Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Memory Lane

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 15, 2013

By filling in the missing second season of Murdoch Mysteries on Blu-ray, Acorn Media has now made the initial five-year arc of Canada's 19th Century police procedural available in all its hi-def glory. As described in the review of Season 5, Murdoch was canceled after five seasons on its original broadcast home, Citytv, then resurrected on Canada's public broadcasting network, where a sixth season is currently airing. Only the early seasons have been shown in the U.S, and most American fans know it through DVD and Blu-ray. The Blu-ray releases have been out of order, commencing with Season 3, leaping back to Season 1, then forward again to Seasons 4 and 5. With the simultaneous release of Seasons 2 and 5, Acorn has issued a box set of Seasons 1-4, at a significant price advantage, for those making a fresh start.

Although the crime in each episode of Murdoch is generally solved by the end of the hour, the series features continuing storylines involving the main characters and their relationships. Not much had happened by the end of Season 1, where the creative team and the actors were laying the basic groundwork, but Season 2 saw critical plot points develop that would inform the rest of the series. For that reason, I strongly urge the neophyte reader to quit here and not proceed past the first screenshot. For a spoiler-free introduction to the unique world of Murdoch Mysteries, see the Season 1 review.

The essential thread that winds through Season 2 is the stop/start romance between Det. William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) of the Toronto Constabulary and the local coroner, Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy). While their intense attraction was obvious throughout Season 1, the buttoned-up detective could hardly bring himself to entertain thoughts of new love, because he was still in mourning for the fiancée who had died of tuberculosis before the series opened. In Season 2, Murdoch suddenly finds himself able to envision a future in which he is not alone.

But Murdoch's new openness doesn't necessarily clear every obstacle between these two lovers. As perfectly suited as the doctor and the detective may be intellectually, their personal values are radically out of synch. Despite his forward-thinking scientific interests, Murdoch is as traditional in his private life as one might expect of a man raised and educated by Jesuits. Julia's very existence as a professional woman in a man's world challenges many of the values Murdoch holds dear. Their conflicts come to a head over the case of a young career woman who died after a failed attempt at an illegal abortion (Episode 5, "Shades of Grey").

Adding to Murdoch's uncertainty is his encounter and subsequent friendship with an attractive widow, Enid Jones (Sarah Allen), and her son, Alwyn (Dakota Goyo), who becomes a witness in a case (Episode 6, "I, Murdoch"). Faced with a traditional woman (who is almost immediately interested in the courtly detective) and the prospect of a ready-made family, Murdoch is forced to consider what kind of future he really wants.

Meanwhile, though, there are investigations to pursue and experiments to undertake. Season 2 continues Murdoch's efforts to invent the 1890s version of forensic police work, much to the frustration of his chief, Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), who remains a traditional English copper. Much of Murdoch's leg work continues to be performed by Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), whose personal life, along with Brackenreid's, begins to be explored in Season 2's subplots and will grow in importance in subsequent seasons.

Episode 3, "Dinosaur Fever", in which a paleontologist is murdered, sees Murdoch and Dr. Ogden adapting one of the earliest X-ray machines for use in police work. Episode 7, "Murder on Campus", finds Murdoch applying trajectory analysis to the shooting of a popular university professor in front of dozens of witnesses, none of whom saw a gunman. Episode 8, "I, Murdoch", requires the detective to decipher algorithms left by a murdered scientist who may have been on the verge of creating a thinking machine—or did he succeed? In Episode 9, "Convalescence", Murdoch designs an early version of night vision goggles, and in Episode 10, "Murdoch.com", he analyzes telegraph arrays to track down a con artist who has assumed a false identity to persuade lonely women to send money. (Listen closely, and you'll hear someone utter the words "world", "wide" and "web" in close proximity.)

As throughout the series, Murdoch routinely encounters real historical figures. In the lively season opener, "Mild Mild West", Buffalo Bill Cody (Nicholas Campbell) brings his famous Wild West show to Toronto. When one of the regular players is murdered by a precision rifle shot, there is no shortage of likely suspects among the show's headliners, including the renowned Annie Oakley (Sarah Strange), who proves to be a brazen temptress for the married Inspector Brackenreid. (Or is it just a ruse?) Episode 2, "Snakes and Ladders", involves the pursuit of a serial killer who might be Jack the Ripper. The world greatest magician, Harry Houdini (Joe Dinicol), plays Toronto in Episode 4, "Houdini Whodunit", but when the Bank of Toronto is robbed next door to the theater during Houdini's show, the master of escape and illusion is the prime suspect. But what use are handcuffs, leg irons or jail cells against an escape artist? It takes Inspector Brackenreid the entire episode to figure out something that works.

In the remarkable season conclusion, Episode 13, "Anything You Can Do", Murdoch finds himself in the unexpected position of working with a lawman who's as methodical and self-assured as he is (and possibly smarter). Sargeant Jasper Linney (Dylan Neal) of the Northwest Mounties appears in Toronto pursuing a lead on a series of murders related to a mining claim. Before long, Murdoch has returned with the mountie to a remote village in British Columbia, where someone from his past is waiting.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The video quality on Acorn Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays for Season 2 is consistent with that of Season 4 and the simultaneously released Season 5, which is to say that it's excellent. The HD-originated picture has translated to Blu with superior detail, deep blacks, nicely saturated colors and an absence of video noise. Compression-related issues, filtering and other artifacts were not in evidence. The only downside of the hi-def image on Murdoch Mysteries is the fact that the rough quality of the CG work (relative to feature films) used to create long shots of 19th Century Toronto is sometimes distractingly evident.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

With accurate labeling this time around, Murdoch Mysteries continues to be released by Acorn with Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 kbps. Only the first-issued set of Murdoch Blu-rays, Season 3, used PCM. Having now watched all of the seasons on Blu-ray, I don't think viewers will notice the difference unless they convince themselves beforehand. Murdoch's stereo soundtrack is a serviceable one, with clearly rendered dialogue, effective underscoring by Robert Carli, essential sound effects for storytelling, and a few signature sounds to indicate scene transitions (notably a light bulb illuminating). Lossless encoding would be preferable, but I'm not sure how much the experience would change.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery (1080p): A dozen or so images. These are true "behind the scenes" images showing crew and equipment setups. In a nice touch, the photos are captioned to identify key personnel.



• Behind the Scenes (480i; 1.78, non-enhanced; 5:13): A general overview of the show and the season, including interviews with the principal cast and executive producer Cal Coons.



• Additional Trailers: At startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Acorn Media, George Gently and New Tricks. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Circling back to Season 2 of Murdoch Mysteries after reviewing two subsequent seasons has given me a new appreciation for the artful care with which the show's creators mix their particular blend of crime, history, humor and romance. Any regular fan of series television can cite an example of a worthy show that strayed too far into its characters' personal lives and devolved into a soap opera, but Murdoch has never made that mistake (at least not so far). Season 2's developing relationship between Murdoch and Ogden is parceled out in tiny doses over a thirteen-episode arc that concerns itself primarily with the business of catching criminals. Especially in these early seasons, it's difficult for the detective and the doctor to get maudlin when they're studying a post mortem report or inspecting a crime scene where a victim has had his throat torn out or conferring over the stomach contents of an autopsy subject lying on the doctor's table nearby with his rib cage open. In later seasons, the writers find less ghoulish means to check excess sentiment, but their method was clear from the beginning. Clever stuff, highly recommended.