Watching: Death and Other Details

2024, Disney

We watch a lot of whodunnits and crime series, in general preferring the week to week procedurals, particularly in the light British style (as opposed to the grim Broadchurch-ish shows). When I say we, I mean Marmy for the most part, but I have the ones I will wander in and sit down for. There is one particular style choice of such that I ascribe to adaptations of Agatha Christie, more accurately, movies of such in the last decade or so, that is as much about the styling of the period piece, as it is about the ensemble cast murder investigation. Think the Branagh Poirot movies and how pretty they look. Only Murders in the Building is something I would shoehorn into this category; Knives Out as well. This series, which came out of the blue for me, is another.

At its heart, it is a whodunnit, who stuck the intolerable American guy to the wall of his cabin with a harpoon bolt. Also, at its heart, it is the entire season unravelling of an older murder, that of Imogene's mother, when she was a child. But the entire show is wrapped up in the decadence of wealth, real and fabricated, it taking place on a luxury cruise ship built by (false) magnate Sunil to appear authentically as an ocean liner from the .... 1920s? And all the guests seemed to have got the note, and dress to fit the part. It knows it is doing this, for the show opens quickly, not explaining to us what is going on, causing confusion and wonderment, as anachronisms appear and then are accepted.

I loved every pretty moment of it. Well, most. I am never one for full on commitment to anything. Its been a while since we finished it, given it was a week-to-week show on Disney, which is rare these days. The thing about doing a season long whodunnit, as opposed to a single-episode-per-murder is that you have stretch things out. False leads, false solutions, double-turns, twists, conspiracies, and twists. And twists. 

When Imogene Scott (Violett Beane, God Friended Me) was 11 her mom was car-bombed in the driveway of her uber-rich boss Lawrence Collier (David Marshall Grant, Air America). "World Famous Detective" Rufus Coteworth (Mandy Pantinkin, Criminal Minds) was brought in to solve the case, and promises Imogene he will. He doesn't and she is devastated. Years later Imogene, having been raised by the Colliers, is on a luxury, anachronistic, period piece cruise with the Colliers and a bunch of other uber rich people. The primary reason is to negotiate the merger of the Collier family business so that Lawrence can retire, and his daughter take control. The murder interrupts that action.

Initially Coteworth steps up to take over the case, with Imogene loathing him every step of the way, but also recalling all the investigative methods Rufus instilled in her when she was a child. Then an Interpol agent arrives to take over the case, and Rufus reveals the murdered man was secretly his assistant, who was helping him trace leads from the original Collier case, hoping to reveal who actually murdered Imogene's mom.

Yes, the twists & turns are typical fare for this kind of murder-mystery, but they were all handled decently well. And migawd, this was a pretty pretty show full of lovely sets, incredible costuming and Imogene's perfect coif. I fully admit to swooning over Imogene's bright blue eyes for much of the show. By the time we were on our third twist, I realized I wouldn't be able to seriously commit to the "oh, but did you expect THIS !?!" aspect of the show, but everything was handled so artfully I forgave it of it's Lost-isms. And no, by using that comparison, I don't suggest there was something supernatural at play; it was all summed up via human greed, and evil and desires to take or keep power, like all good murder-mysteries do.

Notice how this write-up suffers from the old Toasty style of "i liked it, all done" lack of anything of substance to say? You should have really talked more about how pretty it was, like Mabel Mora's outfits from S1 level pretty.