Cold Case
For a cop show, CBS' Cold Case isn't big on shoot-'em-ups. Maybe it's because the drama's Philadelphia detectives usually sift through evidence from long ago. The team recently closed the books on the murder of a 1919 suffragette. Let's just say they didn't have to call in a SWAT team to solve that one.
But Lilly Rush and Co. will end their fourth season (this Sunday at 9 pm/ET) with a bang. Two bangs, actually. "Our detectives are getting shot," reveals executive producer Veena Sud. "I can't say who. They're all in jeopardy. It's very big."
Almost unprecedented. Beyond the show's trademark flashbacks, George — the serial-killer tormentor of Rush (Kathryn Morris) — is the only character to have taken a bullet in nearly 100 episodes. Det. Kat Miller (
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Lost uncorks a shocker — or several — in May.
Finales! Guest stars! Crossover episodes! Mark your calendars now so you don't miss your favorite shows!
Monday, April 23On 24 (9 pm/ET, Fox), Jack goes rogue in a desperate attempt to save Audrey from the Chinese. Wait, isn't he already rogue?
Tuesday, April 24American Idol (8 pm/ET, Fox) lays witness to the rarely seen softer side of Simon Cowell in the two-part "Idol Gives Back" charity special. Part 2 airs tomorrow, 8 pm/ET. On ABC, boxer Oscar de la Hoya mixes it up with George Lopez (8:30 pm/ET).
Wednesday, April 25Sun's babydaddy is revealed on Lost (10 pm/ET, ABC).
Thursday, April 26The season's best new sitc
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Question: Why do you think a fantastic show like Cold Case is often ignored by the media? This show is consistently in the top 15. The acting by the leading players, and especially the supporting cast, is amazing. It has tackled every social issue in the world: teen violence, postpartum depression, interracial relationships, teen pregnancy, drug use, incest, homelessness — and that's just this season! And how about that soundtrack? What other show can get huge acts like U2 and Bruce Springsteen to OK songs for them? Still, I never see the Cold Case team on the cover of any magazines or talked about on TV. Am I alone in feeling like this? Do you believe this show is being ignored? If so, why?
Answer: It's not so much that the media is discriminating against the show, and I would argue that TV Guide has covered this show periodically (more than anyone else I've seen). We and others have done stories particularly on the "songbook" episodes, where a single artist's work is threaded through
...
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It's easy to take shows like the original CSI for granted. (I often hear from viewers wondering why no one makes a bigger fuss over the better procedurals of the day, from Cold Case and Without a Trace to the various incarnations of Law & Order. The simple answer: Glut exhaustion.) Which is why I found Thursday night’s “Lab Rats” episode of CSI so captivating. Switching up the formula a bit, adding welcome doses of humor and even a bit of slapstick, while never losing sight of the joy of the puzzle, CSI delivered one of the most purely enjoyable episodes of anything this season.The idea was to give the lab-bound geeks a moment in the spotlight, taking advantage of Grissom’s absence in the morgue to do their own digging into the crime-scene miniatures that have haunted the show most of the season. (The episode was also a nifty primer of this mystifying case for those who might have missed an episode along the way. Which in this age of Grey’s Anatomy compe...
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In this week's episode of Bones, we learn there's a community of "Brennanites," avid followers of Temperance "Bones" Brennan, that fictional triple-threat forensic anthropologist, crime-solver and best-selling mystery novelist. Add me to the fan base.As this second season has progressed, I've found myself getting more and more attached to this prickly "squint," her engagingly quirky lab mates and her FBI partner Seeley Booth. With clever writing, appealing casting and just enough of the "ick" factor — decomposed victims are the norm that helped put CSI on the map — Bones has slowly but surely become the most purely entertaining procedural crime drama on TV. (My top five, after Bones: TNT's The Closer, when it's on; the original and still champion of Thursdays CSI; and the twofer of Cold Case and Without a Trace, in part because the formula of these Sunday dramas invites a more emotional connection to the victims.)Having just watched this week and next week's Bones episod...
