Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 5 Blu-ray Movie Review

The Murdoch Conclusion (To Be Continued)

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 5, 2013

The fifth season of Murdoch Mysteries was supposed to be the last. When Season 5 of the 19th Century police procedural was being written and filmed in 2011, everyone thought they were winding up a five-year adventure. Rogers Media, which owns and operates the commercial network, Citytv, that had been Murdoch's primary home, decided that the show no longer "fit" with its current line-up. Christina Jennings, head of Murdoch's production company, Shaftesbury Films, assured fans that the creative team would bring its continuing storylines to a "fulfilling conclusion . . . during our final season".

But Shaftesbury wasn't ready to give up on Murdoch just yet. Even while Season 5 was airing in Canada from June 6 through August 28, 2012, Shaftesbury made a deal with its British partners and CBC, the Canadian public television station, to continue the adventures of Det. William Murdoch into the brave new world of the early 20th Century. Work began on a sixth season, which is currently airing on CBC.

Here in the U.S., Acorn Media is releasing both the (semi-)climactic Season 5 and the missing Season 2 on Blu-ray, thus completing Murdoch's original Citytv era for hi-def fans. A box set of Seasons 1-4 is also being released. The discussion of Season 5 below assumes that the reader has seen the previous seasons and contains spoilers for those who haven't. Proceed past the first screenshot at your own risk. For a spoiler-free introduction to the intriguing world of Murdoch Mysteries, see the Season 1 review.

The conclusion of Season 4 saw a heartbroken Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) turn in his badge and leave the Toronto Constabulary after failing to speak up in time to prevent his beloved Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy) from marrying another man. Making matters worse, he'd also released a murderer from his station's cells based on a personal decision of what justice required. The Season 5 opener, entitled "Murdoch of the Klondike", finds Murdoch trying to start a new life as a prospector in a distant region east of Alaska where the gold rush has already come and gone. Filmed on location in the Yukon's Dawson City, the episode boasts authentic settings and breathtaking scenery.

Try as he might, Murdoch cannot escape his natural calling. When his former landlady, Elizabeth Bryant (Jill Halfpenny), is accused of murder, she begs Murdoch for help. Soon enough, Murdoch has traded miner's overalls for his signature suit and hat, as he commences re-interviewing witnesses and analyzing evidence. A curious young reporter (Aaron Ashmore) attaches himself to the methodical detective, looking for a good story. Only at the end does he reveal his full name. By that point, Murdoch has realized that he must return home and "set things right".

Back in Toronto, Murdoch's chief, Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), is covering for him with a story about a "leave of absence", while his loyal assistant, Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), has been promoted to "Acting Detective". Change has come to the medical examiner 's office as well. Dr. Ogden, who has retained her maiden name professionally, is training her replacement in preparation for a move to private practice. No doubt her decision to leave her current position is partly motivated by a desire to avoid daily contact with Murdoch, the man she really loves, once he returns to his duties with the Toronto Constabulary.

Dr. Ogden's replacement is Emily Grace (Georgina Reilly), a new generation of female doctor who considers Ogden a role model. Brash, direct and the product of an ordinary middle class background, Dr. Grace brings a fresh burst of energy to both the forensic lab and the TV series. She and Murdoch are temperamental opposites, and it takes time for them to learn how to work together. The new doctor and George Crabtree, however, connect almost immediately. Of even greater interest are events in Dr. Grace's past that emerge during the course of the season and provide intriguing material for several episodes.

Once Dr. Ogden leaves her position as medical examiner, she becomes a rarefied presence in Season 5. Still, though she appears in only six of the thirteen episodes, they are memorable appearances. In the two-part adventure entitled "Stroll on the Wild Side" (episodes 7-8), the doctor herself is arrested for advising female patients about contraception, in violation of the era's civil law. Confronted by Dr. Ogden's act of conscience, Murdoch is reminded of his own before he left for the Klondike and can't help but be reminded of how much he and the now-married Julia have in common. At the moment, though, Murdoch is preoccupied by an investigation of the mystifying deaths of seemingly ordinary librarians leading secret lives inspired by a 19th Century version of Fifty Shades of Grey. The case is complicated by the presence of a woman from Murdoch's past with whom viewers will be familiar.

