First episode of "Killer Women" (spoilers)

Cafe Society
#1

I watched the first episode and I wondering if anyone else had trouble swallowing the story.

So we have a crime. There’s a wedding going on with a full church of family and friends. And a woman walks in just as the couple are exchanging vows and she shoots and kills the bride. The killer then flees the church. But in addition to all the witnesses, the police had several video recordings of the murder because a number of people were taping the ceremony. So the police are quickly able to identify the woman as somebody who works for the groom.

There’s a big manhunt and the woman is captured within a few hours. She confesses to the murder. She says she had been having an affair with the groom and killed his wife out of jealousy.

Now at this point, we need to introduce the show’s protagonist, Texas Ranger Molly Parker. Parker is supposed to be called in to assist local police with difficult crimes, which makes you wonder why anyone would need any help with this particular crime. And the attitude of the local police - the local detective had been constantly sneering that he didn’t need Parker’s help.

So now Parker has looked over the evidence and interrogated the people and guess what she decides? That the crime hasn’t really been solved. Now some people might feel that when you’ve got a suspect in custody who committed the crime on video in front of a couple hundred witnesses and then immediately gave a full confession, you might mark this one down as solved. But Parker’s gut tells her no.

And guess what the surprise twist was? It turns out her gut instinct was right, surprising everyone who hasn’t watched a movie or TV show in the last hundred years.

Parker investigated further and through a series of improbable events she found out that the real reason the bride was killed was because she was a DA investigating a Mexican drug cartel. So the drug cartel people found out about the woman who worked for the groom and kidnapped her mother and daughter so she’d commit the murder for them.

Parker is able to rescue the mother and daughter and reunite them with the woman. Everybody hugs and we have a happy ending as Parker tells us that the woman is being given a reduced sentence.

I was sort of hoping for an epilogue where Parker shared the good news with the groom. Maybe he could have said something like, “Wow, it’s great that this woman is reunited with her daughter and mother and will be out of prison soon. Hey, maybe you could help me reunite with my wife. You know, the one that was murdered by this woman a couple of days ago.”

#2

I meant to watch it, but forgot to set my DVR. From your description, I’m glad I missed it. That would have irritated me.

#3

I just want Nemo’s synopsises, and forget about the actual show

#4

This is a common Law and Order trick. While the “killer” gets off with a lighter sentence, the producers will often make a point that the person who coerced the “killer” to commit murder is getting the harshest sentence possible (in Texas, that’s likely death).

So they got the murderer, it just wasn’t the person who pulled the trigger.

#5

This happens regularly in movies and TV shows. I remember watching Murder by Numbers where two smart teens committed the ‘perfect crime’… except for the based-on-nothing hunch of a detective. God, I detested that movie.

#6

But in this case, I don’t think they managed even that. From what we saw in the show, the kidnapping of the family and the coercion of the woman was carried out by low-level thugs. It wasn’t like the head of the drug cartel personally committed these crimes. So none of the three women could have testified against anyone high up.

#7

I personally didn’t like it and was quite disappointed because I have a soft spot in my heart for Battlestar vets and this show has two of them, but it wasn’t just a hunch from nothing.

The woman was confessing to the murder and her claims of being wildly in love with the groom and killing a rival didn’t sound terribly convincing and sounded rehearsed .

It made sense to me that Ranger Parker might wonder if more was going on so she asked, “is he right-handed or left-handed” and it was obvious the woman didn’t know.

Frankly I was pissed at how oblivious the other detective was to the who thing even after the look the woman gave in reaction to Parker’s question made it obvious she wasn’t the groom’s lover.

I’ve always found the idiot senior police officer who’s the antagonist of the hero who’s sole function in the show/movie is to constantly be wrong one of the more annoying of all tropes since I first noticed it in Die Hard(“You’ve got glass all over my men”).

#8

What ticked me off is that it appears that their undercover informant guy in Mexico got shot (killed?) as they were getting into the escape car and they just left him there and not another word was said about him. You just leave your mole there to die?

#9

Agreed, I’m sure they’ll be better than the show anyway.
Little Nemo, I say you take one for the team and provide the SDMB weekly review so the rest of us don’t have to watch.
Waddaya say?

#10

Oh is this a fictional show? I thought you were describing the latest ID Channel murder porn.