Murder at the Merriweather (Lifetime Movie 2026)

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:02][music] >> Hello and welcome to Lifetime Court, the show where we break down your favorite made-for-TV movies one bottle at a time.

[00:00:13]I'm your host, Patrick Serrano, and today we're talking about Murder at the Merriweather. Murder at the Merriweather stars Hayley Lu Richardson and Dane Howard and James Crousse. We start at a luxurious mansion turned hotel that is so fancy it probably has a butler waiting in the closet to fluff your pillows at a moment's notice. Enter Dasha, the maid, and Regina and Sophie are spa workers. They all navigate workplace dynamics like they're in an episode of The Office. Their boss, Alec, is like a bad rom-com villain but with zero charisma and a lot of sexual harassment potential. As everyone preps for a wedding day, a day typically filled with love, laughter, and mildly annoying family members, we meet Sam, the ruggedly handsome groom with the kind of smirk that could break a few hearts. He's one wedding crash away from being a hot mess express. Sophie and Rina seem drunk on nostalgia as Sam was their high school crush. Speaking of drunk, Sophie wakes up in the hallway after a night of partying like it's 1999, only to find Rina has apparently decided to do a dramatic dive off the balcony because who needs safety rails anyways, am I right? The rest of the characters casually ignore the tragedy around them. The wedding guests are more concerned about their hors d'oeuvres than the dead body. You can practically hear the whispers, "Have you tried the canapés?" Enter Alec, who insists Sophie keep working since they are now short-staffed. Meanwhile, Kelly, the bride, transitions from shock to let's get on with this wedding faster than you can say cold feet, proving once again that weddings are just plausible deniability for chaotic and terrible behavior. As Sophie and Kelly team up for the most awkward murder investigation ever, complete with low-budget detectives. They tiptoe around glaring wedding guests who are more concerned about cake layers than cadavers. The plot thickens when Dasha, our underappreciated maid, suddenly becomes the movie's wild card, claiming she saw something. But before they can meet up, Sophie gets chloroformed.

[00:02:14]Someone needs to give that girl a safety briefing. When Sophie wakes up next to Dasha's lifeless body, it becomes clear that we're no longer in a cozy mystery.

[00:02:23]The police arrest her even though she looks terrified. Waking up to find out you were knocked unconscious and framed for multiple deaths should definitely come with a welcome to adulting manual.

[00:02:34]Things get juicy and not just from the copious amounts of white wine being consumed when Sam arrives to pick up Sophie from jail. Let's just say his confession about sleeping with Rena isn't a surprise, but maybe could have been better timed. While Kelly tries on her wedding dress, Sophia finds incriminating messages on her phone.

[00:02:54]Kelly killed Rena in a fit of jealousy.

[00:02:56]Sophia confronts Kelly, which results in a hair-pulling showdown. But instead of a fight, it escalates to Kelly accidentally sending herself flying over the balcony. Really, we should have those guardrails installed ASAP. And just like that, we have the ultimate wedding send-off, a murder mystery wrapped in a wedding cake topped with tragedy. Kelly's going down in infamy while crashing into floral arrangements is not the scene you see every day. As the police finally start piecing the pieces together, fortunately, the subplots also wrap too. It's like unwrapping gifts without a single shred of paper left over. Sophie emerges from the chaos not as a survivor, but as a spa worker who had a really bad work day. And that is Murder at the Merryweather. Murder at the Merryweather was really dumb, and it really drove me crazy that no one cared about Rena dying from the get-go.

[00:03:45]>> [music] >> So, I'd have to put a cork in it for that. Let me know what you think about the movie in the comment section below, and follow the show at Lifetime Court.

[00:03:52]You [music] can also follow me at Patrick Miguel. Lifetime Uncorked is a podcast with hundreds of episodes recapping Lifetime [music] movies.

[00:03:58]Listen wherever you get your podcasts and visit lifetimeuncorked.com for full reviews. If you like this episode, please leave me a tip on coffee, buy me a glass of wine, and I'll keep watching Lifetime. That's for this week. We'll talk to you next time. Bye.