The Abigail Broukes Mysteries

Alright, this is a murder mystery. There should be more of an atmosphere of danger, suspense and a little bit more moodiness to properly set the tone. After all, somebody just got killed and the actors don't seem to be taking the situation very seriously. They're so light hearted and cheerful they don't come across as real; and the music sounds like something out of a half hour family situation comedy. They act as if they are trying to decide whether to go out for dinner at Red Lobster or Applebee's. A little bit more gravitas for the situation would be good. It was like "Gee whiz guys, somebody just got killed. Sure is a nice day outside!" Now, having said that, I began watching this movie because I wanted some wholesome entertainment.and because I like mystery movies and I just watched a horribly dull, gritty "film noir" mystery from the 1950's, and that was way too bleak, dark and depressing for me. One definition of a noir film is "A movie that is marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, menace, and cynical characters". So I wanted something a little lighter to watch, but the characters in this movie were just a tad too sugary sweet. If they had cast a Shirley Temple type to play Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird it couldn't have been more inappropriate. So, good try, but lay off the overly niceness next time.

I thought this movie was very well done when I did the research and discovered that the main actress, Ansley Gordon, wrote the movie as well as being an Executive Producer. The woman who played Cami on the show was the Director, Brittany Goodwin. Then the male who was the detective, Bret Green, was an Executive Producer. I think this shows a tremendous accomplishment for these relatively young people with the potential for a successful future in this genre. I did see that Ansley Gordon has already accomplished a lot of writing as well as many other projects. I do hope they all plan to give us many years of family friendly movies, particularly mysteries.

I found refreshing the movie was built around God, family and friends. Because of that, we learn a lot about encouragement, loss, forgiveness, perseverance and peace. There are several Bible scriptures quoted throughout. So obviously this isn't for everyone, but for those of us of the Christian faith, it is appreciated. I hope there is another episode to see how it goes.

Actually the story was pretty good , the acting was OK and I did enjoy the twists and turns right up until Abigail starting praying for help to solve the case or get on with her life - hard to tell - it was a unnecessary distraction in an other wise decent mystery movie . - while on the subject I just recently started watching GAF and the similarities between it an Hallmark could fill a book , except for GAF obvious effort to cater to evangelicals - the GAF effort to indoctrinate religion into many of their shows is annoying - and Abigail Mysteries is a classic example - I would have given this story an 8 if they had just stopped asking God for help.

I was looking forward to seeing what kind of mystery GAC might offer because I do enjoy a nice cozy mystery, but I couldn't even follow the mystery plot in this movie. The plot was constantly interrupted by random discussions of religion between the main character Abby and well every other character. I guess this was an attempt to differentiate from Hallmark channel and appeal to the GAC base but goodness please first nail down the plot and develop the characters. Signed, Sealed, Delivered was a very successful mystery movie series with religious overtones that didn't have me cringing or reaching for the remote.

I watched the entire movie because I liked the dynamics between the lead character and her friend who was a cop. A rerun of Murder She Wrote probably could offer more suspense. Which isn't saying much.

The acting overall wasn't compelling. I never felt her struggle with God was fairly acted out. For example, she seemed to always try to pray with a glass of red wine nearby. Not sure that is the right inspiration.

Her efforts to find the killer were pretty laughable and the red herrings were easy to spot. Overall this is no competition to the Hallmark mystery movies but I found it watchable nonetheless.