Cold Case (2003–2010) User Reviews

Nostalgic and sensitive series about a Philadelphia investigation squad assigned to investigate cold cases committed many years ago

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 30 August 2019]

Good show, nice series formed by 156 episodes, 7 seasons ,about an expert force at law, a professional squad of homicides, Philadelphia set, taking on cold cases, bringing them to life . Being starred by lone female detective Lilly, Kathryn Morris, who finds her calling when is assigned by her superior boss John Stilman : John Finn, to investigate criminal "Cold Cases" , older crimes that have ever been solved and working for Philadelphia Department . They must attempt to re-think the killing scenes and interview other people involved with the victims to find out a link to solve the criminal cases executed many years earlier. At their hard work they suffer risked incidents, at times, and dangerous situations that from time to time put them on the verge of nervous breakdown. It is well paced by using flashbacks, including nostalgic songs from the 60, 70s, 80s, 90s... Homicide is timeless but detection methods change. Hope lives, because the evidence never dies. Better late than never.

This active team is formed by following members : Lily : Kathryn Morris, she is only investigator woman , she suffered a sad past when was assaulted by a nasty attacker as a little girl. John Stillman : John Finn, he is Lily's chief, and at times her surrogate daddy figure, and the one who was there for her after being attacked by a stranger assailtant as child. Detective Scotty Valens : Danny Pino, he is a street-smart guy and Lilly's best friend, who tells her his problems, he fought with the real guilt and grief when his fiancee suffered schizofrenic visions , seeing imaginary old friends and she subsequently committed suicide. Detective Will Jeffries : Thom Barry, he is a previous Vietnam war veteran, he lost his spouse at a hit-and-run truck crash and he feels really affected still, he is a good friend to the other Inspectors. Detective Nick Vera : Jeremy Ratchford, he is an overweight inspector who was left by his wife, but he really wishes to have an ordinary family , he was eventually missed after unintentionally having detained an innocent man and accusing him as a killer . Kat Miller : Tracie Thoms, she previously worked in narcotics, she knows well the delinquency area of Philadelphia, she has a little girl daughter whose father is an ex-mobster, that is why she has family problems. Louie : Doug Spinazza, he is an specialist at the science of explosives and fire, using his weapons skills to help solve criminal cases . Frankie : Tania Raymonde, she is expert in photography at the Philadelphia police department, her skills are really necessary to discover crimes, she had a brief love relationship with Scotty. And Susan Chuang as an expertise forensic . Furthermore, Raymond J Barry, as Lily father, he was out her life throughout his infancy, however, appearing many years later when Lily was seriously injured. And Nicky Aycox as Lily's troublesome sister, she is a promiscuous girl who cheated her, the reason for Lily often resents her entire family, including her drunk mother. Adding a good plethora of guest stars showing up through the 156 episodes, such as : Michael Pare, Barbara Niven, Daniel Baldwin, Jesse Plemons, Susanna Thomson, Maggie Grace, Kevin Chapman, Silas Mitchell, DW Moffet, Jessica Tuck, Thine, Meredith Salenger, Diane Ladd, Jeffrey Nordling, John Diehl, Stacey Edwards and many others

The series was originally created by Meredith Stiehm supported by Veena Sud, Liz Garcia, Mark Pellington and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Being directed by notorious directors as Deran Sarafian, Marcus Siega, Tim Hunter, Bryan Spicer, Kevin Hooks, James Withmore Jr, Nelson MacCormick, Rachel Talalay, Jeffrey Hunt, Jeannot Szwarc, Andy Garcia and John Finn himself.

In 2018 - "old" but good

[corry-helmond · 8/10 · 26 July 2018]

At the moment I'm binge watching the series backwards. (mid season 3 now) Qua characters, It's nice to see "old acquaintances" back again. I love the concept and stories, a great variety of subject matters.

What I especially love is the choice of music: wonderful oldies coming by - a treat on it's own.

If you're looking for for decent detective series, with skilled actors and excellent supporting songs, this is the series for you.

