“I Have to Go.” “To Play Detective?” “No. I’m a Librarian.”
I figured that eventually the movies that premiered on Hallmark+ would also air on the cable channels. That’s one of several reasons I haven’t rushed to get the streaming service. It’s taken a while, but I’m finally being proved right and am getting to watch the second of the Aurora Teagarden prequel movies – A Lesson in Murder.
It’s been a while since the first of these premiered. It was all the way back in 2023. Okay, that might not seem like a super long time, but considering this movie was on Hallmark+ last year, it makes it seem longer than it was. Anyway, this is the second in a series of movies featuring Aurora as a graduate student. And, while she may be officially studying library science, she is still fascinated by true crime. In fact, she’s a TA for a true crime class.
One of the students in the class is struggling. He also plays on the baseball team, so it’s important that he keep his grades up. When he doesn’t show for a tutoring session, Aurora makes a horrible discovery. He’s dead in his car. Aurora feels compelled to figure out who killed him. But can she do it?
With the first movie, I talked about the issues with the cast. The only cast member to come back from the original movies is Marilu Henner as Aurora’s mother. She still nails the part of Aida. But, since the characters are supposed to be younger than they originally were, they’ve recast everyone else with Skyler Samuels playing Aurora, Evan Roderick as now rookie cop Arthur, and Kayla Heller as Sally. Here’s the problem, they just don’t work as these characters. Listen to me carefully. They are not bad actors. They just aren’t the characters we already know and love. And it’s really hard to buy them as these characters. Honestly, I wish they’d cast these actors in a new franchise. That would have been great to watch. As it is here, you have to pretend these are different characters. If you can do that, you’ll enjoy this movie.
Which I did.
Before we move on, one more rant about the stupidity of these as prequels. They are setting up a love triangle with Aurora, Arthur, and Jordan Buhat’s Daniel, a cook at the diner where Aurora has gotten a job. We know that Aurora and Arthur dated at one point, but we’ve never heard of Daniel. And we know that Arthur and Aurora wind up married to other people. So, what’s the point of the romantic subplot, and especially it being a romantic triangle?
Again, I’m not blaming any of the actors for this. They are in a no-win situation. And if you can pretend we’ve never met these characters before, you’ll get lost in the story and enjoy their performances. And I enjoy Steve Bacic as the detective who keeps trying to get Aurora to stop investigating.
Yes, it is obvious this is a Hallmark production, although I am getting very used to it after all the movies I’ve watched over the years.
The mystery itself is solid. I feel like the ending is a little rushed in the way of explanations, but the solution Aurora reaches does make sense. And I loved the creativity of the climatic confrontation.
Despite all my rants, my actual rating is on the mystery itself and leaving all the prequel baggage behind. Obviously, I’m not able to watch it while ignoring all of that. If you aren’t able to do that either, you’ll have my same rants.
A Lesson in Murder isn’t a bad movie. But it suffers from many of the problems that prequels have.
I liked this movie a lot, but the next one after this one is my absolute favorite in the series. In fact, I watched all of the new Hallmark movies last year (except for all the Christmas ones because there were so many) and the third movie in this series was my number three favorite movie of the year. I watched it using the Hoopla Bingepass. That way I didn't have to pay for a subscription to Hallmark+. That third one was a five star movie for me. I hope they air it on Hallmark Mystery this year so more people will see it. I think Evan Roderick plays a great younger version of Arthur. When he speaks, he sounds so much like the older Arthur to me. But the others don't really remind me of their younger versions. I'll never understand some of the decisions Hallmark makes, but I enjoy the series as its own thing. As for Hallmark+, their current original content seems to be centered on reality shows, which I'm not interested in. I'm glad I didn't sign up for it last year, which I debated doing. :)
ReplyDelete