Cold Case

Cold Case
Cold Case Logo
Format	Police procedural
Created by	Meredith Stiehm
Starring	Kathryn Morris Danny Pino John Finn Jeremy Ratchford Thom Barry Tracie Thoms
Theme music composer	Helmut and Franz Vonlichten
Opening theme	Nara
Slogan	Time never runs out for justice.
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	120 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Running time	approx. 45 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	September 28, 2003 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Philadelphia portal

Cold Case is an American police procedural television series revolving around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division in Pennsylvania that specializes in investigating cold cases. The series first aired in September 2003 on CBS. Its sixth season began on September 28, 2008.

Format

Each episode of Cold Case follows a formula that begins with a flashback scene that establishes the year in which the crime took place, as well as a set of characters in a seemingly mundane situation. These flashbacks feature a different style of direction, whether it be the colors, lighting, shading, or camera angles. Flashbacks often match a style from that era, such as a black-and-white flashback depicting the 1950s. The next scene shows the corpse of the victim--usually one of those introduced earlier--as it was discovered.

The show then flashes to the present day, with the detectives of the homicide division of the Philadelphia police department prompted to reinvestigate an old case gone cold following, for example, a revelation of new evidence, discovery of the victim's physical remains, or a witness who has decided to come forward. The detectives then give the cold case a new look and begin researching the victim and interviewing their friends, acquaintances, and family.

During the cold case investigation, those who were introduced in the flashback at the beginning of the episode have aged (in one case, a seven-year-old witness to the crime is interviewed by the detectives when she is 95). Gradually, the detectives gather enough evidence to determine the killer, who is usually then arrested. In contrast to many procedurals, Cold Case stresses cooperative interviews with potential witnesses who each fill in a part of the story, usually in chronological order. There are few adversarial interrogations and almost no use of forensic evidence. Violent confrontations with suspects are rare.

At the end of each episode, the detectives mark the case as "closed," putting the evidence box back on the shelf, while an apparition of the murdered person(s) looks on.

The problems in the detectives' personal lives are also featured, though the main emphasis of every story is on the victim and the search for the killer. Most notably, Detective Lilly Rush grew up in a severely dysfunctional, poverty-stricken home with an alcoholic mother.

The show usually casts a young actor for the flashback sequences and an older actor for the shots in the present, and cut back and forth between the two to show how the character has aged. The same actor could be used if the crime is in the recent past, or if the character is not likely to have changed much in appearance except for added weight and grey hair.

While all of the information shown in the flashbacks is true, what the characters say in the present day about the flashbacks is not necessarily true, and in fact, is often used for misdirection of the audience.

Victims and end scenes

Typically, once the murderer is revealed, their confession is depicted in one final flashback in which the murder is shown. The episode then usually ends with a montage (with no dialogue) of the killer(s) being arrested, set to a song of the era, as well as the fates of other characters from that era, showing all of them in their current appearance, but briefly flashing back to their younger selves. Finally, Detective Lilly Rush or someone else close to the victim sees a vision of the grateful-looking victim standing nearby, who then quickly vanishes. This aspect of the show is left up to personal interpretation: depending on the viewer's perspective, it could be Rush's imagination, or it could be the ghosts of the victims themselves. There have been numerous variations on this pattern, however, such as the fifth season episode "Family 8108". The episode had the rare distinction of ending with an original monologue over top of a song during the closing montage. The speech was performed by actor David Huynh, playing the character of Billy Takahashi.

Music

The theme song is an excerpt from "Nara" by E.S. Posthumus (who also performs the theme for the NFL on CBS), with an introduction by series composer Michael A. Levine. Besides Levine's original music, each episode makes extensive use of era-appropriate music for flashbacks to the year in question.

Characters

From left to right: Det. Nick Vera, Lt. John Stillman, Det. Will Jeffries, Det. Lilly Rush and Det. Scotty Valens

Main article: List of Cold Case characters

• Det. Lilly Rush played by Kathryn Morris
• Det. Scotty Valens played by Danny Pino (From episode 6 of season 1)
• Lt. John Stillman played by John Finn
• Det. Will Jeffries played by Thom Barry
• Det. Nick Vera played by Jeremy Ratchford
• Det. Kat Miller played by Tracie Thoms (Season 3-)
• Det. Chris Lassing played by Justin Chambers (Episodes 1, 2 and 4 of Season 1)
• Det. Josie Sutton played by Sarah Brown (Episodes 1-5 of Season 3)

Criticism

Cold Case has been criticized for producing episodes with perceived liberal and anti-Christian biases.^[1][2]

CSI: NY crossover

On May 2, 2007, one of the Cold Case detectives made a rare appearance outside of the series. In the CSI: NY episode "Cold Reveal", Danny Pino appeared as his Cold Case character Scotty Valens as he travelled to New York when it was discovered that CSI Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes) was connected to an unsolved case. The CSI shows and Cold Case all air on CBS and are produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Similar series

The investigation of "cold cases" has been used as the basis for several other detective dramas, including:

• The Enigma Files, UK / BBC, 1980
• Cold Squad, CAN / CTV Television Network, 1998
• Cold Case Files, A&E Network, 1999 (true cases)
• Waking the Dead, UK / BBC, 2000
• New Tricks, UK / BBC, 2003

Cold Squad controversy

Upon its launch, television critics noted similarities between Cold Case and a similar Canadian series called Cold Squad which debuted in 1998, five years before Cold Case^[3]. Fans of Cold Squad accused the American series of copying the basic premise and characters of the Canadian version. In 2003, the creators of Cold Squad considered launching legal action against the makers of Cold Case over copyright issues.^[4][5] Both shows air in Canada (and on the same network, CTV).

Episodes

Main article: List of Cold Case episodes

U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Cold Case on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

References

External links

• Cold Case on CBS
• Warner Bros. Cold Case official site
• Cold Case at TV Guide
• Cold Case at TV.com

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