Cold Case

Along with 'Cora & Arnie' from "St. Elsewhere" (from 1982), and 'Subway' from "Homicide-Life on the Streets" (from 1997), this episode will remain in my memory for many years. Rarely does an episode of a TV show haunt me for several days as this one did. Paula Malcolmson, a grossly underrated and underused artist, created a character in Marlene that was nothing short of heartbreaking. We saw in her someone who could be US....not an irresponsible bum who failed to act in the way that "grownups" act, but instead a woman who was doing absolutely all she could to survive. I can only wonder if I could do as well as she did. "Cold Case" often has me reaching for a tissue box, but this one sent me to the medicine cabinet for Afrin! Bravo!

Marlene Bradford was a mother of two and when her husband dies of cancer, overloaded with medical bills, she becomes homeless. She tries her best to provide for her family while living in their car. She goes missing in 1999, on her daughter's tenth birthday.



And Cold Case excellence strikes again. By far a very powerful episode. It was sad to see Marlene try her best for her family and all she'd get was riducle from her oldest daughter, Natalie. I didn't like that part of the episode. When Natalie would act like a little brat to her mom, I'd get completely thrown out of how sad it was and just think about how mad it made me. I mean, I know what it's like to be that age and o through tough times, I'm not much older than that now, but her mother tried her best and that's more than most parents do.



Okay. Other than that, I absolutely loved this episode. Oh, and the casting on the older Natalie was just terrible. They looked nothing alike and it's only been 8 years, not twenty. I suppose it's a reflection of the tough times she's been through, but tough times don't make you like 20 years older. The song selection and everything else was great.

The quality of Cold Case has declined in the past few seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 were great and had excellent, emotionally charged episodes which made you forget about the ridiculous law practices but in season 3, the show just started getting silly. But once in a while, there's an episode which is up to the quality of season 1 & 2 episodes.



A Dollar, a Dream was a great installment. It showed how fast you could lose everything - your house, your husband and for most people, your dignity. The victim in this episode kept her dignity - she was too proud to ask for help, too proud to stay in a shelter. It was heartbreaking to see her make empty promises to her daughters, about them having a better life. I also liked the dynamic of the family - one girl was optimistic and kept the faith, the other was pessimistic and didn't think the family would have a better life.

Can I just say... *Sigh*... I love when television shows try to interpret distraught teens, because they can either excel or fail at it. I loved the way that they made the kids complete oposites. One being sure that the mom killed herself, and the other being so sure of the good in the world. And the fact that the homeless guy had so much hope was refreshing and disturbing at the same time. Who could kill someone because they didn't get a million dollars? A life is worth a lot more than a million dollars, not even to mention that "Who doesn't know that you can get smaller amounts of money with the lotto?" Just a thought... So, taht was pretty much it; refreshing and disturbing.

This episode shows a mother and her two dauthers and their life after the husband died of cancer. How this family lost everything because the woman was a housewife without school and job experience. They lived in their car, had no home. And sitll Marlene wasn't bitter at all, she was trying to give her dauthers hope. But she wasn't able of save money for a house.



She had no family nor friends. She met a homeless guy that gave her a lotery ticket, and she won. How sad that she died for 25 dollars. At least the dauthers knew they were not abandon by Marlene.



The only positive thing is women should never depend entirely of a man. We should be able to support ourselves financially, and emotionally.

I've been watching this show for a while now and I'm rarely touched by the victims (pedophile gramma, woman who murders people just to keep her boyfriend, etc) but this time, the family, was victim of a tragedy totally out of their control, being homeless and even though I think her hosband should have gotten a life insurance I can't help but feel sorry for them, because this happens in the real world.

I keep thinking "The younger girl did it" from the first scene but this turning out to be such a random crime also made sense, and was even more depressing.

I guess however there are a few lessons to be learned from this story:

* Get a life insurance.

* Trusting a delusional hobbo is usually not a good idea.

A cold-hearted man shot and killed a woman in front of one of her children's birthday as she laided on her daughter's cake. And that how cruel can you really get. Meanwhile, Jeffries tries to seek payback on a man who in 1995, hit and ran over his wife. Very good show and the reason that I watch the show.

Cold Case keeps on delivering and this episode is no diffrent. This episode had two plots one with a mouther who was murdered and detective Williams revenge against a man who hit and ran his wife.



The first plot with a mother who was killed after a man thinks she stole a million dollars from from him. This was a sad story because the case. It has a sad ending with the stanger shooting the mother with her landing on her younger daughters cake.



The second plot was crazy with detective Williams trying to get payback of a man who left his wife to die on the road of a hit and run witch he said summer of 95.



The ending was really great playing how the character felt with the perfect song Angel by Sarah Mclopican.

i thought this story was more realistic in the the TV format given than all the episodes i've seen to this date.

the continuity with the circumstances and characters involved is not perfect but it was effective enough to be thought provocative since the details of the plot was realistic enough. i think any episode involving kids will be emotionally effective at some level. this was one of the better episodes than the most i've seen.