|
|
|
My Life is Murder: Series 4
R0 - United Kingdom - Acorn Media Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (8th August 2025). |
|
The Film
 After her husband was killed in the line of duty, detective Alexa Crowe (Xena: Warrior Princess' Lucy Lawless) retired from the Australian police force and devoted her life to her cat and baking sourdough, occasionally consulting on cases before quitting Melbourne for her hometown of Auckland with series two (shot during the pandemic). No sooner had she made a standing arrangement with cafe owner Ruben Wulf (Ghost in the Shell's Joseph Naufahu) to supply him with sourdough every morning than her old partner had given her name to local Detective Inspector Harry Hanare (Step Dave's Rawiri Jobe). Once again, she provides a bit of civilian consultancy on cases requiring a bit more leeway regulation-wise to get the facts with the help of hacker Madison Feliciano (The Furies' Ebony Vagulans) who misconstrued Alexa reaching out for background on a case as an excuse to emigrate and take residence in Alexa's spare room. Alexa's ex-con brother Will (Smokin' Aces' Martin Henderson) occasionally skirts violating his parole in order to help her out on cases. Series four cases involve: – a clean-and-sober wealthy socialite is found dead on a beach and her death ruled a "dry drowning" with champagne in her lungs and the only suspect with a true motive is her beneficiary that happens to be her pet cat. Alexa discovers that even the cat's custodian in no way benefits after it passes, but Madison discovers a web of backstabbing at the hair salon the victim visited before her murder in "To Dye For" (43:56); – when a tough tennis coach is pelted to death with his supercharged tennis ball machine, Alexa finds her unofficial investigation repeatedly obstructed by the widow's reliance on an equally unofficial but charismatic private detective (McLeod's Daughters' Lisa Chappell) in "Tough Love" (42:24); – "Location, Location, Location" (44:20) is the name of the game for a post Victorian house even when its agent is found floating face down underneath the pool cover. Suspects include its influencer owner (3 Body Problem's Jess Hong) whose vlog documentation of a haunting may have been fabricated for a quick sale, the victim's ex-colleague (Shortland Street's Benedict Wall) who can match Alexa for anger management issues, and even the kindly old neighbor (Salt and Pepper's Ilona Rodgers) who remembers when the house next door was a notorious bordello; – Alexa is caught between Ruben and Harry when a private chef (30 Days of Night's Joel Tobeck) is accused of deliberately poisoning a client with an exotic plant by the victim's wealthy and influential prospective in-laws (Pearl's Tandi Wright and The Brokenwood Mysteries' Jamie Irvine) in "One Man's Poison" (44:40). Alexa risks harassment charges to probe the family's dirty laundry – suspecting the daughter (Erin Meek) who was studying dangerous local flora for medicinal purposes – while Madison goes undercover with Ruben in the family kitchen to investigate the family's son (Black Christmas' Ben Black) who was bullied by the victim back in school;  – when a ballerina dancing the White Swan ends up with two arrows in her back, the victim's sister (Winchester's Emily Wiseman) accuses both the Black Swan (Elizabeth Hanaray) and the handsome prince (Kahukura Royal) whose phone was allegedly hacked to arrange an unscheduled rehearsal with the victim. Alexa, however, suspects their cut-throat teacher (For Good's Miranda Harcourt) while Madison terrifies the victim's archery instructor (Eagle vs Shark's Adam Gardiner) with her ineptitude in En Pointe (45:00); – when a Samoan businessman is killed and his white assistant Chris (Shadow in the Cloud's Joe Witkowski) shot in the foot during a robbery gone wrong, suspicion falls upon the victim's Tavu'i Dance Group teacher brother (The Paragon's Shadon Meredith) despite his professed disinterest in the family coconut oil business and the conviction of the family matriarch (Ana Tuisila) that no one wanted to harm her son in "The Good Oil" (42:56). Alexa discovers that the victim was in contact with a ruthless competitor (Jackson's Wharf's Nicole Whippy) while Madison chases down Chris' train wreck sister (Brynley Stent) who set the victim's car on fire after working for him; – Alexa comes up against three formidable femme fatales (Outrageous Fortune's Siobhan Marshall, Romper Stomper's Jacqueline McKenzie, and Love and Monsters' Miriama Smith) known as The Widows Club (Part 1 43:54: /Part 2: 45:08) when she and her brother Will masquerade as a couple to infiltrate an upscale golf club – where Will must dodge some of the marks he cheated – to investigate the electrocution death of a member in a hyperbaric oxygen tank and the conviction of the man's best friend (What We Do in the Shadows' Jonny Brugh) that it was not the first attempt on his life and that he himself might be next since his wife is one of the members and the victim's widow has a new beau already. Alexa herself becomes a suspect when she discovers among the members the man (Doctor Doctor's Rodger Corser) who got her husband killed, but is his murder a means of derailing her investigation or is there another motive? While the third series of My Life is Murder had Lawless' Alexa trying to ignore her emotional scars and embrace her found family, the fourth series gradually builds to a breakthrough culminating in the two-parter season finale. The preceding series of cases all have a lighter tone – including a special appearance by the hapless Enzo (Hot Fuzz's Bill Bailey) – we see here more than previous how Alexa takes more personally murders committed by perpetrators for shallow motives, instead of confronting the victim and facing the music (meaning that two of the more sympathetic suspects are on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing), or when there's "nothing personal" about the killing or the frame-up. The nature of her husband's death finally comes to light along with her feelings about its "accidental" nature and she finally voices her inability to go back to a life in any way resembling how it was before and to "live always in the after." Her husband's murderer even expresses remorse and concedes to every bad thing she thinks of him but also feels that he has served his sentence while Alexa may not actually know what she wants from him despite her statement that that she wanted him to know who his victim was and what he meant to someone. Presumably series five will reveal more of Alexa opening up if only in increments. 
Video
Acorn Media's Region 0 PAL release splits eight hours of content over two dual-layer discs. The 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen image is superficially pleasing but obviously the HD videography was both softened to seem more cinematic and optimized for digital broadcast and streaming and it is hard to imagine the series looking significantly better on Blu-ray apart from the usual upticks in close-up detail. 
Audio
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix is largely concentrated on dialogue and incidental scoring with subdued atmosphere and directional effects largely employed during more action-oriented sequences. Optional English subtitles could use some proofing but are less egregious than some of Acorn's other releases where accents lead to transcription errors.
Extras
The only extra is a picture gallery (1:56) on disc two. 
Overall
Series four of My Life is Murder starts off light but builds to a performance showcase for Lucy Lawless' Alexa Crowe.
|
|||||
|