One of my comfort shows

[borgolarici · 7/10 · 9 June 2020]

Cold case is a great comfort show: it's repetitive and predictable but in a good way, the cases are mostly interesting, and the detectives take up just the right space. The use of flashbacks and the signature emotional finals with period music are a very nice touch.

I wish I had known

[jdashc92 · 10/10 · 28 March 2019]

I found that I absolutely love this show way too late apparently. I have been checking on all steaming access for several years now and cannot find a place to watch it. I never have had the opportunity to see them all therefore certainly not in order. I am a out of the closet, unashamed binge watcher. I want to see them all. Someone please add it to a streaming format.

Riveting and touching with great stories and performances

[dphelan-1 · 12 September 2005]

I starting watching COLD CASE while in a hotel room at a conference. When I returned home I found that my wife had also begin watching the very same episode. So we started making it our regular Sunday viewing. It is in a word - fantastic! The mood, the music, the actors, the back stories and the weird plots draw you in each week. In addition they work in themes that are important but they never beat you over the head with them. So far i have seen stories on the ease of getting guns and how they harm society, child abuse, pedophiles, and racism. But I never feel I am being preached to. The episode about the little boy sold into sexual slavery by his uncle and the tragic way this evil pedophile ruined his and others lives will stay with me forever. It was very heartbreaking. The opening credits and the great music by ES Posthumus ( as well as the songs that set the time, place and mood throughout the episodes) are eerie and evocative and just wonderful. I love this show.

The music is a fantastic strategy for this show!

[monberger · 10/10 · 5 July 2019]

I want to say that the music played an important role for the high ratings this show got. I personally love it! I think is the kind a show you will want to see reruns now and then. It is very emotional and pulls you in to the memories. It is really too bad that never was released on DVD and much the less on Blu-ray. I believed there is an issue with music copyrights. My hope is that the network and music studios get on some kind of an agreement and decide to release this great show. I know it's all about money.

I do absolutely love this show!

[reemhasan-58474 · 7/10 · 31 March 2020]

Justice will always find the way, even if that happens too late... The story of the show is unique and interesting, u gonna enjoy this if u love to watch justice being applied

Back Again

[johnnybags-01677 · 10/10 · 13 June 2021]

So happy to see this show is back. Thank you HBO Max.

police procedural with a small twist

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 22 August 2013]

In Philadelphia, Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris) and Scotty Valens (Danny Pino) are police partners investigating cold cases which have been languishing in storage. Lieutenant John Stillman (John Finn) is their supervisor. They work with fellow detectives Nick Vera (Jeremy Ratchford), Will Jeffries (Thom Barry), and laster Kat Miller (Tracie Thoms).

This is a standard police procedural with a twist. The cast is good and relatively stable. Most stayed around for its run of seven seasons. It's a good thing to have that much stability. The group has good chemistry and good balance. Adding younger cast members could have allowed the show to evolve in its later years.

The show usually starts in flashback of a crime committed in the past. As the team investigates, we go back and forth in time to discover clues. The cases are not too special. They are usually not too twisted, or too grotesque. It's a good police procedural. Eventually, they did run out of steam.

Stellar work of art

[snowyprecipice · 10/10 · 10 February 2017]

I've watched almost every 'mainstream' crime show out there and Cold Case is definitely in my top five. The use of music, the plots, the characters... they're all amazing. Maybe I'm a bit biased because I'm an oldies-but-goodies fan, but some of the songs, along with the scenes, brought tears to my eyes. The plots are good, some are even brilliant, and I was riveted for 90% of the episodes. The ease with which scenes from the present transit with scenes from the past really gave this show its unique flavour/catch. Especially at the end, when they show the present people (victim's families, friends etc) the way they were in the past.

It also shows the problems society faced in the past, like deep racism, homophobia and other outdated concepts that are (thankfully) being fought against way more now. Each episode was done artfully, and the great cast really makes the show stand out for me.

