Dead Over Diamonds

The real mystery here is not who killed who, or who stole what. The mystery is how anyone in their right mind would cast Carlos in a movie. He is absolutely void of talent.

Photographer Allie and Detective Sam's investigation into a priceless stolen necklace leads to danger and an unexpected death.

A simple plotted mystery featuring real-life married couple Carlos and Alexa who play a cop and photographer in a small town. Carlos is a new guy, a cop, from NYC trying to adjust to small town life, and obviously they have a "maybe or maybe not" romance. It's a u demanding yet safe mystery which is quite fun, especially with Alexa's sidekicks Noah, and Maya around. They make a great team. There's no murder, just a diamond theft. Erik Estrada from CHiPs fame stars as a lively character.

These two really can't act and combined with weak scripts this series is one of the worst in the Hallmark Mystery collection. I just watched the preview for the next episode and even the preview is painful to watch. I don't think I have ever made it through more than 20 minutes of one of these before pulling the plug.

Hallmark has a couple new promising mystery series. Wish they would crank out a few more of those instead of wasting resources on guaranteed duds.

Husband and wife team of Carlos and Alexa Penavega star in another Hallmak mystery. She happens to be covering a gallery opening when a valuable necklace is stolen.

Mysterious millionaire Milo Shandel is having his collection of all kinds of art and other valuables exhibited at a gallery and with the theft he threatens wrack and ruin to the gallery owner.

It turns into a murder when later one of the rich guests is found murdered in his home. Still Carlos the cop and Alexa the photographer keep looking jointly and separately as it always is with Hallmark mysteries.

Erik Estrada is also in the cast as Carlos Penavega's uncle and a former cop. He really doesn't do much but be a kibitzer for his nephew.

As for the crooks it's a gang from all strata of society and they really are pros at their work.

This is one to check out.

While typically I cannot watch a Carlos PenaVega movie (as nice as he is, his acting can be way over the top), this was much better from him. He often in my opinion has acted over the top, and in this movie it started out that way, but his cop character is actually a good fit for him and he settled down after the first couple of scenes. When he is being serious in a role he does a good job. I also can appreciate Alexa more here than in some of her other movies.

I don't know if this is the case, but it seems like they would bring their kid/teen Nickelodeon personas to their movies in the past. Maybe the challenge has been how to transition out of that. This movie however is more toned down for them and I was really able to enjoy it so much more.