Monday, October 15, 2007

Lilly Investigates the Murder of a Music Man

Since the dawn of Cold Case 5 fabulous seasons ago, I have wanted them to do an "American Bandstand" episode. It's just too perfect -- Bandstand was shot in Philly, CC takes place in Philly; Bandstand is a part of American pop culture history, CC revolves its episodes around the past -- seriously, this was a match made-in-heaven begging to happen. It hasn't happened yet (my guess: the rights aren't cheap or easy to come by for Bandstand), BUT this week's episode was probably as close as we're going to get and I'm OK with that because it totally worked as a fill-in. In fact, we even got an important AB reference. BUT, this episode wasn't just about the music. At its core, it was about racial tensions in the 50s and we all know that CC is da bomb! when it comes to racially charged episodes. Anyone who knows anything about music knows that Elvis took traditionally "black music" (a.k.a. "devil music") and turned it into a phenomenon known as rock 'n roll. Both sides loved him and hated him for different reasons, but there's no denying that his music transcends time and generations, making this week's outing of CC pretty fascinating. The victim was a sorta precursor to Elvis -- a white kid singing blues and gyrating his hips and "privates" on stage in front of screaming, adoring girls while the grown-ups protested on the sidelines. As Bingo put it, things were changing. Unfortunately for Bingo, not everyone was onboard with the change. Sure, there was his strict, racist uncle, but he was too busy stepping out with his girl on the side. No, this one fell to Bingo's distraught cousin who blamed all of the bad changes in his life on Bingo. When will these kids learn that "just bringing a gun along to scare him" almost always leads to murder?

Does anyone else think that Scotty is in need of some serious anger management?? Guy is going to explode someday! Hopefully, Jeffries was able to get through to him about the rest of his team having his back and not selling him out. Why would they rat on him? Oh Scotty, this is not the time to be turning on your friends. Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying CC's funny side this season? Last week, it was Vera in Amish Country and Lilly in counseling and this week, Vera at the health food store and then offering up some of those berries at the end. This show is cracking me up lately. I'm glad they found that sense of humor they seem to have lost sometime during season 2. Next week, it looks like Scotty and the ADA swap briefs. Yawn. And for the record, this is NOT the type of anger management to which I was referring. Cold Case moves to 4-0 on the season (for now).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this ep quite a bit. I admit I thought there was no way I was going to end up caring about someone named "Bingo Zohar" - LOL! But alas, I actually enjoyed him quite a bit, and I think I'm a sucker for trying-to-follow-your-dream type stories (espeically ones set in a time period where you really had to go against the grain to even have a shot at it). I also find myself really liking this ep's production design - the sets were amazing, and the lighting was fantastic. So many vibrant colors ... everything looked so crisp! :)

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying that humor they're putting in also. Vera is the best character for it too. Looks like Lil is back to wearing her hair up these days. (Just had to get a hair comment in there!) Another good CC episode.