Watched an episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries.

To us, it’s sort of a ritual. We love the show. We get together, put the kettle on, get snack, food, and plenty of fruit, and everything.

This time, everything felt off. The music, the actor’s mood, the scenes. it seemed off, and oddly familiar.

It seemed as if someone was trying to pull nostalgia, and on top of it, several men and women were screaming (literally and figuratively), people were bored, suspects were angry for no reasons, the main supporting characters such as Frodo and Trudy, or Reverend Greene, had a 30 second role, and Dr. Plummer wasn’t there.

There was no clue. Just talking. Even Ms. Baker was apologizing and screaming. Ms. Baker. Imagine.

In a scene, some angry screaming girl, who had a bridal dress, stopped the train, and started screaming. Later, she screamed and threatened so much, that women started yelling at her.

Even the example Detective Shepard brought, was about the fact that his mom used to keep empty bins of yoghurt (or cheese), for a day that they would come handy. I became (and us, all) suspicious that what has happened to this show?

A lot happened. All of them irrelevant to each other. There were no clues. Just talking. And eventually everyone came forward and confessed.

Gina’s actress, was trying so hard to keep the whole shebang together. She is a talented, cheerful actress, you know. She is always after Mike. But in this episode, Mike asked her to go to a work-pleasure journey with him. She seemed happy, but as if she was just acting. And she wasn’t needed, you know. Mike could do it himself, and honestly, even Mike didn’t need to be there, and do it himself. It was a calculation you could do in your head.

And in the end, out of the blue, they arrested the murderer, and the girl who persuaded him, to do so.

And when they were jailing her, she was screaming something like “it wasn’t my fault. It was my mom’s fault. She ruined my life. She was selfish. She ruined everyone’s life.”

And Detective Sims murmured, “the psych team is on their way.”

This whole thing didn’t have anything to do with her mother. At least in the show, they didn’t provide any type of logic, how the mom caused all of this. After all, she was the one who was murdered.

I asked this from myself. Why?!

Then we went back and checked the director. She was an Iranian, who was raised in Oceania. Had a Ph.D. in directing or,– script writing. I don’t exactly remember.

Then I told him, here comes the Iranian education. See how in Iran, kids had to memorize everything, and solve complex mathematical equations when we were 6, or older? We never developed any skill to use the creative side of our brain. The average (and frankly, almost every Iranian who has been in a typical education system) Iranian knows how to solve an equation, answer a question from the book, or ask questions that will make people uncomfortable or cringe; pretty much like academia. We had this graduate student in the past. He was thin, and very insecure. He used to read a couple of papers of our research beforehand, briefly, and bluff about what he knew, and make us uncomfortable during group meetings. He exactly knew that citizens could simply report him. He never challenged them. He only challenged immigrants.

This was a typical behavior of a person who never had a healthy education. He became nothing. Got his Ph.D., and moved everywhere to fit. He never fitted in, anywhere. No one wants an insecure, lingery, pathetic suck up.

But this, doesn’t make you a director.

In the end, when they were catching the killer, she was still screaming, it was my mom’s fault, she ruined my life. I didn’t do this. This line didn’t have anything with the script.

We didn’t even figure out (and the show didn’t hint it) why she wanted her mom killed.

There was no story. It was just running everywhere. Script didn’t make sense. Scenes didn’t make sense. Even the make up was all very Iranian (typical Iranian yo see everywhere).

So, it takes only one Iranian, to ruin a show.

And nothing surprised us. The fact that the director was an Iranian, born in Iran, and being raised in an Iranian family, resolved all our confusion. We had seen similar plots, similar directing code.

That one particular episode did not seem like a New Zealand one.

I know it seems like a generalization, but you have to have lived in the system, to understand why Gina and Mike both seemed out of character and devastated.

And why did the director ruin the bonding moment Mike and Gina had? We had been waiting for that scene for 12 seasons. It shouldn’t have ended like that.