Mystery Maniacs

🎙️ Episode:  https://share.transistor.fm/s/1931ade8
đź““ Show Notes: https://midsomermaniacs.transistor.fm/episodes/mystery-maniacs-clues-and-reviews-8-17-26

New Mystery Maniacs Clues & Reviews for 08/10/26!

Show Notes

Cardinal
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5583512/?_ssoLoop=1

Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders
https://www.amazon.com/We-Solve-Murders-Richard-Osman/dp/0593653246/ref=sr_1_1

Janice Hallett’s The Killer Question
https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Question-Novel-Janice-Hallett/dp/166808354X/ref=sr_1_1


Thanks again for listening!
 
Mark & Sarah

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Upcoming Tentative  Schedule

  • August 19: Mystery Maniacs - Cold Cases - Midsomer Season 04 BINGE
  • August 31: Mystery Maniacs - Clues and Reviews 8/31/26
  • September 2: Mystery Maniacs - Cold Cases - Midsomer Season 05 BINGE
  • September 2 - September Newsletter

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Creators and Guests

Host
Mark Bell
Co-host of Mystery Maniacs
Host
Sarah Smith-Robbins
Co-host of Mystery Maniacs

What is Mystery Maniacs?

Mystery Maniacs Podcast is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to British Mystery Television. Formerly, Midsomer Maniacs podcast.

Sarah:

Hey, Maniacs.

Mark:

Hey, Mystery Maniacs. Welcome to Clues and Reviews. I'm Sarah. And I'm Mark.

Sarah:

I like Clues and Reviews. I think that's a fun name.

Mark:

It is. It's fun to say. Mhmm. People seem to like it. We got an email from Antonia today about how great the ideas were that we were doing this.

Sarah:

Thanks, Antonia. Absolutely. I think it's, I think so far, it's working out. It's a good kind of like, while things are crazy.

Mark:

It's a bridge. It's a gap. It covers the

Sarah:

gap. Speaking of gap Yeah. This is a bad transition. Gaps in our brains. The gaps between fiction and reality.

Sarah:

Last week we talked about, is your brain broken like ours and you see mysterious plots everywhere you look in your day to day life because of all of the mystery fiction that you consume on TV and in books and movies.

Mark:

We got all sorts of response for this on social media. Colleen sent us an email about figuring out that somebody was actually an ex con when they were told about him.

Sarah:

Yeah, some people have gaydar. I think she's got criminal dar. Yeah. Think my favorite

Mark:

Not that this person was acting criminally.

Sarah:

No, no, no, no, no, but she's got a special sense of when people have a past. I think my favorite story was somebody told us that they were out on a walk at night, and they saw guys with flashlights digging a hole in somebody's yard. I would absolutely invent a story around that

Mark:

for sure. I'd be like, what are those guys doing?

Sarah:

If you have a similar experience, a plot that you invented in your mind, keep them coming. They're so fun, and we'll keep sharing them.

Mark:

Absolutely.

Sarah:

What have we been watching recently?

Mark:

Oh my gosh. We watched the first episode of Chelsea detective and then forgot about it completely, which is good because we have stuff to watch.

Sarah:

That's because professor t was out.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And it it was starting to get really interesting and intriguing and tense, and I wanted to see what was gonna happen. I'm like, let's just finish this because all the episodes are out.

Mark:

This is the new

Sarah:

can go back.

Mark:

The newest episodes of professor t are all available on masterpiece.

Sarah:

Mhmm. PBS. PBS.

Mark:

And it is, quite the season.

Sarah:

Yes.

Mark:

I can remember thinking there's none of blank, and you can guess what blank is in my professor t.

Sarah:

Wow. Well, and there's something about the end of the season that we're gonna we're not gonna spoil it or anything, but we're gonna come back to it later in this conversation.

Mark:

Yes. I and I think they did a good job of changing it up. They always do a good job of changing it up in professor T.

