The 'Case' with a Stairway to Heaven! Plus, it's TV on DVD Monday

When it comes to consistency of quality episodes, Cold Case is pretty good. It's difficult to constantly present strong cases, character development, and the right amount of emotion from week to week, but this show does a very good job of giving us all three each episode. Last night's look at the world of debutantes and their ritualistic process of debuting fell nicely into this consistency contingent. In fact, I would classify it as one of the stronger outings this season, so far, right up there with the murdered deli worker ("Frank's Best") and the four murdered brothers ("Saving Patrick Bubley"). A combination of factors caused last night's episode to really stand out from the pack. First, there was the very sympathetic victim. How awesome of a person was Emma? She wasn't afraid to be who she was, even in the face of some of high society's biggest families. She was only invited to debut because her father was one of the finalists for the space trip to the moon, and she took another girl's (new money) place in the process. Even though she didn't want to be a part of the debutante thing, she knew it was important for her mother, who had grown up cleaning the home of one of the old money society members. Emma was a trooper, but she never lost sight of herself and what she believed in, which ultimately cost her life. The one weak link in last night's episode was the actual murder. I just didn't buy Travis as the doer because he loved her so much. I guess it was a heat of the moment argument, and possibly he didn't mean to actually shove her down the stairs to her death. It was tragic all the same. Did anyone else think that the actress who played Emma (Elizabeth Hendrickson) bore a striking resemblance to Jennifer Garner? I half expected her to break out some secret spy moves and send Travis down his own Stairway to Heaven!

If Alias is ever looking for someone to play a younger
version of Syd in a flashback, this is their girl!

The second thing that made this episode really strong was the excellent directing on the part of Tim Hunter. The flashbacks looked exactly like a movie from the 1960s, and the picturesque shots in the present, especially during the ending musical montage, really fit the 60s theme. The shot of the moon overlooking the quaint area of Philly as the boys went aspyin' on poor Kat looked like something straight out of a movie from that era as did the shot of Emma's mother walking out on her front porch with the leaves blowing and the moon shining on Emma at her telescope while the poignant "Moon River" played in the background. It was the perfect ending song for this episode. Usually, the overarching theme of the episode is contained to the flashbacks (think the Rocky Horror Picture Show episode or the different hues of black and white for the older cases), but Hunter decided to keep the theme throughout, and it worked really well for this particular episode. I always say that devices such as this are great, but should never be overused, and Cold Case is one show that knows when to use such devices and when to not. It's a delicate balance that this show has perfected.

Other random thoughts on last night's episode - Vera had me cracking up with all his quips, especially the highly ironic "We're coworkers. We should share our personal lives." As Scotty said, good luck with that Vera, especially when it comes to the closed off Lilly. Turns out, Kat's important Wednesday night thing relates to her daughter (?) and dance classes. I loved the look on her face when she caught all three boys red-handed when they followed her to find out where she goes. Vera looked a little embarrassed to say the least. Ok, raise your hand now if you totally thought that Lilly was up to her old jumping to conclusions and prejudging self when it came to Travis? I completely doubted her, and thought she was a bit harsh. My doubt grew to full-fledged no-faith-in-her-judgment when the autopsy results for his wife came back. The epilectic seizure that caused his wife to fall down the flight of stairs in a similar manner to Emma's death 38 years before was nothing more than mere coincidence. To her credit, Lil did seem completely caught off guard when she found out, and she immediately backed off. In the end, she was right about Emma, though. It was hard to believe that the two deaths were so similar, and yet, not the same circumstances, so I loved the reveal that Travis was responsible for only Emma's death. Overall, another strong episode for this show and a great way to send us off into this little repeat run we're about to get for February.

About Last Night... CBS won the first hour of the night with its combination of the end of 60 Minutes and the first 40 minutes of Cold Case, followed by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and NBC's Dateline. At 9, CBS stayed in the lead with the end of Cold Case and the beginning of the CBS movie, followed by ABC's Desperate Housewives (r) and NBC's Law & Order: CI (r). The final hour of the night went to ABC's Grey's Anatomy, followed by the CBS movie and NBC's Crossing Jordan. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Rich and Laura set off to find Lee in order to get some answers about the creatures and the mysterious film they found on NBC's Surface. Over on Fox, the five remaining teams compete on Skating with Celebrities, and one team is eliminated at the end of the night.

@9 p.m. - Details are discovered and the terror threat stengthens on Fox's 24. Over on ABC, it's weddings, celebrity style on the annual special Instyle Celebrity Weddings.

@10 p.m. - Two college students write a screenplay that ends up mirroring a real-life murder on CBS's CSI: Miami.


QUICK CUTS

*ABC's Lost and Desperate Housewives are the big winners from last night's Screen Actors' Guild Awards. Both series walked away with top awards for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series and comedy series, respectively. Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman also garnered the outstanding performance by a lead actress in a comedy series award, and Will & Grace's Sean Hayes took the same award in the actor category. Keifer Sutherland won for outstanding performance by a lead actor in a drama series for 24, and Sandra Oh won the same award for the actress category for Grey's Anatomy. Members of the Screen Actors' Guild, an actor's union, vote on the awards.

*The teams are set, a multi-continent adventure awaits and Phil's funny lines are only weeks away, now all we need is the premiere of the next season of CBS's The Amazing Race! The network today released the identity of the 11 teams that will vie for $1 million on the adventure of a lifetime. Among them is a couple who has been married for 40 years, childhood friends, sisters, and a host of dating couples. The next installment of The Amazing Race begins February 28th on CBS.

*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Fox's cult favorite The X-Files to finally hit shelves tomorrow along with The A-Team (season 3), Diff'rent Strokes (season 2), Hill Street Blues (season 1), Inked (best of season 1), Knight Rider (season 3) and Magnum P.I. (season 3). For a full list of tomorrow's releases, click on over to tvshowsondvd.com.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Surface (Only two episodes left!). Plus, all the latest television news!


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