Cold Case (TV Series) A Perfect Day (2005) User Reviews

Have a Kleenex handy for this one.

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 19 July 2013]

"Cold Case" is often a very sad and moving show--and "A Perfect Day" is clearly one of the saddest and most moving. So, my advice is to watch this one but have some Kleenex nearby--you'll likely need them.

The show begins with the discovery of the skeleton of a child--dead 40 some years and at the bottom of the river. Who was the child and how did she die--this is the job of the cold case team. The trail leads to a very sad case from the 1960s involving domestic violence and a mother who is trapped. I'd say more, but don't want to spoil the episode for you.

Overall, this one was very sensitively handled and an emotional show. It is the sort of thing that, when done right, is great because it touches you so much--and the script and acting were tops. Well worth seeing.

Tough episode but raises some very important issues

[bbewnylorac · 8/10 · 9 July 2020]

As others say, Cold Case does often exaggerate how quickly cases are solved and the probability they could be ever solved. However if you put that aside, this is an excellent episode. It is also extremely distressing, and should come with a viewer warning. However it is a story that should be told - and it does need to be told in detail to convey how horrific domestic violence is. I've read of similar events happening to real life families. The plot: A little girl's body is found on a river bank after 40 years, and she wasn't even reported missing - she was that badly neglected and abused. Gradually the story unfolds - the girl suffered bad fractures when she was alive. The girl had a twin sister who was adopted out after her mother abandoned her in a church. The abandoned girl had a necklace that connected her to a policeman who at first is suspected of being the girl's killer. The girls' actual father was also a policeman and a colleague of the first man. The father was a horrific abuser of his wife and daughters. The wife and daughters escaped to a shelter but were tracked down and lured back by the husband, who killed one of the daughters by throwing her off a bridge. It's a well paced episode and the actress who plays the mother gives a great performance as a woman who has nowhere else to go, in the 1960s when sadly some people turned a blind eye to battered woman and children.

The BEST episode of Cold Case, HANDS DOWN!

[mrskatiawolfe · 10/10 · 7 September 2021]

I love everything about this episode. The complex storyline and the tragedy and desperation of each character is nothing short of gripping. The fact that the antagonist had been dead for years, yet since all his victims wanted to look out for each other and not have any contact in case it lead to his finding his wife and child and hurting them, just makes the whole story more tragic. You feel for each of the protagonists and the challenges they faced all those years ago due to how society was back then.

Amazing acting and directing

[jcook56050 · 10 March 2012]

It took me a while to warm up to this series while watching reruns on ION TV. One has to realize that in order for this series to work, the writers had to provide clues to the detectives that sometimes stretched the boundaries of credibility. With that in mind, this particular episode covers a home scenario that far too many of us have had to endure. I am not ashamed to admit that I sat there completely transfixed by the amazing acting and directing job done by all of the main actors, including Maridith Monroe, Michael Roderick, Charlotte Stewart, the twins, Amy and Zoe Schlagel and all of our regular cast. Director Roxann Dawson (Lt. Torres of Star Trek Voyager) is seeing her best moment in this episode. Whether she personally had this experience or not, she and the show's writers have created a timeless expression of what so many families have gone through. The episode covers spousal and child abuse with a chilling note of restraint. You may not actually see the worst of the physical and emotional moment, but the story demands that we slowly come to realize the secretive manipulation that occurs when a husband develops an insanity that compels him to injure or kill those he loves. And, I can say from personal experience (in my childhood) that wives who discover they are victims of the insanity will cover up the crime when there seems no reason to do so - sometimes ignoring the problem until it is far too late to save their own children. Family abuse is also one of the most emotional, difficult and dirty sides of police work. I will rate this episode as one of the most riveting and poignant portrayals of an all too common social sickness. As a man I don't often tear up during a television show. But, this one jerked my heart out.

Extremely difficult to watch but important story to tell.

[ackizer18 · 8/10 · 28 June 2021]

Maybe it is because I am a new mother, but the end was incredibly difficult to watch. Made me sick to my stomach to see. Sadly, this is the reality for so many women and children still today.

The Jersey shore

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 13 February 2010]

Remains belonging to a child are recovered from a river. The Cold Case team determined they belong to a young girl. As they begin the investigation, the detectives are puzzled because they don't find anything that might link the crime to anything that was reported at the time it is suspected the crime was committed. With the new technique, the victim is given a face the computer thinks she must have looked at the time when she died. The team gets lucky when they uncovered a hospital record signed by a doctor who is still alive and was the one that treated the dead child Vivian Mulvaney, who was taken to the hospital with a broken arm.

A woman who saw the composite picture in a court house comes forward. She is Maura. The only problem is that she doesn't remember much about what happened to her twin sister Vivian. Maura tells the police about her adoption and what she remembers when her mother left her in a church. Another clue comes out in the form of a medal Maura was given by her mother. It turned out to have the badge of a police officer, Art Balducci, engraved in the back. The detectives get lucky with the discovery because he is able to identify Maura as the daughter of Cindy Mulvaney, a battered woman he came to love.

In going to the past, Art provides the police with missing links. Cindy was an abused woman. Her police officer husband, Roger, battered her mercilessly. Cindy had to take the girls into the home of a lady with a kind heart who took women in Mrs. Mulvaney's situation to isolate them from the abuse at home. Unfortunately, Roger finds Cindy and the twins. Roger had been roughed up by Art with the help of fellow officers. In a flashback we watch as Roger stops the car in a bridge and takes the twins from Cindy.

This episode of "Cold Case" was directed by Roxann Dawson and written by one of the frequent contributors, Veena Sud. The regulars do their usual fine job. They are joined by Meredith Monroe, who is seen as Cindy. Christopher Stewart and Ned Schmidtke play Art Balducci, as young man, and the old one.

a perfect day

[teotrikas · 10/10 · 22 August 2008]

i am from Greece and i watched this episode last night! it made me cry...i can't even remember when was the last time i did that! i believe this is one of the best episodes of "cold case".it was amazing from the first till the last minute of it.my opinion is that the fact that Art killed Cindy's husband was the right thing to do.i mean that they were met once and they fell in love with the first sight.a true love.But roger was hitting her and the children...4 years old girls! and he knew inside him that there wasn't be a happy ending of this situation!i believe that anyone in his place would lost his mind when he lost Cindy..and he was paining inside after 40 years and waiting for her.and they finally met each other again...

'Cold Case' Requires a Certain Amount of Suspended Belief

[gsfsu · 8/10 · 6 March 2012]

Another reviewer raised the point that detectives were able to identify a 60-year old murder because both the attending doctor and detective were still alive and could remember her. This is typical of 'Cold Case' stories. In addition, virtually all the people associated with old crimes are still living in the Philly area.

Solving cases like this in real life where I live (a new Western city) would be virtually impossible due to the more transient nature of the population. This may have been one reason the series is located in Philly - an old Eastern city where people stay put.

As long as you can accept the above scenario 'Cold Case' will appeal to you even though some stories really stretch believability.