Going to rewatch now, it's been a couple of years. (:

Fantastic series to replace sleeping pills

[jasonkirschner · 7/10 · 16 June 2019]

My wife and I have used this series to replace our sleeping pills and to sleep to at night. The slow pace and lack of action is the perfect tranquilizer, highly recommended in sleep clinics. All the seasons have the same effect, we have slept through them all.

Justice Never Forgets

[marcus_stokes2000 · 10/10 · 31 December 2007]

*Cold SPOILERS*

This show takes place in a seldom used city in TV shows such as Philadelphia, where the Cold Case Unit of the Philadelphia PD tackles a case each episode.

Being a Cold Case unit, the cases take place in the past, whether recent or remote; they solved cases that range from a few months ago (August 2007) to 88 years ago (May 1919).

The main character is Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris), who until Season 3 was the lone girl in the cast. She seems to have a knack for this kind of cases, and she moved to this unit from Homicide. The other members of the unit are John Stillman (John Finn), who's like a father to Lilly, her partner Scotty Valens (Daniel Pino), with whom she forms a winning squad, Nick Vera (Jeremy Ratchford) who can make suspects and witnesses chirp out whatever they may try to hide, new addition to the team Kat Miller (Tracie Thoms) and Will Jeffries (Thom Barry), who's been in the PD for enough time to know where all the bodies are buried.

Together each week they reopen a case (and sometimes more than one) and try to find out the truth, by interviewing anyone involved in the case and studying the evidence.

Whenever a suspect or a witness begins to talk, we see a flashback scene that is filmed with footage of the year of the crime, in the style of the time, and with well-known music of the time to comment it.

To tie the flashback scenes well with the contemporary part of the show, whenever a character related to the murder is introduced there is a brief flash showing him/her as how he/she looked like when the murder was committed.

At the end, a ballad from the year of the crime plays while the murderer is arrested - with a flashback showing the younger self arrested -, the reactions of the people involved in the case, both the witnesses and the cops, and one of them 'seeing' the victim for a brief second.

'Cold Case' is probably the most engaging crime drama in years, bar none, and the only one I make an effort never to miss.

Watch it, and you'll understand why.

Cold Case: 10/10.

Okay but too much about detectives' personal challenges

[Gtd123 · 6/10 · 14 July 2021]

The cold cases described are often fairly interesting, although the plots are very formulaic, usually starting with the most obvious suspect, then proceeding down a line of other potential suspects until they find they real perp, who was a character you barely noticed at the beginning.

My real problem with the show is that it typically spends about one third of each episode on some personal challenge of a main cast member - love triangle, criminal charges against a detective, whatever - about characters that I have not really been persuaded to care about that much.

I used to like this show

[nomad472002 · 5/10 · 18 January 2007]

I used to like this show. The juxtaposition of the characters, how they used to look at the time the case occurred, to how they look now, was interesting.

Now, this show seems to have gotten tiresome. The cops go about asking their questions, interspersing them with "Maybe you did ..." as if hurling unveiled accusations is a good investigative technique. One might think that they expect the 'interviewee' to break down and say, "Yes, yes! I did it. Take me in, please..." Real investigators strive to have their interviewees not even be aware that they are a suspect, so that they don't clam up.

Really tiresome.

best TV show for years

[bjobrei · 14 August 2005]

This is brilliant ! In a time where "best shows"are simply physically exhausting to watch-this is a revelation. Each episode leaves you in deep thought-and you get insight in the feelings of both victim and criminal. And indeed others involved. Some wonderful touches, like "then and now" footage adds to the brilliance. I am still young myself (well, ok...31..) but I dislike the mtv-style of filming in many American series. Cold case gives you an opportunity to think for yourself, unlike an other popular show- where a hero with one facial expression saves the world from the bad guys over and over again. I will not name this show-seems I am the only one hating it:) But-cold case-yes, bravo. More of this please !

Love this show

[bukurusha · 10/10 · 18 May 2023]

The first detective show that I almost cry at the end of each episode. The scrip is amazingly written. Idea of a putting a face of the killed person at the end of the movie is incredible, like saying thank you from the grave. It has a heart, and more realistic compared with others, like no evidence magically appearing to put the bad guy in prison. Every single episode is memorable. Watching second season now cannot get enough of it. Would recomend to everyone.

