I was a fan of the Parnell Hall novels, both his "Puzzle Lady" series as well as the PI "Stanley Hastings" books. Always looked for them at the local library and snapped them up whenever a new one came out. Going back 20 years in my memory but enjoyed them all.
It's always "puzzled" me (pun intended) that it's taken so long for them to be made into a television series and now when one is made that the setting has been moved from the USA to the UK. Nothing wrong with that of course.
In any case, I was looking forward to this when it was announced that Phyllis Logan would be starring in the role as it seemed a good casting.
However ...
the result is disappointing.
And disappointing for the unfortunate reason that it seems to have been made on a very low budget.
The script follows the first novel but it just all felt like it had been cobbled together and no effort had been made to polish it or have others read it and make the changes thatwere needed to be made to the script to clean it up.
Dialogue often didn't quite feel right and it often felt that even the actors didn't believe in the lines and if they don't believe the lines, how are they supposed to deliver them convincingly?
And then we have the leaps in the plot that don't quite work. Cora gets the news that one of her bridge partners has gone missing. So she and her niece and the reporter decide to go looking for her. And then the immediate jump to what seems to be an isolated viewpoint on the outskirts of town at night where they discover the missing woman's car? The first place anybody would look of course (note sarcasm). It just didn't work.
Annoying little things too like when the third puzzle clue is discovered (in the parking lot), the clue is read by the group and the reporter immediately comes up with the answer to the clue. It would have been nice if the viewers could have learned what the clue actually said first so we could have had a moment to think about it but, no, all we heard was the answer. Small point, but just shows the lack of thinking that went into cleaning up the script.
Even the budget for the cast must have been tight because once you go past the four main characters, almost everybody else that appeared just felt like they were in an amateur production. The mayor, in particular, sounded like he might have been better in my local town's annual amateur production featuring our town's residents as "actors"; not in a major tv production. Could they not afford someone who could deliver the lines convincingly? It felt like he had just learned the lines and was reciting them in a rehearsal rather them delivering for the screen. To be fair, with the lines he had being a real cliche, maybe it was his frustration with the script that was the real problem.
Filming time must have been limited as well as there were scenes that really should have been reshot but clearly the director said "we don't have time, that will have to do." At one point the cameraman is tracking the action and clearly briefly stumbles so the camera momentarily is not focussed on the actor and well off centre before he recovers and the camera finds Cora again. Just a fraction of a second but noticable and in a proper production, the director would have said "do it again" but not here.
Most modern productions use steadycams so that there is no motion with the camera as the cameraman moves around but not here. The actors routinely aren't quite in the centre of the shot as the cameraman struggles to move smoothly. I guess they couldn't afford modern equipment?
In another scene, a leaf unfortunately falls across Cora's face as she is walking through the cemetary. Sure, this happens in real life, but in a proper production the director would have had the actors run through that bit again but it was allowed to stand as it was a distraction.
In yet another, lights in a darkened room at night don't match the torch that it being used and clearly something had gone wrong with the lighting but "nevermind, close enough".
To the person whose review said this was just a concept taken from Ludwig. No, it wasn't. More the other way around. The Puzzle Lady was written over 25 years ago so it was more likely the writers of Ludwig stole the idea from Parnell Hall.
As to the reviewer who wasn't convinced a crossword setting (even though she isn't!) older woman solving murders could be any way realistic. How is this any worse than Ludwig where a missing detective's identical twin brother steps in and assumes his role in solving crimes? How realistic is that? Or how about one Father Brown who week after week shows the local policeman to be incapable of solving murders? Or one Jessica Fletcher, author, who for years showed up the local police in a smaill town in Maine? Need I go on?
Anyway, enough said. I could say more but no need.
So much potential. So disappointing.
