‘If It’s Tuesday, It’s Murder’ Review: A Lisbon Mystery Built on Secrets and Suspicion

If It’s Tuesday, It’s Murder is one of those hybrid streaming concoctions trying to plant a foot in Only Murders in the Building, another in The White Lotus, with a dash of Knives Out thrown in for good measure. At its core, though, it’s a classic Agatha Christie-style whodunit—a subgenre that’s made a strong comeback thanks to platform-friendly series. This one follows a mostly Spanish group of tourists on a guided bus trip to Lisbon that starts off rocky and only gets messier as the days go by.

Structured as one episode per day, the story kicks off on a Monday as the bus departs for Lisbon, led by Cristina (Carmen Ruiz), a tightly wound tour coordinator constantly herding her passengers. The travelers themselves are a mixed bunch, and from the outset it’s clear many of them are hiding something. Fabio (Álex García) shows up late, stashing bundles of cash, immediately raising Alicia’s (Inma Cuesta) suspicions.

The group also includes two friends on a bachelorette trip, a tense family traveling with a grandmother in a wheelchair, a couple with a teenage son, Daniel (Biel Montoro), who is on the autism spectrum, and the warm, disarming Pura (Ana Wagener), from the Canary Islands. Along the way, they’re joined by Fernando (Pedro Casablanc), a stern man with a Portuguese accent. Things go sideways upon arrival in Lisbon: their hotel booking falls through, they end up in a creepier alternative, and that very night, Fernando is found dead—electrocuted in his bathtub with a hairdryer.

With the local police chief too distracted by his own issues to dig deeply into the case, four of the tourists—each with their own reasons—decide to investigate on their own. Fabio clearly has experience in shady circles, Alicia seems sharper than she lets on, Daniel’s attention to detail helps him spot unusual connections, and Pura, a true crime enthusiast, may have secrets of her own. Like the trio in Only Murders in the Building, they start pulling at threads that point to a mystery with unexpected historical ties that might explain Fernando’s death.

With some welcome humor and a few charming detours that lift it above the most predictable beats of the genre, If It’s Tuesday… manages a certain light appeal in its early episodes, largely driven by the frictions and misunderstandings within the group. Created by Carlos Vila and directed by Salvador Calvo and Abigail Schaaff, the series makes calculated use of Lisbon’s tourist-friendly beauty—suggesting the potential for future installments in other destinations, in a way not unlike The White Lotus, mixing new characters with returning ones.

By the third episode, however—and following a chain of events best left unspoiled—the show starts to widen its scope, gradually losing its initial charm and getting tangled in mysteries that feel less intriguing and more arbitrary. Each episode corresponds to a different day and is framed by reveals that shed light on the characters’ pasts, eventually converging in the present.

As expected in these kinds of stories, nearly everyone becomes a suspect—including the amateur sleuths—so the mystery remains open-ended until the final stretch. If It’s Tuesday, It’s Murder ultimately joins the ongoing wave of whodunits dominating streaming platforms. Those who enjoy the format and all its familiar mechanics will likely find it entertaining. The rest, better move on. There’s too much out there to watch everything.