Blue Murder Motel

Welcome to Moway Bays’ Blue Murder Motel, run by two former Australian police officers who are married and have decided to relocate to New Zealand to leave the past behind and open up a motel. It won’t be long though before the past catches up with them in this engaging and quirky TV-murder mystery - with Season 1 just released on DVD.

Meet Vanessa ‘Vinny’ Coleman (Michala Banas) and Peter ‘Cole’ Coleman, a loved-up, rock ’n roll loving couple who have recently relocated from Sydney, Australia, to the (fictional) seaside community of Mowai Bay in New Zealand, apparently somewhere near Auckland. Both Vinny and Cole look forward to a fresh start and have decided to wave goodbye to their former detective years and opening up a 13-room motel instead, which they call Blue Motel. We know from the choice of song (Del Shannon’s 1960’s hit ‘Runaway’) which accompanies the opening credits of the first episode, that this won’t be your usual ‘cosy crime’ drama and it isn’t. For starters, the soundtrack throughout the first series is very cool indeed and the same can be said for Vinny and Cole who, despite running their retro seaside motel, still find time for plenty of canoodling - indeed, not since ‘Hart to Hart’ hit our TV-screens in 1979 has there been so much on-line affection between a sleuthing couple…

Because despite their best efforts to leave their previous life behind, Vinny and Cole are soon forced to play sleuths again when a boy’s weekend goes wrong in Episode 1 (‘Party Boy’). Perhaps it should be mentioned that the boys in question are adults and a physical disagreement by the poolside over one of the lad’s girlfriends, Shaylah (Briar Troy), ends badly. When young motel employee Saffron (Jamie McDermott) can’t access Unit 3 to clean guest Mitchell’s (Johnny Barker) room and notices water leaking from the door, his dead body is discovered lying in the bath, the tap still running… Yes, he was the asshole who provoked his fellow ‘boys’ by the poolside but was this a reason to kill him? Young Constable Jamie Haira (Jayden Daniels) turns out to be an inexperienced rookie and to make matters worse, he’s also the sole-charge constable… What else can Vinny and Cole do but offer their help - seeing how both share many years of experience when it comes to solving crimes…

Episode 2 (‘Home Is Where You Park It’) starts with another brawl and aggressive confrontation, albeit not in the Blue Motel (now nicknamed ‘Blue Murder Motel’ by the locals) but at the nearby Shady Vista Holiday Park, where seemingly permanent camper Gene Pratt (Sam Snedden) insults some guests yet again. Long suffering holiday park manager Theresa (Aidee Walker) attempts to diffuse the situation. Hours later, Pratt’s caravan blows up and he with it. Constable Jamie, Vinny and Cole investigate and find out that due to a stupid contract between Theresa’s late father and Gene Pratt, he was allowed to permanently camp at Shady Vista. Soon, several suspects are considered as the potential killer by our sleuthing trio while Theresa, initially friendly towards Vinny and Cole, gets increasingly miffed over the fact that guests now leave Shady Vista and book rooms in the Blue Motel instead… 

Episode 3 (‘A Thousand Dreadful Things’) was directed by Lucy ‘Xena Warrior Princess’ Lawless. Here, a group of party-loving teens are enjoying a good time down by the beach. Gerard (Jesse Park) seems to be a favourite with the girls while Noah (Makea Upu), the teenage nephew of permanent Blue Motel guest Maxine (Stephanie Tauevihi) looks on bored. The next morning, Noah is found sleeping by the motel pool hungover, while Gerard fails to return altogether. After his concerned Mum raises the alarm, a search party eventually finds his naked body (sporting only a pair of swimming trunks which aren’t his) deep down below a cliff. When Vinny and Cole interview three of Gerard’s female friends, namely Harper (Chloe Parker), Brooke (Keisha Jayapuram) and Mackenzie (Alexandra Hall) - prompting Cole to remark, “Since when did family names become first names?” - it soon emerges that the three girls weren’t Gerard’s friends at all and had every reason to hate him over a blackmail scheme involving AI generated fake porn…

