Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I am a bona fide fan of the true crime genre, but this show is not satisfying to me at all, and I thus stopped watching it some time ago. Every episode, every segment is almost invariably the same thing: a drug deal gone wrong resulting in some not-so-innocent guy shot in an inner-city parking lot. Cops investigate, put pressure on "homies" of the dead dude, and come up with the name of the shooter. Yawn. After the umpteenth time rehashing the same scenario, I have had it. Not to mention that I have never liked the voice of the narrator or the editing between segments that purposely leaves the viewer hanging. I have also never found that the "48-hour" gimmick adds any tension to the proceedings. It's merely an irritating intrusion.

I've seen maybe a dozen of these episodes and I'm impressed. All of them are interesting but be warned many of them are not uplifting. I find I can only watch them sporadically because often it's a downer.....but that's real. Nothing is glamorized here; you see what it's like to be a homicide detective in some of the toughest parts of big cities.Some of the cities that are prevalent in these stories include Memphis, Dallas, Miami and Detroit. I've also seen Kansas City, Cincinnati and a few other places. no matter the city, the stories are fairly similar - somebody committed murder, a few suspects try to lie their way out of it, some finally admit it, but some cases remain unsolved. There are not always satisfying endings because some cases simply are too tough to solve or police don't have enough evidence to convict the apparent killer.We also learn that being a homicide cop requires a number of things most of us don't have, and you better be really dedicated to the job or you won't last long. My hat's off to these people, who are trying to see justice served. If you want to get a taste of of what it's like being a cop in mostly black or Hispanic neighborhoods, this is your show. Many of the police or black or Hispanic, themselves. All of them are interesting. For those who will never come close to living in neighborhoods shown in this series, it will open your eyes to a violent world..Note: since I can't find this particular episode listed here on IMDb, I've tacked in on to the general review of the TV program. This episode was titled "The Wrong Man/Five Points Payback." 'Another Sad Story'That is how Sgt. Tony Mullins, lead detective, sums up "The Wrong Man" case in which an innocent man is shot to death. He wasn't the target, but the killer missed and hit him instead. Mullins and his peers see a lot of this kind of thing: "another sad story" as people's lives are snuffed out routinely, many times over trivial instances.This shooting took place at a busy intersection in Memphis, Tenn., and the police have a hard time in the beginning collecting evidence. That's because it's raining out and getting worse. A lot of evidence is being washed away so time is especially critical. Witnesses say a gray Chevy Caprice was seen driving away after the shooting.Once the cops find the car, a lot more progress is made and eventually the case becomes a manhunt for two brothers: Johnny "Main" Peterson and Sammy "Pookie" Peterson. It takes over three weeks for them to be found, the key help in the case being their sister, "Diamond."The second case in this episode is in Dallas, Texas, where police get a 911 call about a shooting in a parking lot of an apartment complex. Two men are found shot: one is dead and the other rushed to the hospital. Soon, it's related that the latter will be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Who shot them and why? Det. Dale Lundberg and his crew investigate. The dead man is Sabas Vargas, a Mexican national and father of two. The case, in a nutshell, winds up being about drug running up to Nashville, Tenn. Bad blood between a couple of guys over a girlfriend - not drugs - is, allegedly, the reason for the bloodshed.A key tip in this case comes from another cop working the Narcotics Division who hears about the Vargas shooting, sees the Tennessee plate son the van in which the men were shot, and puts two-and-two together.Here's the bad news. As of the end of the show, the killers were still on the loose. This case hadn't been solved.

This is an exceptional, brilliantly produced TV series focusing on the work done by real detectives -- not actors -- in the first forty-eight hours after a homicide is committed. Rigorously shot and sharply edited, it is far more fascinating than most fictional police procedurals and enhanced by great music and rich sound design. In some episodes, there are two stories that are cross-cut. In other eps, such as the amazing "When A Serial Killer Calls", one story occupies the entire show. "The First 48" does not focus on the personal lives of the detectives, but it doesn't back away, either, from intimately depicting how a particular investigation is impacting on the participants personally. The camera work is excellent under less than perfect conditions and the second unit work featuring striking establishing shots and effective use of time lapse photography gives each episode a meaty, visual kick. The show's theme music is urgent and dramatic, and the integration of top notch graphics (with accompanying sound effects) adds enormously to the atmosphere. Always compelling and frequently brilliant, this underrated hour of harsh, fascinating reality is a must-see for anybody with an interest in dissecting the human condition.

The First 48 is police work as it is, without the high production values (light filters, Massive Attack tunes, and clean crime labs) and professional writing staffs. The documentary style brings the viewer right into the investigations and presents the Job better than Dennis Leary ever could.Each episode, as far as I can tell, is divided into two separate story lines that follows the course of two cases in different cities. Dallas, Phoenix, Kansas City, Detroit, Memphis and Miami tend to dominate the series. It would do the show well to expand to other cities, yet to be CSIed like Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Buffalo, Houston, New Haven, and Montreal even. These cases are not always resolved in the critical first two days of an investigation, and this lets the public audience in on the life of Homicide detectives.The life entails long shifts without sleep, spent following leads and witnesses that often times don't have anything to offer the investigation. When the cases are brought to trial, the evidence and the story tends to present itself serendipitously and when the cases go nowhere the show remains resolved. Homicide Detectives invest their lives into those of the Dead, and it becomes clear how important their work truly is for safety and protection of the rest of us.The better fictional police shows on Network Television, Cable and HBO, like CSI, the Closer, the Wire and the Helen Mirren PrimeSuspect series follow the precepts of the First 48. Bad things can happen and cases become cold and forgotten, buried underneath new homicides. Despite this, the First 48 is refreshing because it shows the Police as human beings, subject to the imperfections that most Television shows fail to recognize or portray as more than caricatures, artificial dialogue devices and empty.The series is well-edited and paced. It has pleasant time-lapse photography of cityscapes to serve as transitions to contain the 'action' within an hour-long show, and the separate cases breaks up the monotony. If you are looking for non-stop action, thrilling car cases, and low-cut sweaters; this show is not for you.Its real. Its boring, but its Real. A&E has another terrific show to compliment its catalogue and its a lot less preachy than Dog: The Bounty Hunter.