Body of Proof: Season 1

Full disclosure, I’ve been in love with Dana Delany since first seeing her on “China Beach” back in the early 90’s when she starred as Vietnam War era Army nurse Colleen McMurphy so I wanted to like this show. In this series she’s playing a Philadelphia Medical Examiner, Dr. Meghan Hunt, an arrogant but gifted neurosurgeon who suffers paresthesia’s (numbness) in her hands after a car wreck. This condition results in the death of a patient which is why she had to give up her practice and is now an M.E. Really, this is pretty much the origin story of the MCU’s “Dr. Strange” except rather than studying the mystic arts with The Ancient One and becoming a sorcerer, Dr. Hunt elects to become a medical examiner but I suspect the two of them would get along famously. To say that she’s bit bitter and prickly is an understatement. We’ve seen this type plenty of times before; they’re difficult but brilliant so everyone puts up with them (paging Dr. House, paging Dr. Brennan). And like another TV M.E., Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) from “Rizzoli & Isles”, Dr. Hunt is a bit of a fashionista and wears very expensive and impractical outfits and shoes to crime scenes. Additionally Megan is divorced and her ex got custody of their daughter Lacey because workaholic mom wasn’t around much and judged to be an absentee parent. Now that her life is changed Megan is trying to reconnect with the young teen and overcompensates so it doesn’t go very well and frankly I could do without devoting so much time to this subplot. Now that she’s alone she is constantly being lectured by her various co-workers to essentially “get a life”. It’s nice that they care I suppose but their persistent nagging amounts to borderline harassment. She shuts them down pretty easily; nobody does a better side eye than Dana Delany. Whenever Megan does awkwardly try to reach out and make friends the result is predictably poor. Supporting cast includes other favorites of mine; Jeri Ryan as Megan’s boss Dr. Kate Murphy and Sonja Sohn as Detective Samantha Baker who was terrific as Det. Kima Greggs on “The Wire. Megan’s crime solving ‘partner’ Peter Dunlop (Nicholas Bishop) is a former cop turned Medicolegal Investigator. He also wears a collection of some of the worst looking and ill-fitting sweaters I’ve ever seen paired with sloppy looking shirts that need to be buttoned up. Unfortunately, character development is sparse to non-existent and we don’t really learn much if anything about anyone other than Megan. As great as Delany is the writers burden her with a fair amount of cliché ridden dialog; stuff about speaking for the dead because they can’t speak for themselves and how the bodies are telling their story if you just look carefully enough, etc. Every episode they lay it on thicker and thicker- we get it, respect the dead, enough pontificating already. The sign over lab door even reads: Hic Locus est Ubi Mors Gaudet Succurrere Vitae (This is where death rejoices to teach the living), like I said- they beat you over the head with this theme. For a show which according to the Bonus Features took great pains to hire medical and legal consultants they still allow some pretty dubious things to happen. In S1, Ep. 4, ‘Talking Heads’, Megan’s daughter visits the M.E.’s office for a school project and interviews Mom and her colleagues. Despite Megan laying out all sorts of rules about no photos of bodies and such in the end we see Lacey’s video project and in it she reveals the full name of a deceased character including a photo of the victim. This seems like it would be very inappropriate unless she had some kind of release from the family. The same sort of thing happens more than once. The relatively short nine episode first season ends without any sort of cliff hanger and things are set up to easily continue for season two. The two DVD discs contain the usual smattering of bonus features such as a ‘gag’ reel, and various production vignettes about set design, wardrobe and such with actor interviews included.

Good

A good twisty- turny deceive story starring a strong woman. I’ll be sad when we’ve finished the series. The stories get better and better. I’m hooked!

