Cold Case (TV Series) Strange Fruit (2005) User Reviews

Powerful Episode, Powerful Song

[maltraverso · 9/10 · 2 February 2024]

This powerful episode is made more meaningful by the use of a particularly apt closing song. "Strange Fruit" was written by Abel Meeropol as a reaction to a 1930 double lynching in Marion, Indiana which represented one of the last carnival-style lynchings in the US. The text of the song would suggest that this aberrant social behavior only existed in the magnolia-drenched land of Dixie, but as the reality showed, Indiana was hardly the Heart of the Confederacy. This episode shows that Pennsylvania was not Dixie either. While lynching was vigorously performed in the South, we should never forget that no state or territory was immune from blind hatred. This episode escaped perfection only because the producers decided to use the Nina Simone cover rather than the Billie Holiday original.

A 1963 timepiece portraying B&W racism at home and the job.

[willowspain · 10/10 · 31 July 2007]

Good acting,good story, good placement of details. Besides the usual insightful flashbacks ColdCase employs, I found this episode to be well supported by the choice of music and the timing of MLK's speech to the beating and subsequent death of Zeke Williams, a ploy that I would normally find corny and trite somehow works. Touching on all the tough issues of B&W racism, it accurately portrays the 'slightly' more subtle prejudices of the North. Mathilde's rape serves as a steppingstone to illustrate the complexities of relationships between the races. Tough love and self-preservation run neck and neck in a losing race to save family and Zeke's life. This episode is an excellent medium to encourage discussion about racism and how it plays out in real life. I would love to know if anyone knows the name of the last song played and the singer. Simply a beautiful closing to a tragic tale.