• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 24, 2024

Two things are unusual about “Murder in a Small Town,” the new detective series coming to Fox on Tuesday.

The premiere episode is 90 minutes long, and the show is from Canada. The latter is not unheard-of today, but not that common either.

The former is uncommon too. Few network shows take up 90-minute time slots in prime time, although the TV Blog does not know whether future episodes of “Murder in a Small Town” are 90 minutes or an hour.

As it is, Episode One runs from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday followed by a half-hour 

Fox special promoting its fall shows, including, presumably, “Murder in a Small Town.”

This show is so Canadian that it actually premieres on Canadian TV (Global Television Network) the same day it makes its U.S. debut. It is an alliance made in TV heaven.

“Murder in a Small Town” is a beautiful show to look at. It was filmed in a tiny coastal town in British Columbia called Gibsons. After watching the first episode, I wanted to chuck everything and move there.

The crime rate may or may not be low in Gibsons, but the town employs a police force of three or four officers led by an easygoing, tousle-haired chief named Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland, above photo, right).

The character was created by the late Canadian novelist L.R. (Laurali Rose) Wright, who wrote nine “Murder in a Small Town” novels featuring Alberg and his girlfriend, Cassandra Mitchell (played by Kristin Kreuk in the TV show), the town librarian.

Not surprisingly, the case in Episode One is a murder case. The victim is an 85-year-old man in declining health who lived quietly by himself.

As we get into the episode, it becomes clear that Alberg possesses powers of observation and deduction that are far keener than the rest of us.

Fans of detective fiction will recognize the type -- the ordinary man or woman who always seems to know when something in a room is wrong, or that something is missing, although they have never been in the room before.

As with many made-in-Canada imports, the principal casts of these shows are for the most part unknown to American audiences.

That’s why it was so surprising to see a major movie star in a guest-starring role in the premiere episode of “Murder in a Small Town” -- James Cromwell (above photo, left).

He plays another elderly resident of Gibsons who is reluctant to share the details of his life with anyone, especially police detective Alberg.

Murders in small towns have long been a staple of murder dramas on TV. Cabot Cove in “Murder, She Wrote” is perhaps the best known of these villages with an outsized murder rate.

One wonders how a 90-minute mystery will play on Fox -- especially this one, which seems off-brand for the network of “Bob’s Burgers” and “The Masked Singer.”

“Murder in a Small Town” premieres Tuesday, September 24, at 8-9:30 p.m. Eastern on Fox.