The new Cold Case (9/25) has gone nuts with frequent 4-panel split screens, super closeups of actor’s noses and other quirky photography. This used to be a very good and touching program, but these flakey tricks make it too annoying to watch.
What do they hope to accomplish, attract the video game crowd?
Resorting to gimmicks is usually a sign that the writers have run out of good ideas. I don’t watch Cold Case, but offhand it sounds to me like they may have jumped the shark.
Hated it. Split screen can be interesting (in moderation) when there’s something to show in each segment. But to show 4 slightly different angles of the same scene…just annoying.
As far as the rest of the show goes, I thought it was no better or worse than last season. So I wouldn’t say that the split screen effect = jumping the shark. It was just an annoying affectation, that I hope goes away immediately.
Agreed that it was just annoying, though the story was fine and I like the dynamics of the new officer.
And Vera got hit on! Excellent. 
I was well past the music-video-watching age in 1988 (the year of the crime in last night’s episode) (come to think of it, I was well past the music-video-watching age when MTV first started) but was that split-screening effect a standard trope for videos at that time? That was what The Wife and I thought when we watched the show, at least that was the only explanation we had.