The Murder Show

Goldman (Still Waters) disappoints with this rote thriller about a TV showrunner who uncovers a pattern of violence in his hometown. Ethan Harris returns home to Minneapolis during a Hollywood writers' strike, afraid that his crime series, The Murder Show, will be canceled if he doesn't formulate a strong concept for the upcoming fourth season. Serendipitously, he runs into Ro Greeman, an old classmate and former flame who's become a cop in the years since both graduated from high school. She immediately offers a suggestion for Harris's show: 22 years earlier, their friend, Ricky O'Shea, was killed by a hit-and-run driver, and Ro suspects that his death was linked to 11 similar cases that occurred over the past 30 years. While writing up a storm, Ethan agrees to help Ro investigate. When an unseen assailant shoots at them, they realize they're onto something. Goldman lapses into purple prose ("Time ticked to nowhere as their lips and hands said what their voices had been unable to articulate"), and the plotting feels overfamiliar. There's not much to see here. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Apr.)