I must admit, this show is a guilty pleasure. I was never a Dana Delaney fan. I was surprised when I ran across this show and caught myself involved. The characters are rich and intriguing. Megan Hunt (Dana Delaney)is a tough appearing medical examiner balancing a new career after an accident that forced her into her new career. She shows a softer side trying to get back in her daughters life after her ex husband won full custody in the divorce. Dana plays it well. I think she has finally found her best character in her career. Her co-workers are a great match, her boss Kate Murphy (Jeri Ryan) makes a perfect match of wit and toughness.(And Hot!) Bud, Peter and Samantha but heads with her methods but she wins their respect. Ethan (Geoffrey Arend) is a character that is a typical researcher, that knows just enough to almost get it right. The one character flaw is Curtis Brumfield (Windell D Middlebrooks) as another boss of such but I find it hard to take serious. He doesnt seem the type to be well educated enough to be in the position. (This may be typical of some upper management in a lot of places in the real world.) I love the show. Get rid of your apprehensions and watch this show. You will get hooked. There is a Body of Proof in the watching.

I was dubious about buying a series I'd never even seen one episode of, but the premise seemed good, ME who came late to the calling through injury and embraced a new career.I was thoroughly surprised and highly entertained by the set, often watching two or three episodes in a night.I find I want to write much more, but it's far better if you just buy and enjoy, so here's the basics.Delany performs very well as the ME working against initially sceptical officers, past a self focused mother who is also a judge.That her charcter does this while being depicted as an estranged mother who was basically abused by the legal system in a custody battle is credit to both her and the writers - it is believable and easy to relate to.The ways in which she tries valiently to rise above the incursions of domestic stituations created by a pre-teen girl as relationships re-establish and still manages to depict a vibrant dynamic and assertive individual in a work setting is a credit to the way the entire series are put together.I will be buying the second season, and if its similarly priced I won't bother about waiting for a sale.Out of 5* I'd average the episodes as follows:Screenplays ****Acting *****Sets ****Credibility *****If you enjoy crime or medical drama I'd be most surprised if you didn't watch this more than once.

I absolutely LOVE Dana Delaney. And she is FANTASTIC in Body of Proof! The first 2 seasons were so good then they made some mistakes and made some cast changes, John Carroll Lynch & Nic Bishop left And that did it, they started losing viewers so it got canceled after season 3. But it should’ve gotten a lot more life b/c the cast was so good. Jeri Ryan, Geoffrey Arend, and then the amazing Johanna Cassidy. But I love the reruns. But I DO NOT LIKE THE COMMERCIALS!

A cool series. It is a shame to have to purchase it from Australia but none-the-less it is a fantastic series and much liked by me

I will be getting season 2 shortly!!

When the DVD first arrived it would not play on any of my players - I emailed the seller who promptly sent me the 'all area' codes for my players with instructions on how to 'fettle' the players - since then I have had no problems. I would certainly not hesitate to buy 'region 1' DVD's in the future.

I stated watching Body if Proof on TV much later in the shows run. I decided to try and go back and see it from the start. Though the first season is good it like many other shows got better with time. I also did prefer some of the later show characters than in the first season but also glad they kept a few ( Ethan, Curtis, Dr.Murphey, Lacey, etc.) overall good show and the product was well delivered by Amazon

interesting scenarios with good actors

La production ne s'est pas fatigué : deux ou trois plans de Philly reviennent en boucle. Pourtant les différents quartiers ont des architectures bien spécifiques selon leur époque... ils auraient pu faire mieux car sans la diversité des plans ça sent trop le made in LA.Côté enquête le point de vue change un peu mais trop et du coup donne l'impression que les détectives n'ont que peu à faire. Mais c'est peut-être pour cela qu'il n'y a que 12 ou 16 épisodes pas saison au lieu des 24 dont j'avais pris l'habitude.La "vedette" rigide et coincée qui "ne se trompe jamais" est du style que je n'apprécie pas. Par contre la blonde a un naturel classe. Les deux gars du labo ont chacun leur fun plaisant et les détectives sont bons.Une série dont on peut se passer dans une collection.