The Worst Episodes of The Brokenwood Mysteries

#1 Worst Episode
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7.2/10(337 votes)
#1 - Brokenwood: The Musical
S9:E14/10/2023
The history of Brokenwood gets new life as a musical. But the setting literally brings with it a shock for the composer.
Director:Katie Wolfe
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Katie Wolfe
Writer:Unknown
7.3/10(327 votes)
#2 - Death 'n' Bass
S8:E27/4/2022
The Brokenwood crime fighters are called in to investigate a murder at a music festival, where it would appear the victim was quite literally killed by sound.
Director:Mike Smith
Writer:James Griffin
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Director:Mike Smith
Writer:James Griffin
7.4/10(723 votes)
#3 - Blood and Water
S1:E19/28/2014
When two fishermen find the body of a local farmer in the river, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd is sent to the small rural town of Brokenwood to investigate the death. Is this the suicide of a man guilty of his own wife’s murder or is he the victim of foul play? As Mike uncovers a family’s tragedies and secrets, he also learns that Brokenwood is a place where shadows lurk just beneath the surface.
Director:Mike Smith
Writers:Philip Dalkin, Timothy Balme
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Director:Mike Smith
Writers:Philip Dalkin, Timothy Balme
7.4/10(272 votes)
#4 - Motorcycle Mamas
S9:E65/15/2023
A motorcycle gang comes to Brokenwood to celebrate the wedding of one of its members, Debbie. But a tragic death saw a couple stop the party.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.5/10(403 votes)
#5 - Scared To Death
S5:E110/28/2018
It's the annual Brokenwood A&P show, time for that special kind of Kiwi carnival! Amidst the shearing displays, the ‘Calf Day' competition and wood chopping, is the usual assortment of fun rides and fairground attractions. The sun is shining on happy family entertainment and ever popular this year is the shonky old Ghost Train.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.5/10(400 votes)
#6 - The Witches of Brokenwood
S7:E24/5/2021
The Brokenwood Health Retreat proves rather unhealthy for one unfortunate visitor, leaving the team of detectives with a very tricky case to solve.
Director:Aidee Walker
Writer:Sarah-Kate Lynch
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Director:Aidee Walker
Writer:Sarah-Kate Lynch

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7.5/10(313 votes)
#7 - Shot of Love
S9:E55/8/2023
A death at a motel at first looks like an accident, but something is not right in the stories the guests tell.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.6/10(533 votes)
#8 - Playing the Lie
S1:E310/12/2014
A group of erstwhile members of the Brokenwood Golf Club, committee members no less, have gathered for their regular Wednesday morning round. They are playing their approaches to the first green when a zombie-like figure lurches from the early-morning gloom, coming towards them. It takes the golfers a moment or two (apparently) to realise this is actually Adele Stone, the Club owner - her face red and blistering; gasping desperately for breath. Then she falls from sight, into a greenside bunker. By the time the guys get to her, Ms Stone is very much dead. And so Mike and Kristin are called to investigate what appears to be homicide by poisoning.
Director:Michael Hurst
Writer:James Griffin
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Director:Michael Hurst
Writer:James Griffin
7.6/10(482 votes)
#9 - Leather & Lace
S2:E19/27/2015
The Brokenwood Cheetahs are a local rugby team of legendary status. Their losing streak of 50 straight games has broken national records. So when their hapless coach, Arnie Langstone, is found dead - stripped naked and strapped to a goalpost - some think it might be blessing in disguise – perhaps now they might start winning again. But amidst this DSS Mike Shepherd is perplexed by several other issues. Firstly, why was a pair of women’s underwear stuffed down Arnie’s throat? And what do the neatly embroidered initials ‘G.G.’ signify? But then a second body is discovered and Mike and his team are stretched to the limit. Is this the work of a serial killer or merely a puzzling co-incidence?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.6/10(475 votes)
#10 - Case Six: To Die or Not To Die
S2:E210/4/2015
When a young cast member of The Brokenwood Theatre Society collapses and dies at the end of a performance of Hamlet, the initial belief is that it was from natural causes. However, Mike detects there is ‘something rotten in the state of Brokenwood’ when he gets a whiff of a lethal poison. In doing so he uncovers a complex web of ego driven dissention amongst the troupe. Was Ben Faulkner expended to create opportunity for another young rising star? Or can his death be linked to the words of the Bard himself? And how did Jared end up playing the lead role? As Mike and his team investigate the hidden secrets of this curious group of thespians ‘To be or not to be’ takes on a whole new meaning.
