Women's Murder Club

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Women's Murder Club
Genre	Police procedural Legal drama
Created by	Elizabeth Craft Sarah Fain
Starring	Angie Harmon Laura Harris Paula Newsome Aubrey Dollar Tyrees Allen Linda Park and Rob Estes
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Elizabeth Craft Sarah Fain Joe Simpson James Patterson
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	October 12, 2007 – May 13, 2008
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Women's Murder Club is an American police procedural and legal drama, which ran on ABC from October 12, 2007 to May 13, 2008. The series is set in San Francisco, California and is based on the 'Women's Murder Club' series of novels written by James Patterson. Created by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, they also serve as executive producers alongside Joe Simpson, James Patterson, Brett Ratner and Scott Gemmill. The latter also serves as showrunner, with Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts co-executive producing.^[1] The pilot was directed by Scott Winant.^[2]

Produced by 20th Century Fox Television, the series first aired on Friday nights at 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central. On October 31, 2007 ABC ordered an additional three scripts. ^[3] The show was affected by the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike as only 10 of the 13 episodes ordered were produced.

On February 23, 2008, it was announced that the show would return in late April with three episodes. This comes two weeks after the show was almost cancelled.^[4]

On March 31, 2008, it was announced that Women's Murder Club would return with 3 new episodes beginning on Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 10/9c replacing Boston Legal. ^[5]

On May 12, 2008, ABC confirmed that the series would not return for a second season.^[6]

There have been rumors that Lifetime Television will be picking up the show. These are unconfirmed.

1 About
2 Cast
- 2.1 Series Regulars
- 2.2 Recurring Cast
3 Episodes
4 Reception
- 4.1 U.S. Nielsen ratings
  - 4.1.1 Weekly ratings
5 International Broadcasting
6 References
7 External links

[edit] About

Based on the best-selling series of books by James Patterson, the series revolves around the lives of four women in San Francisco - a homicide detective, an assistant district attorney, a medical examiner and a newspaper reporter - who come together to use their expertise and talents in their respective fields to solve murder cases. Though they lead distinctly different lives, they are bound together by a strong bond of friendship which lead the women to realize that pooling their resources during investigations leads to undiscovered clues and answers in both work and their personal lives.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Series Regulars

Inspector Lindsay Boxer (Angie Harmon) - Lindsay is the principal character of the series. She is a transplant from her native Texas, as noted by Jacobi in "Play Through the Pain." She has a lingering obsession over the "Kiss-Me-Not" killer^[7], whose case she worked for five years; that obsession led to the breakup of her marriage to Tom Hogan. At the end of the first episode, the "Kiss-Me-Not" killer returns, and though the FBI is now in charge of the case, Lindsay has a hard time letting go. In "FBI Guy," she reveals that her attic is full of information on Kiss-Me-Not's victims and that she considers the destruction of her personal life an acceptable exchange for capturing him. She had a miscarriage while she was married to Tom Hogan ("Maybe, Baby"). After having a one night stand with Tom prior to his wedding to Heather, she has a pregnancy scare, though it turns out she is actually anemic. She owns a dog, Martha, who she adopted after her original owner was murdered.
A.D.A. Jill Bernhardt (Laura Harris) - Jill is a successful assistant district attorney, who works at City Hall. Her father died when she was eight and she ended up in the foster system some time after her mother remarried ("Blind Dates and Bleeding Hearts"). She has a weak stomach when it comes to gore and vomits often enough at bloody crime scenes that Inspector Boxer usually leaves a barf bag for her. She has a fear of commitment, presumably due to her dislike of her stepfather and her constant shuffling in the foster system.
Dr. Claire Washburn (Paula Newsome) - Claire is a medical examiner for the San Francisco Police Department. She is happily married, but there is some strain due to her husband's recent injury, which has left him confined to a wheelchair. She has two sons.
Cindy Thomas (Aubrey Dollar) - Cindy is the youngest member of the Women's Murder Club. She works as a crime reporter for the fictional San Francisco Register, though she previously worked the metro section. Her father, whom she idolized, died eighteen months before the events of "Play Through the Pain." She has an eidetic memory.
Inspector Warren Jacobi (Tyrees Allen) - Lindsay's loyal partner. He was up for the lieutenant position that went to Tom, but has not expressed much disappointment that he didn't get the job, seeming to prefer field work to the politics of the position. He also seems to prefer the finer things in life, having an affinity for wine, 30-year-old whiskey, and opera. He is thrice divorced and has a child from one of those marriages.
Deputy District Attorney Denise Kwon (Linda Park) - Jill's immediate superior at the DA's office, she clashes with her over her "bleeding heart" style. She is also antagonistic towards Jill due to her past romantic history with Hanson North. When the show returned after the writer's stike, the first episode back's credits no longer showed her name. But by the second episode, she was back in the credits as a series regular.
Lieutenant Tom Hogan (Rob Estes) - Lindsay's ex-husband, who in the first episode was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned as her boss. He is engaged in the pilot and has remarried by "To Drag and to Hold," but he still worries that Lindsay's obsession with her work will consume her. Tom was played by Christopher Wiehl in the unaired pilot.

