Murdoch's investigations, this evening on France 3, smell a little (a lot) like Christmas

It's Christmas. Julia (Helen Joy), William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and all their friends discover the mansion which the lawyer has just inherited from a millionaire. Without direct descendants – officially, at least – he bequeathed his property and his fortune to the young woman so that she could found an orphanage. Deprived of children herself and convinced that she will never be able to be pregnant, it is an idea that she herself had been thinking about for a long time.

Obviously, nothing goes as planned. Welcomed by a rather cold staff, assailed by strange phenomena, soon attacked, the small troop of friends will have to get to work in order to unmask the troublemaker. The rest is in keeping with the famous costume detective series. A series almost disappeared from the France 3 schedules after years of success on Sundays in the first part of the evening. But still produced in Canada, where it remains extremely popular.

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The investigation is therefore well carried out by Murdoch and his cronies. There will also be snow, Christmas cookies, lights that shine in the night, the policeman's slightly bizarre inventions, such as an electric Christmas garland, carols, impatient, happy children, and mulled wine. Murdoch's universe is as shimmering and benevolent as ever. And we find in this episode everything that made the series successful.

Moral values. Christian charity. Female emancipation. The detail brought to the reconstruction. A touch of humor – at least the authors try. This special Christmas episode (the famous Christmas Special) belongs to season 15 of the program. In Canada, it was broadcast a year ago. Crossed on the set a few years ago, Yannick Bisson, had made a sort of oath.

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An assumed stupidity

The actor, producer and director in his spare time, had assured that the day he felt the slightest change, the slightest impoverishment of the program, he would hang up. He was right. The spectacle of a fiction that deteriorates from season to season is quite distressing. And this Christmas special, like the recent episodes broadcast on France 3 and france.tv, is stupid. A stupidity assumed by the team in order to broaden its audience, but which over the years has become very heavy to digest.

Does the evolution of the serial landscape still allow this type of production? Certainly, to the extent that it is a question of love, but also of conjugality, the place of women and encouraging and helpful men. However, Murdoch's investigationsand perhaps particularly this Murdoch's Nightmare Before Christmastherefore smell strongly of fir.

La 3, moreover, broadcasts fiction in the second part of the evening, after an episode of Vera's Investigations.