Director:Murray Keane
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Murray Keane
Writer:Unknown
7.6/10(412 votes)
#11 - The Killing Machine
S3:E311/13/2016
The annual Riverstone Beach Hop is a colorful festival that brings classic car enthusiasts together from far and wide to celebrate everything petrol powered and chrome plated. But on the morning of the event Charlie Baxter, the Chairman of the Classic Car Restoration Society, is found dead next to his beloved El Dorado with a lungful of gasoline. Was this a petrol siphoning accident or something more deliberate? And does it have anything to do with the unidentified dead body found in Charlie’s garage the day before?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.6/10(448 votes)
#12 - Fall From Grace
S4:E110/29/2017
When Kristin, Breen, and Gina celebrate Mike’s birthday with a picnic in Brokenwood Domain, they are witness to a fatal skydiving accident. To make matters worse, Kristin knows the victim – entrepreneur Andre Barrington, an ex-boyfriend who moved onto another woman – Grace Turner, an adrenalin junkie and fellow skydiver. As the investigation unfolds, an unsettling truth is revealed. Andre’s parachute was never going to open as the cords were severed. Was it an elaborate suicide or was Grace having second thoughts about Andre? Then again – Andre’s older brother Felix was tired of living in his shadow, and his mother Lorraine’s maternal love verged on the side of sinister. Both of them were jumping with Andre too. And what about Andre’s business partner Dean Young, who was less than impressed by Andre’s work ethic? Mike and his team are forced to confront the old adage: ‘what goes up must come down’ – but not always in the way you want.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.6/10(400 votes)
#13 - The Power of Steam
S6:E111/10/2019
Mike and his team are taken into a world of Victorian dress-up and escapism when they investigate a murder at the Brokenwood Steampunk event.
Director:Oliver Driver
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Oliver Driver
Writer:Unknown
7.6/10(410 votes)
#14 - The Garotte and the Vinklebraun
S7:E13/29/2021
Mike and his team are thrust into a world of antiquities when a TV crew from the hit series All Things Old and Beautiful comes to town, and one of the hosts is murdered.
Director:Katie Wolfe
Writer:Timothy Balme
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Director:Katie Wolfe
Writer:Timothy Balme
7.6/10(301 votes)
#15 - Brokenwood-o-saurus
S10:E14/29/2024
After dinosaur fossils are discovered in the foothills of Brokenwood, the town buzzes about the potential boost for tourism; but when a paleontologist turns up dead, the future doesn't look so rosy.
Director:Unknown
Writers:Mike Smith, Timothy Balme
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Director:Unknown
Writers:Mike Smith, Timothy Balme
7.6/10(280 votes)
#16 - Three Gold Leaves of Jesus
S10:E66/3/2024
While a visiting theatrical troupe puts on a nativity play at St. Judas, a precious holy relic goes missing, and the actor playing Jesus is killed.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(592 votes)
#17 - Sour Grapes
S1:E210/5/2014
With Brokenwood touted for its burgeoning merlot, the annual wine show is a major event. Having bought a 10-acre block with maturing grapes, no one is looking forward to it more than DI Mike Shepherd. But when a guest judge and wine critic is found dead, drowned inside a fermenting vat, the show takes second place to the murder investigation.
