The crew try to solve a decades old murder of a coed undergraduate who was having an affair with her art history professor. The case hinges on recognizing a particular picture by John Everett Millais, leading light of the English nineteenth century avant-garde artistic group, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In the late lamented series "Inspector Morse," one episode (season 8, episode 1, "The Way Through the Wodds") similarly revolved around a picture by Millais, who has unwittingly, and very much posthumously, become a favorite for TV mystery writers on either side of the Atlantic. Lucidly directed by Agnieszka Holland, and featuring particularly committed performances by Kathryn Morris and Danny Pino, the episode aims for an enlightened sense of aesthetics, and even weaves in a discussion of ideas of post-modernism to the plot. That being said, a scene with the detectives reading various Shakespeare plays with stupefying levels of general ignorance, is gratuitous and largely unnecessary in advancing the plot -- it is simply there to further set them off from the educated professor. If Chief Inspector Morse, or Detective Jane Tennison, assumedly know their Shakespeare, there is no real reason why five detectives in Philadelphia, home to excellent theaters and a thriving arts scene, should be portrayed as so thick.
2 Reviews
Pretty lame
dierregi29 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I like this show and that's why I am watching re-runs, but at a second view I see a lot of mistakes that I didn't notice the first time around.
The show is clearly from a female, p.c. Point of view, therefore most guilty parts are white males. That's a given. I don't object to that, but this plot is absurd even in a world where most crimes are committed by white males.
The original crime was the assassination of Holly, a 21 year old art student who had an affair with Roy, her art teacher, a charming philander who was accused and then acquitted. Roy lost his job, his family and his status because everybody thought he was guilty and he wants to get back to his gilded world, by reopening the case, presenting a murder committed with the same MO.
Everything suggests a serial killer, but a serial killer who knows art, since both female corpses are staged like Ophelia in the Millet's painting.
Isn't this pointing the finger directly to Roy? The painting is famous but not THAT famous. Moreover, even if Roy is described as a philanderer, seducing a student per term, we should believe that Holly was "different", that he fell for her and couldn't stand being dumped, even if the more logical frame of mind of a married philander would be of relief that the student this time decides to call it quit herself.
To compound the felony, Roy decides to hire a killer from his class, as if the link would not be discovered kind of easily. Totally absurd plot, both as MO and motivations.
The show is clearly from a female, p.c. Point of view, therefore most guilty parts are white males. That's a given. I don't object to that, but this plot is absurd even in a world where most crimes are committed by white males.
The original crime was the assassination of Holly, a 21 year old art student who had an affair with Roy, her art teacher, a charming philander who was accused and then acquitted. Roy lost his job, his family and his status because everybody thought he was guilty and he wants to get back to his gilded world, by reopening the case, presenting a murder committed with the same MO.
Everything suggests a serial killer, but a serial killer who knows art, since both female corpses are staged like Ophelia in the Millet's painting.
Isn't this pointing the finger directly to Roy? The painting is famous but not THAT famous. Moreover, even if Roy is described as a philanderer, seducing a student per term, we should believe that Holly was "different", that he fell for her and couldn't stand being dumped, even if the more logical frame of mind of a married philander would be of relief that the student this time decides to call it quit herself.
To compound the felony, Roy decides to hire a killer from his class, as if the link would not be discovered kind of easily. Totally absurd plot, both as MO and motivations.
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