Women's Murder Club
Encyclopedia

Women's Murder Club is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

 and legal drama
Legal drama
A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...

, which ran on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 from October 12, 2007, to May 13, 2008. The series is set in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 and is based on the 'Women's Murder Club' series of novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s written by James Patterson
James Patterson
James B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...

. Series creators Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain
Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain
Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain are American television screenwriters and producers, mostly working together as partners. They have also written two young-adult fiction novels together.Craft is married to producer Adam Fierro.- Angel :...

 also served as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...

s alongside Patterson, Joe Simpson, Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner is an American film director, film producer and music video director. He is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.- Early life :Ratner was...

 and R. Scott Gemmill
R. Scott Gemmill
R. Scott Gemmill is an American television writer and producer, born in Canada. He worked extensively on ER in both capacities.Gemmill worked on JAG as an executive story editor and writer. He joined the crew in the first season and remained until the fourth season writing a total of 18 episodes...

. The latter also served as showrunner, with Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts co-executive producing. The pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

 was directed by Scott Winant
Scott Winant
Scott Winant is an American television director and producer of network and premium cable series. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America...

.

Produced by 20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...

, the series first aired on Friday nights at 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central. On October 31, 2007, ABC ordered an additional three scripts. 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 came two weeks after the show was almost cancelled. On March 31, 2008, it was announced that Women's Murder Club would return with three new episodes, beginning on Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 10:00PM Eastern/9:00PM Central, replacing Boston Legal
Boston Legal
Boston Legal is an American legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC...

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

Plot

Based on the best-selling series of books by James Patterson
James Patterson
James B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...

 and Maxine Paetro, the series revolves around the lives of four women in San Francisco – a homicide detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

, an assistant district attorney, a medical examiner
Medical examiner
A medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....

 and a newspaper reporter
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 – 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.

Main characters

  • Inspector Lindsay Boxer
    Lindsay Boxer
    Lindsey Boxer is the main character in the novel series Women's Murder Club written by James Patterson. The series is based on fictional characters and police cases in San Francisco....

     (Angie Harmon
    Angie Harmon
    Angela Michelle "Angie" Harmon is an American fashion model and television/film actress. She became a well-known model before gaining international fame for her roles in Baywatch Nights and Law & Order....

    ) – 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, 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
    One-night stand
    Originally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...

     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.
  • Deputy District Attorney Jill Bernhardt (Laura Harris
    Laura Harris
    Laura Elizabeth Harris is a Canadian actress.-Early life:Harris was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of school teachers. She began acting in radio dramas and animation series when she was five years old. As a child Harris was educated at Crofton House School and attended college...

    ) – Jill is a successful deputy 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
    Paula Newsome
    -Career:Newsome began having an interest in acting as a child performing in community theater, before moving to New York City. While in New York, she was cast in a number of Broadway productions...

    ) – 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 needing a wheelchair
    Wheelchair
    A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...

    . She has two sons.
  • Cindy Thomas (Aubrey Dollar
    Aubrey Dollar
    Aubrey Dollar is an American television and film actress.She was born in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina and studied at Needham B. Broughton High School, where she was a classmate of fellow actor Colin Fickes. She also attended Boston University and Amherst College...

    ) – 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
    Eidetic memory
    Eidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...

    . A running joke through the series was whenever she said or did something to slightly reveal her age someone, usually Jill Bernhardt would ask if she was 12.
  • Inspector Warren Jacobi (Tyrees Allen
    Tyrees Allen
    Tyrees Allen is an American actor. He is best known for recurring parts as Gordon Dean on Alias, The Practice and Close to Home.He also starred in the Original Broadway Cast of Aida as Amonasro.-External links:...

    ) – 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.
  • Lieutenant Tom Hogan (Rob Estes
    Rob Estes
    Robert Estes is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Harry Wilson on the Teen drama 90210, as Sgt. Chris Lorenzo on the Crime drama Silk Stalkings, and as Kyle McBride on the Primetime Soap opera Melrose Place.-Career:Estes first became interested in an acting career while training...

    ) – 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
    Christopher Wiehl
    -Life and career:Wiehl was born in Yakima, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in dramatic arts. He is the brother of legal analyst Lis Wiehl....

     in the unaired pilot.
  • 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.

Recurring cast

  • Luke Bowen (Coby Ryan McLaughlin
    Coby Ryan McLaughlin
    Coby Ryan McLaughlin is an American film and television actor.He has appeared in various films and television series including the film Lost Treasure .-External links:...

    ) – Jill's ex boyfriend. He is an ER doctor at the fictional Mission Cross North. Jill and Luke have recently broken up after he finds that she had slept with Hanson.
  • Hanson North (Kyle Secor
    Kyle Secor
    Kyle Ivan Secor is an American television and movie actor, best known for his role as Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street.-Early years:...

