The Grand ‘Murder’ Experiment

So here was the question.

Would viewers who hadn’t followed ABC’s endangered “Murder One” since its inception last fall be able to fathom its serpentine story--a single murder case plotted to last a season-long 23 episodes--when joining it in progress? ABC and the show’s co-creator, Steven Bochco, said yes. I said no.

It’s an issue only because “Murder One,” after being clobbered in the ratings in its former 10 p.m. Thursday time slot opposite NBC’s soaring “ER,” resurfaced at 10 p.m. Monday opposite presumably less formidable network competition in the CBS hospital series “Chicago Hope” and an NBC movie starring Patrick Muldoon as an Ivy Leaguer and Tori Spelling as a seductress. Ironically, “Chicago Hope” also had fled to this time slot after its own beating last season from “ER.”

ABC’s best-case scenario: Rescued from its Thursday night quicksand, “Murder One” would attract a sizable new audience on Monday nights now that the network’s popular “Monday Night Football” had concluded its season there. After sampling “Murder One,” these new viewers would be hooked.

The ratings for Monday showed “Murder One” running a poor third in its time period, however. It’s no surprise that it lost to a somewhat entrenched “Chicago Hope,” which Monday featured the temporary return of Mandy Patinkin. But losing to Pat and Tori? Go figure, for in the view of one esteemed critic (blush), Monday night’s episode reaffirmed dark, brooding, interesting “Murder One” as some of the best TV in prime time. Count me in for the verdict.

But would this enthusiasm be shared by new viewers or those returning to the series after a long absence?

To answer this question, I tested Monday night’s “Murder One” on my friend, Grace, an avid TV viewer in Washington, D.C., and, as a college English professor, someone whose antennae are sensitive to intricacies of plot and subtleties of language. She had not watched “Murder One” since its Sept. 19 premiere and, being snowed in Monday night, agreed to give it another shot.

If Grace could not connect to “Murder One” after starting almost from scratch, I reasoned, no one could.

The episode centered on jury selection by ace defense attorney Teddy Hoffman (Daniel Benzali) and prosecutor Mirian Grasso (Barbara Bosson) for the trial of Neil Avedon (Jason Gedrick), a cocky young movie star accused of murdering the 15-year-old sister of the mistress of Richard Cross (Stanley Tucci). Cross is a shady industrialist who was the police department’s initial suspect in the case. The ending featured Hoffman telling the smarmy Cross that he saw “the sickness at the core of your being.”

The hour began with a brief recap that promised viewers “everything you need to know” about the plot to date.

Wrong, said Grace. And having a PhD from UCLA didn’t help her.

“Right at the end of the episode, they announced that this guy, Blalock, had died mysteriously, and they asked this juror what he knew about it. What was that about?”

Oh, well, Dave Blalock was an ex-cop who had been Hoffman’s private investigator until he was inexplicably murdered while working on the Avedon case.

“And the end, when Daniel Benzali meets up with the guy who was first arrested and then released?” That was Cross. “And the Benzali character tells the guy that he was involved in all three deaths, including the Blalock guy and the stalker who was disqualified? There was a whole history about that guy [Cross] I didn’t know about.”

Suffice to say he’s no Boy Scout.

“And the stalker?” She was a deranged Avedon devotee who claimed to have murdered the victim, and thus was someone Hoffman had hoped to put on the stand in his client’s defense. But she pulled a gun on Hoffman in his office and later wound up dead in her jail cell. Her name was Holly Gerchas. “Right, and I suppose she was supposed to be like Mary Ann Gerchas. They didn’t do that very well.” Mary Ann Gerchas was initially ballyhooed as a potential witness in support of O.J. Simpson but was never called after his lawyers decided her testimony wouldn’t be credible.

“And that cop, Colson, Polson?” Arthur Polson (Dylan Baker), the lead police detective in the investigation. “It looks like he’s supposed to be a Mark Fuhrman-like character.” Not really. He’s just a snotty, relentless, hard-nosed cop with whom Hoffman constantly clashes.

“And when Benzali’s wife [Hoffman’s wife, Georgia] tells him she’s heard he’s having an affair with a woman named Francesca? And he tells her it’s not true?” Francesca is Cross’ estranged wife, who is in a messy divorce battle with him. Hoffman believes that Cross spread the false rumors about him having an affair with her.

“Right, but we didn’t find that out until at least halfway through the show. If I would have known earlier that she was his wife, it would have made a lot more sense. I mean, this is supposed to be a character-driven show, and I don’t know anything about these characters.”

No wonder, then, that Grace vows never again to encounter the sickness at the core of Cross’ being. “I expected good entertainment. So it wasn’t that I didn’t want to pick up the show again. They didn’t make me care if I ever picked it up again. I couldn’t care less if this Avedon guy gets convicted. I don’t like anything about any of these characters. I’ll never watch it again.”

Of course, Grace’s specialty is Shakespeare. And who understands him?