History Series / MurdochMysteries

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The MonsterClown killing people in "I Know What You Did Last Autumn" is out for blood [[spoiler:against the people who [[SlutShaming slut shamed]] a young woman to nearly commit suicide just for kissing her boyfriend.]]

* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Margaret does this for her son Bobby when the father of the man Bobby killed in self-defence tries to shoot him.]]

* FramingTheGuiltyParty: In "Still Waters", the rowing team's coach attempts to frame [[spoiler:Horace Briggs, the club gardener,]] for the murder of Richard Hartley under the belief that Hartley was killed in a rowing club initiation gone wrong. Murdoch's investigation proves that Hartley actually survived the initiation and [[spoiler:Briggs]] really did kill him, albeit later and for unrelated reasons.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: In "The Murdoch Appreciation Society", the real murderer is a bit too eager to point toward the man he's trying to frame (his ex-professor who fired him from university), and tells Murdoch they have to stop him before he can strangle another person. Murdoch is prompt to note that he never revealed the victim was strangled.

** Watts of Station House 1 subverts this by appearing to be clueless before his HiddenDepths are revealed. The constanbles play it straight, as Watts says they're "dullards to a man."

* CrankyNeighbor: When William and Julia first start looking for a home, Murdoch buys a plot of land on the rural outskirts of Toronto surrounded by farms. They discover several bodies buried on their new property, the corpses of [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether a family of violent thugs that terrorized the district.]] When Murdoch arrests the neighbors who killed the family, the rest of the neighborhood becomes hostile. William and Julia wisely decide to sell the property.

* DaChief:
** Inspector Brackenreid to Murdoch and the rest of Station House 4.
** Brackenreid's superior, Chief Constable Stockton. Since Murdoch is very much a ByTheBookCop, Stockton tends to exert pressure on him and on Brackenreid to make a quick arrest or back off of [=VIPs=], never mind the evidence.
** Stockton's successor, Chief Constable Giles. Like his predecessor Stockton, he tends to show up when Murdoch is investigating important cases, usually warning Brackenreid and Murdoch to be discreet and not stir up too much trouble. And he hasn't forgotten Murdoch's role in [[spoiler:Ava Moon's escape from jail]] and implies that any further slip-ups will cost him his badge.

** Watts's successor at Station House 1, Detective Edwards, hasn't solved a case in his first three weeks on the job and needs Watts's help to finally solve his frist one.

* DaChief:
** Inspector Brackenreid to Murdoch and the rest of Station House 4.
** Brackenreid's superior, Chief Constable Stockton. Since Murdoch is very much a ByTheBookCop, Stockton tends to exert pressure on him and on Brackenreid to make a quick arrest or back off of [=VIPs=], never mind the evidence.
** Stockton's successor, Chief Constable Giles. Like his predecessor Stockton, he tends to show up when Murdoch is investigating important cases, usually warning Brackenreid and Murdoch to be discreet and not stir up too much trouble. And he hasn't forgotten Murdoch's role in [[spoiler:Ava Moon's escape from jail]] and implies that any further slip-ups will cost him his badge.

* Detectives Irwin and Macdonald of Station House 3 are notable examples of this.

* CluelessDetective: While Station House 4's detectives are highly skilled, other station's teams leave much to be desired. Detectives Irwin and Macdonald of Station House 3 are notable examples of this.

** In "Murodch at the Opera", Dr. Grace describes smelling the aroma of bitter almonds coming from the corpse of the young opera singer. Later, after [[spoiler:the culprit prima donna takes poison and dies onstage]], Crabtree brings out a wine glass he found and Murdoch himself sniffs it and says, "Cyanide."

** The first time Dr. Grace is giving Murodch a briefing (with Dr. Ogden), she notices Murdoch calls her mentor "Julia" and he corrects himself. Julia doesn't seem to mind.

* ILied: Julia does this to [[spoier:Frank Rhodes]] when she seemingly injects him with a lethal poison to get the antidote she needs to cure Murdoch's poisoning. She actually injected him with [[spoiler:a mild paralytic that would completely wear off in a couple of hours.]]

* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Murdoch is dreaming of finally marrying Julia [[DreamIntro in the opening of "Murodch Air"]] when Constable Crabtree pounds on his door to summon him.

* LegallyDead: The titular scam in "The Murodch Sting" turns on this point of law. A wealthy bank official goes missing and does turn up dead, but there's no evidence to charge the suspect [[spoiler:Eva Pearce]] with his murder. Murdoch and company persuade the suspect that she's due to inherit half the banker's substantial estate, then close the investigation with the man still officially missing, forcing the banker's heirs to wait seven years to collect. The idea is to catch her in the place the body was found, since if she killed the guy and hid his body there, this demonstration of the guilty knowledge would clinch the case against her. [[spoiler:Despite her best efforts, it works and Murdoch catches her in the act of searching the pond for the body.]]

