Cold Case 1/8/2006 *Spoilers*

jcondon said:

Ok who steals a car. Gets bumped from behind on a deserted road and pulls over to exchange insurance info?

Hello you don't have an insurance info.

And how did she register a stolen car in her name. One that was involved in a murder too.

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I don't normally watch this show, only watched it because of the Springsteen soundtrack (which I thought was very well integrated in the show, even if they got some of the timeframes wrong, where I believe a song wasn't yet released at the time they were were playing it), but, I thought the whole thing was implausable. This seemed like such an open and shut case to me, why did it take 17 years or whatever to solve it? Is this normal for this show? And they REALLY need to show more of the blonde lead detective than they did in that episode. They sure push her in the commercials so I thought she'd be in most scenes. All said, this might be a show I watch in reruns or if there's nothing on, but so far, not SP worthy.

In my opinion, this was one of the worst Cold Case episides I have seen. If this was your first one, please give it another try because this was not the norm at all. On top of the items sited by the OP, I just didn't feel connections to these characters at all and not caring much for Springstein, found the music very distracting.

The only good part of the show was the Springsteen music. Other than that it was pretty lame.

Steveknj said:

...even if they got some of the timeframes wrong, where I believe a song wasn't yet released at the time they were were playing it...

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When the ep first started (timeframe 1981) and "No Surrender" was playing in the car, my first thought was, wrong year. By the third song (Brilliant Disguise, I believe), I realized the music wasn't supposed to fit the timeframe, but the situation in which it was being played. And sure enough, each song after that was dead-on for the scene it was in.

Being a Springsteen fan, I loved how the soundtrack integrated with the show. Bruce has stated in the past that he tries to write his songs as "mini-movies". And this seemed an appropriate use of his music. I wonder what he thought of this effort.

That being said, comparing this episode with other episodes of the show, it was so-so.

GerryGag said:

When the ep first started (timeframe 1981) and "No Surrender" was playing in the car, my first thought was, wrong year. By the third song (Brilliant Disguise, I believe), I realized the music wasn't supposed to fit the timeframe, but the situation in which it was being played. And sure enough, each song after that was dead-on for the scene it was in.

Being a Springsteen fan, I loved how the soundtrack integrated with the show. Bruce has stated in the past that he tries to write his songs as "mini-movies". And this seemed an appropriate use of his music. I wonder what he thought of this effort.

That being said, comparing this episode with other episodes of the show, it was so-so.

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Nice for Springsteen fans, but for the rest of us, who cares? I certainly hope this does not start a trend of tailoring the show to a sound-track. The plot was so lame, it made the songs even worse, IMHO - of course.

Granny said:

Nice for Springsteen fans, but for the rest of us, who cares? I certainly hope this does not start a trend of tailoring the show to a sound-track. The plot was so lame, it made the songs even worse, IMHO - of course.

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Honestly, I don't think the show was necessarily tailed to the songs, but the opposite, the songs were tailored to the show. Being that the episode takes place in "Springsteen territory" i.e. The Jersey Shore, the music was appropriate. It would be like a show set in early 1960s California having a Beach Boys soundtrack. It's appropriate.

GerryGag said:

When the ep first started (timeframe 1981) and "No Surrender" was playing in the car, my first thought was, wrong year. By the third song (Brilliant Disguise, I believe), I realized the music wasn't supposed to fit the timeframe, but the situation in which it was being played. And sure enough, each song after that was dead-on for the scene it was in.

Being a Springsteen fan, I loved how the soundtrack integrated with the show. Bruce has stated in the past that he tries to write his songs as "mini-movies". And this seemed an appropriate use of his music. I wonder what he thought of this effort.

That being said, comparing this episode with other episodes of the show, it was so-so.

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I could probably name 2 dozen or more Springsteen songs that could be made into movies very easily.

Steveknj said:

Honestly, I don't think the show was necessarily tailed to the songs, but the opposite, the songs were tailored to the show. Being that the episode takes place in "Springsteen territory" i.e. The Jersey Shore, the music was appropriate. It would be like a show set in early 1960s California having a Beach Boys soundtrack. It's appropriate.

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Nope, you've got it backwards:

"Because there are such vivid stories and characters in Bruce Springsteen's music, we decided to let the lyrics do a lot of the storytelling for us, instead of depending on dialogue," says "Cold Case" creator Meredith Stiehm, who wrote the episode. "So in this case I chose the songs first and then designed the story around them."

I stand corrected. And I agree, I hope this isn't a trend. I am a big Bruce fan, but I thought the songs more fit the story as written then the story fitting the songs. Subtle difference I know.