High quality detective or crime dramas occasionally have enjoyed longer lives than my living room sofa and my large kitchen appliances. Midsomer Murders has aired for twenty-two seasons, 132 episodes, and Silent Witness chugs along with twenty-five seasons and 228 two-hour-long episodes. Law and Order, Criminal Minds, Foyles War and others have had healthy runs.
The fifteenth season of the cleverly conceived Canadian CBC detective show Murdoch Mysteries is airing Saturday evenings on Ovation, as well as streaming on Acorn TV and Ovation Now’s Mystery Alley. It’s also available on DVD and Blu-ray. This series almost never drags, never becomes stale. Occasionally, there’s an episode that’s a clinker, but who or what among us is perfect?
Partly crime drama, partly comedy, and with an added sprinkle of fantasy, Murdoch Mysteries explores the unlawful activities of downtown Toronto during the late 1890s and early Twentieth Century. What sets it above so many other shows is its emphasis on character development. The main characters have fascinating private lives.
So high quality is this series that it’s worthwhile beginning at episode one and working one’s way through all 242 45-minute episodes. That’s what I am doing, and having lots of fun!
Detective William Murdoch of the Toronto Constabulary is the focus. He is played by Yannick Bisson who after all these years seems TO BE Murdoch. Murdoch is prim, an observant Catholic. He believes in justice and fair play. He is a brilliant although not always successful inventor, a scientist, and a hell of a detective. But he won’t be promoted, we are told at one point, because Catholics do not rise within the Toronto Constabulary during Murdoch’s tenure.
The primary love of his life (though not the only one) works alongside him for much of the series. She is Dr. Julia Ogden, played by Helene Joy, who sometimes is the coroner and always is the forthright feminist. It’s a complicated relationship, to say the least with distinct details that likely cannot be resolved. Rounding out the well-developed characters of the series are Constable George Crabtree, a bright young guy who has a yen to write novels; brash, hard-drinking Inspector Thomas Brackenreid; and the more recent addition Detective Llewellyn Watts, a gay man living in a world of police officers where his natural inclinations are criminal.
What makes Murdoch Mysteries appealing to so many viewers over such a long time? I think the attraction primarily lies with the full-blown nature of each of the main characters. The audience is involved in their private lives as well as their abilities to solve crimes and unravel mysteries. The appeal also is in their interplay – with each other and with real-life historical characters. Nicola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Arthur Conan Doyle, Marie Curie, Emma Goldman, Charlie Chaplin Harry Houdini, Winston Churchill, Alexander Graham Bell, and Jack London, to name a few, have joined in the exciting activites.
Based on characters from the novels of Maureen Jennings, Murdoch Mysteries will continue to gratify its loyal audience and hopefully new viewers. After we get to know the main characters’ families, their abilities, their foibles, and even their secrets, how can we abandon them? This is a series that seemingly should never end. Only aging actors will put it out of business. Then again, Midsomer Murders found another Barnaby to carry on. Hmmm…
Audrey Kupferberg is a retired film and video archivist and appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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