Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Jane Mysteries: Inheritance Lost’ on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Finally Lets Jodie Sweetin Solve Crime

Jodie Sweetin puts down a microphone and picks up a flashlight in The Jane Mysteries: Inheritance Lost, a new mystery movie on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Based on the Jane da Silva mystery novels by K.K. Beck, Inheritance Lost mixes Sweetin’s two loves: singing and starring in Hallmark movies. But is this movie a one-night gig, or is Jane da Silva ready for a residency?

THE JANE MYSTERIES: INHERITANCE LOST: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Jodie Sweetin (A Cozy Christmas Inn) stars as Jane da Silva, an internationally renowned lounge singer whose stint in Paris is cut short when she finds out that her uncle Harold has died. Jane returns to Baltimore, the town she left behind because it reminded her too much of her late mother, and learns that her uncle totally ran a nonprofit private eye service. Who knew? Not Jane — and now she’s inherited a detective agency where she’s suddenly the lead detective! She’s not alone, though; Harold’s wife Sadie (Paris Jefferson) is there to provide Jane with lots of wigs and she has an actual detective (Stephen Huszar) to ask for advice.

At first Jane’s understandably like, “Uh, no thanks” but then she gets hired by a teen named Lia (Danielle Smith) whose mom died under mysterious circumstances 15 years ago. Not only that, Lia found out that her mom inherited a lot of money from her father just before her apparent suicide — and that’s money that Lia could use to go to Juilliard. A teen with musician dreams and a mother to grieve? Could a first case be more tailored to Jane? Jane quickly finds a number of suspects with motives, opportunities, and/or means — and she gets a brick through her window for her trouble. Will she see the case through to the bitter end, or will she close the curtain on this mystery before it’s solved?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Jane Mysteries has a lot in common tonally with The Cases of Mystery Lane, another Hallmark mystery movie that you just know is gonna become a series. But more than that, the premise — professional lounge singer plays amateur detective on a case with music on the periphery — reminded me of Columbo’s “Swan Song” and Hart to Hart’s “Rhinestone Harts.” I’m very glad this kind of cozy, campy mystery storytelling is fully back in style.

Performance Worth Watching: Every sleuth needs a partner-in-crime-solving, be they a Bassett hound named Dog or a butler named Max. Paris Jefferson’s Sadie is that for Jane. She’s a first class wine mom (or wine aunt, I guess) with a full-blown drag room full of sparkly costumes and hard-front wigs from her former career as a professional singer and starlet. She’s a great match for Sadie, part sidekick, part mentor, and part Q (but with more sparkly gowns and fewer exploding pens).

Memorable Dialogue: “Let’s be honest, Sadie: I have zero skills. Any case is going to be a challenge at this point.” We love a self-aware protagonist.

Our Take: Jodie Sweetin deserves this. More importantly, I think Jodie Sweetin wants this — and that’s evident in every minute of The Jane Mysteries. I proclaimed last holiday season that Sweetin was ready to become a Lacey-level Hallmark star, and the fact that she’s getting her own Hallmark Movies & Mysteries sleuth is further proof. What I love about this role for her, though, is how it melds all of her passions. Sweetin’s love of music and stage performance has been a running theme in her career, from Stephanie Tanner starting a band (Girl Talk!) to becoming a superstar DJ on Full/Fuller House. Jane da Silva gives Sweetin an outlet for that talent and she also gets to solve mysteries while wearing ridiculous wigs. What more could an actor want?

The mystery at the heart of Inheritance Lost feels as tailor-made for Hallmark as the role of Jane was for Sweetin. The crime revolves around an exposed multi-level marketing fraudster who duped women into dropping lots of money on crystals, and there’s also a dash of gaslighting and people not believing women because they’re “emotional.” These are all real issues, issues that lead to real trouble, but also issues that you don’t normally see in mysteries because they don’t involve drugs or the mob or similarly “macho” specifics. I’m very into a Hallmark mystery movie calling out the scam of MLMs and for-profit “spiritualism.”

The real question is, does Inheritance Lost call for more Jane mysteries, perhaps on a quarterly basis? I’d say it does. This first of hopefully many installment does a great job of introducing the lead, the in-over-her-head and impulsive Jane, and a solid supporting cast; the fact that Jane and Detective Cameron have lots of unexplored chemistry is enough cause for sequels. And the lounge singer angle is original and unique enough to keep people interested and provide an unlikely entryway into unusual crimes. If there’s one complaint I have about Inheritance Lost, it’s that music is too tangential to Jane’s profession. I think if The Jane Mysteries can figure out how to fully merge Jane’s singing with her sleuthing, we could have a really fun mystery series on our hands.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Jane Mysteries will have you cheering for an encore.