Cold Case

The series from CSI executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer has a mesmerizing look, and in its signature stroke, nimbly flashes between the characters then and now. Unlike so many other crime series, Cold Case never loses sight of the victims...Best of all, it offers a lead actress who is simply excellent. Morris makes a wonderfully tough, tenacious heroine. She's a sleuth to die for. [28 Sept 2003, p.TV4]

A smart, stylish police procedural very much in the manner of "CSI" and "Without a Trace." [28 Sept 2003, p.C10]

If you're not tapped out on this kind of show already, Cold Case is a sophisticated procedural drama with an engrossing mystery at its core. [27 Sept 2003, p.C-9]

What a pleasure to find a woman who doesn't need to karate chop some no-neck to prove she's in charge. [27 Sept 2003]

Lilly's first cold case is so TV predictable, there's no way to watch it other than as just an excuse to showcase Kathryn Morris -- to establish her as an indelible presence we'll want to return to every Sunday night.

Cold Case pours an old formula into a new bottle and mixes up an amiably entertaining hour that could attract both young fans and those who are still wondering where Jessica Fletcher went. [28 Sept 2003]

The show is told stylishly. A character from today morphs into how he appeared years ago - an excellent way of getting into a story quickly without confusing viewers. The showy all-music ending to Sunday's episode is another nice touch. [27 Sept 2003, p.10]

Has a solid premise and a lavish look. The show's signature visual gimmick features characters morphing into their younger selves. Then there's the appealing Rush, who makes a very strong first impression. [27 Sept 2003, p.D01]

One thing is certain -- Kathryn Morris is going to be a star. Whether her starring vehicle ever catches up to or captures her potential is another thing.

Though the entire cast is strong, it's Morris who holds the show together with a winning combination of smarts, looks, steel and warmth. She makes a very good Case for watching. [26 Sept 2003, p.14E]

The mysteries may not be all that mysterious and the music all but clubs you at times, but there's something about Morris' performance that holds the thing together. [26 Sept 2003, p.53]

Grim, stylish, smart and gripping. [26 Sept 2003, p.8E]

Absorbing as the show promises to be, Sunday night's opener is something of a disappointment because it basically rewrites the Martha Moxley murder case, the details of which are very familiar from the recent Michael Skakel trial. [28 Sept 2003, p.C5]

Even familiar plot points are told in the expertly spooky Bruckheimer style.

Cold Case should be money in the bank for CBS. But the... premiere suffers from a predictable murder plo... and an overly arty climactic sequence that belongs in a music video, not a police drama.

Cold Case doesn't know Philly. Too often the few authentic exteriors - Boathouse Row, for instance - give way to some generic Los Angeles location. The show itself is full of references to nonexistent places and situations. [28 Sept 2003, p.H01]

Main problem: Skein's star, Kathryn Morris, is a puzzle. She's unique and capable, but her energy is low and there's zero warmth.

At times "Cold Case" feels like an assembly-line product, slick and shiny but a bit rushed and impersonal. [23 Sep 2003]

The hour ends with a ludicrously over-the-top, outside-the-courthouse sequence. A downpour gets musical accompaniment from Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" Then a drenched Lilly's hard-driving countenance is framed in a climactic close-up after other key players in the case look somberly upon the scene. Cleansing? Symbolic? No, just way, way overdone.

Plays to an older crowd with its by-the-numbers approach. [29 Sept 2003, p.F01]

The problem isn't the source of the plot, rather the fact that its treatment is not dramatic or gripping enough. [27 Sept 2003, p.71]

The pilot episode is so cliched, predictable, obvious, devoid of humanity or even human interest that one would actually like to say nothing definitive about it, in the reasonable assumption that next week's would have to be better.

An entire series built on the past tense could become tiresome, no matter how slick the visuals may be. [27 Sept 2003, p.C4]