Serialized

Novelist Hannah Ryan (Vanessa Ray) is struggling after getting dumped by her husband for her friend and getting dropped by her publisher. She decides to change course and write a pulp crime serial for internet subscribers. Her first chapter has her character kill her publisher. When her real world former publisher gets killed in the same manner, Hannah initially becomes a suspect and her serial starts to gain success.

This Lifetime TV movie is rather bland. I like Vanessa Ray on Blue Bloods. I don't mind the premise which has some potential. The directing contributes nothing. There is little tension and the intensity flatlines. The danger doesn't seem to be directed at Hannah and she quickly stops being a suspect. There is nothing elevating the drama. It's a nice mystery but the killer makes little sense unless she's a complete non-sense psycho. That lack of logic is really unsatisfying. It skips over a much better logical suspect. This could be good in more competent hands.

I was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. It was quite entertaining. There were so many potential "killers" that I was left guessing and speculating right until the end!

I liked it. It's a TV movie so... Hannah constantly removing her glasses was annoying.

IMDB has this as Serialized, but on roku, it's Best Selling Murder. Desperately in need of cash after a divorce, Hannah starts publishing a murder series. And it's a hit. It's so much of a hit, that murders start happening in the same style as her own Bloody Mary Chronicles. And the victim is someone she knows! So now she's a suspect. We are offered a couple of obvious possibilities for suspects, so now it's up to us to make our best guess. We don't get clues about who the killer is like on Moidah she Wrote. Now she's dating the cop investigating her (really??), and even HE doesn't know if he can trust her. The acting, the story, and the sound quality are all sub-par, so it's listed as "TV Movie", and a 5.2 rating on imdb, as of today. We just don't like (or believe) ANY of the characters. The writer lets the ex husband walk all over her without question. The ex is a complete taker, and just wants the booty call. The best friend is always telling Hannah what to do. Directed by Michel Poulette, who has lots of film festival awards. Story by Doug Barber and James Phillips. Can skip this one... no big.

I read about this movie on IMBd when it appeared in our TV listings and subsequently recorded it. Kathryn, my wife, and I watched it this evening. It turned out to be a compelling who-dun-it that not only kept us guessing but, though each of us had picked a different killer, we were both wrong! We watch a lot of mysteries and I can frequently figure out the killer quite early on. Is that because I am great detective? Hardly. It is because I have caught on to the often formulaic writing even in the best of TV series and movies; thus when I say that neither of us twigged to the killer in Best-Selling Murder (aka Serialized) it is high praise indeed. The only problem I had with this imaginative show was the resemblance of the star to the star of Supergirl. Well worth a viewing.