Whereas a homicide thriller drama is unfolding for the great people of Queenstown in new drama collection A Exceptional Place to Die, the drama of the encircling panorama is simple.
The aerial photographs and the vistas are really captipvating, a lot in order that they upstage the whodunnit motion led by Detective Anaís Mallory (Chelsie Preston Crayford).
Anais has returned to Queenstown from Sydney to grow to be the native lead detective. Hmm sounds acquainted. There’s a frosty reception from mum Veronica (Rebecca Gibney), who says ‘darling’ so much however doesn’t seem to imply it very a lot. That’s as a result of, in between pouring herself the purple wines, she holds Anais partly-responsible for the demise of her different daughter, which came about some years earlier.
In the meantime there’s a extra urgent police matter to deal with with an SUV tumbling off a cliff with a physique inside.
Native coppers Constable Jarrod Renner (Dahnu Graham) and Senior Constable Hoana Rata (Roimata Fox) have their work reduce out to determine the badly broken physique however Inspector Sharon Li Feng (Lynette Forday) welcomes Anais to the group, partnering her with Detective Simon Delaney (Matt Whelan).
Investigations ensue with a spread of locals together with her ex, (Charles Jazz Terrier), who simply occurred to marry her greatest pal Maja (Indiana Evans), in addition to a rich importer and companion, a backpacker supervisor and a few Brazilian meals van operators.
There’s additionally a good-looking pathologist Ihaka (Alex Tarrant) who presents essential clues and just a little emotional assist for our heroine when she wants it most.
A lot of the in depth movie-length episodes see Anais questioning suspects, piecing collectively clues, and hitting compulsory useless ends. However the areas by no means cease, lakeside with mountain ranges at each flip. The photographs, and the colors, are amongst the higher options of a reasonably pedestrian crime thriller.
Anais additionally touches upon her backstory through which the demise of her sister looms giant. Anticipate this to roll out over the 4 episodes.
Chelsie Preston Crayford is in nearly each scene, admirably carrying the load of the collection, getting nexxt to no assist from her counterpart who’s underwritten with no initiative. Rebecca Gibney serves as a assist in a task she may cellphone in from mountain retreat whereas Dahnu Graham as a bumbling younger cop is the only comedian aid.
The episodes are manner too lengthy which causes the tempo of the present to pull and it may need labored higher trimmed all the way down to an hour. It’s exhausting not to think about Return to Paradise, through which a detective returns dwelling to her ghosts and to unravel new crimes, sticking to style turning factors, with lashings of quirky occasions and little or no blood.
With such a magical panorama surrounding this story, it actually wanted to match the setting higher than this.
A Exceptional Place to Die screens 8pm Sunday on 9.
