More murder: Lucy Lawless and Rhys Darby. Photo / Supplied
More murder: Lucy Lawless and Rhys Darby. Photo / Supplied
The Lucy Lawless light mystery series My Life is Murder returns for a fifth season, with many recognisable faces playing the unusual suspects under investigation by Alexa Crowe in an always-sunny Auckland.
For some, like Craig Parker, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Rhys Darby, it’s their first appearance in a New ZealandTV production in quite a few years. For others, such as Brokenwood Mysteries lead detective Fern Sutherland, it’s a chance to play against type. And the show, which also features Martin Henderson and Nicole Whippy in returning roles, as well as Dean O’Gorman, Johnny Barker, Cohen Holloway and Kirk Torrance, hasn’t just cast locals.
Australian star Marta Dusseldorp (Bay of Fires) and Scottish actor Graham McTavish (The Hobbit, Outlander) both appear in episodes of the show, which screens on Network 10 in Australia and streams internationally on Acorn TV elsewhere in the world.
My Life is Murder guest stars include (clockwise from top left) Mike Edwards, Fern Sutherland, Marta Dusseldorp, Craig Parker, Nicola Whippy, Kirk Torrance and Cohen Holloway. Photos / Supplied
Photos / Supplied
This season itself also goes offshore, ending its eight episodes with a two-part story in Fiji. There, Crowe heads on vacation to stay with Jesse Wrightson (Parker), her former Melbourne police partner, only to find she’s on a busman’s holiday and investigating a homicide connected to the pair’s cop days.
Back in Auckland, the cases involve a fitness influencer who livestreams his own demise, death by jellyfish, a quiz-night killing (also a plot in the most recent Brokenwood), and death by falling gargoyle in which the suspect is a talking, dancing doll. Its name isn’t “M3GAN” but “Tish Willopee 2”. Darby, now starring in the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, plays Byron, an eccentric toy tycoon.
Yes, Auckland looks nice. There’s even time at the end of episode one for Alexa to take mates Madison (Ebony Vagulans), Harry (Rawiri Jobe) and Reuben (Joe Naufahu) for an urban hike on the Coast to Coast Walkway between the city’s two harbours. Well, it is the sort of crime drama that doesn’t mind being a little pedestrian.
My Life is Murder screens from Sunday, August 2, on TVNZ 1 at 8.30pm and on TVNZ+
