Cold Case

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For the term, see cold case.

For the A&E TV show, see Cold Case Files.

Cold Case
From left to right: Det. Nick Vera, Lt. John Stillman, Det. Will Jeffries, Det. Lilly Rush and Det. Scotty Valens
Genre	Drama
Running time	approx. 45 minutes
Creator(s)	Meredith Stiehm
Starring	Kathryn Morris Danny Pino John Finn Jeremy Ratchford Thom Barry Tracie Thoms
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 28, 2003–present
No. of episodes	78
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Cold Case is an American hour-long fictional television show about a police division that specializes in investigating unsolved crimes. The show is set in the city of Philadelphia and first aired in September 2003.

Contents 1 Style 2 Music 3 Characters 4 Controversy 5 Reviews 6 Episodes 7 U.S. Television Ratings 8 International 9 External links

[edit] Style

Cold Case is notable for double-casting: it will cast a young actor for the flashback sequences and an older actor for the shots in the present, and cut back and forth between the two, to show how the character has aged. The episode "One Night" managed to triple-cast one character, showing him in the present day, when he committed his murder and when he was a teenager.

Typically once the murderer is revealed, their confession is depicted in one final flashback in which the murder is shown. The episode then ends with a montage (with no dialogue) of the killer(s) being arrested, as well as the fates of other characters from that era, showing them in their current appearance, but briefly flashing back to their younger selves, and finally Rush or someone else close to the victim seeing a vision of the grateful-looking victim standing nearby, who then quickly vanishes (this aspect of the show is meant to represent Rush's imagination, since the show is not about the supernatural). There have been numerous variations on this pattern, however.

Each episode, during the flashbacks, will feature a different style of direction, whether it be the colors, lighting, shading, or camera angles. Flashbacks from an era such as the 1950s have been shown in black and white, an episode with a case from 1939 featured sepia-toned flashbacks, one episode set in the '80s used a split-screen style. Some popular films have served as inspiration for several episodes such as "Disco Inferno" (Saturday Night Fever), "Yo, Adrian" (Rocky), "Creatures of the Night" (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), "Detention" (The Breakfast Club), and "Dog Day Afternoons" (Dog Day Afternoon). Additionally, the episode "Bad Night" heavily referenced the movie Halloween as having possibly inspired a murder.

[edit] Music

The show's theme song is a reworking of "Nara" by E.S. Posthumus. The show's composer of original music is Michael A. Levine, but each episode makes extensive use of era-appropriate music for flashbacks to the year in question. In an episode of a murder in 1994, the episode featured references to Kurt Cobain and added grunge songs from the same era, a genre of music that Cobain had popularized. Three different episodes exclusively used the music of Johnny Cash, John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen, respectively. Also, there has been an episode featuring all Rocky Horror Picture Show songs, as well as an episode with all Cabaret songs.

The episode that was taken the farthest back in Cold Case was the story of a singer who was found dead on Christmas Day, 1929. It featured music 'written' by the dead woman, which was in fact written by Levine.[1]

[edit] Characters

For detailed information on Cold Case characters see the main article: List of Cold Case characters

• Det. Lilly Rush played by Kathryn Morris
• Det. Scotty Valens played by Danny Pino (Rush's partner)
• Lt. John Stillman played by John Finn (Rush's mentor)
• Det. Will Jeffries played by Thom Barry
• Det. Nick Vera played by Jeremy Ratchford
• Det. Kat Miller played by Tracie Thoms (Season 3-)
• Det. Chris Lassing played by Justin Chambers (Episodes 1-4)

[edit] Controversy

In 1998, a similar Canadian series called Cold Squad debuted, several years before Cold Case. Fans of Cold Squad accuse the American series of copying the basic premise and characters of the Canadian version, and at one point the creators of Cold Squad launched legal action against the makers of Cold Case. Both shows air in Canada. Waking the Dead is a similar British TV series about a "Cold Case Squad", which first aired in 2000.

[edit] Reviews

Critical reaction to Cold Case has been mostly favorable, citing its distinctive use of "flashback" scenes-within-scenes, period music, and uplifting storylines.

