It this first episode of the Jesse Stone series Tom Selleck portrays a small town cop who is forced to deal with killings that seem to keep piling up. He had been a big town cop so he had more experience than the average small town cop which proved to he his edge in this intriguing TV movie. It looked might good to have been made specifically for TV.I like the pace this and all of the Jesse Stone series move at. I bit slow for those who like to see cars flying through the air and buildings exploding. With Jesse Stone it is ninety percent mind work. We get to see his facial expressions, watch his actions as a gateway to what his thoughts are. He speaks only when he needs to, He is a straight shooter, no games, no politics. He truly is a sensible, good cop kind of guy.I saw this a few years ago and recently when I watched another I decided it was time to come and post a comment. I'm going to start on the rest of the series. The DVD rental store nearest me told me it is hard to keep the Jesse Stone movies on the shelf. They have a way of disappearing. Evidently people like them so well they keep them and offer to pay for them.

Tom Selleck, he of the high testosterone and hairy chest, the iconic Magnum from the hit series "back in the day" was a young 60 years old when he decided to play a city cop who retired to "Paradise" - a perfect little town in an undisclosed location. It was a TV movie based on a well-written detective series, filmed in Canada, and expectations were not high. Leaving aside the question as to whether a man of this age would be hired for this job, Selleck not only met expectations but exceeded them, delivering a quietly effective portrayal of Stone, a man who essentially got stuff done. This portrayal led to others in the series, all well-received, all shot "on the cheap." His actual co-star was the town Lunenburg NS, on the South Shore in that province, the closest thing to "paradise" the producers could find. The town is real, a large percentage of Americans vacation there, and if two people driving in opposite directions should wish to say "hi," they will stop in the middle of the street, blocking traffic, and do so. And no one will honk. Because in Paradise, everyone understands.

This one is extremely disappointing, especially if you have seen other ones of the Jesse Stone series. The dialogue is pretty bad and clearly aimed to dish out as many memorable one-liners as possible. Although Stone still seems to be an alcoholic, that does not affect him at all, he is fully functional. At one point it becomes clear that he has been divorced five years ago, yet his ex still leaves messages on his answering machine ? His relationship to the prosecutor is way too cozy and lacks all tension now. The couple that randomly murders people is really just ridiculous and lacks all credibility. Each and every subplot is way too overdone. Why would high school football players rape a thirteen year old, small and fairly ugly, kid ? And if he KNOWS who the killers are, why are they not put under 24-hour surveillance immediately ? Oh yes, earlier on they film him, with a camera that cannot possibly be more than 20 feet away, and he does not notice ? And yet another lawyer coming on to him ? In summary, nothing makes sense in this film, there is too much stuff moving too fast. Too bad, since other Jesse Stone sequels are really good...

Tom Selleck does a great job playing an alcoholic former LA Detective who is now the sheriff of a small Massachusetts town. Everything else about the movie was stupid. The portrayal of the serial killers was ludicrous. If you are a fan of cheesy TV murder mysteries like "Murder She Wrote", then you may like this. The over the top characterizations/portrayals of the Rape Victim, the rape victim's mother, the rapists, and the rapists parents, were all so bad it was painful to watch. Mimi Rogers was so voraciously sexual (as are all women in Selleck's adopted town) I felt like a voyeur watching the scene. I never read the book, but I hope the characters were more realistic than the TV movie. Clearly, the teleplay writers (or perhaps the novel's author) simply collected all the small town stereotypes in one place and inserted them - "insert stereotype A into Scene 2".No matter how good any of the actors are, they can only do so much with such ridiculous dialog.