Murder in the First

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.

This summer I've been watching the new TNT series "Murder in the 1st" and I must say that creator Steven Bochco has this series keeping viewers on the edge of their seat. A single murder case starts it off only the case leads to a world of sex, drugs, and cover up beat it all it happens to be tied to a young rich computer business genius young boy! The setting of the series is in the city by the bay the scenes and images of the golden gate bridge and San Francisco are beautiful. Those images treat the viewer to a good sight after the eyes are salted with blood and murder scenes. Leading the way are two S.F. detectives Terry English(Taye Diggs)and divorced mother Hildy(the sexy Kathleen Robertson it's nice to see her getting work again I remember her Beverly Hills 90210 days). Thru it all the case takes twist with new characters and new leads and a pilot named Bill Wilkerson(the terrific Steven Weber)seems to play a supporting connection to it all. Overall the series is a pretty good suspense and drama thriller one that changes week to week with new things as hidden secrets are uncovered this all makes for an interesting watch!

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.

My wife and I watch one or two episodes of police procedurals every night. It's the only video we do watch. I usually pre-screen the programs, making sure of a few things we prefer, and seeing how many total episodes there are. When I pre-screened Murder in the First I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, nor my wife.

I started binge watching Murder in the First, then slowly began to like it. It isn't like any other series we've watched. It is a mix of cop show, detective show, courtroom drama, and soap opera. Fortunately there is a balance of these modes.

I'm now viewing the 8th episode of season 3 and wishing the series had gone on for more seasons.

Pros:

• The acting is good
• Direction is good
• Story lines are plausible
• Character building is good

Cons:

• We like programs that are fully contained within one episode. We don't care for formats where the murder mystery persists through several episodes or seasons. Murder in the First does have the format of a single mystery spanning an entire season. In most cases we find this style ends up with a lot of "filler" just for the sake of fitting into a whole season.
• A little too much sex. It simply isn't needed.

I disagree with most of the other reviews. I thought it was a fine show. I'm happy to see Tommie Schlamme and the rest of the group together again. Nothing can please everybody first time out. I like getting to know the back story on the various characters, it forms more interest for me. Looks like this is a summer replacement, because when I looked it up on IMDb, the three stars are listed for 10 shows, perfect for summer, but it is certainly better than a lot of the other stuff on TV at this time. I like Taye Diggs and hope to see a lot more of Ian Anthony Dale. I don't know anything about the young leading lady, but like her for my first look, although I do agree about the gun being in a bad place, although as I said, nothing is perfect. Good luck to the show.