The Bad Son (TV Movie 2007)

The Bad Son: Directed by Neill Fearnley. With Catherine Dent, Tom McBeath, Ben Cotton, Marilyn Norry. Starring Catherine Dent. A resourceful female cop fights a deadline to stop an elusive serial killer and his bizarre mother from claiming their next victim.

“At the start of the movie, Seattle detective Petrocelli is impatient as he investigates a murder. The cop who figures out when the murder took place wants him to be patient with her.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSix years later, Colleen is missing. Her husband John David Finn is a suspect in what may be a murder. Over the past six years, Petrocelli has investigated several murders of women who looked like Colleen and had a similar history. Furthermore, each woman was murdered the same way–and each victim had no fingerprints or a recognizable face after the murderer finished with her. This would make her hard to identify.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs we learn in flashbacks, Colleen ran away from home and ended up at the Seattle airport, where John worked as a security guard. He was charming and ended up romancing her. His overprotective mother did not approve.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDetective Ronnie McAdams is investigating Colleenu0026#39;s disappearance, but because of the connection to John, she ends up having to work with Petrocelli, who doesnu0026#39;t get along well with others. Ronnie has Christy, a rebellious teenage daughter of her own, to deal with. Christyu0026#39;s boyfriend Trey will potentially be trouble. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOver the six years, Johnu0026#39;s mother Frances, a veteran Seattle Police Department employee, has felt Petrocelli was harassing her son. If he was guilty, though, itu0026#39;s a good thing John had someone on the inside to cover up anything that might incriminate him. And she certainly knows her rights and takes full advantage of them. She has a disabled brother Gerry who depends on her a lot. Colleen and John also have a baby.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis was interesting, partly because Ronnie and Christy had their own story line. I would watch a TV series starring those characters and Petrocelli as Ronnieu0026#39;s unlikely partner. But I donu0026#39;t think this was a pilot.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere may be a logical explanation for what happened to Colleen and the other women. Weu0026#39;re never quite sure who did it until the end. But the actors playing both John and his overprotective mother do quite a good job. John is first charming, then creepy, then overly confident.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn interesting technique with the flashbacks: they look like a signal from a distant analog TV station. But here in the United States, except for low-powered TV, there is no analog signal. The perfect digital signal returns once the flashback is over. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is pretty good.”