Murder in the First

I am really enjoying the new TNT show Murder in the First and can't believe the negative reviews. It's well written, suspenseful, has complex multi-layered characters and is perfectly cast. I have my DVR set every Monday night and can't wait for the next episode.

Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson are superb in their roles and Tom Felton and James Cromwell are great as well. James Cromwell is particularly effective playing the seasoned, high-priced defense lawyer. Even the supporting players do a great job in the smallest roles.

It's a perfect show for fans of Law and Order, Chicago PD, Blue Bloods and NYPD Blue. I highly recommend watching this show. Don't believe the negative reviews - watching this show is time well spent and I've been sorry when each episode ends.

I went into this thinking it was just another Law & Order clone, like a million other shows out there these days, and I suppose I was somewhat pleasantly surprised.

The main detectives, played by Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson, don't initially seem like that great of a combination. She is a single mom who seems to have trouble with even getting a date, and he is married to a dying woman which is putting a lot of strain on his job, and that was primarily the focus of the show. The crime itself seemed to be secondary in nature, which is weird considering the name of the show, but most of time was dedicated to fleshing out the detectives and their lives.

Usually, that would cheese me off; I generally only watch these for interesting homicides and those classic action scenes we all know and love, but this was an interesting change of pace. At the end I found myself wondering if Diggs was going to be alright rather than how their case was going, and I think I can live with that.

I would have given the show higher marks, but I honestly do want to see a bit more action out of this first. Once they pick up the pace a little bit, this might easily turn into a new favorite.

This is a terribly scripted dreary drama series. it should be cut and shelved immediately after the first episode. And by doing so, TNT and Turner Original Production should fire all people related to this series. Casting was also so poor and disastrous, none of them looked convincing; those male and female inspectors? absolutely a joke! There's no charisma or any attractive strong character in this series that could make the viewers keep watching.

Kathleen Robertson's Hildy Mulligan role is very unconvincing. Her high heel shoes look so dumb and so inappropriate, her satchel on her shoulder looks more like cosmetic arrangement instead of any practical use, both were stupidly and heavily copied from the European mystery drama series, Anikka Bentzon: Crime Reporter.

What a shame, dude.

Solid cable TV police procedural that takes place with San Francisco as the backdrop. Entertaining and fast paced with believable characters. Some of the standard cop show tropes remain but no TV cop show is without some. Speaking mainly about season 2 which was a bit deeper then season one as part of the season deals with a mass shooting and its effects on a community and at least tries to present a scenario of how or why it would happen. The show does a yeoman's service of unveiling the season's story arc all the while introducing secondary stories that ultimately intertwine with the main season story arc. Its done in a straight forward fashion while avoiding too much predictability. In other words its not an "A,B,C" procedural like "Law and order" but its not a extremely hidden clue mystery like "True Detective" which I think makes the payoff and resolution at the end of the season a lot more satisfying. its a good binge watch (which is how i viewed it) it seemed a lot more satisfying watching it in that fashion. I think the show's "Bochco-isms" are apparent in the way the police struggle with personal issues while they tackle the dilemma of "brothers in blue" versus doing the legal good and how that often still opposes the moral good.

There are a few things going for this new crime drama revolving around the SFPD and a tech billionaire. 1. San Francisco is a happening city now and it's always interesting to show the contrast between the homelessness and despair and the dizzying high tech boom. The last few SF based shows have been cancelled like Alcatraz and 9 Lives of Chloe King. Hopefully this series showcases more of the scenic beauty of the city and not just the seamy side. 2. Sympathetic looking leads Kathleen Robertson and Taye Diggs and a multi ethnic supporting cast are watchable and not abrasive like some crime dramas. 3. After 4 episodes the central villain? played by Tom Felton or Malfoy from Harry Potter is an interesting and enigmatic character. At first he seemed to be still too teenage looking (like the rest of the Harry Potter cast) to be effective in his role but he is actually quite good. Since Steven Bochco is behind this I'm going to give this one a chance.