"We wanted it based in recognisable provincial New Zealand," says Balme. "I wanted our local audience to feel like it was a town they or their cousins grew up in. Rather than being urban and Auckland-centric, we felt it was time for something grounded in the provincial reality that many New Zealanders live in. All the characters are meant to feel real and everyday. In that way, I hope the murders come across as all the more shocking because it feels like it could happen next door.
"In the smaller communities, the eccentricities of people are easy to discover. In Brokenwood, I wanted that feeling that everywhere was normal. Brokenwood should feel like Blenheim, Masterton or Gisborne, heartland New Zealand. And what goes on is normal, until someone is murdered and the filter shifts and things become strangely normal."
Balme doesn't act in the show. Instead, he wrote three of the four two-hour episodes and drew on his knowledge of the show's genesis from his time as Head of Development for South Pacific Pictures to guide the production.
The show was put into development several years ago, then shelved in favour of other projects until Prime came knocking recently, "looking for something local in this genre," says Balme. The result is a mini-series in which each murder is solved at the end of each episode.
"That is probably the trickiest thing. Dreaming up murders, motivations and characters that will support the plot is the fun part.
"But the pay-offs and resolve are hard because inevitably it involves exposition.
"With this series of four tele features, we have tried to mix it up a little. I'd like to explore that more in future series, finding innovative ways to pay off the stories and reveal the 'who did it' moment."
Basing each episode around a murder rather than any number of other nefarious crimes is a creative and thematic decision that Balme insists invites the highest stakes in drama.
"It pushes the boundaries of human behaviour. In the future we might change it up a bit but, for now we were clear we were offering up the murder mystery genre, one that's been overlooked in New Zealand."
Although the show exudes little of Twin Peaks' signature weirdness and ambience, like Agent Dale Cooper its lead detective is an off-beat fellow who finds himself not only drawn into the small community's intrigues, but also so intrigued by the simple life it represents he decides to move there.
"Shepherd is fictional but I wanted him to be based in the real world without any great dark secrets or personality dysfunction or afflictions," explains Balme. "Mike's a real guy with the real problem of solving real murders. He and his off-siders, Detective Kristin Sims [Fern Sutherland] and DC Sam Breen [Nic Sampson], are just Kiwis doing their job. They could be butchers, bakers or candlestick makers, but when they go to work they just happen to solve complex murders. Hey, someone has to."
The Brokenwood Mysteries debuts on Prime tonight at 8:30pm.
