Review of Crossing Jordan

I am actually really not eager to review this show, mostly because I do genuinely like Jill Hennessy. She is one of those pretty, unassuming women who looks as though she could have done pretty much anything she wanted to do--model, run for governor, 'stick it to the man' by turning every radical liberal leader within fifty miles to violence--but instead she has chosen to act. Acting is a difficult, artistic pasttime, of the sort you rarely see pretty girls engage in seriously without involving a host of men designed to teach them how to, well, act as they are attempting it. She was one of the first of a slew of women in some line of police work to star in her own show, and there is a lot to be said for that. She also manages to be engaging and impossible to look away from as an actress. Unfortunately, this character spawned a slew of knock-offs which all carried the original's inherent flaws. First off, this character's first actual, well, characteristic that we are introduced to as viewers is the fact that she is angry. We soon find out the reason for this is that her mother was murdered when she was just a child, leaving her father alone to raise her. Now, in real life angry people usually make a slew of mistakes, because they are too busy fighting back against anyone and everyone they consider to represent their enemy for even a moment or two to focus real hard on any other pursuit. They are typically willing to fight anybody, if that is their anger has gone on long enough. Jordan's, of course, being decades old, has. However, this is television, and so of course Jordan manages to be an insightful and driven M.E. in addition to being an Ineffectively Angry Person. She does not, however, manage to be a particularly interesting one. Anyone who has spent more than two seconds around somebody suffering from poor anger management knows that there is little "fun" or "sexy" about it all--you are simply trying to get away from the person as fast as humanly possible, to preserve your own skin. Yet in this gem of a series, an entire office of people are falling all over themselves to help Jordan in her first case back at an office she left years ago? Right. Women do not tend to all gather around a near-stranger this way unless they know this person is equally capable of having their backs…and the confused look in Jordan's eyes whenever directly confronted about her behavior or anything else that's real and current news would seem to imply her inability to do so. So that's odd. Also, Jordan returns to town and immediately moves back in with her father. Now, I think most of us can agree that a thirty-sum-odd woman might be just slightly uneasy about becoming a dependent to her daddy again, can't we? Jordan however accepts the idea with seeming ease, even going so far as to break into her father's house without telling him she is in town and attempt to sneak up on him. This would be cute behavior with someone her own age, but with her Dad or with any other male relative, it sends up some serious red flags. First, the two of them have poor boundaries: from Jordan's "cute" story of staying up late at night as a child watching him work while trying to remain hidden to him to their game of putting themselves in the victim's and murderer's shoes and verbally playing out the scene of the crime, both Jordan and her father seem to be people unwilling to admit when enough is enough. She seems desperate even now to hold his attention no matter what; she is clearly put off by a woman who her father is dating, although her mother has at this point been dead for decades. Many young girls left behind by dead mothers and left to their fathers to raise become the victims of some form of incest, emotional if not physical; this situation has all the signs of an incestuous relationship between father and daughter, but of course it is television and so our "badass" heroine cannot possibly be the victim of incest!. She is I suppose too pretty. It is not the actress' fault that that the character does not have what it takes to hold my attention for long. She is simply not written it seems to have much of a personality, other than being a Woman who Suffers. These women were probably rare once upon a time, but they are not so rare now. More, most of them manage to have some sort of inner strength or fire which remains strong throughout the series and carries them relatively unscathed through everything they have suffered. Most of them are champions of survival, women capable of living through it all and of inspiring that same trait in others. At least, the women on television shows that I choose to spend my time with are. Perhaps the reason is because these women are the victims of specific and individualized male violence of some form or another--the way that most women suffering in the world today are. Crossing Jordan is a relatively inoffensive, none-too-gory crime-solving show with a weekly mystery at its core. Its lasting power lies in the fact that it can hold the attention of the entire family, or of a couple or a couple of couples, for an hour once a week without once bringing up a single point for them to argue about. This may be a rare quality in television shows--but ought it really be confused with what qualities equate excellence in them? A solid effort, with a good ensemble cast; to bad the entire effect is so, well, boring.

Better once the detective is on more.

Also--the show is like CSI--but with powerful women. Nice.