TIMOTHY BALM E: “Brokenwood Mysteries“ is
a quintessential murder-mystery series.
I think the fresh element to this
is that it's set in New Zealand,
in what is arguably some of the most beautiful
landscapes in the world, you know'?
It's -- Brokenwoods a little bit like "The Hobbit"
without all the dwarves in terms of what you get visually.
Is -- it's very pleasurable and beautiful...
juxtaposed with the fact that there have been
murders in this town, and they seem to happen
[Sighs] quite frequently.
Right.
Senior?
Sorry, uh, things snowballed a bit.
What do we got?
BALME: Fortunately for Brokenwood,
a Detective Senior Sergeant by the name of Mike Shepherd
has moved into town,
and he's really good at figuring this sort of stuff out
in a quintessential detective kind of way,
which is, you know, clues, deduction,
instinct, intuition -- all those elements that I like
when I think about detective series.
How many people live in Brokenwood? Well...
More than five, but probably not more than 5,000.
But it's -- it represents to me
quintessential New Zealand.
It's provincial.
Its industries are based in... on the land, primarily.
But it has a little city center that provides
enough kind of day-to-day reality
for us to feel like that's a town that,
I'd quite like to move to
if I knew how to sleep with one eye open,
which is really important in Brokenwood,
'cause you've got to watch your back.
It was really important in "Brokenwood“ that it wasn't
a heavy and dark kind of procedural type of drama.
I'm a great believer that in any drama,
even dealing with murder and death and things like that,
there has to be an element of humor
because that's what people do.
So, Mike Shepherd, you know,
he -- he's -- he does these things
which are -- he often talks to the deceased.
He has a little conversation with them
that's usually kind of one-sided.
MIKE: Nice spot you picked here, mate.
What brings you out here on a chilly, dark night?
BALME: I didn't want Mike to be
bringing baggage of alcoholism or drug recovery or any of --
I've seen all that before.
I wanted this guy just to be recognizable and real
to an audience, to go,
“I could sit down and have a beer with that guy,
and he wouldn't be threatening to me.
I'd probably find him really interesting."
Um...and he's not afraid to crack a joke.
Even if ifs poor taste or not even particularly funny,
that's the way he and his colleagues
deal with the day-to-day work
of being a detective and solving murders.
You've got to -- you've got to have a bit of a laugh, you know?
Othewvise you'd just go mad, I think.
I guess the only rules that I set for myself
and my contribution to the show was
I wanted these murders to be based in reality.
And I wanted them to be
something that we could recognize.
Perhaps we've seen this in the paper.
One of the episodes is a hunting accident.
And, unfortunately, in New Zealand,
there's actually been quite a prevalence of this,
where people race off into the bush to hunt wild animals
and unfortunately end up shooting each other.
You know, there's nothing fun about that.
And there's nothing -- and it's tragic.
But it's also real, and I go,
'Well, this is what's happening.“
You know, "What if it wasn't an accident?"
You know? "What if..."
And I guess that's the case with writing these stories.
You just start off with the "What if" scenario
and follow the bouncing ball until you come up
with a good story that you can -- you can solve.
'Cause that's the funny thing... You have to kind of...
With a murder mystery, you kind of have to work backwards.
You have to kill someone
and then figure out who killed them and why they killed them,
and then, uh... It's a mental exercise.
You're kind of plotting backwards, I think,
although ifs all very subconscious,
I think, ultimately.
I think people love a good murder mystery
because they want to see if they can solve it first,
if they can get there --
if not before Mike, at the same time as Mike.
Or, as chances are pretty high,
you would be just one step behind.
And I think that it gives you
a chance to feel a little bit clever
and a little bit, um...
certainly engaged and involved.
I mean, that's the thing about a good murder mystery --
it'll suck you in every time.
Man, it looks like a suicide.
OK?!-
And then again, could be an accident.
So, an accident or suicide or homicide.
Keep an open mind.
Have a look for yourself.
♪ My darlin' sweetheart ♪