Michael Flynn
Created by Lyal Brown

Another popular series from The CBC Mystery Project is Flynn, a 13 episode run from the mid-1990's.  In this one, MICHAEL FLYNN is a part-time private detective living on his boat in Vancouver.  A middle-aged drop-out from UBC Law School , he now lives on the "Blarney Boy", a weather-beaten sloop moored at the marina on Granville Island in the trendier-than-thou False Creek area, and works, when he feels like it, for his ex-boss lawyer Sam Greene, an eccentric old coot. All in all, though, he'd rather be sailing. It's a simple life, and Flynn's more than happy with things just the way they are. And then Sam's niece, W.P. (Willie) Greene, arrives from Toronto to complicate life for everyone.

The premise of this one started out well, but it slipped badly towards the end of its run, or at least once, in particular -- their Christmas episode wound up resolving its "mystery" by making everything a big misunderstanding, having a full-cast carol sing (very poorly done, and much too long), and ending so short that they had to fill the time with a clip from the next week's episode and a lot of playout music.

Don't get me wrong. It is a good series - maybe not quite up to the level of Midnight Cab , and marred by a badly flawed 12th (Christmas) episode and a decent (but not outstanding) final episode, but I have listened to some of the earlier episodes again and found that, on the whole, I like it.

RADIO

• FLYNN
  (1994, CBC)
  13 30-minute episodes

• "Overdue Account" (October 8, 1994)"
• "Red Tiger" (October 15, 1994)
• "Whirlpool" (October 22, 1994)"
• "Ghosts" (October 29, 1994)
• "Imaginary Enemies" (November 5, 1994)
• "The Stalker" (November 12, 1994)
• "The Box" (November 19, 1994)
• "The 12 Penny Black" (November 26, 1994)
• "Framed" (December 3, 1994)
• "Hollywood North" (December 3, 1994)
• "The Fall" (December 3, 1994)
• "A Christmas Carol" (December 24, 1994)
• "Year End Clearance" (December 31, 1994)

Contributed by Geoff Loker, with a little bit by Kevin Burton Smith.