Hello,
This is my review of the TNT show "Murder In The First", a show that follows a single police investigation from start to finish over 10 episodes. The show premiered on Monday, June 9th, 2014 and I watched it last night.
My initial grade is a C+. It has both good things that will keep you watching and bad things that will turn you off. "Murder In The First" stars Taye Diggs as Terry English and Kathleen Robertson as Hildy Milligan, both are SFPD homicide detectives and partners. Milligan is divorced and raising a 6 year old daughter. English has the more interesting back story. His wife is dying of cancer and there's nothing else that can be done. At a doctor's urging he brings her home to die. If a show is good enough on it's own, it doesn't need extensive back stories. And I rolled my eyes when I found out a character had a spouse dying of cancer. I thought here we go again. However this show handled the battle with cancer with grace and great story telling. It's also very poignant and moving. Then I thought to myself that I hope this cancer storyline doesn't go on too long. A too long back story can suck the soul out of a show. (I'm looking at you "Longmire", can you please move on from the death of Walt's wife? Please.)
I was relieved when Mrs. English died at the end of the pilot episode. I liked that the show and Detective English allowed his wife to go home to die. Although I was only partially invested in Mrs. England, I felt a loss when she died. I hate to see cancer get another victim, even if it's only in fiction. Again the producers and writers handled this whole story line with extreme grace.
I probably will lose interest in this show if English and Milligan hook up as the trailer hints. That's so cliche now and a very tired story line. "Castle" has handled it fairly well, but that's a rare exception. If the show goes down that road, the murder case better be brilliant.
As for the case I'm not sure it's strong enough to carry the show for 10 episodes. A chief suspect is Silicon Valley visionary Erich Blunt. He's the charismatic leader of up and coming company, Applesn, but he also can be a bit of a jerk. It's almost like he has a split personality. I'm wondering how much Apple and Steve Jobs provided inspiration for this storyline?
Thomas Schlamme directed the first episode. With him involved that means there's going to be at least one character from "West Wing". Sure enough look it's Toby Ziegler, it's always good to see an actor from one of my all-time favorite TV shows. Schiff here plays David Hertzberg, a lawyer of Blunt. He needs to cut that hair at the back of his head though- ugly! Hertzberg gives such good advice as working with people so that they are peeing outside of the tent rather than inside the tent.
Other characters include Lt. Jim Koto, the very good Ian Anthony Dale. He plays his character with both toughness and great compassion for English. At first I didn't like Tom Felton as Erich Blunt. I didn't think he was a great actor. But then I realized the reason I hated his character so much is because of how good of an actor Felton is. Steven Weber also shows up as a pilot for Blunt. There's a few other main characters that we haven't seen in the show yet.
The whole "TNT Drama: Boom!" has got to go though. It sucks! The movie voiced guys doing the promos also have to go, except for Honest Trailers. I loathe the AMC movie voice guy now, it reminds me of how far AMC has fallen since it's glory days of a few years ago.
Anyway I give the show a C+ grade. It's not terrible, but it's also not fantastic. It was good enough that I plan on watching at least one more episode.
themusicaddict
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