I haven't done many tv reviews lately because I've been very busy with Season 4 of The Righteous Gemstones, plus I have about two weeks' worth of profiles ready to post. But I was interested in Episode 1.3 of Blue Ridge: The Series (2024), because it is set in the world of professional wrestling, with Michael O'Hearn in the cast.
The premise: Justin Wise (Jonathan Schaech), an ex-Green Beret featured in the 2020 movie Blue Ridge, has returned to his small town to be close to his ex wife and daughter. Their hobby is...murder!
Scene 1: Outside the high school, a sign: Championship Wrestling, Dirty Boots McCrae vs. The Contractor. Several bouts, while a nuclear family with a girl who looks like a boy cheer. Maybe they'll be important later?
One of the heels (villains) goes backstage, where Promoter Earl (Max Martini) grabs him by the neck: "If you can't stick to the script, I'm not going to stick to the deal."
He rushes out and yells at a male wrestler, "I own you!", fires a female wrestler, and tells another heel, "I would rather die than make a washed-up quitter like you a champion!"
The next day, Janitor Dwayne (Grayson Russell) buffing the floors, and finds...Promoter Earl's body under the ring! Call Miss Marple!
Scene 2: Nuclear family scene with Focus Character Justin Wise. He's angry with his daughter, the girl who looks like a boy, because she is dating the son of his arch-enemy Jeremiah Wade (Tom Proctor) The son is named Blade Wade (really?), played by Lev Cameron, left She explains that his dad may be evil, but Blade Wade is nice.
Phone call, and the game is afoot.
Scene 3: At the school, School Administrator gives Justin Wise some heavy-handed plot exposition. Takeaway: all of the wrestlers had keys to the gym and locker room, but nowhere else in the school.
By the way, her son Barry (Christian Finlayson) wants to become a wrestler, but when he tried out, the Promoter yelled at him, called him worthless, and destroyed his confidence.
Justin Wise examins the body (no sense in waiting for the forensics team). Detective RP (Greg Perrow) says that he died of a blow to the head between 10 pm and midnight.
Unfortunately Dwayne the Janitor buffed the entire gym before finding the body, so all of that evidence has vanished. But he remembers the Promoter and a heel character named The Contractor (Michael O'Hearn) arguing: "I got a binding legal contract!" "I don't care, I'm not paying it!"
And the murder weapon is a wrench that The Contractor uses as part of his act. He didn't do it.
Scene 4: Justin Wise interviews The Contractor. He points out that he plays a bad guy, but he's not bad in real life. He left the wrench in his gym bag in the locker room; anybody could have swiped it. And their argument was just "a work," part of the story: "I loved Earl, but everybody else hated him."
Left: The Contractor n*de.
He suggests interviewing Dirty Boots McRae, who got into a real argument with Earl yesterday.
Phone call: More clues. The wrench wasn't the murder weapon after all.
More after the break
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