Cold Case: One Fall

Before I talk about the latest episode, I’ve had a request to post the following:

“Who wants another season of Cold Case? I sure do! If you want to keep it going for at least another season, come sign this petition, we urge fans desperately to sign this! http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/cold-case-petition/ - Post this around everywhere, get your friends to sign this and keep the show going!”

“Another way to save Cold Case, come join this CBS Forum, and under this topic, write how much Cold Case means to you. We beg you all to come join and plead for Cold Case to have another season, thank you :) - http://www.cbs.com/forum/posts/list/103968.page”

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.

Well, okay, we won’t for just one more minute, because I have what I think is a very legitimate question: How is it that “Cold Case” is not yet on DVD? I’ve read that it’s a music rights issue, which I can sort of understand since the show uses a lot of music to set the time and place of the series.

The only problem with that theory is that “Cold Case” grew up in the world of DVD. I can understand why things like “Roswell” come out with music missing – they got started before the words “The Complete Season One” became as common as they are today.

But never you mind. Let’s get back to the task at hand, which is talking about “One Fall,” the latest episode.

What to say?

Well, we got a resolution to Scotty’s big storyline this season, after he finally found and brought in the man who attacked his mother. Since the show has to reserve most of its screen time for the mystery of the week, Danny Pino had to spend a lot of time trying to communicate what he was going through with a few scraps of dialogue and a handful of scenes, and I thought he did a nice job.

Is that case over? Well, on a show like “Damages,” I’d say the story was just beginning, but with so little time to dedicate to ongoing storylines, we get a hint or two that Scotty has resolved the case.

And that’s fine.

As for the mystery of the week, I realize no one on earth will agree with me, but I honestly think that Roddy Piper deserves an Emmy nod for his role as an ex-wrestler. Rowdy, of course, has been part of the wrestling world for something like 30 years or more, and like his on-screen persona, one that was always just a return bout away from being the biggest thing ever.

A quick peek at the Internet Movie Database reveals that his life since his hardcore wrestling days has been a combination of acting in mostly direct-to-video fare, with occasional returns to the WWE for an episode or two a year.

And every minute of that life is on his face.

I’m sure Piper was the first guy anyone thought of when it came time to pull an older wrestler from the stacks for this episode, in which a part-time newbie wrestler has his cold case reopened thanks to a guns for groceries gun return.

Much to my surprise, by the time the episode was about halfway over, I was more interested in the family drama aspects of the main story than I was the final resolution. Watching the mom, kid, and dead father orbit around each other, in search of a way to be a family post-divorce was fairly heartbreaking.

Equally interesting was their portrayal of a low-rent wrestling organization trying to make it big in an era where the WWF was completely dominant. I’ve read a few wrestling autobiographies, and in particular the three by Mick Foley. I won’t say they got the entire backdrop 100% correct, but they were close.

If anything, they erred on the side of being tasteful.

What else to say about the episode? Not a bad ending, though I think the fact that it falls so close to the circus episode makes it feel like we’ve just seen this kind of resolution.

And while I suspect that Scotty’s arc for this season is pretty much done, I almost hope there’s a season eight just so we could watch his story play out a little more.

All in all, a good drama, but just an okay mystery this week. And it appears we’re up for more drama next week. We shall see.