The Good Ship Murder

Let's just say this up front - you will be continually suspending disbelief with this series. Way more than any other cozy mystery series you come across. Starting with it being a cruise ship, yet mostly empty. And that the ship's captain seems to spend most of the time...not captaining. And that the captain hangs out with guests on shore excursions. And of course all the murdering that takes place.

And those are just a few reoccurring examples. There are a seemingly endless parade of eye rolling scenarios packed into each episode.

With all this said...they are clean fun. If you turn your brain off, it's a decent time. Also good to fall asleep to.

A Luxury Mediterranean cruise ship sets sail, stopping at all the major destinations, but at each stop, murder, and on the case is former Detective now crooner Jack Grayling, and first officer Kate Woods.

If you're a fan of shows such as Mallorca Files, Shakespeare and Hathaway etc, I am sure you will enjoy this series. Don't expect anything too serious, and expect to be made to believe some rather impossible scenarios.

Gorgeous location work, it really does emphasise and make the most of The Med. I spent a fair bit of time in Malta, and I may be wrong, but did Malta double up?

Shayne Ward absolutely makes this series, he has that combination of being talented, likeable and charismatic, he really does help to make this show pretty good. Jack is a bit of a bad luck charm, he's The Jessica Fletcher of The Mediterranean, wherever he goes, murder follows.

Shayne's songs are really good, especially his version of True Faith by New Order.

Some nice guest performances along the way, and the regular cast are all very good.

As it stands series two has been commissioned, looking forward to that.

7/10.

On the plus side this is family friendly series set on a luxury cruise liner allowing each episode to be set in different beautiful location, which means on the down side as each episode goes by it stretches credulity that one liner could have so many murders associated with it. However this is light entertainment and there are plenty of other series that suffer with the same problem that many are happy to overlook. Unfortunately the acting is very poor and the solution to the murders contrived, a poor man's Agatha Christie. All that being said I suspect that is exactly how it was meant to be written. It stars amongst others Shayne Ward who is a singer and ex winner of the X Factor, so appropriately each episode concludes with him in his role as ship's entertainment officer singing a song. It is what it is and if you take it as that it is a pleasant enough show.

It is a nice cosy murder mystery and you get to see other European countries. The locations chosen remind me of a trip to Europe.

The music is nice. The actor sings beautifully. And the music matches the vibe of the show.

With respect to how she is able to work on crimes, maybe it is her day off or something. Tv shows are escapism and this is cute escapism.

Would love to have some other recommendations for the cosy murder mysteries other than Death in Paradise, Harry Wild, Mrs. Marple, Ms Sidhu Investigates, My Life is Murder. I must say love me some Acorn TV and Britbox they provide such good recommendations.

As many of the reviewers have noted, this is not a deep dark difficult to discern crime saga. This is light and fun entertainment, which I discovered on a Sunday afternoon and I'm now tuning in for the second episode.

The lead actors are fun to watch in action. The cruise scenery brightens up one's day and it is pure entertainment for entertainment sake.

Of course I was curious as to which cruise line allowed their ship to be included in this program featuring murder and cruising. I did find it interesting to see some of the behind scenes views of a cruise ship.

So unless you are too stuck up in your views of murder dramas, it's time to get in the cruise buffet line and sample this tasty fun program!