Sarah:

It would be easy for a character like him who's got his mental challenges and his obsessiveness and stuff to be really annoying after a while. And they don't let it get that way. It's great.

Mark:

No. Anyone who's done any reading of how to create characters or long term characters always talks about how your character should change over time.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

And professor t certainly has changed over time.

Sarah:

Yeah. So Here's a spoiler alert. He stops wearing the gloves.

Mark:

Well, he stopped that a couple of seasons ago.

Sarah:

Well, the fingers went, and then he wore them sometimes.

Mark:

But I thought I think the changes came naturally.

Sarah:

Yeah. That made sense.

Mark:

But he

Sarah:

It's good.

Mark:

And and this is not a spoiler. He cries in this season.

Sarah:

And smiles?

Mark:

Smiles ish. Almost laughs

Sarah:

once or twice?

Mark:

Walks around in the kitchen barefoot. Oh, how can he do that? That's not professor t.

Sarah:

Highly recommend it. If you like the show, the new season is definitely worth it.

Mark:

I think they kinda struggle with the b characters a little bit

Sarah:

this season. But it's okay.

Mark:

But it's okay. It was I mean,

Sarah:

it's an a show. So if they have a little b areas, that's Yeah. It's still an a show. Yes. And then you've been watching stuff without me.

Mark:

Yes. So I watch Cardinal, which is a Canadian show that is based on a series of books called the John Cardinal Mysteries, which are can only be described as Nordic noir in Canada.

Sarah:

That is it that dark?

Mark:

It's pretty dark. Okay. It's definitely dark. It's it's in Canada in the winter. It's dark all the time.

Sarah:

Literally dark, but are the storylines that dark?

Mark:

Deegan was, saw me watching it, and she goes, that's a lot of snow. I'm like, that's Canada. That's Canada. It really did remind me of home. So it's set in a fictional place called Algonquin Bay, but that's basically North Bay, is on Lake Nipissing about four and a half, five hours north of Toronto.

Mark:

But you would think you were in the Arctic Circle.

Sarah:

Lake Nipissing is like a normal name for a lake. Yes. There are some stupid names for lakes in Canada

Mark:

I learned recently. There are a lot of lakes in Canada. We just ran out of names.

Sarah:

Like a lake called another lake, and the one next to it is called and another lake. Yes.

Mark:

This is a a giant lake in Canada that is, which would be one of the biggest lakes in The United States, but Except there are so many lakes. Great Lakes are nearby, and so so it's a big lake. And, the thing about Northern Ontario especially is there's a lot of crime because there's a disparaging amount of income inequality amongst people. Plus it's winter, like ten months of the year, and that kind of drives people a little crazy.

Sarah:

But there was less crime in winter.

Mark:

No. Because people stay in.

Sarah:

No. They they I guess there's probably a tipping point.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

If you have winter so much of the year.

Mark:

I can't stand being in this house with you anymore. So it stars, Billy Campbell and Careen Vines, who we saw in

Sarah:

She was the host of Canada Traders.

Mark:

Yeah. She And wore

Sarah:

the most obnoxious clothes possible

Mark:

for her The job before that job. Oh. So she kinda got that job. But but she does a great job. I think he does a great job, though he's he is my least favorite character in the show because he's so I'm morose and my wife's in a mental institution and That's noir for you.

Mark:

Yep. While everyone else seems to be not so noiry around him. Though he isn't super noiry. He doesn't drink too much.

Sarah:

But you need that balance. Yeah. So that's cardinal. Where are you watching that?

Mark:

I watched that on Hulu, and there's four seasons of it. And there's six episodes each and each season is a whole case and I think they do a really good job of making it very watchable and very good. I was sad to see that there were only four seasons. There would've watched

Sarah:

was just more snow every season. More snow. By the last season, they're just up to their noses in snow.

Mark:

Pretty much.

Sarah:

I think there's been a murder, but I can't tell because of all the snow.

