TV News and Reviews

EW.com is reporting that due to cost-cutting measures, CBS is seriously considering canceling two of their successful procedural dramas, Without a Trace and Cold Case. Though the ratings are still solid, they’re apparently not what they once were, and the overhead is too high to justify keeping them around. TV.com adds that the audiences for Without a Trace and Cold Case tend to skew older, so they can’t sell as many trendy youth-oriented products to them.

I have mixed feelings about the decision. I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with Without a Trace: when it first premiered, I thought it was a terrible, poorly done show. After it had been on awhile, I tuned in again when nothing else was on, and found out the stories and acting (of Poppy Montgomery, particularly) had improved greatly. I fell in love with the show, and was blown away in particular by episodes that featured Anthony LaPaglia’s skill at sucking us into the stories and the terror and the heartbreak. He’s done some amazing work on this show.

Then, no doubt in a bid to get more ratings, Without a Trace added the tight-suit-wearing Roselyn Sanchez to the cast. One of the first episodes involved Sanchez’ and Montgomery’s characters having to kiss for some “undercover” operation. Yeah, right. Whatever. I was furious, because Without a Trace had been a serious drama up until that point, and to see it sell out was pretty disheartening. After awhile, it became clear that Sanchez had only been added for sex appeal. The writers didn’t seem to know what to do with her, and she became this awkward sixth wheel that didn’t add anything to the show.

I hung in there for awhile, but last year when Without a Trace started running opposite other shows I liked, Without a Trace lost out. It just didn’t seem to be the show I’d fallen in love with anymore. The show continually got heavier and heavier with the melodrama in the characters’ lives, instead of focusing the show’s attention on new and interesting cases. That was actually a big draw to Without a Trace for me–unlike shows featuring homicide divisions, Without a Trace involved missing persons cases. This meant that a large portion of the shows resulted in the missing person being found alive. A police procedural with a happy ending is a rare bird, and it was a nice change of pace.

Cold Case, too, has had its ups and downs. It hasn’t been helped by its timeslot–not only is it on Sunday night, but the show often gets pushed back due to sports events running over into its timeslot. I’ve given up on watching it a number of times, because it gets irritating having to keep turning on the TV to try and guess how far they’re into Amazing Race and when Cold Case will air.

Cold Case also did a little cast juggling in the beginning and made a misstep or two, but it settled down and has been a quality show for many years. I’ve talked before about Cold Case getting a little stale with its formulaic storylines, but this season has greatly improved and I still enjoy catching the show when I can. Cold Case has had some interesting story arcs, heartfelt weekly episodes, and intriguing guest stars.

Both shows have had good runs, Without a Trace is on its seventh season and Cold Case on its sixth. The unfortunate note about cancellation is that it sounds like the shows may get the ax when the current season is already over, which means the stories in progress will just abruptly end with no resolution. It would be nice if CBS would give the shows a chance to write proper endings, if they do in fact decide to cancel them.

Word is that both Without a Trace and Cold Case’s showrunners are looking for ways to cut costs, including star salary cuts, to try to give the network a reason to keep them afloat. If I had to vote on keeping only one show, I’d have to go with Cold Case at this point, but I doubt CBS will be asking anyone’s opinion.

For now, tune in to Cold Case on Sunday nights at 9/8c, and Without a Trace on Tuesday nights, 10/9c.

You can read all of my Cold Case blog entries here .

Cold Case brought us another good episode tonight, about a family in witness protection. Before testifying in a mob boss’ trial, the father of the family in protective custody is found murdered, and the son is missing. The plot takes several twists and turns, including an unexpected meet-up with another family in witness protection, and I was completely taken by surprise by the ending. It’s always fun to be taken along for the ride on a show, to follow the leads as the characters do, and not know the answer until they do.

As usual, Cold Case has an intriguing back-up of guest stars, including Jonathan LaPaglia (The District, Seven Days) as ADA Curtis Bell. If the last name sounds familiar, that’s because Jonathan happens to be the brother of Without a Trace star, Anthony LaPaglia. I like the Bell character, since he has a lighter side to him that helps balance the show’s heavier themes. I think they play the klutz angle a little too much, but if he gets to be on the show more often, that might settle into a cute quirk of his character. They seemed to be hinting at a possible flirtation with Detective Miller (Tracie Thomas), but we’ll see if it goes anywhere.

The actor playing the father also seemed incredibly familiar, but I knew the last time I’d seen him he hadn’t had grey hair. Turns out the character Ben was played by Steven Eckholdt–whom I’d seen recently when watching old Friends DVDs. You may remember Eckholdt as Mark, the good-looking stranger that got Rachel her first job in the fashion industry, and eventually caused a rift between Ross and Rachel. Of course Eckholdt has done lots of work since Friends, including recurring roles on The West Wing and The L Word.

For pretty boy appeal we have the son Jeff played by 22-year-old Tyler Blackburn. Blackburn’s only had a handful of roles so far, including a small part in Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous (see photo). He makes a strong impression here, with the perfect blend of teenage romanctic naivete, anger, and angst. Cold Case episodes work because you feel empathy for the characters, and he does a particularly good job of that during a revelatory scene with Eckholdt. Blackburn is next set to appear in the upcoming series Rockville, CA for Warner Bros.

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Jonathan LaPaglia, Seven Days screencap, c1998 Paramount Television.

Tyler Blackburn, Unfabulous, “The Perfect Moment” screencap, c2005 Nickelodeon Network.

Cold Case, the police procedural with a heart that runs every Sunday night at 9/8c on CBS, is known for having interesting guest stars on. Well-known TV and movie actors of the past and character actors from today and yesterday pop up in a range of episodes, playing characters in present day scenes or <i>Cold Case</i>’s trademark flashback sequences. Sometimes it’s a quick recognition for viewers, as with guest star Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Spin City, Law & Order: SVU) in the musical episode.

Other times it nags at the back of the mind, “Who IS that guy? Where have I seen her before?” Those are the times you have to do a frantic Internet search trying to find the cast list for the episode, which isn’t always easy. Or you wake up at 3am when it suddenly hits you what you’ve seen that actor on before. So it was with this week’s episode of Cold Case, “The Brush Man”:

The character in the flashback, brush salesman Roy W. Gunn, had a chiseled jaw and sharp eyes that seemed familiar. I felt like he’d played a cop in some other show. My husband said a cowboy. Turns out we were both right. Brush man Roy Gunn was played by Bailey Chase, the cowboy cop Butch Ada on the quirky Holly Hunter vehicle Saving Grace. If that doesn’t ring any bells, he’s also done 13 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 15 of As the World Turns. Check out his IMDB listing to see what you remember him from.

So now we know who that Cold Case guy was. Phew. Now I just have to figure out who that girl on The Closer was…