In ‘Born Alone, Die Together’, elderly couple Maude (Stephanie Liebert) and Martin (Peter Elliott) are found dead in their motel bed though somehow, terminally ill Martin survives! Apparently, the culprit was poison in the wine consumed earlier by the couple. As Jamie, Vinny and Cole gradually find out, the truth is much more shocking and involves Maude’s unexpected change of a will plus the sudden appearance of Estelle (Jacque Drew), a former flame of Martin… 

Disc 2 starts with 'Run For Your Life’ , in which sibling rivalry takes a deadly turn when during a 30th birthday celebration and a marathon, young Beatrix fails to show up at the end of the marathon. When her body is found in the forest, bludgeoned to death, the suspicion falls onto her sister Nikki (Mirabai Pease), a spoiled and arrogant brat always much more successful than Beatrix and hated by everyone, in particular by Camilla (Ella Hope Higginson), a former drama school student who once studied alongside Nikki. Jamie, Vinny and Cole begin to wonder why Beatrix was murdered when Nikki is the one whom everybody hates…

In ‘Cat Among the Pigeons’ (also directed by Lucy Lawless), our detectives are called when local councilman Gordon (Toby Leach) fails to turn up to a meeting and is later found stabbed to death in his bungalow, with the only witness, his expensive cat, missing! During their investigation, which is hampered by the arrival of Sydney detective Annette Grainger (Sara Wiseman), who makes it clear to Constable Jamie that she doesn’t appreciate his ‘team work’ with Vinny and Cole, the trio learn that prior to his murder, Gordon, a cat lover, had an argument with fellow council member Poppy (Hanah Tayeb), a radical leftie who is of the opinion that cats are a threat to birds and trees. Indeed, more and more cats seem to vanish from Moway Bay. It would be too easy to point the finger at Poppy and as so often, the culprit turns out to be the one person everyone suspected the least. Rest assured, all missing pussycats are found alive and unharmed. This episode also marks a twist in the series as guest detective Annette throws a few hints at Constable Jamie that Vinny and Cole may not be who they claim to be and that there’s no official record of their names among the Sydney police departments…

In Episode 7 (‘Radio Silence’), local Peninsula FM radio DJ Jonty (James Sexton) is found dead in the radio station during a particularly fierce storm, which forces Constable Jamie to close the beach and most roads. However, Vinny and Cole are more concerned about the sudden appearance of a blast from the past (albeit a deeply unwelcome one) in the shape of Burnsie (Christopher Stollery), who has come all the way from Sydney to track down the couple and ‘make peace’ with them. We only find out bits of Burnie’s reasons for tracking down the couple while investigations into Jony’s death are ongoing. While Cole spends some time at the radio station with female DJ Simona Cassidy (Miriama Smith), Vinny is more concerned over the fact that Maxine has taken a shine to Burnsie, a dubious character at best. And then there’s Wendy (Claire Dougan), a distressed woman with a head wound who seeks shelter in the motel from the storm. What’s her story and connection to what’s going on?

In the final episode, ‘A Cop and a Gentleman’, a death occurs during a summer market. What initially looks like a freak accident involving a driverless car running over a female stallholder turns out to be calculated murder. Gradually, we learn more and more about Vinny and Cole’s past life in Sydney (Cole’s in particular) and he finds himself in mighty peril due to the unexpected appearance of a former lover, Kat (Amelia Reid) who is dangerously deluded in her belief that Cole might still have feelings for her… It’s a brilliant cliffhanger for Season 2, for sure!
The episodes are intelligent and cleverly constructed and Banas and Tucker’s onscreen chemistry is utterly convincing, while Jayden Daniels has great fun morphing from rookie cop to an ever more experienced Constable. Bonus included Q&A with Michala Banas and Brett Tucker, plus Q&A with Lucy Lawless.