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Question: Since both Cold Case and Without a Trace air on CBS on Sunday nights, do you think that a crossover episode between the two series is possible?
Answer: Possible, yes. Advisable, not so sure. Gimmicks like these should be used sparingly if ever, but it worked pretty well years ago for Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order, which also were set in different cities within commuting range of each other. Cold Case is set in Philadelphia and Without a Trace in New York, although unlike those NBC shows, neither is actually filmed there. Both are from Jerry Bruckheimer's procedural factory, so that could help iron out logistical production issues. And I suppose there could be a cold case involving a long-missing person that could be brought to the attention of the FBI unit. Should such a crossover ever come to pass (I've heard nothing, this is all speculation), look for it to happen in a sweeps month ...
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You might have thought, with the Super Bowl being played in South Florida and all, that CBS would use the occasion to follow the game with a special two-part episode of CSI: Miami or something — ar anything except Criminal Minds. But that’s CBS for you: the Criminal Broadcasting System. If it bleeds, it leads, especially if it can be wrapped up (and soon forgotten) in a tidy little hourlong package.But to choose Criminal Minds, arguably the most unpleasant of CBS' many procedurals? Is that a way to end a night of festivity and celebration? Ugh. It’s no secret I’m no fan of this mannered, deeply shallow and glibly pretentious show. But hey, to each CBS fan his or her own. (Check out my Dec. 1 Ask Matt column for a more detailed explanation of why this is my least favorite of CBS' too-numerous crime dramas.) It’s not like I’m by nature a crime-drama hater. My favorite CBS shows in this genre include the original CSI, which still presents the most clever ...
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While some of us still miss Grey's Anatomy on Sundays, a perfectly entertaining bit of escapism to charge our batteries for the week ahead, ABC's new Brothers & Sisters has been growing on me. Week by week, culminating in this Sunday's most enjoyable episode yet, the show has become both lighter in tone and more emotionally compelling, proving to be a suitably compatible companion piece to Desperate Housewives — which, by sweeps coincidence or not, also enjoyed on Sunday its finest hour since the heights of its first breakthrough season.Housewives' much-touted supermarket-hostage crisis lives up to its billing, in no small measure thanks to killer performances (in one case literally) by Laurie Metcalf as a deranged wronged wife who takes over her cheating husband's store at gunpoint, and by Felicity Huffman's Lynette, whose final hysterical showdown with the mad Carolyn Grisby in the wake of Nora's fatal shooting (Yay!) was the sort of galvanizing moment we'd long been wait...
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Question: Why did they move Without a Trace to Sunday nights? It's such a great show, and when they do things like that, it seems the show soon goes out the door. Even though we love the show, we sometimes don't watch it because we either forget or are too tired to watch on Sunday night.
Answer: I miss it on Thursdays, too, but CBS isn't second-guessing itself on this one. The network had long planned to dump its aging Sunday movie night and needed to fill the gap with a known quantity that could counter ABC's popular soaps and NBC's football franchise. Pairing Cold Case with Without a Trace, both being among CBS' better (if darker) crime hours, was a smart strategy, even though I personally don't fancy watching hours this heavy on Sunday night as a prelude to the week of ahead — which tends to involve sitting through seemingly endless hours of crime procedurals. The move has paid off for CBS, making it more competitive on Sundays. So you don't have to worry about Trace's future for th ...
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Speaking of Nip/Tuck, TVGuide.com has learned that Bruno Campos (aka Quentin/"the Carver") will guest-star on this season's ninth episode of CBS' Cold Case, playing a dead man who serves a key role (via flashbacks) in solving a mystery.... Joe Mantegna is the studio-executive boss of Debra Messing's ex-husband in USA Network's spring 2007 limited series, The Starter Wife.... Clea Lewis (Ellen) will play Andy Richter's wife on the NBC mid-season comedy, Andy Barker, P.I. Lewis replaces Amy Farrington, who filled the role in the pilot.
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