Currently there are 200,000 murder cold cases that date back to 1980. Some of these will go unsolved, but in some cases, all that is needed is a new set of eye. The thing is, as smart as the detectives are on television, the real life cops run into budgets and other obstacles that keep them from tying everything up in a nice bow like their fictional counterpoints. That is where Cold Justice comes in where to pick cases they think they can solve, reopen the case, and see if they can get a resolution.
Cold Justice comes from a guy who knows a little about fictional Law and Order, Dick Wolf who created the long running drama and all of its spin offs. While one of the on air talents, Yolanda McClary, was the basis of Marg Helenberger’s character on CSI (ironically she chastises the show and its ilk at least once per episode). Her on screen partner is attorney and former Texas prosecutor Kelly Siegler. Although the true star of the show is their buddy Johnny Bonds (awesome name) who helps the duo out on their cases. Unfortunately Johnny Bonds is resigned to secondary status and it is unclear how often he will pop up.
Tonight’s case revolves around a twelve year old suicide that just does not quite end up as there are multiple statements floating around, some from the same person. When DNA comes back inclusive on the gun, McClary is quick to point out that DNA never solves a cold case. For next week’s episode, it is a bit surprising it is still a cold case because we learn early on that one of the main suspects left a paystub at the victim’s house and was caught a day after the murder power washing the inside of his car. His excuses were that someone planted the paystub there to set him up (which is plausible because how could be someone be so stupid to leave something that randomly incriminating at a crime scene) and that his boss told him his car smelled (as it turns out no one originally asked the boss if he had ever been in the suspect’s car and made such a claim).
The big problem with Cold Justice is there really is not a resolution. By the end of the episode all we know is if the two were album to cobble enough new information to arrest the main suspect. In one case we do not even learn if the grand jury ruled in favor of a trail. So each episode does feel incomplete without ever seeing any part of the trial (especially considering the ad campaign centered on Siegler bragging she has gone 68 of 68 on murder trials and we never get to see her in a courtroom). What the show does have going for it is that it is surprisingly compelling contrasted with the fictional versions where you know everything will get wrapped up by the end of sixty minutes (except one case that will haunt the team for a season or five), at the end of the episode, the case may very well go cold again.
Cold Justice airs Tuesdays at 10:00 on TNT.
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