Great news then, because TVNZ\u2019s latest murder mystery is filled with more kooky small town killings, wrapped up in a light and entertaining format. Created by Kate McDermott and Stephen Zanowski and written by McDermott (Head High, My Life is Murder), Blue Murder Motel is set in a rundown motel on an idyllic coastline called M\u014dwai Bay, located somewhere near Auckland. New owners Vinny (Michala Banas) and Cole (Brett Tucker) recently retired from the Australian police and moved to Aotearoa for a fresh start, but the motel plumbing is stuffed and the conference centre\u2019s a mess. Vinnie and Cole want to breathe new life into the joint \u2013 but there\u2019s a corpse in unit three that they\u2019ll need to deal with first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cole (Brett Tucker) and Vinny (Michala Banas) solve a crime using barbecue tongs (Photo: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
We\u2019re only four minutes into episode one when the first murder is discovered. Mitchell (Johnny Barker) was enjoying a boys\u2019 weekend to mark the one year anniversary of a friend\u2019s death, but when his dead body is found sunken ghoulishly in the bath, it seems crime has followed Vinny and Cole to Aotearoa. Despite vowing to keep out of the investigation (really, shouldn\u2019t they be suspects too?) the couple can\u2019t help themselves from solving the puzzle. They sneak into motel rooms to collect evidence, follow suspicious locals into shops and tackle suspects on the beach. Once a detective, always a detective \u2013 even if Vinny and Cole are hiding secrets of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bright and breezy retro charm to Blue Murder Motel, from the classic car that Vinnie drives to chase suspects through town to the nostalgic soundtrack (Prince Tui Teka\u2019s \u2018Let\u2019s Fall in Love\u2019 was a beautiful way to end episode one). The series taps into the quirks of small town New Zealand without being condescending, and feels a lot like Brokenwood with sea and sunshine. This too is a quietly confident show that knows exactly how it wants to entertain its viewers, with easy to watch storylines, understated humour and a familiar New Zealand setting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jamie (Jayden Daniels) and Cole (Brett Tucker) (Photo: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
Banas and Tucker starred together in the beloved Australian drama McLeod\u2019s Daughters, and have a warm, relaxed chemistry here. They lead a small but solid cast of experienced New Zealand acting talent. Jayden Daniels (Tangata Pai) is charming as Jamie, the inexperienced local constable who turns up to the crime scene in board shorts and jandals (\u201csurf was up\u201d), Jamie McDermott plays sarcastic motel cleaner Saffron and Stephanie Tauvehi makes a welcome return as Maxine, a glamorous local resident who moves into the motel.<\/p>\n
As far as the murder mystery goes, the show\u2019s small cast meant that the killer could have only been one of a handful of characters, which resulted in a slightly anticlimactic reveal that hinged on a lot of off-screen drama. Still, you know exactly where you are with Blue Murder Motel, and that\u2019s not always such a bad thing. Fans of Brokenwood and My Life is Murder will find plenty to enjoy here, and as the world falls apart around us, there\u2019s something reassuring about watching this type of comfortable murder mystery. In Vinnie and Cole\u2019s world, good people unite to hold the baddies to account and every problem can be solved \u2013 even the dodgy plumbing. <\/p>\n
No matter who carks it at Blue Murder Motel, the sun will keep shining, the waves will keep breaking, and Vinny and Cole will have fresh towels for everyone. This might just be the deadly escape we all need right now.<\/p>\n
Blue Murder Motel streams on TVNZ+ and screens on TVNZ1 on Sundays at 8.30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Murder Motel is basically Brokenwood on the beach, writes Tara Ward.\u00a0 Small towns can be deadly, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[148480,148481,111,139,69,1066,213,148482,6445],"class_list":["post-257754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-blue-murder-motel","tag-murder-mystery","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-sports","tag-the-brokenwood-mysteries","tag-tvnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}