The Brokenwood Mysteries: Series 12 Review

There are plenty of crime dramas that aim for grit, realism and relentless tension. Then there’s The Brokenwood Mysteries, a series that has quietly carved out its own niche over twelve series by doing almost the exact opposite.

I’ll admit upfront: this is my first trip to Brokenwood. Twelve series deep and I’m arriving fashionably late to a party everyone else has clearly been enjoying for over a decade. I half expected to feel lost, dropped into a small town’s worth of established relationships and running jokes with no map. I needn’t have worried.

Set in the idyllic New Zealand town where the murder rate would make even Midsomer blush, Series 12 delivers six feature-length mysteries, and as a newcomer I can report they work perfectly well as a soft landing. Detective Mike Shepherd (Neill Rea) and DC Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland) anchor a well-established team, and the chemistry between them feels completely natural. Nobody sat me down and explained who anyone was, and nobody needed to. Within about ten minutes I had the dynamic, the rhythms and the running gags figured out, which says a lot about how well this show wears its history.

The cases this time around are as wonderfully eccentric as long-time fans have told me to expect. From an alleged alien abduction and a UFO-obsessed suspect pool to a bride’s death near a historic railway line and a masquerade ball gone fatally wrong, Brokenwood continues to embrace the unusual without tipping into outright X-Files parody. It’s a difficult balancing act for a show to pull off six times a series, but the writers largely manage it with confidence.

What separates The Brokenwood Mysteries from a lot of its competitors, even to my untrained eye, is its tone. Rather than chasing shocking plot twists or graphic violence, it prefers clever storytelling, memorable supporting characters and an unmistakable sense of place. The New Zealand scenery provides a beautiful backdrop that somehow makes even murder seem strangely inviting — I’m fairly sure I added at least two spots to a hypothetical travel list purely on the strength of the cinematography.

That isn’t to say Series 12 is perfect, even from a fresh perspective. A handful of episodes lean a little heavily into the show’s quirky humour, and I gather some long-running character dynamics may divide opinion among returning viewers more than they did me, simply because I have no history with them to be divided about. There are moments where the comedy slightly undercuts the drama, although for many fans that’s clearly become part of Brokenwood’s identity rather than a flaw.

Production values remain consistently high throughout. The cinematography makes excellent use of New Zealand’s countryside, while the pacing benefits from the feature-length format, giving each mystery room to breathe. Every episode feels like settling in for a Sunday evening detective film rather than simply another instalment of a long-running series — which, as someone starting at instalment twelve, I found a genuinely easy thing to do.

On disc, Acorn Media International’s presentation is straightforward: all six feature-length mysteries across the set, presented in their broadcast form from the U&Drama run, with a run time comfortably north of eight hours all told. It’s not an extras-heavy release, but for a show like this, the mysteries themselves are the main event.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay Series 12, as someone with nothing to compare it to but this run, is that it clearly knows exactly what it is. It never feels the need to reinvent itself or chase current television trends. Instead, it delivers a collection of intelligent, entertaining mysteries filled with warmth, humour and enough suspects to keep viewers guessing until the closing moments.

For long-time fans, this’ll be another thoroughly enjoyable visit to Brokenwood. For newcomers like me, starting with Series 12 isn’t the conventional route in (there’s a boxset available if you’d rather do this properly), but it works as a genuinely excellent introduction to one of television’s most consistently charming detective dramas — charming enough that I’ll now be going back to find out what I’ve missed.

The Brokenwood Mysteries continues to prove that sometimes the best crime dramas aren’t the darkest or the most shocking. Sometimes they’re simply the ones you can’t wait to return to, even when you’re arriving twelve series late.

Now, following its run on U&Drama, The Brokenwood Mysteries Series 12 is set to arrive on DVD and digital on 20 July 2026, courtesy of Acorn Media International.