Quincy M.E. (TV Series) To Kill in Plain Sight (1981) User Reviews

"I've got four men in the hall & at the door with instructions to stick to you like fresh paint." More quality Quincy.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 18 May 2007]

Quincy M.E.: To Kill in Plain Sight starts as an assassins scout named Lane Garrison (Blake Marion) is ironically assassinated himself by letter bomb, L.A.'s finest Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) & Quincy (Jack Klugman) are on the case. In the dead mans bathroom Quincy notices a burnt piece of paper with vague details of an assassination which is due to take place in less than 24 hours at a hotel staging a Western Governor's conference, with virtually nothing to go on Quincy has to use his medical knowledge & scientific knowhow to piece the puzzle together & prevent the hit from ever taking place...

Episode 16 from season 6 this Quincy story was directed by Ray Austin & sees the show in top form. Written by Geoffrey Fischer this is a great episode in my opinion, it just about has it all. There's the murder mystery element that hooks you, there's plenty of sinister goings on, it has a couple of surprisingly effective twists in it, the intriguing premise of Quincy having to almost solve a murder before it has taken place & there's even time for the trade mark social/moral message. There's a fair amount going on in To Kill in Plain Sight with various corrupt politicians trying to get the upper-hand against each other, shady mob dealings, blackmail, assassination attempts & poison darts! It's all here in a great bite-sized 60 minute episode!

Apparently this was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles & I'm sure anyone who lives there will know where it is. On the down side in this episode some of the leaps of faith in the logic are a little hard to swallow. The acting is good as usual from the regular cast & both veteran actors Fritz Weaver & William Prince make for suitably slimy politicians.

To Kill in Plain Sight is another top Quincy story with some nice twists & turns, an absolute must for fans & murder mystery addicts alike!

Entertaining murder mystery episode

[rayoflite24 · 8/10 · 27 November 2015]

To Kill in Plain Sight begins with a lookout for an assassin receiving a package at his hotel room which explodes killing him instantly. Quincy (Jack Klugman) is called to the scene and later conducts the autopsy, but there is very little to go on because the body was so damaged in the explosion. He does find evidence of a distinct tattoo and a note in the room which seems to indicate that a politician will be assassinated at a governors convention which is about to begin. To prevent this from happening, Quincy and the police must figure out who the victim was working for as well as the intended target while also having to deal with a media frenzy.

This is a good murder mystery episode which I found to be interesting and entertaining. My only criticisms are that I was able to figure out the culprit by the middle of the episode and I also found it pretty unrealistic that they continued with this convention when there was already one murder and another politician was being targeted. I doubt there was anything on the agenda worth risking lives for and the police would have normally shut it down, but not Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) and crew.

Aside from these two minor issues, this is a pretty compelling Season 6 entry which I did enjoy as there was a crime and an investigation featured along with several suspects. This is the type of Quincy episode that I thoroughly enjoy as I think most other fans do and I highly recommend viewing!

Tense and exciting.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 May 2013]

Aside from the fact that I was able to guess who the assassin was, it's still a dandy episode--the sort that the program did best. There is no Quincy standing on his soapbox whining about the social issue of the week but a serious crime investigation--the sort of thing the show had emphasized early in the series.

The show begins with an explosion--and an unknown man is killed. In fact, there's barely any of the guy left and the only way they can identify him is from a tattoo! However, Quincy finds something else in the explosion that makes him and Monahan stop in their tracks--the remains of a note that appears to mean that the dead man was involved in some sort of upcoming assassination! So, they need to try to discover who the target is and where before it's too late. The trail leads to a couple politicians--a senator (Fritz Weaver) and his political nemesis, a governor (William Prince). Which of the two, if either, is the target? And, what sort of shady deals are they involved in? Quincy, of course, end up in the middle of it--along with a shifty assistant to the Governor (John Ireland) and an annoying reporter.

Tense. That's what makes this a good one. Well written and enjoyable throughout.

A good tense mystery

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 28 April 2024]

A man shows up to "front" for a hired assassin, doing recon on the location, which is an upcoming Western Governor's Convention. The man is killed by a letter bomb sent to his room. The police find evidence in the man's room that he is fronting for a hired assassin, but they don't know who the front man is, and he registered under an alias, so they use the autopsy to try and figure out who this guy is and thus maybe figure out who could have hired him and who the target of the hired assassin might be. His face is pretty much destroyed, so they try to use stomach contents and a very distinctive tattoo to determine his identity.

Meanwhile the guests start showing up at the convention, and the plot seems to be pointing the audience in the direction of two possible targets who are political rivals. One of them is a villain, maybe one is even behind the hired-killing-to-be of the other, but you are kept guessing until the end as to which is which or maybe it's none of the above. Meanwhile, the police are trying to figure out who the target is and who the assassin is with an oversized dose of help from Quincy considering he is not a police investigator.

This has the feel of one of those private investigator/political thrillers of the seventies, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I figured out who the assassin was pretty easily, and other reviewers have said the same, but the rest of the mystery - the why and who - is quite good.

There's a funny bit of business between Quincy and a tattoo artist that he visits when he is trying to narrow down who did the tattoo work on the initial victim. She gets unexpectedly flirtatious with Quincy in his office and his facial expressions are hilarious.