Tag: Thomas Craig

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Darkness Before The Dawn Part Two

Bonnie Byrne
Darkness Before The Dawn Part Two
Shared Responsibility: Julia and Watts bond over their guilty consciences.

When Darkness Before The Dawn Part One ended last week, William Murdoch had arrested Inspector Brackenreid’s son John for murder. It was also looking like the lad would be left paralyzed after an investigation gone wrong, initiated by Detective Watts. Also, Julia felt guilty that she hadn’t waited for a spinal surgeon and Miss Hart was up to no good.

Part Two begins as Julia (Hélène Joy) enters John’s (Charles Vandervaart) hospital room. He still can’t feel his legs or move his toes. Watts (Daniel Maslany) arrives and tells him he’s sorry for getting him mixed up in the Lucille Palmer mess.

Meanwhile, Miss Hart (Shanice Banton) has been appointed to the position of City Coroner. She meets Inspector McWorthy (Sean Bell) for a drink to celebrate. Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Darkness Before The Dawn Part Two” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Darkness Before The Dawn Part One

Bonnie Byrne
Darkness Before The Dawn Part One
How Is Our Son? Julia has some unsettling news for Margaret and Thomas.

This week’s Murdoch Mysteries begins with a crazy series of events. Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) is at a meeting where he is introduced as a candidate, but a candidate for what? Someone walks into the meeting and whispers in Murdoch’s ear and he takes off for Station House No. 4 on his bike. He races into the station to see Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) punching Detective Watts (Daniel Maslany) in the face in Darkness Before The Dawn Part One.

Julia (Hélène Joy) is at the University of Toronto’s School of Medicine running down a hallway to see John Brackenreid (Charles Vandervaart), who is lying on a gurney, bleeding profusely from his side. Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Darkness Before The Dawn Part One” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Manual For Murder

Bonnie Byrne
Manual For Murder
What An Unpleasant Surprise: Murdoch and Brackenreid run into Ralph Fellows at a retirement party.

William (Yannick Bisson) and Julia (Hélène Joy) discover that someone is committing the murders detailed in their new book, chapter by chapter, in Manual For Murder.

The episode begins with another sparsely-attended book reading for William and Julia. William begins to read Solving Murders aloud and says each chapter reveals a different murder and how it was solved. He starts with the case of the electroplated works of art that began showing up around Toronto. Viewers will recall they were actually the bodies of young women from the season 9 episode Barenaked Ladies.

Constable Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch) interrupts him, to tell him he is needed at the Windsor House Hotel, as the owner believes she has discovered a body in the lobby. He and Julia apologize to those in attendance and leave.

They arrive and hotel detective Ralph Fellows (Colin Mochrie) shows them what he calls an electroplated body on a chair. “Just as in our book,” William says to Julia. “Have you read our book then?” she asks Fellows.

“It may astonish the two of you that the world doesn’t revolve around just you,” Fellows says. “The case was in the newspapers.”

William pierces the electroplate and finds blood. Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Manual For Murder” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Sins Of The Father

Bonnie Byrne
Sins Of The Father
Stop Right There: William seeks justice for his murdered father Harry.

Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) asks Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) to investigate the aftermath of a rooming house fire on the poor side of town in Sins of the Father.

George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) and William Murdoch arrive at the scene of the fire just as a body is being removed. They search it for clues and find a key and a metal cigarette case. Inside the case are cigarettes and a tinplate photo of a man and a boy.

“Oh my God,” Murdoch says, clearly shaken.

“You know these people? Crabtree asks.

“That’s me,” Murdoch replies. “This man is my father.” Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Sins Of The Father” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Murdoch And The Undetectable Man

Bonnie Byrne
Murdoch and the detached man
Great Minds Think Alike: Julia and William have dinner with Nikola Tesla.

Murdoch enlists inventor Nikola Tesla to help investigate the murder of an inventor who was experimenting with invisibility, in Murdoch And The Undetectable Man. 

The episode begins with a man going into an arcade and paying to see a short film through a viewer. In the film, a man is covered with bandages and is holding up a sign that says “Now you see me”. The next time we see the man, he is dead and Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and Crabtree (Jonny Harris) are in a lab, standing over his body. They find a bloody fingermark on a metal shelf.

Tesla (Dmitry Chepovetsky) arrives and tells Murdoch he and Bosworth had corresponded with each other. Bosworth had been looking for advice because his investor was about to pull his money from his invention.

Bosworth had wanted to share his invention with Tesla, but when he arrived to meet with him, Bosworth was already dead and some of his equipment was missing. Murdoch asks what the dead inventor had been working on.

“Professor Bosworth was working on a device to render objects invisible,” Tesla says.

