Sun 24 Jan 2021
A TV Episode Review: MR. & MRS. MURDER “Early Checkout†(2013).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[7] Comments
MR. & MRS. MURDER “Early Checkout.†Network Ten, Australia, 20 February 2013 (Series 1, Episode 1). Shaun Micallef as Charlie Buchanan, Kat Stewart as Nicola Buchanan, Jonny Pasvolsky as Detective Peter Vinetti, Lucy Honigman as Jess Chalmers. Director: Shirley Barrett. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime (until January 31st.)
As detective mysteries on TV go, or even books, it’s a premise that’s a natural, but even so, it’s one I don’t recall ever being used before, except maybe in comic books. Who’s job is it to come in and clean up the murder scene after the cops and crew are done with it and the victim removed? Charlie and Nicola Buchanan, that’s who, having set themselves up as specialists who do exactly that.
Of course it helps to have helped a homicide detective on previous cases, even though “Early Checkout†is the first episode of thirteen of the cases they help solve. In this one a natural hero turned self-help guru (if, as noted, that is not a contradiction in terms) is murdered in his hotel room. As a detective story in and of itself, it’s a good one, with an abundance of clues, suspects, motives and opportunity.
But what makes the difference between this and other series with same desire to make a successful detective mystery series is the sprightly rapport between the two leading players. Imagine, if you will, a married couple who actually like each other, with plenty of cheerful banter between them and playfully zapping each other and appreciating it when one gets the better of the other, if only for the moment.
I will do my best to watch the other twelve episodes before Amazon pulls the plug on the series at the end of the month. If there were only 13 episodes in the series, I can only hope it was because the writers ran out of settings for possible stories for murder clean-ups to take place in. If Australian audiences didn’t care for the series and stopped watching it, then boo on them.
January 24th, 2021 at 12:27 am
An earlier review on this blog by Mike Tooney covered the entire series. You can find it here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=34588
January 25th, 2021 at 7:27 am
We decided to give it a try last night, and found it fun. Jackie said it reminded her of another Melbourne-set series, MY LIFE IS MURDER with Lucy Lawless. I doubt we’ll rush to watch all 13 episodes this week, but we might watch a couple more. The main couple is very likable.
January 25th, 2021 at 8:39 am
I certainly wish I’d thought to start watching sooner. I’m also going to try watching a couple more, but I can’t see myself getting through them all now with only less than a week to go.
January 26th, 2021 at 12:20 am
I’ve just finished watching Episode Two, and I regretfully have to report that I didn’t find it as charming or captivating as I did the first one. It has to do with a man being killed by an attack dog, a golf course that the management is determiner to keep people from strolling across the fairways, and the fact that Mrs M is fearfully afraid of dogs.
There are a few good moments, but not enough of them to continue to feel sad that I won’t be able to see the complete series before it goes.
The story was simply too busy to allow for much banter between the Mr & Mrs M. And while the writers perhaps thought they were writing a fair play mystery, no, they weren’t.
January 30th, 2021 at 8:07 pm
Well, a good crime scene cleaner series was SPOTLESS in 2015-16, from Canal+ in English, involving French brothers and those around them in the UK, shown in the US initially on the defunct Esquire cable channel, and on Netflix now here. CRIME SCENE CLEANER, a German series with a German title, oddly enough, ran on the defunct broadcast MHz Worldview tv network, and is still (I think) being imported on the MHz streaming service. But I don’t think anyone has made a series of, say, the film SUNSHINE CLEANERS…two sisters…
January 30th, 2021 at 9:34 pm
All new to me, Todd. Thanks!!
January 30th, 2021 at 9:42 pm
SPOTLESS is indeed on Netflix; CRIME SCENE CLEANER can be found streaming on MHz or the latter through Amazon. Worth checking out further, I’d say.
By the way, I’ve just watched episode three of MR & MRS MURDER, about the death of a fashion designer. It’s better than #2 by a long way, but still not up the standard set by 1.