Murdoch Mysteries (TV Series) Pirates of the Great Lakes (2019) User Reviews

Real life historical figure. Brackenreid's mid-life crisis.

[reb-warrior · 7/10 · 13 February 2023]

I was curious about the character Dan Seavey. He got away at the end and this had me thinking that maybe he was a real historical figure, and therefore the writers had to write him getting away. Sure enough, he was indeed a real-life historical figure. A pirate among many other nefarious things including human trafficking. And he did indeed have a ship named "The Wanderer." Anyway, good on the writers for using a real historical figure. I never heard of him, but I always find it interesting to read about this stuff whenever it comes up on this show.

I thought the Italian "detective" was funny. I mean yeah he was kind of annoying because he was so ott, but also kind of funny. Too bad they made him the bad guy in the end. I laughed when he slapped Eddie Crawford in the face with his glove. Lol.

Brackenreid's midlife crisis which began in the previous episode continues. To be honest, I don't care for this arc with this character. I find it just makes him look like a jerk and stupid, for example, him sailing off with Dan Seavey. All I could think was what an idiot. And I love, love, love the character of Brackenreid, but it was tremendously disappointing that he wasn't trying to work things out with Margaret and fight for his family.

The mystery plot itself wasn't the greatest. This was more character-driven, as we saw Crabtree pose as some kind of rich collector and Brackenreid going through his mid-life crisis which continues on after this episode. Murdoch was in mainly detective mode but Pupazzi was constantly annoying him. Maybe sort of worth it to see all of Murdoch's funny expressions. Anyway, not a completely awful episode, but not great. 7/10.

Personal Plot Lines are the Focus

[GunnersMate · 6/10 · 7 March 2019]

Pirates of the Great Lakes is not a great episode - as mysteries in the Murdoch-verse go, the mystery solving is fairly standard with no particularly engaging guest characters or plot point to make the viewer really care who dun what (OK, there is a nice Murdoch "invention" at the end, but its too little too late). Add to that an out-of-town detective who is more grating stereotype than compelling character and this episode could be one to pass by. The real reasons to watch Pirates are the personal subplots. First and foremost is the fallout of the revelation of Brackenreid's daughter from a previous relationship (and more importantly the pushback from Brackenreid's wife's and son) and a nice bit of long-overdue character development for Higgin's bride (she drives Julia to distraction, but proves to be much more than we have seen in the past). In the end, not a good choice for the mystery lover or a new viewer to the series, but for long-time Murdoch devotees, it's worth a visit to catch up with old friends.

Not great

[michelle-herman · 6/10 · 27 January 2019]

This episode seemed rushed, the storyline was a bit of a stretch. The Italian detective was so irritating I found it hard to watch his scenes. The continued storyline concerning inspector Brackenreid was the only part that kept this episode grounded.