Acting, dialogues grabs the heart, the emotion, the mood, the music in the series were created with a deep thought and even deeper understanding of human nature.

Best TV Series Ever

[kennekasmith · 10/10 · 5 June 2021]

I totally loved this series when it was on television network. The cast, storylines, drama will draw you in from the beginning to end. I'm starting to rewatch the series on HBO Max. I really wish they would bring the cast back together and create a spin-off of the show. I would love to see them all working together again.

anti white in its attitude

[KBirminghamkid · 6/10 · 3 June 2014]

when you look at the crime stats..and then you watch this show,its obvious there is an anti white agenda...how many cold cases with black perpetrators...as opposed to the rampant black crime wave in reality...end of.....maybe fox can do a series on black crimes..like Channon Christian,Christopher Newsome murders..Eve Carson..Ann Pressly..Lauren Burke..Megan Boken..Emily Haddock...etc....this is part of the mainstream medias deliberate denial and hiding of these and other crimes..and shows such as this carry the deception on.just one point what does the big black guy actually do..would still love to be able to buy it on DVD...for the few episodes that are actually touching..

I freaking love this show!

[ajkbiotech · 10/10 · 4 June 2021]

This show is set in Philadelphia.

The show stars the beautiful, talented & gifted Kathryn Morris, a Temple University grad (Temple made!) who shines in her role as a Philly cop who specialises in solving Cold Case Files.

The show is based in part on an older Canadian show with a similar concept, but skip the Canadian show--boring and nowhere near the acting, music or production value.

Cold Case feeds off of several different tributaries into a mighty river of greatness;

1) a tremendous soundtrack. The original show licensed original great music to accentuate the various periods the cold cases represented. For this reason, the show never got to DVD; licensing fees were too high, ASCAP-BMI.

2) a great set of scripts. Wonderful screenplays wall to wall. Not just procedural hack jobs, but quirky and original scripts. Plus, the local Philly angle is accentuated.

3). Tremendous acting. Morris is perfect in the lead role-she kills it in every episode. But not just her, all of the ensemble cast, from Danny Pino, John Finn, all the way down the line.

4) killer guest stars who are legit authentic. In fact, the show reeks of authenticity.

5). The show has some great hallmarks of its own; one great hook is having key characters appear as themselves in the present, but then a second later as they were when the cold case occurred long ago. This is a very clever directorial technique that never gets tired!

I could go on, but to summarize, this shoe is a huge achievement by everyone associated with it.

Thank you to HBO MAX for re-streaming this wonderful US Series. Thank You 🙏!

Comic Book with Nice Touches

[dansview · 7/10 · 8 June 2013]

I'm loyal to this show, but I see its' flaws. I have to admit that the flaws are part of the fun. Two of the regular actors are hilarious caricatures of hard-boiled detectives. Law and Order does that too, but it's less entertaining with them.

But there is an exception and she's the lead female. This actress, Kathryn Morris is intriguing. She's human in the way the others aren't. Her face depicts her compassion, a distant sadness from a dysfunctional childhood, and just the right amount of cynicism.

I do love the Philadelphia setting. It's gritty and perfect for hard luck stories of the local working class. I like how they depict the sociology of different neighborhoods.

The time period music effect is a bit heavy-handed, but sometimes it works. I like it better at the end when they bring in the culprit in cuffs, rather than during the flashback scenes where it's just obnoxious. As someone else mentioned, the best effect is when you see a suspect's face change from present to past and back to present as they speak.

Many of the stories are politically correct. For example, a big corporation covering up asbestos poisoning,gays suffering discrimination, Japanese-American internment,or corrupt rich guys cheating. Not that those things didn't happen.

Nevertheless, you have to give them credit for coming up with some intricate plots. It's fun to figure out who may have done the murder, based on the show's formula.

Overall, a worthwhile hour. Also, they don't give you the gore and sadistic serial killer scenes that Criminal Minds is famous for. They focus on the flashbacks and interviews.

