With its 5th season Monday on AcornTV, the Lucy Lawless “My Life is Murder” mysteries sustain a light, bright and breezy tone.

Which isn’t as easy as it looks, despite being set in picturesque Auckland, New Zealand.

Lawless – forever Xena to fans of a certain age – is private investigator Alexa Crowe, formerly with the police.

“When her husband died in the line of duty as a cop in Australia, unjustly,” Lawless, 57 explained in a virtual interview from New Zealand, “she got a big old payout.

“I don’t think she intended to become a P.I. She just went back to her home country. And her old friend Harry looked her up and asked her for a bit of outer, outside Bureau, assistance.

“Because she doesn’t have the constraints of bureaucracy around her, she can bend some rules in a way that police don’t or shouldn’t. And she does.”

A global hit, the series’ appeal, Lawless believes, is its familiarity.

“You get to be with people who are kind and good. It’s colorful and bright. And hopeful. And justice gets served at the end. I think we’re all hungry for that.

“That was our intention at the beginning. In 2018 Claire (Tonkin, the writer-producer) and I said, ‘Let’s make something good, something kind.’ Because the world felt dark to us and we didn’t think it could possibly get darker!

“Anyway, and I don’t really mean to laugh at that, but, yeah, I think the world needs some kindness out there.”

Alexa bakes while her cat is on the counter close by observing. The proximity can disturb people. “My sister is such a maniac that way,” Lawless acknowledged.

A cat co-star, she’s learned, is “Not fun! Because cats are not like dogs. It’s a miracle when you get the shot because the cat is the boss. Zeppelin, our cat, was shot in the tail by somebody who doesn’t like cats.

“He was shot after the last season. He was off for a walk with the owners who take the cat for walks with their dogs. And somebody shot and hurt him badly. He’s going to be okay but we are so pissed.”

It turns out, “Cats are a big problem in New Zealand. Because they go feral and destroy our native birds. Unfortunately, this cat lives out west near the forest, and some hateful little bastard shot him.”

Even Alexa couldn’t solve this case. “I put it about all the media. But these people think protecting birds is doing God’s work.

“On some level, I really do understand it. I have a farm, and there’s a lot of feral cats.”

“But not our cat! Zeppelin was like, “Don’t you know who I am?”

Ebony Vagulans and Lucy Lawless are back on the case in “My LIfe is Murder.” (Photo Matt Klitscher/AcornTV)