** [[spoiler:James Gillies]] in Seasons 5 & 6. A creepy sociopath who escaped the noose several times. He committed his first murder just because he could and ForTheEvulz, and it has become a challenge for him to measure his abilities with Detective Murdoch. He actually says to Murdoch, "I don't like to be bested."

* BigBadassWolf: The killer in "Werewolves" dresses in wolf furs and uses a weapon lined with wolf's fangs in his killings.

* DeterminedWidow: Elizabeth Bryant from the episode "Murdoch of the Klondike" runs one of the two hotels in a formerly booming mining town in the Yukon. Murdoch returns to the town from his claim site to find she's been arrested for killing a rival hotel owner. She asserts her innocence, and when she learns he was once a police detective, she wants his help to clear her name -- so much that when he initially refuses, she berates him from her cell, shouting "You're NOTHING!" at him as he leaves. Later, after he's bailed her out of jail and started to investigate, she learns he suspects a friend of the deceased who's buying up mining claims and she goes to physically confront the man in a local hotel barroom. Murdoch finally has her return to jail so he can investigate without her "help". In a quieter conversation, Murdoch asks her why she stays, and she cites the fact that her husband is buried there and insists the hotel provides enough of a living for her. She even flirts openly with Murdoch, hoping he'll stay with her, but he demurs.

** On occasion, Brackenreid physically assaults suspects for information. He takes it UpToEleven in the episode "Dead on Arrival", when he beats [[spoiler:the man who poisoned Murdoch]] half to death to get the name of [[spoiler:the chemist who made the poison.]]

** On occasion, Brackenreid physically assaults suspects for information. He takes it UpToEleven in the episode "Dead On Arrival", when he beats [[spoiler:the man who poisoned Murdoch]] half to death to get the name of [[spoiler:the chemist who made the poison.]]
** Julia goes even further in "Dead On Arrival" when she [[spoiler:injects Frank Rhodes with what she says is a lethal poison that will kill him in half an hour, offering the antidote to her poison in exchange for the antidote to Rhodes' poison. When Rhodes provides it, Julia suddenly reveals that she simply injected him with a mild paralytic that would completely wear off in a couple of hours.]]

** "Dead On Arrival" is an adaptation of ''{{Film/DOA}}'' in everything from its plot of the protagonist dying from a slow poisoning to being shot in black and white to the jazzy 1940s-style music to the dresses worn by Julia and Violet, which look better suited to the 1940s than they do to the Edwardian era the show is set in.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: On occasion, Brackenreid physically assaults suspects for information.

* WholePlotReference: "The Accident" is essentially a period-adapted version of ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'''s Peabody-winning episode "The Subway".

* AmbiguousDisorder:
** Murdoch displays some social anxiety and a number of characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder. His interests tend toward a specific type of scientific bookishness, coupled with a mechanical aptitude, as opposed to literature or sport (though [[HiddenDepths he has recognized quotations from Shakespeare and played sports well enough on occasion]]). At times, he is an adult version of the "little professor" [[MrExposition explaining things]] to [[TheWatson his boss Brackenreid and the various constables, among others]]. He often fails to understand the popularity of things like fads, fictional movies and spectator sports, and certain forms of humour leave him cold (making him an excellent [[StraightMan straight man]]). Some of his personal conversations (even those with his beloved Julia) end abruptly when he sees something that brings his mind back to his current case, and he hastily takes his leave to follow up an idea. All that said, his colleagues and friends seem to regard him as merely a bit unusual.
** Detective Watts also displays a number of traits that those around him view as odd. He speaks his thoughts out loud, without regard for social cues, often to the displeasure of those around him. He fidgets with and picks at various props and costume pieces, and he has difficulty with motor skills (like holding a fork or proper penmanship). Watts also has a very different way of solving crimes compared to the rest of Station House 4.
** Other occasional characters will show evidence of a variety of mental disorders which go unnamed, in this case justified by the relatively undeveloped state of psychiatry at the time.

* EurekaMoment: A common occurrence. {{Lampshaded}} in "Convalescence" when Crabtree is standing for Murdoch as acting detective. Having reached a seeming dead end in the case, Crabtree starts staring TheBigBoard. When Higgins asks he what he is doing, Crabtree says that whenever this happens to Murdoch, he stares at the board and everything suddenly falls into place. He then adds that it is not as easy as Murdoch makes it look and all he is getting is a headache.

* TheDollEpisode: "Murdoch in Toyland" has Murdoch come across a series of creepy dolls with recorded messages that give him just enough clues to find the next one, [[CriminalMindGames all planted by a killer to torment him]], and also to make him overanalyse things and miss more blatant clues.

** By Stephen Harper, at the time of shooting the ''Prime Minister of Canada''.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: George deeply loves animals.

** In "Journey To the Center of Toronto" by the time Murdoch figures out that the thief stole diamonds to improve his digging machine to dig through any surface and his identity he manages to use the machine to get away.