Now, you may think of Cold Case on CBS as sort of a mainstream kind of show. It’s successful and in its sixth season. It’s on a major network. There have been numerous real life depictions of homicide cold case squads on truTV since Cold Case began, most likely inspired by this fictional drama. What’s it doing in my “Off the Beaten Path” column? Well, that’s because folks just don’t talk about this show enough. I rarely hear buzz or see reviews on TV sites about the show. That’s enough criteria to make the column.
I think one of the things I enjoy most about this show is the freedom to time travel. Sure, there always has to be a murder. But the background and eras are as important to how the show works as are the homicides. There is no limit to how old a case can be, so we’re seeing lots of different decades. I just have to give credit to whoever does the research putting together the music, fashion and sets for the different shows. They capture the eras magnificently and thrust the viewer back into the past with believability.
The cases themselves are often tied in with the date of the homicide. For example, a cop during the riots of the ’60s or a young woman working to do her part during World War II. Every now and then, we’re shown a case which only has ties to an era due to the depiction, but could happen today. Of course, it wouldn’t be a cold case if it’s current. But murders through the years often have the same motives — jilted lovers, psychopaths, and just plain stupid people doing stupid things.
It’s set, and actually filmed in Philadelphia, thus giving us great peeks at the City of Brotherly Love. Well, brotherly love gone a bit awry, I’ll admit. Philly is a very intriguing city and I think it might be just as much of an attraction for me in watching the show as the storylines.
Kathryn Morris, as protagonist Lilly Rush, is perfect in her role. She doesn’t look too tough for a homicide cop, but she can be when she needs to cop up. In the beginning, she was more dependent on her instinct. However, as the show evolved, more cast members took on larger roles and her character became a heck of a lot more of a shrewd investigator type person.
And, I know it’s cheesy, but I’m always mesmerized by the ending scenes with the flashbacks and present day arrests intermingled all accompanied by a poignant song of the era involved. That’s probably the cheesiest part of this police procedural with a time traveling twist, but it’s a trademark of the show. I know I’m not the only one watching this one. Am I?
Clacked by Jackie Schnoop 
on Dec 12, 2008 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
I think Cold Case nicely fills the CBS Sunday night niche formerly occupied by Murder, She Wrote. Most of the guest actors are the same people (or their younger versions) who would have shown up in Cabot Cove, or, before that, on The Love Boat. I, too, like the time travel thing, but this is nice, safe travel — If It’s Sunday This Must Be 1943 group tour bus travel. You’ve got a mystery and then you go from suspect to suspect to suspect and finally one of them is the bad guy. They don’t take risks with this show. It’s too pat, too formulaic. Everything is going to work out all right in the end. The music is often too obvious for me, too cliche. Of course I like Lily . . . I like everyone. I keep waiting for Isaac to offer me a Mai-Tai. You get this glowy sort of feeling when the mystery is solved and the music plays and the box is put back on the shelf and then it’s over and it’s an hour later and you haven’t had to think too much and thank goodness for that, right?
I love this show – and I’m surprised none of the blogs talk about it. Consider it for regular blogging, CC? pretty please?
I just discovered it and am making my way through seasons 2-4 on DVD. I’ll agree with Annie that it’s a pretty “safe” formula – the fact that the murder is in the past pretty much isolates the detectives from any real danger – but it’s still good entertainment. It’s kind of a return to a “Columbo” type mystery where the detectives spend more time talking to people than looking at blood spatters and microscopes.
And it has the luxury of happier endings than a regular detective show. Everyone’s happy to have closure after 30 years of wondering what happened. A show like “Criminal Minds” can’t really show the victim’s family (or even the FBI agents) being happy at the end of the show because the murders are still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Mostly it’s unrealistic in a very reassuring way, much the same as “House”. If you get sick, you can imagine there’s an obsessive doctor out there who won’t rest until he cures you, and if you’re the victim of a crime, you can imagine there’s a team of detectives with nothing better to do than to give you closure, even if it was 20 years in the past.
There’s always been a lot of questions in Canada about how much Jerry Bruckheimer “borrowed” from a series called “Cold Squad.” The the lead in that show was a woman – Sgt. Ali McCormick (played by Julie Stewart) – with a male boss, and various partners, including characters played by Michael Hogan and Stephen McHattie. In fact many of the actors on the show went on to be on “Battlestar Galactica” (besides Hogan, these include Matthew Bennett – Doral – and Tahmoh Penikett). “Cold Squad” was produced by Alliance-Atlantis, the company that does Bruckheimer’s “CSI” franchise. The similarities between the shows was so visible that the Julia Keatley and Matt MacLeod retained an intellectual properties attorney to look into the matter.
I have watched and enjoyed this show from the beginning. It’s easy to watch and the time travelling along with the music always entertains me. It’s easy to watch. Ironically, it puts my husband to sleep every week!
Sometimes the casting of the younger/older people in the show is laughable but sometimes it is right on. The November episode with a young Nick Vera could not have been cast any better!
I absolutely love this show, but I agree with LaurieGayle that the older/younger casting is sometimes hilarious. In the context of the show, it seems your eyes can change from blue to brown or vice versa over the years.
I used to watch the show too until Sunday Night Football or 60 Minutes keep going over into the show and the DVR always miss the second half.
I love Cold Case and don’t know why there isn’t more written or advertised about it. The older the case, the better I like it, so there is a big difference in the age of the people involved. I have my DVR set to record two hours past the time it should end because of sports programming.