It also takes inspiration from cases in real life. For example, the Pilot episode "Look Again" was based on the Martha Moxley murder case in Greenwich, CT in 1975. The episode "Our Boy Is Back aka Useless Cats" was based on the actual case of Troy Graves -- the infamous Center City Rapist. (It should be noted that other television detective dramas such as Law & Order routinely base episodes on actual cases, including this one.)

A 2004 episode based on the "Boy in the Box" [2], a still-unsolved 1957 Philadelphia homicide, was criticized for giving viewers the false impression that the actual case had been solved.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Cold Case episodes

Season	Ep #	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	23	September 28, 2003	May 23, 2004
Season 2	23	October 03, 2004	May 22, 2005
Season 3	23	September 25, 2005	May 21, 2006
Season 4	23	September 24, 2006	2007

[edit] U.S. Television Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Cold Case on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season	Timeslot	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Ranking	Viewers (in millions)
1st	Sunday 8:00PM	September 28, 2003	May 23, 2004	2003-2004	#17	14.18
2nd	Sunday 8:00PM	October 3, 2004	May 22, 2005	2004-2005	#17	14.89
3rd	Sunday 8:00PM	September 25, 2005	May 21, 2006	2005-2006	#21	14.24
4th	Sunday 9:00PM	September 24, 2006	May, 2007	2006-2007	'	'

[edit] International

Country	Name	Translation	Station
Argentina	Cold Case		Warner Channel
Australia	Cold Case		Nine Network
Austria	Cold Case - Kein Opfer ist je vergessen	Cold Case - No victim is ever forgotten	ORF1
Brazil	Arquivo Morto	Dead File	Warner Channel, SBT
Belgium	Cold Case		Kanaal 2 RTL TVI
Bulgaria	Забравени досиета	Forgotten Case	Nova Television
Canada	Cold Case		CTV and CBS
Chile	Caso Cerrado	Closed Case	TVN
Croatia	Zaboravljeni slučaj	Forgotten Case	RTL Televizija
Denmark	Cold Case		TV3
Finland	Todistettavasti syyllinen	Proven Guilty	MTV3
France	Cold Case : affaires classées	Cold Case: Closed Cases	Canal+ ; France 2
Germany	Cold Case - Kein Opfer ist je vergessen	Cold Case - No victim is ever forgotten	kabel eins
Hong Kong	鐵證懸案	Irrefutable Evidences, Unsolved Cases	World Channel of Asia Television Limited
Hungary	Döglött akták	Dead Files	RTL Klub
Indonesia	Cold Case		TV7
Ireland	Cold Case		TG4
Israel	פשע מן העבר (Pesha Min He'avar)	A Crime From The Past	yesSTARS
Italy	Cold Case: Delitti Irrisolti	Cold Case: Unsolved Crimes	Rai Due
Japan	コールドケース 迷宮事件簿(Kōrudo kēsu Meikyuu jikenbo)	Cold Case - Labyrinthine Case Records	WOWOW
Mexico	Cold Case		Warner Channel
the Netherlands	Cold Case		Net5
New Zealand			TV One
Norway	Cold Case		TVNorge
Peru	Cold Case		Warner Channel
Philippines	Cold Case		Solar Entertainment's "Crime Suspense" Cable TV Channel
Poland	Dowody zbrodni	Proofs of Crimes	TVN and TVN Siedem
Portugal	Casos Arquivados	Archived Cases	FOX and RTP1
Singapore			Channel 5 of Mediacorp
Slovakia	Odložený prípad	Closed (deferred) case	Markíza
South Africa			M-Net
Spain	Caso Abierto	Open Case	TVE and Fox
Sweden	Kalla Spår	Cold Trace	SVT and Kanal5
Turkey			Cnbc-e Channel
UK	Cold Case		Sky One Sky Three
USA (second audio program)	Caso Cerrado	Closed Case	Turner Network Television
Venezuela	Cold Case		Warner Channel

[edit] External links

• CBS Cold Case official site
• Warner Bros. Cold Case official site
• Cold Case at the Internet Movie Database
• Cold Case songs and music
• Crimelab.NL - Cold Case - Contains an episode guide, quotes, facts, wallpapers, screen shots and message board.