Mark:

Three of the four stories take place in the winter, and one of them takes place in the fall. It's summer. It's like four weeks in the middle. One of

Sarah:

they're all just and happy and nobody commits a crime.

Mark:

One of the books they didn't do is called Blackfly Summer or something like that. It's all good.

Sarah:

Midge's and gnats.

Mark:

Oh my god. The black flies up there must be insane. So

Sarah:

That's why there's no crime in the summer. They all just fight the flies.

Mark:

Yes. So it's a it's a fun show.

Sarah:

I don't know about fun.

Mark:

Well, it's enjoyable. It's not cozy, but it's not, like, incredibly bleak either. Mhmm. Mostly. Mostly.

Sarah:

You have on our notes here thirty five days until hockey.

Mark:

Yes. I'm this is the worst time period to be a hockey fan because everyone in Canada, and that usually includes most of the people who run hockey teams, all go on vacation in the month of August. So there's no news. There's no trades.

Sarah:

There's no them then.

Mark:

Yeah. It's fantastic for them.

Sarah:

Bad for a fan,

Mark:

I guess. But it's bad for a fan.

Sarah:

Maybe you should be on holiday.

Mark:

I am on holiday from hockey, unfortunately.

Sarah:

No, mean, they take a break. You don't take a break. It's also seven days until school starts here, the university starts. My syllabus isn't done. I know we have a lot of listeners who will be like, I'm with you, sister.

Sarah:

I'm not ready either.

Mark:

We have a lot of signs all over campus telling people to unload and move.

Sarah:

Yeah. Unload and move on or something like that.

Mark:

So roughly 40,000 students arrive in three days.

Sarah:

The next seven days.

Mark:

Yeah. The next seven days.

Sarah:

Our town will double in population.

Mark:

In population. We won't be able to go to a restaurant. We won't be able to go to the grocery store easy, and finding parking is always a difficult thing.

Sarah:

Don't even try to go to Target. No. Because, oh my god. Absolutely. Need it from my dorm.

Sarah:

Uh-huh. Need a little microwave. I need a little fridge. I need these cute things.

Mark:

And speaking of next week, I am doing a convention in the city that we live in, a comic book convention. Because of that and the preparations for that, we're not going to do a news and review clues and reviews or a cold case next week.

Sarah:

Just one week.

Mark:

Just gonna take a week off, and then we'll return after that from, I can't believe, Labor Day. Oh, gee. Where

Sarah:

is But we have more fun stuff to talk about.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So just really quickly, a couple things that we've seen that are coming out soon. One that I'm excited about. If you watched Only Murders in the Building, I think it kinda jumped its own shark. That has that phrase jumped its shark?

Mark:

A little bit.

Sarah:

Okay. It jumped its own Steve Martin? Yes. What

Mark:

was that? Short.

Sarah:

What's the girl's name?

Mark:

Selena Gomez.

Sarah:

Selena it jumped at Selena Gomez.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

But they've reinvented it, and now it's gonna be only murders in London.

Mark:

Yes. So they're moving, and they were like, who could we get to be in this show with us?

Sarah:

Everybody. Who

Mark:

was also in Doctor Who?

Sarah:

Everybody. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna have Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, Jodi Whitaker, Jim Broadbent, Richard Ayawati, Martin Freeman. I mean, you name it, they're going to have

Mark:

cameos out of lot of too.

Sarah:

Olivia Coleman. Yeah. It's going to be really, really good. I'm excited about it. But we don't have a release date yet.

Mark:

No. We don't have a

Sarah:

release date. I think it's gonna be fall.

Mark:

It's season six of that. And then a new trailer drop for Apple TV for a British show called Last Seen. It is a fairly interesting idea concept where a guy who is a nine ninety nine operator gets a call and he thinks it's his missing daughter.

Sarah:

Oh, that's intriguing.

