Mystery to Me

Drew you hear what I hear? It's another Mystery to Me episode about Nancy Drew, just in time for the holiday season! 

"Will the Real Santa Claus...?" aired just shy of Christmas Eve, on December 18, 1977. It's the twelfth episode of the second season of the The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. But there are no twelve drummers drumming in sight! No, just Pamela Sue Martin playing our favorite Yuletide sleuth Nancy Drew.

In this episode, Santa Claus goes on the run after witnessing a drug deal. Hitmen are after old St. Nick, and his reindeer and elves are nowhere to found! Nancy's the only one who can save the day in this holly jolly hot mess of a show. There's also a terrifying burglary sub-plot. And special guest star Rick Springfield, as a better, hotter Ned Nickerson! 

Listen to Áine and Kevin deck the halls with discussions of nudity, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and scary St. Nicks.

We recorded this episode in 2020 when we were living in Brooklyn, not yet married, and unfamiliar with the ways of podcasting. Please forgive any early podcast difficulties in our sound or otherwise.

Also, happy holidays to all you wonderful listeners from the Mystery to Me team! 

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Let every Hart to Hart prepare Him room! And television and nature sing!

Hart to Hart is a mystery television show featuring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as the titular crime-solving power couple."'Tis the Season to Be Murdered" is the fifth episode of the program's second season. It originally aired on December 16, 1980.

In this episode, the Harts must go undercover in order to unravel a toy-thief-slash-murderer's hokey holiday hullabaloo.

Listen to your favorite partridges in a pear tree parse over problematic depictions of alcoholism, Áine’s use of hashtags, Kevin’s outlandish Hart to Hart fandom, and some good, old-fashioned "murder morning quarterbacking."

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No, no, not that Friday the 13th!

Friday the 13th: The Series was a fantasy horror television series about cousins named Ryan and Micki who inherited an antique shop filled with demonic, jinxed items. Together with their friend Jack, they've got to track down all the infernal inventory that's out in the world wreaking havoc and claiming lives. 

The episode "Tales of the Undead" is the tenth installment of the first season, and it aired on January 30, 1988. In this episode, a menacing medieval character comes to life thanks to a cursed comic book. The cast of this episode was made up of John d. LeMay, Louise Robey, and Ray Walston.

Listen as Áine and Kevin talk about antiques, Sad Sack's friend Slob Slobinski, bad production values, and thieving comic book industry executives.

Thanks again to friend-of-the-show Dr. Glenn Doyle for his watch suggestion!

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More like Doomtown, am I right?

Boomtown was an earnest police drama set in Los Angeles that aired in the early 2000s. With Band of Brothers alumnus Graham Yost at the helm, the show initially attempted to employ an innovative non-linear approach to storytelling. Then network executives swooped in during the second season, and changed it into a flavorless police procedural.

Season two premiered on September 26, 2003. The show quickly got yanked from the air, until NBC dumped four episodes in late December.

In this final season, the show introduces Vanessa Williams as Detective Katherine Pierce. Donnie Wahlberg's LAPD Detective Joel Stevens, Mykelti Williamson's LAPD Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith, Neal McDonough's Assistant District Attorney David McNorris, Gary Basaraba's LAPD Officer Ray Hechler, Jason Gedrick's LAPD Officer Tom Turcotte, and Lana Parilla's EMT Teresa Ortiz also return.

Listen as Áine and Kevin boo this season's baffling storytelling choices, investigate an unnamed host's crush on Rebecca De Mornay, and bid a booming farewell to a once-promising show.

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In this show, the only end zone you’ll find yourself caring about is the end credits.

“The Mystery of the Solid Gold Kicker” aired May 22, 1977, as the fourteenth episode of the first season of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. This episode featured Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew, along with William Schallert, Jean Rasey, Michael Pataki, Martin Kove, Terry Kiser, and Jillian Kesner. 

Oh, and abrasive sports journalist Howard Cosell as himself and TV's Mark Harmon as the titular gold kicker.

In this episode, Nancy Drew runs interference for her friend George Fayne, after the latter witnesses an apparent murder implicating the star kicker of a college football team. But the episode muffs the punt when it starts trying to run with an overly-convoluted, yawn-worthy plot. 

Listen to your hosts call an audible on The Price Is Right, law school, Kevin’s dream of the six-day weekend, and Áine’s filthy, perverted mind. 

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The FBI Story? More like The Boring Story: Special Agent Jimmy Stewart Harangues Drowsy Quantico Recruits. 

The FBI Story is a 1959 film from director Mervyn LeRoy starring James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton, Larry Pennell, Nick Adams, Diane Jergens, Jean Willes, Joyce Taylor, and Victor Millan.

Oh, and let's not forget, this film introduces a sharp newcomer named J. Edgar Hoover, as himself! To be fair, Hoover should also get a producer credit, given that he had a lot of editorial control over the film. He even apparently demanded that his bud LeRoy re-shoot certain parts of the story, to make the FBI look better. Frankly, we're not sure that the entrenched, controversial bureau director succeeded as a script doctor.

