Sigh. I don’t watch a lot of made for television dramas, but one I have been a fan of over the past nine series has been “Brokenwood Mysteries“, a crime mystery drama much in the style of Lewis or Midsomer Murders, set in the fictional town of Brokenwood somewhere in New Zealand, but most likely North of Auckland. Apart from the frequency of murders, which approximates the murder rate for the whole of Aotearoa, I’ve never felt that creative licence had gone too far.
Of course I’m sure the show’s creators have taken a number of liberties with facts for the sake of the storyline, but there is a line that should not be crossed. And that is messing with the history of New Zealand’s unique ecosystem. Perhaps, as the drama has a wide international following, most viewers will not notice the glaring anomaly in the key piece of evidence in Series 10 episode 1 – a fossil. But no Kiwi could possibly stretch their suspension of disbelief to accept the nature of the fossilized evidence.
In the storyline, an amature archeologist discovers what she believes to be a 65 million year old dinosaur fossil, but by the end of the drama we have been informed that it was in fact nothing more than a ten thousand year old insectivore – a hedgehog. And if you are wondering why that’s anachronistic, the first hedgehogs were brought to Aotearoa by European settlers in the 19th century. Moreover, prior to the arrival of humans in the 13th century, the only mammals in New Zealand were three species of microbats and marine mammals such as dolphins, and seals.
It’s possible that the writers chose the hedgehog plot twist to simplify the narrative for a broader audience, perhaps underestimating the value that local viewers place on accurate representation of our country’s natural history. While such anachronisms might be overlooked by international viewers, they can be jarring for those of us who are well-versed in the specifics of our homeland’s past.
The use of a hedgehog fossil in “The Brokenwood Mysteries” seems like a missed opportunity to connect more deeply with the unique prehistoric context of New Zealand. A bird fossil, especially from a species like the moa, or a marine mammal revealed by geological changes, would have been more plausible and could have added a layer of authenticity to the story.
For a plot twist, the idea of an unknown species adds an element of mystery and could have been a compelling alternative to the hedgehog. It’s a reminder that while creative liberties are often taken in storytelling, there’s a delicate balance between crafting a universally engaging narrative and honoring the factual integrity of a setting, especially one as rich and distinctive as New Zealand’s.
To the writers of “Brokenwood Mysteries“. you’re on notice!
Another Spectrum 
18 Jun, 2024 at 3:08 am
Could a lone hedgehog have rafted 8000 years BCE to NZ from Asia? Lazy writing. Errors like this (especially in books) usually prompt me to write the offending author. I’m sure they think I’m a crackpot.
18 Jun, 2024 at 4:02 am
Hi Barry. I have a question on neurodivergent and movies / TV shows. To really enjoy a movie or show a person has to willingly suspend disbelief. To some this is harder than most. How do you find it in your life watching movies that you have to accept that impossible things are possible to enjoy the move? Is it more or less a same common response for autistic people? I sometimes struggle with the being able to deny what I know to accept the premise of the movie and enjoy it. Best wishes. Scottie
19 Jun, 2024 at 12:07 am
That’s a difficult question to answer and I’ve been wondering the same thing, but here are some observations that might help (you and me) understand better.
For me there’s a difference between being implausible but possible, and implausible and impossible. Take for example “Brokenwood Mysteries” where a murder using a novel concept occurs each week and is solved within a few days. Given that there’s approximately 50 murders per year across the entire country, and few are solved within a day or two and most are spur of the moment acts of violence, the situation in Brokenwood is implausible, but any one of those murders in isolation could conceivably occur in the township. Does that make sense?
Another example would be the Lord of the Rings movies. In parts of the storyline the heroes cross NZ terrain that I am familiar with. It doesn’t matter if in the course of a journey they traverse terrain in the North Island, then the South island and then the north Island again, because I know each location is a representation of locations in Middle Earth. However, if a storyline is set in New Zealand and the heroes traverse the same terrain in the same order as in LOTR then disbelief sets in big time.
How would you react if in a journey from a southern Florida town to a northern Florida town the hero passed the Golden Gate bridge, the statue of Liberty, then the Grand Canyon? I might not notice the implausibility, but I’m sure you would.
Perhaps one reason why I prefer Sci-Fi and fantasy over other genres is because they are dealing with alternative realities. However if the spaceship passes the identical asteroid multiple times on its journey from Mars to Jupiter, I’ll notice.
In my younger days, I was a constant irritation to other when watching TV or movies. I’d notice when the driver turned the steering wheel to the left, but the movement of the background indicated the car turned right. I’d notice when the heroes were standing at the top of a cliff several hundred metres tall, but when they threw down a rope in order to descend the cliff, the coil in the hero’s hand was too small and the rope took less than a second to fall from cliff top to cliff base. I’d notice when tyres squealed on a soft dirt road. I’d notice continuity errors – they were irritatingly frequent back then, less so now. Often these would (a) distract me so much that I’d loose the storyline completely and have to ask what was going on, or (b) I’d describe to everyone what the problem with the scene was. Sometimes I did both. These days I have learnt to hold my tongue but I can still loose track of the storyline when incongruities jump out at me.