead in her bed and be done with it.

Lawless can’t look into it on her own, so she calls up old assistant Ebony Vagulans for help. Vagulans flies over straightaway—wanting to escape her overbearing, omnipresent family—and starts inserting herself into Lawless’s life. But together, they’ll figure out what’s really going on and make sure the right people are punished. Because it’s a cozy mystery show with an edge, though that edge is just Lawless. Without her—and maybe some of the setting’s trendiness—“Murder” would barely have a pulse. Conventionally attractive or appealing white people with accents get into trouble and end up turning to murder because otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story. But thanks to Lawless, there’s a bite to it. Even though she’s not actually mean or even short-tempered. In fact, she’s full of empathy.

She just finds Vagulans cloying, which is fine; Vagulans being a little cloying—even if it’s justified cloying because Lawless is so cool—is just part of the show’s charm. Vagulans and Lawless don’t exactly banter. Instead, they argue, Lawless wins the argument, Vagulans gets in a final zinger, then Lawless waits a bit and acquiesces because they’re actually a good team. Even if Lawless doesn’t want to be a mentor.

The mystery resolve is a stretch, but it doesn’t really matter. Besides Malcolm, the victim’s wife, Hannah Marshall, and flirty neighbor, David de Lautour, figure into the mix. Besides hot shopkeep Joe Naufahu and detective Jobe, everyone in this episode’s New Zealand is white. Murder amongst the colonizers is actually the standard for the mystery genre going back to Sherlock Holmes.

Anyway.

It’s engaging enough, and Lawless is an excellent lead. She doesn’t constantly try her hardest—especially when flirting with dudes—but she’s a great lead.