Murder One

Put simply, Murder One series 1 is the most fascinating, intense and riveting courtroom drama series ever to hit the screens.

In lesser hands than Bochco’s it might have been deadly dull – 23 episodes to cover one trial – but the DVD is as the original TV series was, pulsatingly addictive.  Sadly, following one case over that period led to confusion among viewers, to the detriment of ratings.  A great shame.

The brilliance of this compelling courtroom drama is down to a combination of brilliant scriptwriting, skilled direction, amazing cinematography (beautifully explained in the making of documentary) and incredible acting.  The best analogy I can come up with is that it is like a 1990s American version of a Shakespearean tragedy, with groups of dukes and earls plotting and pontificating in armour prior to a great battle that will see some of them dead and others victorious.

Daniel Benzali holds the series together with a finely nuanced performance, much of it communicated through soft voice and subtle body language (the lovely twist of his head to indicate scepticism, for example), but his defence attorney Ted Hoffman is matched every step of the way by the charming and masterful arch villain, Richard Cross as played by the brilliant Stanley Tucci. How do you combine utter civility while being totally creepy? Watch Tucci and find out! In fact, the whole ensemble cast rarely puts a foot wrong in this epic series.

Where it went wrong was simply assuming American audiences could keep up. They demanded ever longer “previously in Murder One” flashbacks, which destroyed the continuity of the series. Sure, you need to keep your eye on the ball but in reality this is not so complicated. Even the use of legal jargon (similar to the medical jargon in House) is not designed to fog the clear underlying issues – and if anything they complement the drama to a grandly orchestrated effect. There are cliches that turn up (as indeed they do in real life (eg. Hoffman’s previous affair with Judge Bornstein), but even sensitive issues like the end of Hoffman’s marriage are handled with surprising delicacy and dignity.

However, where this series wins hands down over its competition is in the rising tension. Who killed Jessica? Was it Neil Avedon, in a fog of drugs and alcohol? Was it Richard Cross, for his own nefarious and machiavellian motives, or maybe the suave rape suspect Eduardo Portalegre, or another member of the sinister characters lurking on the fringes?

Trust me, this series ratchets up the tension better than even Hitchcock could have achieved. It is a work of art… which makes the decline into series 2 and the termination of Murder One by the network all the sadder. Thankfully, we can still watch the genius of series one on DVD! 🙂

PS.  This extended review makes for fascinating reading.  And I agree that the less said about series 2, the better!

PPS. The opinion of a friend on series 1, though I take this theory with a pinch of salt:

The writers wrote the show as one series. The intended murderer was one of the main characters. When the show proved to be a hit, the network made the writers change the end and alter who the murderer was, as they wanted the intended perp to be in the second series. That is why the ending was such a damp squib and why the second series was shit.

5 thoughts on “Murder One”

  1. When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Bless you!

  2. My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on a variety of websites for about a year and am nervous about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  3. Undeniably believe that which you stated. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the web the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get irked while people consider worries that they just don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks

  4. I want to show some thanks to the writer for rescuing me from such a situation. After scouting through the search engines and seeing things which are not helpful, I thought my entire life was over. Being alive minus the strategies to the difficulties you have sorted out through this article content is a serious case, and ones which may have in a negative way damaged my entire career if I had not discovered your website. Your mastery and kindness in dealing with a lot of stuff was useful. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if I had not come upon such a point like this. It’s possible to at this moment look forward to my future. Thanks so much for the impressive and result oriented guide. I will not be reluctant to refer the sites to anybody who requires tips on this area.

  5. Many thanks for your post. I would like to say that the cost of car insurance varies greatly from one plan to another, mainly because there are so many different facets which bring about the overall cost. Such as, the brand name of the motor vehicle will have an enormous bearing on the price. A reliable aged family motor vehicle will have a more affordable premium when compared to a flashy racecar.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Blogs, reviews, novels & stories