Mark:

So So that becomes super interesting. And there are a bunch of people from Midsommar in the trailer of that already.

Sarah:

Obviously, because there's only 12 actors

Mark:

in the only 12 actors in The UK.

Sarah:

There are a couple of books that I've just grabbed that I have not read through yet, but I'm excited to read them. And if you've read them, let me know what you thought. One of them is the first book in a new series by Richard Osman, who wrote the Thursday Murder Club books.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

It's called We Solve Murders. Oh. And it's about a father-in-law and his daughter-in-law Oh. Solving crimes.

Mark:

That's super interesting.

Sarah:

I love his tone, his sense of humor.

Mark:

I I, borrowed liberally from mister Osman's writing style in my books.

Sarah:

That's okay. He borrowed from a lot of

Mark:

other people. He did indeed borrow.

Sarah:

But it's called We Solve Murders, and it's the first book in a new series, and I'm excited to get into it. And then the other one, when I read the description, I was like, I have to read this book. This is too intriguing. It's called The Killer Question, and it's by Janice Howlett. And we'll put all this information in the show notes.

Sarah:

But the plot is that these two pub landlords host a quiz night at their pub.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

And then they disappear.

Mark:

Oh.

Sarah:

And their nephew tries to figure out what

Mark:

happened Oh, to I definitely wanna read that.

Sarah:

And there's like, the night they disappear is like a strange night at the pub quiz, like a mysterious team shows up that nobody's ever seen before.

Mark:

All good stuff.

Sarah:

I need to know what happens. Yes. When I read a description of a book and I'm like, okay, I need to know the answer. I'm like, okay, gotta read that book. Yep.

Sarah:

So we try to have a little topic for discussion. Like last week we talked about the plots in our heads for these Clues and Reviews episodes. And what I wanna talk about is when we were talking about Professor T, I said we were gonna come back to something about it. We did watch the last episode of the season and I'm not gonna ruin it, I'm not gonna tell you anything about it, except to say that it does end with a cliffhanger. It ends with an unsolved thing that has just happened at the very end that you know the next season will have to address?

Sarah:

Assuming there is a next season, what do you think about shows that end a season with a big cliffhanger?

Mark:

I understand the motivation behind it in terms of writing. It compels people to move on to the next season, and especially in binge seasons, binging seasons, that works. And certainly in a show like Cardinal, they did that. Like, the end of season two makes you put season three episode on one.

Sarah:

Right? But that's a different experience for you now because all those seasons are out, but it would be different if you were watching it as it was released and that happened.

Mark:

Where I think it's almost chef's kiss worthy is the greatest one of these of all time to me is when we watched the last episode of Twin Peaks, we knew it was the last episode, though they've done another season twenty years later, but

Sarah:

Doesn't count.

Mark:

We thought it was the last episode, and it ends with such an amazing cliffhanger. You're left going,

Sarah:

what the what?

Mark:

Was good. The last second. And it was Lynch playing with cliffhangers. Right? So we we love that it had no ending because that's that's what Twin Peaks is.

Mark:

It's an experience.

Sarah:

It's a dream. Off.

Mark:

It's a one off. No one else could do that. No. No one else could do that.

Sarah:

No. Any other show that would be so annoying.

Mark:

Well, it would be

Sarah:

because you know it's

Mark:

not coming back. Annoying. And, like, because I'm releasing the novels that I'm writing serially, I have to put hooks in them. And in fact, this week I had somebody who said, thankfully, I can read the next chapter because if I if I had to wait a week, I would have went nuts. And I was like, well, that that's good that you're a couple of chapters behind because there are other people who had to wait that week.

Mark:

I like the wait. I think it's fun to do the wait. I just don't think it's what it used to be, which is a way to convince executives to have another season of a show.

Sarah:

I'm gonna give you my hot take.

Mark:

Okay. Sarah's hot takes.