This film — based on a book by Don Whitehead — follows Stewart's clean-cut, constantly-complaining FBI Agent Chip Hardesty throughout his career. And his run at the FBI is as long and winding as this movie is long-winded. Thrill as Hardesty chews out his kids, deals with his wife's griping, and whines about his job. Oh, and also combats the Ku Klux Klan, investigates the Osage Indian murders, and tangles with rogues like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly.

Sounds cool? Well, somehow ... it's not.

Listen to Áine and Kevin surveil topics like long run times, disapproving fathers, the Space Canine Patrol Agents, bad speeches, and David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

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If you've ever wondered what it'd be like to see the Little Rascals go up against two vicious murderers ... then seek psychiatric help immediately!

Mystery to Me returns this week with a double-feature of two short films from the Our Gang series— alias The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals. Both shorts play with the detective genre. One is your average silly Our Gang fare. The other has actual death and an extended shoot-out scene.

Hide and Shriek is a short film that was released on June 18, 1938. It was directed by Gordon Douglas, and is the last ever Our Gang flick to feature the participation of creator Hal Roach. It stars Carl Switzer as Alfalfa — alias X-10 — Billie Thomas as Buckwheat — alias X-6 1/2 — Eugene Lee as Porky — alias X-6 — and Darla Hood as Darla. In this story, Alfalfa recruits his friends to his new detective agency ... but a jaunt in a haunted house soon proves that mystery-solving can be a bone-chilling profession. This was the 168th Our Gang film.

Little Miss Pinkerton is a 1943 Our Gang film directed by Herbert Glazer, starring Billie Thomas as Buckwheat, Billy Laughlin as Froggy, Janet Burston as Janet, and Robert Blake as Mickey. It was released on September 18, 1943. This was the 216th entry in the Our Gang series. In this film, the kids witness a brutal murder and get taken hostage. No, really! That's the plot.

Listen to the gang discuss Dashiell Hammett, the Pinkertons, the trailer for The Batman, and aging Áine’s frail health.

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So ... about Last Night in Soho ...

Last Night in Soho is a psychological thriller from director Edgar Wright, released on October 29, 2021 in the United Kingdom. The film stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, Michael Ajao, Rita Tushingham, Margaret Nolan, and Synnøve Karlsen.

McKenzie plays Eloise, a fragile, daydream-believing fashionista from Cornwall who's overwhelmed by the intensity and bustle of London after she's accepted into a competitive fashion school. After she lands her own apartment in neon-drenched Soho, Eloise begins to experience dreams of the Swinging Sixties through the eyes of a blonde bombshell named Sandie. But quickly, Eloise learns that the past is sometimes best left in the past, as her visions become less groovy and more terrifying..

Listen to Kevin and Áine dance around Beatles fan-fiction, psychics, and storytelling missteps around weighty issues.

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Happy Halloween!

To celebrate the spookiest day of the year, we watched two films centered around everyone's favorite crime-fighting, ghost-unmasking canine: Scooby Dooby Doo!

Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf is an animated television film that came out on November 13, 1988. In this picture, Scooby Doo's best friend Shaggy Rogers is forcibly transformed into a werewolf so he can drive in Dracula's nonsensical "Monster Road Rally." A twelve-hour long, tedious car race ensues. This flick is Scrappy-Doo's final howl in the franchise until the live-action abomination premiered in 2002. We're pretty sure that Shaggy himself wrote this movie.

Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! debuted on October 6, 2020. In this episode, Scooby and the Mystery Inc. gang foil the Scarecrow's nefarious plot to terrifying the townspeople of Crystal Cove. But the villain's scare toxin infects a pumpkin patch, and soon a pack of vicious "Jackal Lanterns" are gobbling up the townspeople almost as efficiently as Shaggy and Scooby down comically-tall sandwiches. A long, decoration-festooned car chase ensues. Continuing the longstanding Scooby tradition of featuring random guest stars, Bill Nye and Elvira appear as themselves.

Listen to Áine and Kevin bark on and on about dog biscuit traditions, celebrity cameos, and Batman.

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Slip into your rainbow hoodies and let's get to sleuthing!

Only Murders in the Building is a mystery-comedy series on Hulu that premiered on August 31, 2021 and wrapped up its first season on October 19, 2021. It stars series co-creator Steve Martin, along with Martin Short and Selena Gomez. There's also plenty of celebrity cameos sprinkles throughout its 10 episodes.

The series is the brainchild Martin and John Hoffman, and follows the wacky adventures of a trio of amateur true crime podcasters. The three main characters are residents of a fancy Manhattan building called the Arconia. They're thrown together when one of their neighbors, the standoffish Tim Kono, is found dead under suspicious circumstances.

Listen to Áine and Kevin podcast about the Hardy Boys, couples’ counseling, Sherlock Holmes, cliffhangers, and autumn in New York.

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