Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 9 Blu-ray Movie Review

Whither Canada?

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 15, 2016

Spoiler alert: This review assumes that the reader is familiar with all previous seasons of Murdoch Mysteries. If you're new to the series, consult the Season 1 review for a spoiler-free introduction.

If Murdoch Mysteries hadn't achieved such consistent excellence for the past eight seasons, the shortcomings of the Canadian series' Season Nine wouldn't be so obvious. The continuing account of innovative criminal investigations by 19th (and now early 20th) Century Det. William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) of the Toronto Constabulary has consistently struck an effective balance between the self-contained stories of episodic TV and the longer arcs that have endeared Murdoch's characters to legions of fans. In this latest outing, the creative team seems unsure of their direction for the first time since the show's April 2006 debut. Individual episodes hit their marks, but a sense of drift pervades the season as a whole. Only time will tell whether this malaise marks a temporary glitch or the onset of creative exhaustion.

Like many long-running series, Murdoch has routinely turned to its supporting players for extended storylines. In Seasons Seven and Eight, the chief of Murdoch's Station House 4, Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), was savagely beaten by a gang controlling the city's docks. His lengthy recovery, both physically and mentally, made for compelling drama. In Season Eight, Murdoch's stalwart assistant, Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), pursued a romance with an old flame that ended in tragedy. In the season's cliffhanger finale, Crabtree accepted responsibility for a murder he didn't commit to protect the woman he loved.

The season opener ("Nolo Contendere") is devoted to Crabtree's exoneration with the unexpected assistance of a familiar face, fellow inmate Giles (Nigel Bennett), the former chief constable who was previously revealed to have killed a fellow officer many years earlier (Season Eight, episode 7, "What Lies Buried"). It's a twisty, inventive episode, as Murdoch investigates a second murder connected to Crabtree's case and uncovers the secret past of the man Crabtree is supposed to have killed. But after Crabtree is released, he cannot return to his usual position as an object of consistent (if amiable) mockery. For the rest of the season, Murdoch's creative team struggles to reconcile Crabtree's former role as comic relief with the reality of the trauma he has endured, and the character vacillates unsteadily between silliness and serious drama.

Further dramatic instability results from the relationship between Murdoch and Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), who are now a happily married couple after surmounting obstacles that included Julia's departure from Toronto for a new career and her false conviction (and near execution) for murdering her estranged former husband. After such tribulations, the newlyweds have earned a respite, but their wedded bliss deprives Murdoch of a key dramatic engine that has propelled the series' continuing plots. The writers do their best to introduce new challenges, including Murdoch's project to build Julia a dream house (to be outfitted with as-yet unheard-of modern conveniences, including a "dish-washing closet") and Julia's halting attempts to start a family. The season finale (episode 18, "Comes the Archer") attempts to recapture some of the lost energy by placing the couple in mortal danger at the hands of an old enemy, but the effort is contrived, far-fetched and ultimately unsatisfying.

Season Nine does better with the series' other female doctor, coroner Emily Grace, whose impending departure was announced at the conclusion of Season Seven, after actress Georgina Reilly decided to leave the show. Dr. Grace's plan to join England's suffragette movement with friend and clandestine lover Lillian Moss (Sara Mitch) takes an unexpected turn in episode 3 ("Double Life"), one of the season's best and most poignant tales. Following Dr. Grace's exit, Julia resumes her position as coroner, thus returning to the role she occupied when the series began.

The season also benefits from two new recurring characters, both of whom expand Murdoch's storytelling frontiers. One is private detective Winifred "Freddy" Pink, a childhood friend of Murdoch who finds him after an attempt on her life and several related deaths point to a culprit from their past. Actor John Paul Ruttan reprises his earlier portrayal of the young Murdoch in flashbacks (Season Eight, episode 15, "Shipwreck"), as the investigation leads the reunited adults to the countryside near Guelph, thereby continuing Murdoch's exploration of scenic Canadian locales. The second newcomer is Rebecca James (Mouna Traoré), a young African-American recently relocated from New York, where she trained as a doctor. Initially employed at the city morgue as a cleaner, Miss James is promoted to Dr. Ogden's assistant after Julia learns of her medical background, but the promotion is opposed by the current chief constable (Richard C. Larkin), who makes no effort to conceal his racial prejudice.

