Sunday September 24, 2006
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In 1995, two teenage boys went on a shooting spree at a local mall and committed suicide shortly afterwards. The team is prompted to re-open the case when new evidence suggests that there may have been a third shooter who got away.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)The team reopens the 1995 case of two teenage boys who killed themselves shortly after killing many people at a mall when new evidence indictates that there may have been a third shooter who got away, possibly posing as one of the survivors. Meanwhile, Scotty becomes involved in a case involving his brother from their childhood. Once again, "Cold Case" fails to disappoint. It shows how bullying leads to violence, and violence, in turn, leads to hatred, ostracizing, and even more bullying. Though matching the fingerprints on the video camera would have easily solved the case, "Cold Case" isn't about forensics, which allows for a better (though unrealistic if the same case would occur in real life) plot and sadder cases.
Overall: 10/10
After a camera that filmed a mall shooting is found implicating that there was a third shooter, the team re-investigates the case to find who the shooter that got away is. hide show
On September 23, 1995 Cameron Coulter and Neal Hanlon went on a shooting spree at the mall were they both worked. Isolated by their peers, they often talked about going on a rampage. There was no reason to believe a third shooter was involved at the time until a tape is found where someone is holding the camera while the two shoot. The suspect quickly turns to their fellow outcasts.
This was quite a sad episode for me. It didn't really talk much about the victims, but was based more on the shooters. It kind of made me feel bad for them. These were two kids that were deeply disturbed and they gave plenty of warning signs, but no one believed them. It gave a little insight into why they did what they did and I think it's important for kids that bully others to know that their actions could bring about consequences. It's not the only reason it happens, but it is one of the biggest reasons.
It also showed how even the people that survived it will never be recovered from what happened to them. In my opinion it was a pretty good episode and it was definitely the right way to start the season.
What a way to kick start a season hide show
This episode was chalked full of soon to be stars, they cast this episode very strong, there are shows that go all out with the plot and "effects" they forget about the cast, but this was amazing to watch.
This young cast came together well, they made the characters sympathetic even though they committed a crime that deserves no sympathy. They gave a face to a crime that no one every wants to see again, they gave us a glimpse at the demons they could have been facing. They took on a strong and sensitive subject, and didn't try to glam it out, or over make it, they just showed how it does impact those involved, and why others might take it to those extremes. They gave the bullied a voice, and showed that while it is sad and they didn't deserve it, that not everybody that dies is innocent.
Columbine certainly has inspired this. The plot is genious and the characters playing are brilliant. Makes me cry in the end.. So saaad.. still the best cold case episode yet. hide show
Makes me cry every time.. I'm very sensitive to columbine and it's very much like columbine. It's scary, but still the BEST episode yet. The end makes me cry and the psykos makes me angry.. The characters playing are brilliant and I really love this episode.. 10!
Columbine was a horrorfying chapter in US history. This can never happen again. Read the signs and you can prevent another Columbine! Feel for those who lost loved ones, and show empathy for those who got wounded and cry for the innecents who lost their lives because some boys thought it could be fun to kill people at their school.
Cold case is cheap, stupid TV. This episode more so. hide show
Cold Case is the worst example of a kind of TV that manages to look and feel superficially interesting but eventually proves to be dumb, simplistic and sensationalist.
It's even worse when this kind of TV tries to be meaningful somehow. Cold Case dares touch on mall shootings and does so with all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face. From vague assumptions about videogame violence to oversimplification about victims ands attackers, none of it goes past newspaper headlines into the emotional or social core of the issues they're discussing.
Worse than that, it's just awfully plotted.
The way Cold Case works is the detectives extort a painful statement off a witness just by asking, which leads to another witness saying something else and things just keep going from there. There's no causal relationship between one plot point and the next, it's all just there for the benefit of the screenplay. There's also not the slightest attempt at justifying why the heck all of this didn't show up in previous investigations. I guess they figured out viewers who got this far into the series are just willing to accept all of this staying hidden for no good reason, just out of habit.
Cold Case isn't just bad TV. It's probably bad for you. Staring at a wall is probably better for your mental health and/or cultural background than watching this.
Talvix
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Frostelized
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Frostelized
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Robynette
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