TV Barn and TeeVee.net nutshell guide to the Fall 2007 premieres

Women’s Murder Club

Official "Women’s Murder Club" web site

Four San Francisco women -- a detective (Angie Harmon), medical examiner, reporter, and district attorney -- team up to solve crimes. Now that's what I call an old-school premise! The women are good friends and lend each other emotional support while also sharing information that allows them to solve cases that otherwise would go unsolved. Based on author James Patterson's novels, this is a different sort of crime-mystery series, and it's got a lot of potential.

Aaron's take:	The surest way to reinvent a TV show these days is with estrogen. But this excellent drama, co-written and produced by Kansas City natives Liz Craft and Sarah Fain, has even more going for it. Angie Harmon, for starters, proves she deserves star billing here. Her gal pals are also well-cast and have instant chemistry. ABC says it will move the show to a bigger night when it's ready. Well, it's ready.
When It’s On	Fridays, ABC
When It Starts	Friday, October 12
What It’s Up Against	Moonlight (CBS), Friday Night Lights (NBC), Nashville (Fox)
Starring...	Angie Harmon
Cliche-o-Meter	San Francisco
Fandom Factor	Warm

Full Review

We thought we'd seen the end of the medical drama, and then along came "Grey's Anatomy." Ditto the police drama, but then cable brought us Kyra Sedgwick as "The Closer." Now the power of estrogen has enriched the crime procedural in this adaptation of James Patterson's series of books also known as the Women's Murder Club. Appropriately, it took two women writing partners who have been friends since high school in Kansas City to bring to the small screen this series about four women who are friends and solve crimes together. Liz Craft and Sarah Fain aren't names you've heard of, but their eyebrow-raising work on "Angel" and then "The Shield" has set them apart, and it's fair to say that two mild-mannered Midwestern gals made a lot of heads turn when an "Oz" spec script became their calling card. Compared with some of the "Shield" scripts they wrote (like the one where Acevada beats up a hooker in a sort of sick way of rationalizing his own rape), "Women's Murder Club" seems like a walk in the park. Golden Gate Park, to be precise. But they are determined to bring cable values to network TV, in the form of good writing, and the actors do the rest. Heading a strong ensemble is Angie Harmon as Lindsay Boxer, the gritty homicide inspector with a rocky personal life. This is much better than its Friday at 9 time slot suggests. Then again, the same was true of another crime procedural that began in this time period. But "CSI" had to wait a whole four months for its upgrade. If anything, "Women's Murder Club" should get moved (preferably to 10 p.m. Thursdays, paired with "Grey's Anatomy") a lot sooner than that. --A.B.