Sarah:

If you disagree with me, bring it. Okay. We'll discuss it. I think it's irresponsible unless the next season is already signed and paid for.

Mark:

I can completely agree with you.

Sarah:

Unless you can end the last episode of a show with season current plus one coming fall twenty seven. Unless you can do that with confidence, do not end with a cliffhanger like that.

Mark:

And especially a television show, what you do is you film the resolution of that cliffhanger when you do that last season. For instance, again, coming back to cardinal, season two ended with a horrific event, and season three started moments after that horrific event, and they obviously filmed it at the same time as the

Sarah:

other stuff. Knew there was another season and the contract is They knew there was another season. Was in the can.

Mark:

The deal was

Sarah:

If you don't have that, you don't do that. It's irresponsible.

Mark:

It's totally irresponsible. And in addition, if you know it's your last season, you tie everything up.

Sarah:

Yep. With a bow.

Mark:

Except not in the way the Game of Thrones did.

Sarah:

Everybody dies. I mean, you can leave something open to interpretation if you want to give people something to talk about, but the answers must be given.

Mark:

Otherwise And I think that's the problem that people have with Game of Thrones last two seasons is they were waiting for answers, and they didn't get them.

Sarah:

But it's not a mystery show.

Mark:

I'm talking

Sarah:

about mystery shows.

Mark:

Yeah. Mystery shows you can't

Sarah:

have like, oh, I got away. I'm the killer. Yeah. No. No.

Sarah:

No. Well, at least then you know who the killer is. Right? Yes. But they got away.

Sarah:

Okay. So next season, they're gonna catch them. Yeah. But you gotta at least know who it is.

Mark:

It must have

Sarah:

been We watched I remember I posted on, I think on our subreddit about it. It's been a while back, over a year. There was some show that we watched the first season and we were so interested and they didn't even solve the mystery in

Mark:

the first It was the show about the will.

Sarah:

Yeah. It was called the will. We didn't even know who the killer was by the end of the first season, and then there's no more And of shocking It's waste.

Mark:

Shocking stuff in the last episodes. And we're

Sarah:

just And they may as well never have made it.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

Because it's pointless. It's like getting the first three chapters of a book. Like what's the point?

Mark:

Where you have the interesting take is this, right? It's the fugitive problem. The fugitive, a television show from the fifties and sixties in The US, I think it's sixties. In which a man is falsely accused of murdering his wife, and he finds out that it's actually this one armed man, and he spends the whole series searching for this one armed man. Mhmm.

Mark:

So here's

Sarah:

the While being on the run because he's wanted. Right?

Mark:

And here's the problem. When you find the one armed man, the show ends. Mhmm. But, also, if you don't find the one armed man, everybody's left waiting.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

So it must have been like, are we going to do it this year? No, let's not do it this year. Are we going to do it this year? No, let's not do it this year. Do we get renewed?

Mark:

Yes. Okay. Let's not do it because that's the whole reason to come and watch again.

Sarah:

And there must have been smaller subplots and stuff that he he did get satisfaction from other things. Yeah. But How do you kill somebody if you've only got one arm? And, like, I mean, I guess you could

Mark:

shoot him. I I

Sarah:

suppose that would be pretty easy to have

Mark:

not seen I've only seen the movie, but Oh.

Sarah:

You're not strangling somebody unless

Mark:

you got really big hands. It works much better as a movie Yeah. Than it does a prolonged serial kill.

Sarah:

Imagine that

Mark:

And those are twenty two seasons Oh my god. Episode seasons.

Sarah:

Like, woo. Donkey. Whole episodes of him just running after a guy with one arm. Running, running, running, running, running, running, running.

Mark:

That's the problem with the biggest bad that never gets caught. Yeah. And and a show like Buffy, I know you hate Buffy and I know you're gonna say you hate Buffy, but the show Buffy figured it out because they had monsters of the week and the week and the yearly big bad. So they would defeat the yearly big bad in each season and then still have episodes that were tangentially related to that.

