The Last Good Place

September 14, 2015
In this prosaic revival of Carolyn Weston’s 1970s series (Poor, Poor Ophelia, etc.) from Burcell (The Kill Order), old-school cop Sgt. Al Krug and his partner, hotshot rookie Sgt. Casey Kellog, investigate the murder of Trudy Salvatori, who was attacked and strangled while jogging on San Francisco’s Presidio Promenade trail. Trudy’s best friend and neighbor, Marcie Valentine, was also jogging the trail a short ways behind her and is among the first to come across her body. The case at first appears to be the work of a serial killer dubbed the Landmark Strangler, but doubts quickly arise. Most of the plodding plot centers on the muddled relationships among the Salvatoris (Trudy and husband Tony), the Valentines (Marcie and husband Devin), real estate agent Bev Farland, and Trudy’s boss, Congressman Parnell. Fans of The Streets of San Francisco, the TV series adapted from Weston’s series starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, will best appreciate this bland effort.