Murdoch Mysteries: Season One

Sherlock Holmes meets CSI in this TV series set in Victorian-era Toronto, where detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) employs then-new forensic techniques to solve baffling mysteries. Aided by female pathologist Julia Ogden (Helene Joy), while suffering derision from his old-school superior Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), Murdoch investigates crimes featuring both natural and supernatural aspects. Based on a series of novels by Maureen Jennings, Murdoch Mysteries occasionally sports obvious anachronisms, and the female coroner is much more involved than she would actually have been in those less-enlightened days, but the plots are clever for the most part, and some episodes are quite suspenseful in this 13-episode compilation of the 2008 debut season. Favorites include “The Glass Ceiling,” which spotlights Brackenreid, who recognizes in two recent murders the handiwork of a notorious killer long thought dead; and the creepy “Bad Medicine,” in which a homicidal nutjob decked out as the Grim Reaper exacts revenge on those he believes are guilty of medical malpractice. DVD extras include an episode commentary, interviews, a photo gallery, cast filmographies, and character bios. Recommended. (E. Hulse)