Poisoned in Paradise: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery

Story is pretty standard Hallmark. But why don't the people making these films just listen to the unnecessary LOUD music before turning the finished product loose on the public. Sometimes it is so loud you can't hear the dialog.

Jeff Jackson (Jesse Metcalfe) is a retired Boston police detective after getting shot. He spends his days fishing on Martha's Vineyard. Dr. Zee Madieras (Sarah Lind) is the new medical examiner. Waitress Katie Leonard comes to Jeff for help and he redirects her to Chief Madieras. When she turned up poisoned to death, Jeff sets out to solve the case.

I've seen a number of movies from this series. Honestly, I don't remember any of them. They have made no impression on me and this one is likely to do the same. They seem to overstuff this movie and that kept my attention... barely. I am half interested in the mystery. In the end, I don't think that I care about catching the bad guy. I don't know him. The most memorable scene may be Zee checking out Jeff as he undresses. They should probably spend more time developing that aspect.

I liked this episode. It was better than the previous movies in this series which felt like a one hour plot stretched over two hours. I must say that I like corny mysteries like "Murder She Wrote". This isn't that, but I really enjoy the main cast especially Jesse Metcalfe. The writing is getting better. However, they should make him a part time cop so it isn't so frustrating watching him do cop stuff.

I love suspending my belief for a good movie but the writer clearly didn't do a basic google search on both Massachusetts and federal banking law. For the bank being such an integral part of the story, it is annoying that the community bank is quoting nonsense. And don't get me started on a banking system with terrible controls that they are just shrugging at. Yes, banks have third party errors all the time but $100k in the wrong account is a quick flag.

I really enjoyed the series and am bummed this is the movie they end with. I encourage people to watch the other ones but feel free to skip this one.

The story could have been a good one, but the acting (or the directing?) was off, seemed to me to have overacting, be unnatural. The filming location was pretty obvious that it is not really Martha's Vineyard.