Director:Joshua Frizzell
Writer:Timothy Balme
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Director:Joshua Frizzell
Writer:Timothy Balme
7.7/10(500 votes)
#18 - Hunting the Stag
S1:E410/19/2014
Four close friends go hunting in the bush on a stag trip. But the groom-to-be never comes back – he was shot through the head. Initially this would seem to be just another tragic hunting accident amidst picturesque New Zealand bush. The only problem is none of the remaining three friends own up to pulling the trigger that fired the lethal bullet - yet all three had discharged their rifles – with no deer to prove it. The question is – who shot Hayden Renner? Was he mistaken for a real stag or was there something more sinister at play?
Director:Mike Smith
Writers:Philip Dalkin, Timothy Balme
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Director:Mike Smith
Writers:Philip Dalkin, Timothy Balme
7.7/10(466 votes)
#19 - Catch of the Day
S2:E310/11/2015
The bucolic coastal waters off Brokenwood support a thriving fishing industry. But when Jared discovers a severed human hand in a crayfish pot it appears to be harbouring something far more sinister. Who does the hand belong to and are they still alive?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(474 votes)
#20 - Blood Pink
S2:E410/18/2015
Holly Collins is not only DSS Mike Shepherd's favourite country musician she's also playing in Brokenwood. Unfortunately it turns out to be her final gig. When she is found electrocuted it appears to be a rock'n'roll suicide. But then again it could have been a drunken accident - or, as Mike suspects, it is perhaps something less obvious. With a careless note scrawled in lipstick the only clue, Mike has to set aside his personal interest in the victim and strike the right note with Holly's dysfunctional band members: Slim Fingers, Waylon Strings and Jesse James. But the more he finds out, the more he needs to know and the less he likes what he learns.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(472 votes)
#21 - The Black Widower
S3:E110/30/2016
The Frog and Cheetah’s publican, Ray Neilson, has branched into tourism with his ‘Lord of the Ringz Tours’ tailored to non-English speaking tourists. But when Ray’s wife Debbie is discovered dead under a giant foam spider in a supposed film location of Mirklewood things get ‘mirky’. Especially when Debbie’s cause of death is revealed to be from New Zealand’s only native venomous spider – the Katipo. But if it was, how did one spider administer ten times the lethal dose?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(384 votes)
#22 - The Scarecrow
S4:E311/12/2017
Philip Henderson stands next to an impressive scarecrow amidst a field of damaged vegetation. His whole crop has failed. The scarecrow may have kept the birds away but this catastrophe is something bigger. Angered and distraught, he confronts his neighbour, the cantankerous Doug Randall, and accuses him of spray drift. Doug is having none of it and an ugly altercation ensues. The following day Philip is discovered dead in his field – the victim of an obscure poison. Suspicion falls on Doug and his new wife, the strident and doggedly loyal Trudy Neilson, whom it was well known had ongoing tensions with Philip over an unpaid bar tab at her pub, The Toad and Lion. But as Mike and the team dig further into the mystery, more suspects come into play. Philip’s other neighbour is the cagey Tamati Taylor, who is less than forthcoming, but as it transpires Philip had a twin brother. Why does he seem remarkably unmoved by the death of his sibling?
Director:Joshua Frizzell
Writers:Timothy Balme, Greg McGee
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Director:Joshua Frizzell
Writers:Timothy Balme, Greg McGee
7.7/10(368 votes)
#23 - Bride Not To Be
S5:E211/4/2018
The Cream Boat is a charming vessel that chugs its way up the scenic Brokenwood waterways. It carries sightseers and Christmas parties and often Hen Parties. Professional tennis player, Ophelia Marley, is one such lucky Hen. Her Bridesmaids have organised a big day migrating from the township via the Cream Boat to the Tidal View Lodge where they stay overnight.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(378 votes)
#24 - Dead and Buried
S6:E412/1/2019
Some familiar faces return when the team investigates a suspicious suicide at the Brokenwood Women’s Prison.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(351 votes)
#25 - Exposed to the Light
S7:E54/26/2021
A fundraising evening at the historic Brokenwood Empire Cinema turns deadly when a fire breaks out, and when the smoke clears, a local businessman is found strangled.
Director:Aidee Walker
Writer:Roy Ward
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Director:Aidee Walker
Writer:Roy Ward