I'd love to see "Murder One" on DVD (the inspiration for "24"?)

[Gary Cliff]

Back when "24" was being promoted, a big deal was made about how it was done in "real time": each one-hour episode covering one hour of a single day. When I heard that, I immediately thought of "Murder One". When it was on, it was also promoted as being done in "real time", but it was each week's episode covering one week of a 24-week arrest/trial.

The series was excellent, especially the first season! In fact, Daniel Benzali's work in that first season is among the best I've ever seen in any series. Anthony LaPaglia took over the lead in the second season, and we all know how good he is. But Benzali was so good that LaPaglia's work in the second season was kind of a let-down in comparison. I would snap up the first season in a heartbeat (the second would take a couple of heartbeats).

 

[David_Blackwell]

I would love the first season on DVD. The bald guy (Benzali, a great actor) and the hottie (Bobbie Phillips who is so cute) were some of the things that made season one great in addition to the writing.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Great show. Brilliant. I would buy it in a second. They recently replayed the show here in NZ, and I was astonished at how caught up I was in the series again, even though I knew the outcome. While the identity of the killer was disappointing, the series as a whole of wonderful.

I never saw the second season at the time - it aired against another programme I watched - but watched it on the recent reruns. While I missed Benzali, and especially his conflict with Stanley Tucci, it was still pretty good. Sadly, in the second season they were forced to abandon the single-case concept, so the whole series followed three cases, but overall it was still pretty good. I was especially a fan of the final story, with the guy that killed other killers. That was a good story.

 

[FrankHW]

Wow,

I thought Murder One started strong, but was a boring stinker by mid-season. It was almost as if the season wasn't planned out in advance, leaving the non-sweeps episodes kind of dull.

To each their own, I suppose.

 

[PhilipG]

I must agree with the first three posters. Murder One was superb all the way through, and particularly in season one (Benzali, Tucci, and the aforementioned stunner Bobbie Phillips). I'd love for the show to appear on DVD. It won the International BAFTA for best series, and was very popular over here.

I've been thinking about this show recently, ever since Mary McCormack became a semi-regular on The West Wing.

 

[Yee-Ming]

All right, are my eyes deceiving me, or does Mary McCormack's listing on imdb have a picture of Mary Louise Parker instead?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005203/

Or do they just look similar? However, the rest of photos available for McCormack show her as a blonde, not brunette as Parker is.

Was Murder One expressly said to be real-time in that each episode covered a week's worth of activity in the show? All I remember was the initial premise of one season = one case, which was a novelty at the time. Even the second season's three cases was a little novel, since back then it was "this week's case is...", and even nowadays on shows like The Practice, any one case would maybe last 3-4 episodes tops.

Edit: I had a look at Mary Louise Parker's entry as well
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000571/
That's not her. So either IMDB is screwing up, or someone's been messing about with them.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I was initially going to comment on this point. I don't think it was. Certainly here in NZ all I heard was that it followed one case. Perhaps it ended up as equivalent to one week per episode, but I don't know that was ever actually the intent.

And that is definitely Mary McCormack. Ignore the hair and look at the face. No doubt about it. And she's pretty good looking as a brunette.
The photos were taken at the Deep Impact premiere in 1998.

 

[Yee-Ming]

All righty then. I'm not very familiar with Ms McCormack so I guess I was thrown by the resemblance to Ms Parker, plus the fact they're now both on West Wing. But I'm still pretty sure the picture at Ms Parker's listing isn't her, I mean she's much much prettier than that

Edit: comparing with the other photos available, I suppose it just might be her, but sadly for some bizarre reason they've gone and chosen the most unflattering and badly lit photo of her. Any one of the photos of her at the Golden Globes would do her more justice.

 

[JulianK]

Count me in! The first season was compelling television. I wonder if they filmed more than one ending - if they did that would make a very cool DVD extra!

 

[Ric Easton]

Yep, Not real time... But real good TV! I liked the idea of following one case throughout the season. Seemed much more realistic than having everything wrapped up in one or two weeks. And coming from someone else that is folicly impaired... The bald guy was great!

Ric

 

[Craig S]

I would buy "Murder One" in an instant. But I don't think it was an "inspiration" for "24". The one factor the two shows have in common is a season-long storyline (and M1 dropped that for Season 2). The pacing and editing of the two shows is completely different. And yeah, there was never any real-time claim made for M1.
Daniel Benzali rocked!! And Anthony LaPaglia in season 2 was no slouch either.

 

[Michael Reuben]

This was released on Feb. 8, but I just received my copy. Having only watched chapter 1, I can say that the a/v quality appears to be good. There are a few commentaries and a too-brief retrospective from which many potential interviewees are conspicuously absent (e.g., Bocho, Tucci, Charles Haid).

A critical, but not a ratings success, it holds up well, in large part because the cast is just so good. I hadn't watched the pilot since it first aired, and I was especially struck by the hints of what's to come that Patricia Clarkson managed to smuggle into her performance as Teddy HOffman's long-suffering wife. At the time, my attention was so engaged by the murder plot and by Stanley Tucci's showy turn that I missed it completely.

There's a sticker on the package touting the show as a precursor to 24, but it's only true in the sense that a single story was spread over an entire season (with a few detours). In that sense, Buffy and Angel could also be considered precursors to 24.

M.

 

[David_Blackwell]

I watched season one, but my copy showed high amounts of grain/video noise at times and the ugly rainbowing on buildings (and clothes) also showed up.

 

[Jeff Willis]

I bought this as soon as it was released and started viewing it this week. I loved it when it aired back in '95 and it's just as good the 2nd time around. I'd say

to anyone out there that's considering it as a blind buy that hasn't seen it originally. For those that haven't seen it, Barbara Bosson is great as the D.A. (Hill St Blues fans remember her as Capt Furrilo's ex)

 

[PhilipG]

Patricia Clarkson always annoyed me, Barbara Bosson (wife of Steven Bochco) though was superb, and Bobbie Phillips was the most gorgeous woman on TV at the time IMHO.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

TV sets are coming so fast and furious these days that I completely missed the fact that this had been released. I'll have to check it out.

But I have to take issue with this thread's title.

Each episode covering a week is, by definition, not "real time". What real time means is that the period of time covered by the action is the same as the time it takes to watch the episode. (Hence the famous M*A*S*H episode with the stop-watch in the corner where the action takes half an hour.) The people who produced Murder One were smart enough to know this, and therefore the series was never advertised as being in "real time."

And it was about as much an inspiration for 24 as Ben Casey was for NYPD Blue.

Regards,

Joe

 

[David_Blackwell]

My review.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Now that I've watched more episodes, I'm noticing some of this too. The aliasing and moire effects are most noticeable in establishing shots of buildings, which makes me wonder whether that footage came from a different source.

M.