As usual, Murdoch weaves historical figures into its stories. The marquee appearance in Season Nine is American author Mark Twain, who arrives in Toronto for a speaking engagement only to become the target of an assassin (episode 2, "Marked Twain"). William Shatner delivers a wryly understated performance as the world-famous novelist, essayist and intellectual provocateur. The future author of Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery (Alison Louder), appears in episode 12, "Unlucky in Love", when Crabtree offers a class for aspiring writers and unwittingly supplies inspiration for Miss Montgomery's future classic.

Season Nine also continues Murdoch's tradition of inventions that uncannily anticipate future technology, including night-vision goggles and the rocket. The latter is the brainchild of the visionary James Pendrick (Peter Stebblings), a recurring character whose fabulous designs always somehow manage to get lost to history. Even Inspector Brackenreid proves to be an innovator, organizing the first-ever live sports broadcast via telegraph (episode 9, "Raised on Robbery"). He also inadvertently creates the City of Buffalo's signature chicken dish, when one investigation necessitates a trip across the border (episode 17, "From Buffalo with Love").

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 9 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Alexa-captured imagery of Murdoch Mysteries's Season Nine continues the established style of previous seasons, with clean, sharply detailed photography and richly saturated colors that capably reproduce the period costumes and production design. Series regulars Jim Jeffrey and Yuri Yakubiw are the credited cinematographers. Acorn Media has retained the practice first adopted with Season Eight of allocating the season's eighteen episodes to four BD-50s instead of the five used for Season Seven, when Murdoch first expanded to eighteen episodes a year. This time, however, Acorn has commendably increased the average bitrate by utilizing more of the disc's available space. The most compressed of the episodes now averages 18.27 Mbps, as compared to the anemic 12.60 found on Season Eight, and the image is subtly but noticeably more detailed and mercifully free of compression-related noise. With this season, Acorn has restored Murdoch Mysteries to the superior video quality that its customers have come to expect

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 9 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Continuing the practice adopted last season, Season Nine arrives with a 5.1 soundtrack encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. As before, the discrete format provides tighter definition and improved clarity, but the mix remains front-heavy, with the surrounds used primarily for environmental ambiance and an expanded presence for Robert Carli's consistently charming score. An occasional sequence like the aerial flight in episode 5 ("24 Hours Til Doomsday") makes use of the full speaker array for an immersive effect, but on the whole, Murdoch's sound design remains bound by its TV origins.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 9 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with the previous two seasons of Murdoch Mysteries, the principal extras for Season Nine are short featurettes entitled "Making Murdoch", each of which is tailored to the particulars of a specific episode and typically includes interviews with cast and crew, behind-the-scenes and location footage and/or historical background. Seasons Six and Seven had a featurette for each of their eighteen episodes, but in a disappointing departure, Season Nine offers only eleven, leaving seven episodes without any extras. A full listing is provided below, with times and disc numbers:

• Making Murdoch (1080p; 1.78:1)
• Disc 1
• 1. Nolo Contendere (4:44)
• 2. Marked Twain (4:20)
• 3. Double Life (4:37)
• 4. Barenaked Ladies (3:57)
• 5. 24 Hours Til Doomsday (3:39)
• Disc 2
• 7. Summer of '75 (4:09)
• 8. Pipe Dreamzzz (3:39)
• 10. The Big Chill (4:17)
• Disc 3
• 12. Unlucky in Love (3:14)
• 13. Colour Blinded (3:38)
• Disc 4
• 18. Cometh the Archer (2:13)



• Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery (disc 4) (1080p; various; 1:23): A slide show of stills.



• Introductory Trailers: At startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Acorn TV, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Series 1 and Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads. Discs 2-4 have no additional trailers.

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 9 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Murdoch's showrunner, Peter Mitchell, says in "Making Murdoch" that he wanted to avoid ending Season Nine on a cliffhanger so that the show could begin the next season with a clean slate. Hopefully, the creative team will take this opportunity to carefully calibrate long-term arcs that can keep the show vital. While Season Nine may not fully measure up to its predecessors, Murdoch remains a unique and addictive entertainment, and the Blu-ray quality has returned to previous high standards. Recommended.