Helping to compensate for Dr. Ogden's extended absences is the presence of another strong-willed female character, Inspector Brackenreid's wife, Margaret (Arwen Humphreys), who was seen only briefly in earlier seasons. In Season 5, she appears in four episodes. Her role is crucial in episode 5, "Murdoch at the Opera", where a great diva, Madame Rosa Hamilton (played by a famous real-life soprano, Measha Brueggergosman), is threatened by an unknown assailant, who poisons the diva's understudy by mistake. Inspector Brackenreid, a worshipful fan, undertakes to be Madame Rosa's bodyguard. Mrs. Brackenreid, who prefers the music hall to Puccini, grows jealous, while Madame Rosa basks in the attention. Meanwhile, Murdoch and Dr. Grace identify the killer.

The series' creators have lost none of their ingenuity in seeding their stories with real historical figures and events. In episode 6, "Who Killed the Electric Carriage?", Henry Ford (Todd Hofley) brings a prototype of the gasoline automobile to Toronto in response to a challenge from James Pendrick (Peter Stebbings), a returning character from Season 3, who has sunk his entire fortune into developing a battery-driven vehicle, which he calls "the Pendrick Bullet". Shortly before the competitive exhibition, the genius inventor of the crucial battery technology is murdered. Was the perpetrator Ford, oil speculators or Pendrick himself, unwilling to share the potentially enormous profits if the Pendrick Bullet becomes the basis of future automotive technology?

In episode 9, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell (John Tench) attends an inventor's convention and helps Murdoch solve the murder of one of the participants, who was widely disliked for stealing other inventors' work. Not surprisingly for a murder committed among inventors, the murder weapon is a device of unique construction.

Episode 4, "War on Terror", begins with a bomb blast that destroys a dry goods store and badly injures two members of the Constabulary. Murdoch initially suspects a personal motive, but government agent Terrence Meyers (Peter Keleghan, in a recurring role) suddenly appears to inform everyone that the famed American anarchist, Emma Goldman (Lisa Norton), has arrived in Toronto to stir up unrest. Undercover infiltration of Goldman's followers reveals an American agent already implanted in the group, and the various competing agendas foreshadow the intelligence turf wars of a future era. While Murdoch wraps up the Toronto bombing, a text overlay at the episode's conclusion reminds the viewer that U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated two years later by a professed anarchist.

The season's final episode, "Twentieth Century Murdoch", takes place during the week after Christmas 1899 and concludes on New Year's Eve. Nominally the story is about a scientist, Professor Harms (Colin Buchanan), who claims to have invented a time machine. In reality, though, the episode is about looking forward to the future. As the attendees at the annual Toronto Constabulary New Year's Eve ball toast the new year and century, many of the season's (indeed, the series') lingering questions must at last be addressed.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The video quality on Acorn Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays for Season 5 is consistent with that of Season 4, 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 5 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. As I said in reviewing Season 4, having watched all of the seasons issued on Blu-ray to date, 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 5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Season Five Overview (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 5:09): Featuring excerpts from both Seasons 4 and 5, and interviews with Bisson, Joy and Reilly, among others. Spoilers are minimal.



• Murdoch Travels to the Yukon (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 3:13): The making of episode 1, including location footage from Dawson City.



• Murdoch at the Opera (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 4:25): An interview with Measha Brueggergosman on her appearance as diva Rosa Hamilton in episode 5.



• Who Killed the Electric Carriage? (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 4:06): Prop master Craig Grant discusses the creation of the imaginary electric conveyance ("the Pendrick Bullet") that competes against Henry Ford's gasoline engine in episode 6.



• The Costumes (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 2:17): Costume designer Alex Reda discusses the challenges of the series' period costumes.



• Unedited Sound Bites (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 5:39): A series of short answers to questions by Bisson, Craig, Harris, Joy and Reilly.



• Photo Gallery (1080p): Nineteen behind-the-scenes photos.



• Additional Trailers: At startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Acorn Media, Case Histories and Garrow's Law. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the defining qualities of Murdoch Mysteries is its Canadian heritage, which is why the series remains a favorite of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who provided the idea for Season 5's penultimate episode, "Murdoch Night in Canada", about the murder of a member of the Toronto Wellingtons hockey team (Harper being a famous hockey fanatic). Its Canadian character, however one may choose to describe it, makes Murdoch unique and instantly distinguishable from any police procedural created in America or the U.K. Crime and its motivations may be universal, but the wit and characters of Murdoch are Canada's own. Seasons 1 and 4 made my top ten list of 2012, and Season 5 already has its place reserved on 2013's. Highly recommended.