Who knows what the creators of this series were after---even after trying to watch it through two and a part of its third seasons, the viewer is still left high and dry. Crossing Jordan claims to be a show about a medical examiner going above and beyond the line of duty to solve crimes for the underdog, but it's not quite that. Call it soap-opera, dramedy, criminal drama a la C.S.I., or even Quincy-with-boobs(my favorite moniker). Each title fits because each week the show changes tone and focus. Maybe it's trying to stay fresh, but the end result serves only to irritate anyone with intelligence and an attention span.
It's a real pity, because the cast is really a good group of actors. I liked Jill Hennessy in Law & Order and she's fine as the unlikable lead character, Jordan Cavanaugh. Miguel Ferrer makes the neurotic Garret Macy somehow sympathetic; he's a mess, but he's also a good guy. Ken Howard is okay as Max, Jordan's father, but his fake New England accent is grating. The actors who portray Trey, Nigel, Bug, Lily, Elaine and Peter are all solid, Steve Valentine being especially appealing as the quirky Nigel. The problem is, professional as they are, the cast has a hard time working with the mess they're handed each week. It's hard to keep playing a game when the rules keep changing. One episode calls for seriousness, another for farce.
The first season was far and away the worst, most unusual for a TV series; normally things start out top-notch and decline over time. But Season One of Crossing Jordan was the pits, what with the father-daughter re-enactments of the crimes that bordered on incestuous and the crap to do with Macy's personal life. His daughter was a little spoiled pig and his ex-wife some kind of psycho-hosebeast, and all along poor impressionable Lily is making calf-eyes at her boss, who's old enough to be her father. It was all way too much information and it's amazing that Macy remained a likable character through it all. Jordan was possibly the most irresponsible M.E. to appear on TV, even worse than Quincy, and Hennessy didn't always look like she was comfortable handling her instruments in the field. Basic science was often overlooked or just ignored, and the emphasis on high-tech stuff really wasn't impressive.
The second season saw improvements, most notably the departure of Macy's brat and ex, and Lily shifted her fixation from him to actually doing her job. Downsides were losing Trey and adding Elaine; he was more enjoyable as a character, though to be fair she improved as the series wore on. The re-enactments changed, too, involving people other than Max. Some shows were still groaners(the episode where the whole group re-enacted a crime from 1964 was ultra-lame), but the overall quality had gone up from mediocre to decent. The arc involving Jordan's evil(?) brother has the potential to drag things down again, but so far the show is holding tenuously onto its much better writing and production. The third season has been okay so far, too.
In summary, this is a series that can't seem to settle on what it's supposed to be. I hope the powers in charge decide to choose a genre for their show and stick to it. Crossing Jordan has potential and that's why it's often frustrating to watch; the viewer can sense that this could be a great series if its creators would just stick to what works and discard the rest.
It's a real pity, because the cast is really a good group of actors. I liked Jill Hennessy in Law & Order and she's fine as the unlikable lead character, Jordan Cavanaugh. Miguel Ferrer makes the neurotic Garret Macy somehow sympathetic; he's a mess, but he's also a good guy. Ken Howard is okay as Max, Jordan's father, but his fake New England accent is grating. The actors who portray Trey, Nigel, Bug, Lily, Elaine and Peter are all solid, Steve Valentine being especially appealing as the quirky Nigel. The problem is, professional as they are, the cast has a hard time working with the mess they're handed each week. It's hard to keep playing a game when the rules keep changing. One episode calls for seriousness, another for farce.
The first season was far and away the worst, most unusual for a TV series; normally things start out top-notch and decline over time. But Season One of Crossing Jordan was the pits, what with the father-daughter re-enactments of the crimes that bordered on incestuous and the crap to do with Macy's personal life. His daughter was a little spoiled pig and his ex-wife some kind of psycho-hosebeast, and all along poor impressionable Lily is making calf-eyes at her boss, who's old enough to be her father. It was all way too much information and it's amazing that Macy remained a likable character through it all. Jordan was possibly the most irresponsible M.E. to appear on TV, even worse than Quincy, and Hennessy didn't always look like she was comfortable handling her instruments in the field. Basic science was often overlooked or just ignored, and the emphasis on high-tech stuff really wasn't impressive.
The second season saw improvements, most notably the departure of Macy's brat and ex, and Lily shifted her fixation from him to actually doing her job. Downsides were losing Trey and adding Elaine; he was more enjoyable as a character, though to be fair she improved as the series wore on. The re-enactments changed, too, involving people other than Max. Some shows were still groaners(the episode where the whole group re-enacted a crime from 1964 was ultra-lame), but the overall quality had gone up from mediocre to decent. The arc involving Jordan's evil(?) brother has the potential to drag things down again, but so far the show is holding tenuously onto its much better writing and production. The third season has been okay so far, too.
In summary, this is a series that can't seem to settle on what it's supposed to be. I hope the powers in charge decide to choose a genre for their show and stick to it. Crossing Jordan has potential and that's why it's often frustrating to watch; the viewer can sense that this could be a great series if its creators would just stick to what works and discard the rest.