Murder in the First: A Review

Catching up at summer's end with a review of  a series that I watched and liked a lot, but didn't have time to write about, finishing my latest novel, swimming as much as possible, and everything else: Murder in the First.

In a way, all ten episodes were like a top-notch Law and Order story, with a murder, arrest, trial, and then police work again, except presented over ten hours rather than one.   Did it work?  Yes, it did. Murder in the First was always enjoyable, sometimes outstanding, and memorably surprising at times.

My favorite part was the lawyerly action, with superb work by James Cromwell as Defense Attorney Daniels and excellent work by Richard Schiff as Hertzeberg, the defendant's personal attorney. Meanwhile, Tom Felton - best known for his performance as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies - put in a chillingly effective performance as Erich Blunt, a character who could be described as Mark Zuckerberg, if he were a sociopath.

Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson (who was fabulous in the first season of Boss) did a serviceable job as the detective team, Terry and Hildy, investigating the murder.   This creates an interesting issue as far as renewal, with one of the best characters, Blunt, no longer on the show, and Hertzberg not likely to be around, either.

But if Daniels is back as defense attorney with another good murder mystery, a second season of the Murder in the First could be excellent.   Indeed, it could be better than the first, if Terry and Hildy are pushed to take more chances, not only professionally but personally.   Their kiss made some critics uncomfortable, but I would've liked to see them go all out with a continuing liaison nibbling at the edges.

I do hope the series is renewed - I promise to be a more diligent reviewer if it is.


 another kind of crime story

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Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations

A remarkably beautiful Bones 9.11 tonight, in which Bones finally finds a meaning of angels - they're in the mathematical equations that a "freakoid" (Booth's word) genius physicist (perfectly played by Richard Schiff) writes on the blackboard, to describe the soaring life of his recently murdered daughter.

If this sounds like both more powerful and sophisticated stuff than usually found on television, that would be right.  Bones always flirts with what it means for Bones to be a genius and therefore apart from most other people in the world, including Booth.   But tonight we get to see that genius in both mathematical and detective action.

The detective part comes in Bones' championship of the physicist, much to Booth's annoyance, especially when Bones contradicts him during an interrogation.  Bones' belief in the physicist of course takes him off the roster of suspects - Bones is rarely wrong about innocence and guilt, and would be highly unlikely to be wrong in this case - but the episode has a better than usual bench of other suspects, and in fact I was wrong about who the killer was.

Meanwhile, we also get a good secondary story about Cam and her identity thief.  Cam wants to put the thief away for as long as possible, which leads Arastoo to council the value of forgiveness, or at least not going for the blood of revenge.   Bones has a knack of being in tune with events that are literally happening in reality as Bones plays on the screen, and I couldn't help thinking of Nelson Mandela when Arastoo was giving his good advice.

So this was quite a show.  And it even had time for humor, with my favorite funniest line coming when Sweets questions a kid, who retorts to Sweets, "how old are you?"

No one is too old to enjoy Bones.

See also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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An Idiot's Guide to Time Travel in The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Derek2 and Jesse1

Don't be insulted, we're all idiots when it comes to time travel and its paradoxes - that's what makes it so much fun.

But there was a great Sarah Connor Chronicles - Episode 2.9 - tonight, which had one of the best time travel dances of the series, and, for that matter, of time travel on television.

Jesse captures a Charles Fischer, back in 2008, from the future. He's a "gray" - a human who cooperated with Skynet in the future - and Jesse wants Derek to get Fischer (good to see Richard Schiff of The West Wing in this role) to tell them what he's doing in 2008. Fischer denies that he's Fischer. Jesse expects Derek to know exactly who Fischer is; Derek does not. Jesse captures then the young Fischer in 2008, and brings him into the room with the older Fischer. She tells Derek that Fischer in the future tortured Derek ... he has no recollection of this. Derek does eventually break the older Fischer in 2008, who admits that he's Fischer. Jesse kills him. She wonders how Derek could have had no recollection of what Fischer did to him in the future. Maybe it never happened, Derek realizes, and maybe we come from two different futures....

But how could that be? Why would Jesse remember Derek telling her that Fischer tortured him, if it never happened to Derek, because the younger 2008 Fischer was traumatized by what happened in that room?

Here's my explanation:

a. Derek1 is tortured by Fischer in the future. Derek1 tells Jesse1 about this.

b. Jesse1 travels back to 2008. She soon runs into the older Fischer in 2008 ... and all the events described in the paragraph above happen. The younger Fischer, because of what he saw in the room, does not go on to torture Derek1.

c. Therefore, in the future, at the instant the younger Fischer goes on that better path, Derek1 flips into Derek2. The two are identical in all ways, except that Derek2 has never been tortured. In this future2, Derek still loves Jesse.

d. Derek2 at some point after that travels back to late 2007 - before Jesse1 arrived. Jesse1 contacts Derek2 a few weeks ago, and what happened in the first paragraph - the action tonight - happened.

The key to this is that since Jesse1 traveled to the past, she retains memories of future1, and does not change when future1 becomes future2. But because Derek is still in the future at this point, he changes from Derek1 to Derek2 when the future changes from future1 to future2.

Ain't time travel grand? I think so, and I think The Sarah Connor Chronicles is doing a fine job of it.

See also 2.1 Cameron's Back ... 2.2 Firing on All Cylinders ... 2.3 Who, Truly, Is Agent Ellison? ... 2.4: Meet Allison ... 2.5: Unpacking the Future ... 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter ... 2.7: The Saving Robbery and Cromartie ... 2.8 Perspectives and Death

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