Why We Love Murder In The First

Raphael Sbarge as SFPD Homicide Inspector David Molk

Murder In the First may have just finished its first season, but it clearly won’t be its last. When Cliché spoke with Raphael Sbarge, he said that the show would be like a long movie. Unlike most procedural series, the show focused on one case alone. It gave us the chance to really get to know the all those in the case, from wounded ex-employees to half crazed love interests. It gave viewers a chance to see the politics, the misuse of the legal system, and the trial in a way that made us feel this could be real.

Bess Rous as Ivana West

Shows like Law & Order may show the whole of a case, from start to finish, but it often speeds through the events. You don’t really get to know how characters feel, behave, or see the long term effects they have to deal with. I mean that scene with Bess Rous character Ivana was showed how truly uncaringly evil she could be. It was scene that made me wonder just how far people would go to protect the spoiled brat that is Erich Blunt.

Sure, most people believed that Erich Blunt killed that girl (with the facts of the case given most people would feel that way), but that made the case more acceptable. One could picture Nancy Grace screaming about how this rich boy pushed this girl to her death and snapped her neck. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s fun to watch good cops do bad things in order to bring about justice. Lying to children, hiding evidence (real or fake), and smashing peoples faces in, it shows that even the right side of the law can still get themselves dirty. Lets not forget that there were some great one liners throughout the course of the series.

Tom Felton as Erich Blunt

With that said, my only downside of the show was that the ending of the trail was fairly clear at the start of the third episode. There was only one way that the jury could have ruled and I would have voted the same way. There was just too much doubt to safely say, with the evidence at hand, he could have done it.

It will be interesting how this season will end and how it would affect the next season, as I am sure there will be many more seasons to come. One has to wonder how the dark the show is planning to go in the future. It has been a nice break from the light-hearted campy shows that have taken over our sets. Murder in the First has been a refreshing change from the norm. This is why we love Murder In the First so much. We can not wait to see how this amazing drama will end and the cases that will appear in the future.
All photos from the TNT website.