The Murdoch Mysteries (BFS Entertainment, 2008)
The Murdoch Mysteries are not at all like the television series called the Murdoch Mysteries. Yes, they have the same core characters and the same setting (sort of) but that's about it. Murdoch Mysteries take two is akin to taking a walk at noon in a city park on a warm, sunny summer day when all is right with the world (save a murder or two taking place) whereas the first version of Murdoch Mysteries is that same park at three in the morning with a cold rain falling and really gruesome things about to happen to you without warning. And in the first version there will not be, unlike this Murdoch Mysteries, a simple solution that resolves circumstances neatly. Foremost in the differences between the two productions is the cast, as these films have Peter Outerbridge as Detective William Murdoch, an investigator in Toronto in 1895. He works with three other main characters being again the same as the ongoing series -- Inspector Brackenreid played by Irishman Colm Meaney, Medical Examiner Julia Ogden played by Keeley Hawes, and Constable George Crabtree played by Matthew MacFadzean. On the whole, this is very much overall a more nuanced cast than that of the other version though I will say that this Inspector Brackenreid is not as believable as the other one is. I believe this is because I can't shake the actor's depiction of Miles O'Brien from the various Trek series from my mind! Peter Outerbridge is a darker, more intelligent, and far less morally constricted Catholic than the other version is, i.e. there is a romance so slow, so sedate in the series between Murdoch and Ogden that I wanted to say 'just kiss her, man!' though it never happens in the first season. And this Murdoch will indeed get a girl, though not the Medical Examiner. Indeed who he gets will surprise you as much as it did me! Toronto is largely and as accurately as one can check easily depicted here as a dark, miserable place for most of the population -- foul, rat ridden, and dangerous, not to mention full of whores, corrupt politicians, and things even worse. Oh, and there is blood, gore, sex, nudity, and really foul language. As a cityscape, this Toronto captures the complexity of a living city far better than does the other depiction -- grim poverty and excessive wealth are depicted equally well. And the streetscapes are quite stunning. (The other series use a lot of stock shots, i.e. the same Victorian Era house kept popping up as a transition scene shot!) So in American terms, the television series is barely a PG-13, but the films rate a strong R. Likewise the mysteries themselves are simply far more adult and far more complex, requiring the viewer to pay attention to what is happening. Now both are good and worth watching, but this is the really good stuff that rises above mere entertainment -- this is indeed great storytelling. These three films are adaptations of three novels by Jennings -- Except the Dying, Poor Tom Is Cold, and Under the Dragons Tail. Unlike the series where there is very little in any meaningful sense of linkage between episodes or even meaningful character development, here even Ettie Weston (as played by Flora Montgomery) is a whore who's intrinsic to the story from the very first scenes of Except the Dying to the very last scene of Under the Dragons Tail. Running nearly four and a half hours without a bad spot of cliched plotting in it, I highly recommend that you watch it as I doubt that you will see a finer Victorian Era mystery this year!
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