One of the advantages of doing a show for nineteen years is an ever-growing roster of memorable returning characters. Every so often viewers get to enjoy people like Terrence Meyers, James Pendrick, Louise Cherry, and the entire Newsome clan, and the worlds they inhabit. Not all of them may be particularly likeable, but they’re certainly remarkable and always hilarious, and they play just as big a part in Murdoch Mysteries’ ongoing success as the main cast does.

Game, Set, Murdoch has so many things to love, it’s hard to know where to start. It’s got my favourite sport, it uses the Battle of the Sexes to tackle gender equality from a fresh angle, it features a great ensemble cast working with a wonderful director at a beautiful location, the costumes and inventions are among the best I’ve seen on this show, and it’s genuinely funny. Yet, while it does improve on subsequent viewing, these great elements never gel into a great episode. There’s simply not enough at stake, and it’s about as slow as 1913 tennis.

Murdoch in Hogtown works best when it highlights the parallels between its two lead investigators. Usually portrayed as adversaries – or at least mutual annoyances – Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and journalist Louise Cherry (Bea Santos) are revealed here to be cut from the same cloth. Both pursue truth with dogged determination that occasionally crosses into tunnel vision. Both jump to conclusions based on their preconceptions. And both, ultimately, get there in the end, even if ‘there’ turns out to be somewhere quite different than they initially imagined.