[edit] Recurring Cast

Luke Bowen (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) - Jill's ex boyfriend. He is an ER doctor at the fictional Mission Cross North. Jill and Luke have recently broken up after he found out that she had slept with Hanson while she was with Luke.
Hanson North (Kyle Secor) - Defense attorney who has a romantic history with Jill and is currently seeing her boss, Denise Kwon.
Ed Washburn (Jonathan Adams) - Claire's husband. Currently wheelchair-bound after being shot while serving as a police officer.
Heather Hogan née Donnelly (Ever Carradine) - Tom's new wife. She is a kindergarten teacher who is eco-friendly, planning a green wedding.
Pete Raynor (Joel Gretsch) - Lindsay's love interest in season 1, that is only in town for two weeks.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Women's Murder Club episodes

[edit] Reception

After reviewing the pilot and skipping the second advance episode, Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle TV critic, published a highly critical review assigning the paper's lowest possible rating.^[8]

Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times TV critic, described many nuanced aspects of the show and concluded with, "Women’s Murder Club is all right, but not good enough."^[9]

Robert Bianco, USA Today critic wrote a positive review titled "'Murder Club': A simple pleasure worth living for" and ending with, "Still, the actors are enjoyable, and their series in large part does what it sets out to do. It isn't nearly as good as Friday Night Lights, of course - few shows are. But unlike so many fall clunkers, it's competent. This season, that's a rather select club."^[10]

Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times critic wrote a positive review titled "'Murder Club' is worth joining".^[11]

[edit] U.S. Nielsen ratings

Season 1: #57, 8.964m

[edit] Weekly ratings

^{[citation needed]}

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating	Share	18-49 (Rating/Share)	Viewers (m)	Rank (Night)	Rank (Timeslot)	Rank (Overall)
1	"Welcome to the Club"	October 12, 2007	7.3	13	2.5/8	10.82	#1	#1	#26
2	"Train In Vain"	October 19, 2007	6.5	12	2.0/6	9.69	#2	#1	#37
3	"Blind Dates and Bleeding Hearts"	October 26, 2007	6.1	11	1.9/6	8.90	#1	#1	#41
4	"Grannies, Guns, Love Mints"	November 2, 2007	6.4	11	1.9/6	9.47	#1	#1	#35
5	"Maybe, Baby"	November 9, 2007	6.5	11	2.0/6	9.70	#1	#1	#36
6	"Play Through the Pain"	November 15, 2007	6.1	10	3.3/9	8.93	#8	#3	#45
7	"The Past Comes Back to Haunt You"	November 16, 2007	6.2	11	1.7/5	8.94	#4	#1	#41
8	"No Opportunity Necessary"	November 23, 2007	5.3	9	1.6/5	7.76	#3	#1	#45
9	"To Drag & To Hold"	December 7, 2007	5.8	10	1.8/5	8.58	#2	#1	#32
10	"FBI Guy"	January 4, 2008	5.2	9	1.8/5	7.68	#2	#1	#36
11	"Father's Day"	April 29, 2008	5.8	9	1.9/5	8.14	#7	#2	#42
12	"And the Truth Will (Sometimes) Set You Free"	May 6, 2008	6.1	10	2.2/6	8.68	#8	#2
13	"Never Tell"	May 13, 2008	5.8	10	2.1			#2