Obligation

[metsfann0 · 10/10 · 24 October 2014]

Why aren't these TV shows obligated to film a final episode for their loyal fans? Or a TV movie. Love this show and feel that we, the fans mean nothing to the executives that make these decisions. As a senior viewer I have enjoyed the seven years of the original seasons and now the reruns on the ion station. The stories were always very interesting especially with the flashback scenes. The music of the times brought back some very fond memories for myself and others I'm sure. We were drawn into the personal lives of Lilly and Scotty and never were given the opportunity to see if Lil found her sister Christina who Lil always tried to protect. How about that Movie?

A solid, quality product

[buiger · 6/10 · 10 April 2012]

Some episodes where excellent, others a little less. All in all though, a solid, quality product but nothing more. One of its main setbacks in my opinion is that it is not very realistic most of the time. Among other things, it would be much better if all the 'doers' didn't confess in the 'box' all the time. It just doesn't happen that way in real life... Also, sometimes people who should be well over 90 years old are not only alive, they look as if they are only 60 or 70... In other, the costumes, cinematography and music where very good for a TV production. I also enjoyed the cameos by various guest stars in each episode, which goes to show that they probably also had a nice budget to work with.

In any case, it definitely grows on you after seven seasons (especially since season 7 is probably the best of all, more involving than the previous because it finally gets personal with the protagonists and the viewer therefore starts to care more what happens to them). All in all, slightly above average.

Cold and Underrated.

[ThunderKing6 · 10/10 · 12 March 2021]

It was a beautiful show.

Cold Case was to the point police show. It didn't BS or have boring subplots or drag on to irrlevent matters. Cold Case knew how to entertain me.

Cold Case is about police/detectives revisiting old cases from 20 to present time. More times than not they are successful in solving cases.

Cold Case was a smooth show that is very underrated. Sad so many junk TV shows like Bones was more popular.

What Can be learned? They will figure out who did it.

Verdict: An Ice Cold Case of Underrated Gold.

A good show with two consistent problems

[tloewald · 7/10 · 3 July 2010]

Make no mistake, I like this show, i like the cast, and I like the idea, but there are two things about it that consistently bug me.

First, the show uses every trick in the book to manipulate the viewer's emotions, culminating in the "ghosts" of the victims etc. making tear-jerking appearances (presumably in the main character's imagination) at the end.

But the biggest weakness is that the crimes frequently lack a convincing motive -- so many episodes end with our discovering that the killer didn't really have a good reason to commit the crime. It may be that this is a common feature of cold cases, but realism isn't a big feature of the show in general, so why the writers would do this escapes me. Usually the red herrings have much stronger motives, which makes almost every episode's outcome seem forced.

It's a nicely acted, well put together show, with a laudable agenda (teaching history, especially civil rights) to it's audience — I just wish they could put in plausible motives.

21st Century self-righteousness

[pmiano100 · 4/10 · 29 May 2007]

This program is really overrated. A detective like Danny Pino's hot-headed character would have been transferred to the "rubber gun squad" years ago. The whole squad is made up of sanctimonious egomaniacs who judge people whose actions go back decades by the standards of 2007. Every Vietnam veteran character they've ever had has turned out to be the killer, unless it was another Vietnam veteran. There has only been one black murderer, and he was put up to it by his white boss. The only Hispanic killer was a "race traitor" who killed another Hispanic to frame a Hispanic street kid for a crime that (naturally) two rich white kids committed. What a bunch of propaganda. Hey,screenwriters: minorities and poor people commit murder too. Only on this show are most murderers upper-class whites.

What's more, the arrests of people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s for crimes they committed 50-60 years ago are a joke. No real-life DA will push for murder one because it means the state will be stuck with their humongous medical bills until they finally kick. The state would be doing their families and insurance companies a favor. The prosecutor will just plead them to involuntary manslaughter and they won't serve a day. The only really old criminals who go to prison are either organized crime figures or ex-Nazis, whose high-profile convictions boost DA's careers.