Review: "Women's Murder Club"
Before watching the premier episode of this "smart, sexy police procedural" drama on ABC, I didn't know much about it or the books by James Patterson, on which the series and characters are taken from. All I knew was that it starred "Law & Order's" Angie Harmon. That was enough for me. How was it? It was pretty decent. We'll see if audiences agree long enough for it to stick around for more than a couple of weeks. We'll also have to see how it does in the numbers. Friday nights, typically aren't great for ratings. All I can say is THANK GOD my power waited to go out till 10:00, right after "WMC" was over. Course, I missed out on new episodes of "Numb3rs" and "Las Vegas" but I'll get over both of those.
The Cast:
Angie Harmon as Lindsay Boxer Paula Newsome as Claire Washburn
Aubrey Dollar as Cindy Thomas Laura Harris as Jill Bernhardt
Tyrees Allen as Warren Jacobi
The Premise:
The premise is really quite simple. 3 friends use their smarts to solve murders, while exploring their outside of the office relationships with boyfriends, ex husbands, etc. It's like "Law & Order" with more character development. Based on the novels by crime author, James Patterson, "Women's Murder Club" tells the story of San Fransisco Homicide Investigator Lindsay Boxer (Angie Harmon - "Law & Order," "Agent Cody Banks") and close friends Claire Washburn (Paula Newsome - "Little Miss Sunshine," "Reign Over Me"), a Medical Examiner, and Jill Bernhardt (Laura Harris - "Dead Like Me," "24"), a young, attractive Assistant District Attorney. The three women are close friends, who happen to work together quite often. In the first episode, they run into a young reporter, Cindy Thomas (Aubrey Dollar - "Point Pleasant," "Failure To Launch") who starts out causing problems, but winds up being a tremendous asset to the eventual solving of the case. Lindsay's partner, Warren Jacobi (Tyrees Allen - "Alias," "AIDA") thinks he's in line for a promotion, and has quite a lot of love for Lindsay. Not perverted grown up love, but more like fatherly love. He feels very protective over her. The three main women are still getting over a serial killer, whose signature move was sewing the lips of his victims shut. He appears to be back by the end of the episode, which looks to be setting up an arch for the rest of the season. It looks like the show will feature stand alone episodes, but that this serial killer will definitely back. The rest of the cast features Rob Estes ("Melrose Place," "The Evidence"), as Tom Hogan, Lindsay's Boss and Linda Park ("Jurassic Park III," "Raines").
The Review:
The verdict...it's a pretty good show. It's definitely nice to have Angie Harmon back on television. She was, hands down, my favorite ADA on "Law & Order" and she's back as the same kind of brassy, sexy, smart woman that she was back when she played ADA Abbie Carmichael. The rest of the cast is pretty solid. Glad Laura Harris is back in a lead role. She was one of the better parts of "24's" second season which was overall pretty crappy. I also remembered her from my guilty pleasure horror movie, "The Faculty." The storyline in the first episode was pretty interesting, and I like how they delved into character backstory a bit, yet didn't let everything get bogged down by it. It started out with some excitement and action, with a murder victim falling from the roof of an office building, right onto Lindsay Boxer's car. The only thing I worry about is the timeslot and day. Friday nights have always been a...not so hot spot for most TV shows, "Ghost Whisperer" and "Numb3rs" being the exception. On the other hand, maybe because the show airs on Fridays, the network will give it a bit more leeway? One can hope. I'd love for this show to stick around for a season at least.