A Remarkable Place to Die brings a new mystery series from New Zealand. Chelsie Preston Crayford stars as homicide detective Anais Mallory who returns to her hometown of Queenstown to join the police force there.
The best thing about A Remarkable Place to Die is the setting in Queenstown in the shadow of The Remarkables mountain range. An utterly gorgeous place and filmed beautifully for this series. There are only four episodes, but each is a full feature length of about an hour and a half.
Each episode is a separate murder investigation with an ongoing story line about Anais’s family history and her various relationships.
Anais’s younger sister died in a car wreck a couple of years before. He father died not too long before that. Her mother (Rebecca Gibney) doesn’t want Anais looking into either of those deaths from an investigative standpoint. Anais does it anyway. What she finds is suspicious.
Anais works with Sharon (Lynette Forday), her boss in the police, and Simon Delaney (Matt Whelan) another detective like herself. Hoana (Roimata Fox) and Jarrod (Dahnu Graham) are the younger cops with Jarrod being good for some laughs and Hoana getting a lovely surprise reveal at the end. Ihaka Cooper (Alex Tarrant) is the coroner, an old friend from school who would like to be more than friends now.
Anais’s old boyfriend Luke (Charles Jazz Terrier) and her former best friend Maja (Indiana Evans) are now married and running thriving businesses.
None of these characters were well developed. Even Anais was not explored as deeply as she should have been. Rebecca Gibney was horribly underused. The various crime solving efforts were sketchily drawn and downright predictable. Caroline Bell Booth directed one of the four episodes.
The last moments of the final episode were inconclusive. Not a cliffhanger exactly, but open ended enough so something waits there for a second season to build on. I have seen no news about a second season yet, however.
A Remarkable Place to Die is enjoyable enough to watch. I like the actors and the location. But it is not the best thing to ever come out of New Zealand.
You can see the series on Acorn TV.
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I did enjoy this series, mostly for the scenery, but Chelsie did a good job, too. I agree Rebecca Gibney was handled poorly. I couldn’t get over the notion that the mom, having lost a husband and a daughter, was almost estranged from her remaining daughter. Alex Tarrant was great!
On a side note: I noticed you have not reviewed “Astrid” aka “Astrid et Raphaëlle.” I recommend it. Season 4 is on Prime (Masterpiece I think) I hardly ever do this, but after finishing Season 4, I restarted watching Season 1.
I’m still relying on you to find watchable content.
I haven’t heard of Astrid. I’ll see if it’s something I can find. Four seasons is a lot. It must be good.