At Intolerant TV, we watch every new show on network television for the fall season—so you don’t have to. We don’t watch them for long, though. Instead of giving thumbs up/down or a certain number of stars, we let you know how long we were able to stand the pilot episode before turning it off.
From the descriptions of this show going in, it seemed like it was going to be the Hallmark Christmas movie of murder shows. A police chief moves from the big city to a small town, where he meets a pretty librarian and a grisly murder scene.
We open with a bizarre set of images and angles. There are establishing shots of a small seaside town. James Cromwell tends to plants in a patio garden. A teenager spies on a man limping away from a house.
Then we have snippets of dialogue—random phrases with no context. There’s an exterior shot of a house, a close up of a clock, a hallway, a kitchen sink, and a closeup of a many getting hit by something and collapsing to the ground. There’s a bizarre shot of the victim lying on the floor, but it’s tilted 90 degrees, so he bleeds sideways. Then a van that looks like Scooby Doo’s Mystery Machine drives off and credits.
The director and editor did an excellent job creating an unsettling, disorienting mood for the murder that opens the series. What most of these types of shows would do with haunting music, they’re able to accomplish just with visuals.
The weird mood continues as we cut to two online daters meeting for the first time at a restaurant. Everything is shot from an odd angle. We’re either too close or too far away. Shots either last to long or jump frantically, as they couple exchanges awkward small talk.
“Sorry,” the woman says. “I’m not always late. No, actually, I am.” Later she tells him, “This probably isn’t going to work out.”
We find out that her date is the new chief of police, who is new in town. He’s also Kiefer Sutherland’s half brother. I don’t see the resemblance to Kiefer, but as he talks, his mannerisms and voice are a dead ringer for father Donald.
She’s not happy to find this out about her date (the police chief thing, not the Sutherland one). She later reveals that she’s the town librarian. “I didn’t know they still had librarians,” he says. “I mean, I knew they still had books.”
Despite the awkwardness, they have chemistry together. Later, we see that he has a teenage daughter, who he calls to report on the date.
Eventually, he finds out about the murder, where he’s joined by a detective who is also on her first day on the job. It’s Mya Lowe, from Yellowjackets.
James appears to only be on board for the pilot, which is a shame, because he’s delightfully cranky.
“Look around. Tell me if you see anything unusual,” Kiefer’s brother says when he arrives at the crime scene.
“That,” says James, pointing at the corpse. “That’s unusual.”
I liked it better when I thought it would be a season-long battle of wits between Cromwell and Sutherland. But it appears like it’s going to be a Murder She Wrote crime of the week type show, mixed with a budding romance.
Still looks like it will be fun. But instead of must-watch, it looks like something that would’ve been on USA Network after Monk if it were made a decade ago. Not a Fox Network show.