    ) – Defense attorney who has a romantic history with Jill and is currently seeing her boss, Denise Kwon.
  • Ed Washburn (Jonathan Adams
    Jonathan Adams (American actor)
    Jonathan Adams is an American actor, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.-Career:He has appeared in several roles in American television, most notably in American Dreams. On this, he played series regular Henry Walker, an employee in the radio and television store owned by the patriarch of the...

    ) – Claire's husband. Currently uses a wheelchair full-time after being shot while serving as a police officer.
  • Heather Hogan née Donnelly (Ever Carradine
    Ever Carradine
    Ever Dawn Carradine is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Tiffany Porter on Once and Again and as Kelly Ludlow on Commander in Chief.-Early life:...

    ) – Tom's new wife. She is a kindergarten teacher who is eco-friendly, planning a green wedding.
  • Pete Raynor (Joel Gretsch
    Joel Gretsch
    Joel James Gretsch is an American actor. His roles include Tom Baldwin on the USA Network series The 4400, the monstruous Capt./Maj./Col. Owen Crawford in the Steven Spielberg produced 2002 sci-fi miniseries Taken and Father Jack Landry on V.-Early life:Gretsch was born in St...

    ) – Lindsay's love interest in season 1, who is only in town for two weeks.

Episodes

The series has not been released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

, however, plans to do so have been announced.

Reception

After reviewing the pilot and skipping the second advance episode, Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

 TV critic, published a highly critical review assigning the paper's lowest possible rating.

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

Robert Bianco, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 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
Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...

, of course - few shows are. But unlike so many fall clunkers, it's competent. This season, that's a rather select club."

Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 critic wrote a positive review titled "'Murder Club' is worth joining".

Weekly ratings

# 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 2.1/6 8.46 #2

International broadcasting

The series airs on and E! in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and TV3
TV3 (New Zealand)
TV3 is a New Zealand commercial television network, owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Launched on 26 November 1989, the first private television network in New Zealand...

 in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.
Reruns of the show currently air on Mystery TV
Mystery TV
Mystery TV is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel which presents movies and television series of the mystery and suspense genres...

 in Canada.

The series also airs on Fox Life
Fox Life
Fox Life is a television network, launched by the Fox Broadcasting Company, which airs across Latin America, Europe and Japan . Its basic programming include numerous television series, sitcoms and movies, among others, which includes some original programming in certain regions...

 (first-run) and TVI in Portugal, but the latter airs the series at prohibitive time slots (around 1 a.m.), causing major criticism. The series is also airs on America Plus which is a part of Orbit Network.

In Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, the show aired on June 30, 2008, on RTL Klub
RTL Klub
RTL Klub is a television station owned by RTL Group and broadcast in Hungary. It was one of Hungary's first commercial TV channels and was only two days after the main rival TV2 to begin broadcasting.-About RTL Klub:...

.

As of September 5, 2008, WMC also started airing on the Belgian TV channel VTM. The channel officially announced that the show would "strengthen" their Friday Night programming on August 31.

In The Netherlands, the show airs on Net 5.

In Latin America, the series is airing on the Fox channel.

In the Philippines, the series is airing on C/S9.

The Spanish Fox network also started airing in the beginning of September 2008 under the Spanish name "El Club Contra el Crimen".

The show also airs in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 on MNET Series
MNET Series
MNET Series is a television channel which is part of the popular South African satellite television network, DStv. This channel broadcasts television series 24 hours a day to viewers in Africa. Most of the programmes broadcast are unique to MNET Series but some are re-broadcasts of episodes...

. It premiered on September 11, 2008.

In Russia, the show aired on December 17, 2008, on TV-3.

It has also been aired internationally to the U.S. Military on the Armed Forces Network (AFN) in 2008.

In Slovakia, the show began airing on January 7, 2009, on TV JOJ
TV JOJ
-About TV JOJ:It was launched on 2 March 2002 as a successor of the TV Global, which was broadcasting since March 2000. TV Joj was built by former head of Czech Republic channel TV Nova, Vladimír Železný, when he was at war with TV Nova’s U.S. investor Central European Media Enterprises...

.

In France, the first four episodes were aired on March 7, 2009, on M6.

In Singapore, the show aired on November 11, 2009, on MediaCorp Channel 5.

In Italy, the show is airing on La5, but before on Canale 5 in July, 2010.

Video game

The show generated a series of spin-off games on the Nintendo DS. These looked to tap into the casual gaming demographic and focused on recreating the narratives of the TV shows. The game was unveiled at E3 2009
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009, commonly known as the E3 2009, was the 15th Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place on June 2, 3, and 4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment...

 to a mixed reception. Game People's
Game People
Game People is a UK based video game review website whose style, which could be categorised as New Games Journalism, is centered on video game coverage that focuses as much on the people playing the games as the games themselves...

 review found that the game focused overly on narration and not enough on gameplay. Wiiloveit.com gave it a 16/30, describing it as a very interesting title, with a rather suspenseful script" that's over way "too quickly". It currently has a Meta Critic average score of 53%.
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