‘My Life Is Murder’ Recap: ‘Crushed Dreams’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 205 of ‘My Life Is Murder’.
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Something that each and every one of us can agree upon, is that season two of My Life Is Murder on Acorn TV, has been nothing short of brilliant. Because not only has this series given the dynamic Alexa Crowe, cart blanche in regard to the crimes she’s assigned, what she’s been given has allowed for some fascinating cases to come to life. Ones that explore some intimate and unique aspects of murder since crime dramas rarely focus on how the best of intentions can go awry, or how revenge can infect a person’s soul to the point where they believe murder is the only way to resolve what they’re feeling. Which has in turn allowed for this series to separate itself from the pack, since we now know that when we tune in, we are going to be treated to unique and fascinating crimes, the kind that will keep us guessing and engaged. 
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Which is why this week’s episode of the show, was so incredibly surprising. Simply because ‘Crushed Dreams’ took the time to inform us, that this show is about as versatile as it gets, since this case proved that even more traditional crime drama elements can be handled in a fascinating manner in Alexa Crowe’s world, it just takes the right villain and case, and boy did this episode offer that up. For when we catch up with Alexa and Madison here, they’re off to a nearby vineyard to investigate the suspicious murder of an up-and-coming wine genius named Sam Turei. Because it just doesn’t seem quite right that she managed to fall into a grape crusher when she knew the business so well and respected every aspect of it and well, after meeting with another wine wunderkind named Joe Gordon and the staff… Alexa was outright stumped by this case.

Because there was nothing that spoke to foul play at this point and while there was fear to be found on this vineyard, the kind that was related to a pay negotiation that Sam took part in, none of that provided Alexa with a solid motive for murder. But alas, a strange encounter in the middle of the night, while Alexa was trying to piece together how no one heard the grape crusher running on that fateful night… started moving this case along and eventually revealed a more traditional murder. For the person that was roaming about the vineyard in the dark was a rival of Joe’s and it turns out that he and Alistair Hanley went way back in a truly negative manner. All because they had a habit of stealing one another’s grapes to try and prove who was the better winemaker and that particular revelation, allowed for Alexa to dig deep and come to realize that Joe was her prime suspect. 

For his final conversation with Sam via text, just didn’t quite add up and when one added Joe’s past into the mix, it really appeared as though… Sam discovered that Joe was doing something sneaky and nefarious with Hanley’s grapes once again and Sam somehow stumbled upon it. But Alexa needed more here, she needed to prove that Joe’s alibi was a flat out lie and she genuinely needed a confession, since all she had was circumstantial evidence tying Joe to this mess and well… she got what she needed. Courtesy of a little trickery with a Zoom call and with a little pressing on Joe and well, in the end… that means that the murder of Sam Turei came about, by way of a fragile male ego and outright jealousy. One so battered and bruised that Joe would rather kill an innocent person and cover it up than face the reality that he wasn’t as talented or as good of a winemaker as others believed or as Sam for that matter, making this quite the tragic end to a promising life. 

But thankfully there will be justice for Sam via a long, long sentence for Joe Gordon. But all of that aside, this really was quite the ‘traditional’ case, since so many crime dramas do indeed focus upon the power of ego and jealousy and pettiness. But leave it to this series, to find a way to make something that one could consider to be cliché, as engaging and engrossing as possible. Because the clues were deeply buried here and there was a lot of dynamics for Alexa and Madison to sift through and well, that definitely sucked us in and vested us in the story and the payoff was nothing short of magnificent. If anything, this just goes to show that My Life Is Murder is one of the finest crime dramas out there and can make any type of case worth our while. Courtesy of its quality writing and incredible cast and it will be quite interesting to see what kind of case awaits us, come next Monday. Until then.

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