Jesse Stone episode reviews

Episode 1. "Stone Cold" Why can't there be more cop shows like this? Great location filming, lots of wind and rain, a damaged hero and a bleak visual style. A small town is hit by a sequence of random murders and we get to watch the cop and the killer as the story unfolds. It's bleak and sad and engrossing. And very, very good. The gang-rape sub-plot was less interesting, but wonderfully acted. The entire cast is great, and it was great to see Kohl Sudduth (of GrossePointe) being such a great foil for Tom Selleck.

Episode 2. "Night Passage" is even better than the first movie. The story is less OTT and there is much more character development. Jesse is fascinating. So messed up, yet so noble. When he does something cool, it is seriously cool but most of the time he's just in pain. They have captured a unique kind of loneliness with this character. The best detective series on television.

Episode 3. "Death in Paradise" This time out we don't get to know who the killer is for the whole movie. But, in all other respects, this is the same as the previous outings: a great central performance and a superb sense of mood and place. Any show which puts Tom Selleck and William Devane in the same room is alright by me. Storywise this is nothing you haven't seen before:a cop haunted by the death of a little girl goes to extremes to track her killer, but the performances, the setting and the character of the cop make it something really special. I also have to say that the shoot-out at the end was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Jesse Stone is badass cool.

Episode 4. "Sea Change" The least enjoyable episode so far. The rain/mist, piano music and sadness are in-place but the show is lacking a strong murder mystery to keep it moving. Jesse is bored without a case to work on, so he digs up a cold case from the early '90s and investigates it at his leisure. Which is the problem. Since only Jesse cares, and he only cares because he is bored/unhappy, there is no great reason for us to care. We do care, however, about Jesse and from that angle the movie is very successful. Jesse's strange relationship with his ex-wife hits a rough patch when she starts dating and wants to stop their nightly phone calls. The case, such as it is, does have a nice twist at the end, but the violent conclusion seems out of place and tacked-on. Possibly in an effort to make things more exciting and give the movie some gunplay at the end?