Whereas a homicide thriller drama is unfolding for the great folks of Queenstown in new drama sequence A Exceptional Place to Die, the drama of the encircling panorama is simple.
The aerial pictures and the vistas are really fascinating, 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 turn into the native lead detective. Hmm sounds acquainted. There’s a frosty reception from mum Veronica (Rebecca Gibney), who says ‘darling’ loads 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 dying of her different daughter, which befell some years earlier.
In the meantime there’s a extra urgent police matter to handle 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 minimize out to determine the badly broken physique however Inspector Sharon Li Feng (Lynette Forday) welcomes Anais to the workforce, partnering her with Detective Simon Delaney (Matt Whelan).
Investigations ensue with a spread of locals together with her ex Luke (Charles Jazz Terrier), who simply occurred to marry her finest good friend Maja (Indiana Evans). There’s additionally a rich importer and accomplice, a backpacker supervisor and a few Brazilian meals van operators.
We additionally meet good-looking pathologist Ihaka (Alex Tarrant) who provides essential clues and slightly emotional assist for our heroine when she wants it most.
A lot of the intensive movie-length episodes see Anais questioning suspects, piecing collectively clues, and hitting compulsory lifeless ends. However the areas by no means cease, lakeside with mountain ranges at each flip. The pictures, and the autumn colors, are amongst the higher options of a reasonably pedestrian crime thriller.
Anais additionally touches upon her backstory wherein the dying of her sister looms giant. Count on this to roll out over the 4 episodes.
Chelsie Preston Crayford is in virtually each scene, admirably carrying the load of the sequence, getting subsequent to no assist from her counterpart who’s underwritten with no initiative. Rebecca Gibney serves as a assist in a job she might cellphone in from mountain retreat whereas Dahnu Graham as a bumbling younger cop is the only real comedian reduction.
The episodes are approach 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 onerous not to consider Return to Paradise, wherein a detective returns dwelling to her ghosts and to resolve new crimes, sticking to style turning factors, with lashings of quirky instances 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.
