Tonight's Movies: Gourmet Detective: Eat, Drink and Be Buried (2017) and Roux the Day (2020)

This week I returned to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel to watch the two most recent films in the Gourmet Detective series, EAT, DRINK AND BE BURIED (2017) and ROUX THE DAY (2020).

Early in 2017 I watched and reviewed the first three films in the series, THE GOURMET DETECTIVE (2015), THE GOURMET DETECTIVE: A HEALTHY PLACE TO DIE (2015), and DEATH AL DENTE: A GOURMET DETECTIVE MYSTERY (2016).  I really enjoyed them and am somewhat surprised it's taken me this long to catch up with the pair of films released since then...truly a case of "So many movies, so little time!"

Happily the movies were worth the wait and I very much enjoyed being able to watch the last two entries in the series back to back.

In EAT, DRINK AND BE BURIED, San Francisco detective Maggie Price (Brooke Burns) and chef-police consultant Henry Ross (Dylan Neal) attend a birthday bash for Henry's wealthy friend David (Garry Chalk).

There's a mix-up about whether or not it's a costume party, which leaves Maggie and Henry standing out among the crowd in period finery, but otherwise they're having a great time...though David's children and stepchildren seem to be a fractious bunch.

During what's ostensibly a reenactment of a famous duel in family history, David's son kills his stepson with a gun that was supposed to contain only a blank.  (Apparently they never learned it's not wise to point a real gun at someone needlessly, let alone pull the trigger.)  Who loaded in real ammo and why?

This was an enjoyable film, although the mystery was less important to me than the development of the regular characters. Maggie and Henry are navigating communication issues, as Henry tends to clam up about his past, but light is soon shed when his estranged father Jim (Bruce Boxleitner), a retired police officer, comes to town.  The film does a good job shedding light on Henry's background and in so doing takes his relationships with both Maggie and his dad to a new level.

I enjoyed ROUX THE DAY even more.  Maggie is coping with being an empty nester, with daughter Abby (Ali Skovbye) off at college, and Henry has gone into partnership with his father in a small restaurant named Molly's, after Henry's late mother.

Maggie has persuaded Henry to go to a Giants baseball game, but first they stop off at a charity auction so that Henry can bid on a famous restaurant's historic "chef's book" for an anonymous client.  They discover the book was unexpectedly sold prior to the auction, and when they decide to pay a quick visit to the buyer at his bookstore, they find a body on the floor.  Needless to say, they don't make it to the ball game.

This was quite an enjoyable film, including Jennifer Copping as a brittle food critic who has an antagonistic relationship with Henry.  The complicated plot kept me guessing and was interesting, but most of all it was fun to spend more time with characters I've come to like over the course of five films.

Both films were well written by star Dylan Neal and his wife, Becky Southwell, based on a series of books by Peter King.  Dylan and Southwell were also among the executive producers on each film.  The movies were both directed by Mark Jean and filmed in British Columbia by Adam Sliwinski.

EAT, DRINK AND BE BURIED can be rented for streaming on Amazon, and both films show up on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel from time to time.  The movies do not appear to be currently available on DVD.

I was sorry to come to the end of the series and am hoping that there will be another GOURMET DETECTIVE film at some point, but if that doesn't happen, the final scene of ROUX THE DAY would serve as a heartwarming conclusion.

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