Friday, October 12, 2007

All TV: 'Women's Murder Club' adds to TV's body count

Today's column reviews ABC's lame "Women's Murder Club":
So I was watching Wednesday night's episode of NBC's "Life," and when the cops used a bunch of shady-looking Latinos to threaten a murder suspect into confessing, I said, "Now where did I just see that?" I searched what's left of my short-term memory at this stage of the fall season and realized it was in something that hadn't aired yet: an upcoming episode of ABC's "Women's Murder Club," which debuts tonight at 9.

We are in the middle of a major procedural crime glut. There are now more than a dozen network shows with some kind of significant crime-solving element (even more if you start working in fantasy shows that have weekly mysteries, like "Pushing Daisies" and "Reaper"), not to mention all the rotating cop and detective shows on USA, TNT, FX and elsewhere in the cable universe.

There are too many cops, too many killers, too many mysteries that play out exactly the same from show to show. The sheer tonnage of this stuff has, ironically, made the crime-solving part almost irrelevant. The shows that succeed are the ones where the characters are compelling enough that you'll keep watching even after figuring out whodunit by the second commercial break.
To read the full thing, click here.

6 comments:

Toby O'B said...

It saddens me to think we won't be seeing Laura Harris as Daisy Adair in the 'Dead Like Me' DVD return because she was off doing this instead.

K J Gillenwater said...

I completely agree with you. I have been sick of the procedural cop/CSI shows for several years now. Because they all do the same thing. The crimes are all very similar and there is no more 'shock' value. They can't surprise me anymore.

I'm amazed that there is such a following for Law & Order after umpteen years on the air. They all follow the same pattern. I get so bored with them. And I tend to guess 'who done it' so early in the show, that the rest bores me to tears.

I would rather watch a procedural type show that has decent characters. That makes the character the foreground and the crime-solving in the background. This is why I never truly get bored of "House." The interplay between the characters...even with Chase, et. al. gone for now...is the best part about the show. The medical stuff is just the icing on the cake for me.

Anonymous said...

As per your Studio 60..., I think the show was already a hit when it was set in the White House... or a cable sports network.

Anonymous said...

I'm not willing to support the James Patterson Machine

Toby O'B said...

It took two minutes to make an unofficial connection to 'Journeyman' - the reporters were from the SF Register.

Since they're on rival networks, I guess we won't see a blinding flash of light from offscreen someday....

Anonymous said...

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