Season 12, episode 13 is Tesla’s return to Murdoch Mysteries, the real-life historical character was last on the show in The Tesla Effect in 2010. Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Murdoch And The Undetectable Man” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Pirates Of The Great Lakes

Bonnie Byrne
Pirates Of The Great Lakes
Undercover Crabtree: George as antiques collector Boston Rhodes.

Murdoch assists Italian detective Flavio Pupazzi recover a stolen shipload of antiques, and Inspector Brackenreid hopes to recover his shipwrecked marriage in Pirates Of The Great Lakes.

Season 12, episode 10 begins with William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) showing George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) his latest invention, an elaborate-looking dishwasher.  He explains to Crabtree that one part of his contraption “pushes strings of soapy water” at the dishes and then shows him “the motor for the dish closet.”

Crabtree wonders why he would be in need of such a machine. “How many dishes do you have, Sir?” he asks. Murdoch tells him Julia has purchased a couple of sets of dinnerware and plans on entertaining a lot.

“Then I look forward to my next invitation,” Crabtree replies, grinning.  Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Pirates Of The Great Lakes” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Secrets And Lies

Bonnie Byrne
Secrets and Lies
Long-Lost Love: Will the Inspector rekindle his romance with a former flame? CBC

Secrets and Lies begins with Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) in unfamiliar surroundings, searching for a missing person. Within minutes, he’s jumped by several men and knocked flat on his back. When he finally gets back on his feet, he makes his way up a staircase to a one room apartment, and is greeted by a black woman with whom he’s obviously well acquainted. He tells her he still hasn’t found “our daughter”. Then the audience loses its collective mind.  Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Secrets And Lies” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Drowning In Money

Bonnie Byrne
Drowning In Money
On The Case: Brackenreid, Murdoch and Watts try to determine the cause of the Westerbrook’s deaths.

When a wealthy Toronto couple are found dead in their swimming pool, a suicide note is found in their home. But Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) believes it could be murder, in this week’s Murdoch Mysteries episode, Drowning In Money.

Murdoch discovers a burglary had taken place on the same night of the “suicide” of Franklin and Louise Westerbrook, although it could just be an “unlucky coincidence. Extremely unlucky if you ask me,” Murdoch tells Detective Watts (Daniel Maslany).

During a discussion about the deaths at Station House No. 4, Henry Higgins-Newsome (Lachlan Murdoch) enlightens his fellow officers on what he knows about the Westerbrook couple. As it turns out, the couple’s daughter Diana had just married a duke’s son, Albert, The Earl of Lincoln. And according to Higgins, this made the Westerbrooks think they were royalty.  Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Drowning In Money” →

Murdoch Mysteries Reviews, Television

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Murdoch Without Borders

Bonnie Byrne
Murdoch without borders
Benevolent Blunder: Brackenreid lets Athos leave Station House No. 4. CBC.

Murdoch Without Borders highlights prevalent racist attitudes towards immigrants in the early 20th Century while Murdoch, Brackenreid and Dr. Ogden deal with the pending Immigration Act of 1906.  Murdoch Mysteries season 12, episode 4 shows viewers that unfortunately not much has changed in 100 years.

The episode begins with immigration officer James McBride set on rounding up Greek immigrants for deportation. Station House No. 4 jail cells are full to capacity. Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) thinks it’s strange that all the prisoners are the same nationality.

The immigration officer tells Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson and Crabtree  that the detainees are all criminals. Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) notices his carpenter Athos is among them. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he tells Brackenreid, who believes him and lets him leave. Soon after, Murdoch and Crabtree find Mr. McBride’s body rolled up in a carpet in a back alley. Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Murdoch Without Borders” →

Entertainment, Murdoch Mysteries Reviews

Murdoch Mysteries Review – Murdoch Mystery Mansion

Bonnie Byrne
Murdoch Mystery Mansion
A Potato, Sir?: George wants to see William’s “potato cooking room” in his new house. CBC TV.

When last we saw the inhabitants of Station House No. 4, Julia and William Murdoch had suffered a tragic loss, George Crabtree found himself unlucky in love again and viewers were left wondering what Violet Hart, Julia’s new morgue assistant, was really up to.

Season 12, Episode 1 begins with Julia (Hélène Joy) and William (Yannick Bisson) walking into their brand new home only to find about a dozen people inside. The home was designed, incidentally, by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright (Aaron Poole) and, as it turns out, Julia didn’t read the fine print (who ever does?!) in the contract before she signed it and has agreed that Wright can use their house as a showcase for 90 days.

Loyal viewers know it wouldn’t really feel like home for Mr. and Mrs. Murdoch if they didn’t find at least one dead body somewhere in the house. The body they do discover is particularly gruesome and it’s a bloody good start to the new season of Murdoch Mysteries. Continue reading “Murdoch Mysteries Review – Murdoch Mystery Mansion” →