Cold Case (CBS)

COLD CASE pits a hard-working Philadelphia detective, Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris), against previously unsolved crimes. Lilly is now armed with modern forensics, although she has to deal with witnesses and suspects whose circumstances have changed with time. The only woman in her department, Lilly is surrounded by a crew of standard-issue cops: mentor Lt. John Stillman (her boss, played by John Finn), trusty partner Scotty Valens (Danny Pino), tough guy Nick Vera (Jeremy Ratchford), and crusty old Will Jeffries (Thom Barry), who improbably remembers many of the crimes in Lilly's dusty files. In each episode, the team solves one old case. Aspects of the crime are shown in short, repeated flashbacks that illustrate what happened years earlier (when the case was fresh) and what's happening among characters now.

The theme of this series -- that opening old wounds can involve many emotions but often leads to closure -- could be emotionally complex and gripping. But the show takes the easy way out, creating "complexity" by juggling lots of characters and generating "excitement" through hackneyed dialogue and unrealistic plot points. Highly predictable, the plots are populated with two-dimensional characters whose motivations are explained rather than revealed. Not much thinking goes into solving the cold-case crimes on this show -- after witnesses quickly spout key points, the suspects often simply spill the beans. Each case is neatly and completely solved by the end of the episode, leaving the series stars to tuck those dusty files right back into the archives.