Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I'm still unraveling the maze of shows that I missed that are saved on my TiVo, so needless to say, there are a lot of episodes that I haven't seen yet. One show that I did catch was last night's Cold Case. First up, New Girl #2 Watch. It seems that the writers are attempting to introduce her to us very slowly after the whole debacle with the Josie character. I see this character comes complete with a past buried in some sort of Fishtown shooting. I still don't know how I feel about the character since we really don't know her yet, but I'm still not liking the addition of another detective. This episode was extremely case heavy and it needed to be because the case was very involved. The first half of this episode was so emotional that I wasn't sure that I would make it through the entire episode, but the second half was less so. I don't think that it was necessarily less emotional, but more that I had adjusted to the heavy tone by the time the second half rolled around. I think this show is always more difficult on the emotions when it delves into the cases that involve children, but this case was especially so because the victim was only four years old, the youngest Cold Case victim so far. I found myself reacting to the episode the minute it started all the way until the closing scenes.
I knew as soon as little Vivian's broken body washed up on the shore that she had been abused, but that wasn't a central mystery to this episode. In fact, this episode had more questions than any other I can remember. First, the detectives had to determine who abused Vivian and her (surprise!) twin sister Maura. Turns out Maura had been adopted after her mother left her in a church when she was four, and she remembered very little about her real parents and family. It looked like a dead end, but Lilly and co. were able to track down the mother's name through a doctor who treated Vivian's broken arm in 1965. This show always asks the viewer to go out on a limb when it comes to witnesses memories, but it's even more the case when the murders are older, but I thought the doctor's recollection was pretty believable. He didn't remember every detail, but enough to send the detectives down the right path. I was a little surprised when it turned out to be the girls' cop father who was beating them and their mother. It was sad to see how ignored spousal and child abuse was back then, even by the medical community. Officer Balducci's parking lot justice and eventual "killed in the line of duty" tactic was very vindicating, and I loved how Vera and Jeffries decided to look the other way. I only wish Cindy had known that her husband was dead so she, Maura and Balducci could have been a family. She sacrificed so much because of her horrible husband.
The ending of the episode was the only part that fell a little flat for me. I know that the husband was a horrible person and certainly capable of killing his own daughter just to teach his wife a lesson, but I didn't completely buy his dropping Vivian off the bridge. I suppose he was desperate and enraged and the bridge was just there, so he decided to drop Vivian, but it just seemed so cold, even for this scumbag. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the awful things that people do to one another, especially since there are so many real life cases that are far more unbelievable. It was somewhat of a bummer that Vivian's killer never spent a day in jail for his crime, but it was satisfying to know that Balducci served up some justice in the case. I really liked the closing scenes with Maura and Cindy's reunion and then Balducci joining them on the beach. Stillman's scene in the bar where he asked the bartender to take down the picture of Cindy's husband was another nice justice moment. Overall, another strong episode for this show, which has been having a very good run as of late.
About Last Night... CBS started out on top with Cold Case, followed by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC and Fox's The Simpsons and The War At Home. At 9, ABC's Desperate Housewives took the hour, followed by the CBS movie Silver Bells and NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Grey's Anatomy, followed by CBS's movie and NBC's Crossing Jordan. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.
~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Laura and Rich finally reach the surface, but find there is no boat waiting for them and Miles makes a visit to the hospital after he unexpectedly passes out on NBC's Surface.
@9 p.m. - Fox's Prison Break rolls out what the network is calling its "Fall Finale" as Michael puts his escape plan into action. According to the network, the show will return sometime next year, but I would expect a cliffhanger to keep you wondering until then. Over on NBC, a surprising change of events thwarts a hostile takeover of the Montecito on Las Vegas.
@10 p.m. - Allison investigates the death of a woman who believed her house was haunted on NBC's Medium.
QUICK CUTS
*CBS is taking new drama Threshold off its schedule for the remainder of sweeps. Even less promising is a report from The Futon Critic that says that CBS has halted production on the freshman series. The series floundered a bit in its original Friday night slot, so the eye network switched it with fellow struggling show Close to Home. The move proved successful for Home, which last week earned the Fridently and a full season order, but disastrous for Threshold, which lost viewers with the move. The show stars Carla Gugino as a doctor thrust into the government world after her threshold strategy is put to the test.
*Also receiving a dose of bad news last week was ABC's Alias. The network alerted the spy thriller that the current season will be its last. Executive Producer Jeff Pinker confirmed the news last Wednesday and said that the cancellation is a good news/bad news situation because they hate to lose the show, but the early announcement gives them plenty of time to finish up the show in proper style. This is Alias' 5th season, and it has struggled in its new Thursday night slot against Survivor and the advent of star Jennifer Garner's pregnancy.
*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for the 5th season of CSI to hit shelves tomorrow along with Family Guy (volume 3), Project Runway (season 1) and Crank Yankers (season 2, volume 2). For the full schedule of releases tomorrow, visit tvshowsondvd.com.
That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on tonight's Medium and last week's Veronica Mars. Plus, all the latest television news!
1 comment:
I'd been missing your blog, girl. It took me forever to realize your were out of town on account of Thanksgiving. Duhhh!
I still haven't watched CC. Irishkale, my CC new episode godmother, hasn't waved his magic wand at me yet. :( Me sad!
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