The two things I liked best about Cold Case

[ninja1088]

There were two things that made Cold Case a standout show for me.
My biggest treat for me, Cold Case was one of the few shows where both young and old actors/actresses were given chances to shine.
It truly was great to not only see up and comers given a chance to show their stuff but for their elders to show them the way and also show the talent their years in the industry had given them. I really can't think of many other shows that have done that or will do it like Cold Case did.
The second thing I liked about Cold Case(and sorry for the mini-rant here) it gives us a glimpse into history.. and shows that while we as a society still have a LONG way to go, it is nothing like in the past for many groups of people. I'm going to be 27 soon, and I realize many people view my generation and the ones coming up as ruder, lazier,have parents that will make excuses for us etc. It is true of some of us?
Yes, but the same can be said for any generation but more to the point, when I hear of the good old days and crimes like domestic violence, child abuse etc never happened in their day, a show like Cold Case exists to sadly prove them wrong. It did happen, people just didn't talk about it. And if you were black,gay,a woman who was an unwed mother( the list can go on and on),Cold Case also truly showed that for many, the "good old days" never really existed at all. And it did it in a way without being too preachy but hitting the message home, and often hard.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

Those did indeed make the show; the two things that made the show for me were the following;

- The fact that they made all the characters 3 dimensional characters; including the killers. Going along with that, Cold Case had never been strictly black, and white. The good guys had their flaws, and the bad guys (killers) for the most part weren't strictly 100 percent evil. There was just a certain fleshing out to the characters, even the guest characters.

- The fact that this is the only show that actually effects me emotionally. It has toe the writing, the acting, and probably the music; but at the end of nearly all the episodes, I found myself crying. Let me explain, I had never cried during a TV show until Cold Case came along. Perhaps it was getting to know the victim, maybe it was the music, most likely both; but no matter, I found myself tearing up during the montages. The episodes that still get that response from me no matter how many times I see them, are;

A Perfect Day
Detention
Offender
Death Penalty - Final Appeal
Thrill Kill

Anyway, I do agree full-heartedly with your 2nd point, ninja. I get so sick and tired when older people brag about their good ol' days; then turn around, and gripe, because they had to walk 4 miles uphill to school, both ways.

Yes, there are some parts of the past that were nice, and it'd probably be awesome if they were still around, but the past of course has to stay in the past for several good reasons.

[ninja1088]

The episodes that still effect me are Offender, A Perfect Day, The Sleepover,Read Between The Lines and Detention.

[helen82]

Hi Ninja 1088! I absolutely agree with your ideas. I have the same thought about Cold Case. Those are the things I like best about it.

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Open Source Development

[lillyrush1977]

The cases: It was a different formula for a show. In most law enforcement shows you have the forensics trying to solve a murder instead of the cops pounding the concrete asking questions and finding the truth in what is now considered "old fashioned" police work.

The music: The music used in each and every show puts you back in that time.

[scottiedog]

I love the chemistry between the characters and how their interaction always feels genuine. See Wishing for a great example: Jeffries knows Scotty and Lilly have been arguing, but he doesn’t push for answers that he know have nothing to do with him, because let’s face it, if you were in his position, would you? The show could have had him push for answers because that would have caused more drama, but the simplicity and realism of how he lets it go and starts discussing the case is far more effective.

That scene in Wishing also exemplifies another thing I love about the show; how it seamlessly glides between the characters personal lives and the cases, always having just the right amount of both. We learn a lot about the characters from throw-away lines and very short scenes, with only a few episodes focused more specifically on their development, and yet these scenes teach us as much, or even more, about the characters than a year of soap episodes would. Even the people who appear in a single episode are developed ridiculously well in comparison with other programs main characters.

I also love that they didn’t have Lilly and Scotty get together. I get so sick of the leading male and female getting together just for the sake of it, even when it’s totally unnecessary, or just plain stupid (here’s looking at you House).

And then there’s the artistry. Cold Case is a very arty show. The way each episode is shot, the way the flashbacks differ from the modern-day scenes, the music, the different techniques used in each episode it all helps pull you into the time and place when the episode it set. Gotta give it credit for its creativity.

Oh and the fast that all of the actors in it aren’t thirty something, could-be-models *coughlostcough*

[valrush]

I have wanted to do a rant on this for a long time; this seems like as good a place as any.

There were in fact several aspects of the series that caught my attention, but I will start with the obvious--a kick-ass soundtrack. In a day and age where you turn on a pop station and so many of the artists sound the same, Cold Case shows just how diverse the music of the 20th century really was. Cold Case episodes featured the jazz of Billie Holiday, the big band music of the 1940s, the early beginnings of Rock and Roll, the Acid Rock of the 1960s, the disco-era, the New Wave of the 1980s, and the authentic hip hop of the 1990s. When I saw how much authentic time-period music was going to play in the series, I was locked in, but I also know this was the show's greatest expense. It's ironic really; what made the show great ultimately killed it.

The second thing that I commend Cold Case for is that it did not pull punches; it was a real look at American social, economic, and scientific/medical history. It is a point that several people have brought up here about how too many people simply gloss over the past and complain about how everything new sucks. Cold Case proves that this is all a matter of perspective. For starters, Philadelphia had seasons back then just as it does now. Every person has had that older relative who liked to tell the story about walking 20 miles in the snow every day just to get to their shoes. Thanks to Cold Case, we now know that it was not winter 365 days of the year. Rather, the series was a genuine look at the major social issues of the various generations: racism, abortion, homo/trans-phobia, domestic violence, mental illness, and the aftermath of war. Picture being African-American during the segregation of the 1950s, or being a lesbian during the Great Depression, or being Japanese-American during World War II, or being a returning veteran from Vietnam. Cold Case dealt with all of these issues seriously and accurately.

The third aspect of the series was how it showed that not all murders are the same. If you look back and really study the series, you will see that the majority of the killings were not premeditated homicides as would generally be the case on any other cop show. With Cold Case, however, some crimes were premeditated, some were mercy killings, some were suicides, but most were either accidents or arguments that got out of hand. We all had a few killers that we actually sympathized with during the series run.

Fourth, it was a good mix of old and new. It showed new science being applied to old crimes. It also showed how old ways could still be relevant in a new era. A number of episodes featured the detectives actually having to leave the office and meet witnesses, or having to actually READ old books and newspapers to get answers. That scene in "The Letter" where Nick Vera's microfilm machine blows up is very reminiscent of me trying to work an old time record player.

Fifth, the series could actually make a good teaching tool. There were a few times throughout the series run where I actually learned something. "The Good Bye Room", I did not know that birth control pills were once restricted to married women. "Debut", "They don't let girls into Harvard,"; seriously, this is NINETEEN sixty-nine isn't it? "WASP", I had never even heard of female pilots in World War II before that.

Lastly, regarding the point about Lilly and Scotty not being a couple, I am not so sure about that. Something in the way the series ended told me that they would have written that in had the series continued. From what I have been seeing online, it sounds like a number of people felt the same way. For what it's worth, this is the direction that I took in my writing.