Sarah:

I don't think we've ever told the Buffy story. So Mark has always been a big Buffy, the Vampire Slayer fan, the TV show. Yep. And when we met

Mark:

And I realized there's all sorts of problematic things with him.

Sarah:

Right. But when we met and you were a fan, it was long before any of that Joss Whedon crap happened. Right? It was yeah. And I knew of it only tangentially and never watched it because it looked horrible to me and I wasn't gonna watch it.

Mark:

I think you thought

Sarah:

it was 24674 with vampires. Basically. Yeah. And Mark said, You can feel how you want, but I don't think you should have such a strong feeling about it having never actually watched it. Yes.

Sarah:

So if you watch a full season of it and you still hate it, you can say what you want. And I said, Deal. And I watched a full season and I hated it even more.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

And you were cool. You were like, Okay, that's fine. You don't have to like it. I like it. You don't have to like it.

Sarah:

It's cool.

Mark:

Yeah. It

Sarah:

was absolutely September with vampires. But It was Twilight before Twilight.

Mark:

They did that structure. They did that structure like x files did that structure.

Sarah:

Were able tie some things up

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

While leaving other things lingering. And, again, I think that's okay as long as the things that are lingering aren't, like, the biggest, most

Mark:

important part. Be the

Sarah:

a plot. Show.

Mark:

It has to be like a c plot.

Sarah:

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of fun to to talk, like, before the next season comes out of something like, what do you think is gonna happen? But who do you think did it?

Sarah:

Whatever did it. That's kind of fun. But if if you turn out feeling so angry that they didn't wrap it up that you don't even care

Mark:

Or they wrap it up in a completely stupid way.

Sarah:

Yeah. Like They rush to a conclusion. Dallas.

Mark:

Oh, the last two seasons have been a complete dream. What?

Sarah:

Yeah. What?

Mark:

I'm out. That's like What? Lost. Lost. I'm generous.

Mark:

Lost with them. If you like Lost, good on you. But I wasted 22 episodes of my life watching Lost to be given at the end of the first season a ladder. That is the big

Sarah:

And you've been angry

Mark:

ever since. Big reveal at the end of the first season is, oh, there's a hatch and there's a ladder. They don't go down the ladder. They don't none of that.

Sarah:

Nothing comes up the ladder?

Mark:

No. No. No. No. 20 twos 22 episodes of character creation to reveal a ladder.

Mark:

And if you've seen the end of Lost, I don't think it's a satisfying ending. I think the entire show is a complete failure plot and story wise. That's your hot take. Yeah.

Sarah:

Here's our question of the week.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Something to leave you with that we hope you'll send us some answers. You

Mark:

have two weeks to answer.

Sarah:

On all the socials? Yep. If the person closest to you,

Mark:

your partner, your mom,

Sarah:

Whoever knows you well.

Mark:

Yep. Was

Sarah:

told that you had just been arrested, what would they think first that you would have done?

Mark:

Now Sarah and I have answered this question for each other, and I'm gonna leave a cliffhanger. No.

Sarah:

My answer for you was that you must've gotten in the middle of something, like trying to protect someone and got caught up in it and got arrested.

Mark:

That is a quintessential Mark.

Sarah:

You would come to somebody's defense and get caught up in it.

Mark:

Yep. And I said that Sarah would get pulled over by a cop and not take it seriously enough and think it wasn't a real thing and then take off. Like, oh, what are you doing bothering me?

Sarah:

I wasn't speeding. You're full of crap. Goodbye. Yep. High speed chase ensues.

Mark:

She would have no time for that.

Sarah:

Nope. And then they'd have a reason to arrest her.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So we wanna know what your answer to the question is. If you were arrested and your nearest one didn't know why, what would they guess you had done? Alright. Bye, Maniacs.

Mark:

Bye, Maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.

Mark:

Bye, Maniacs.