User Reviews

The plot of "The Burning Ice" is pretty good--the story has originality and a few nice twists. However, in one way the episode was a disappointment to me--Jackie Cooper's guest appearance. I was happy see this ex-child star in the show and yet his performance seemed amazingly muted and a bit dull. How this could be is beyond me--as his character should have been much more interesting and less passive.

The film begins with a doctor and his emotionally estranged wife talking. It's obvious there is a lot of tension in the marriage and the husband (Cooper) is incredibly distant. Only moments later, we see the wife killed--and her jewelry is stolen. However, who did this is uncertain. Cooper tells the police that some stranger did this and at this point the authorities have no reason to think otherwise.

Later, when the police catch a man with the jewels from the dead woman, it appears as if they've got the assailant. At first, the man denies involvement but eventually he admits to the killing. However, it also turns out the man is dying from leukemia and it seems pretty doubtful that he committed the crime. Tune in to see what really happened.

Overall, as interesting plot but like I already said, the character played by Cooper is a bit dull.

OK, interesting problem - find the weapon used to kill the doctor's wife.

The supposed killer claims to have thrown the gun into a canal from a bridge. The canal is a rather limited area to search. When the results are negative, McGarrett has to find another place the gun might be. Somehow he comes up with the correct answer, and the case is largely solved.

A couple of issues - if the doctor is smart enough to re-bore the gun to disguise the ballistics, why keep the metal shavings? If he had disposed of the shavings - a magnet and vacuum cleaner would likely have done the job to get all pieces - then there would be nothing to show he re-bored the gun.

As for Mr. Harper, it would have been better to have claimed to have thrown the gun into the ocean, with a vague recollection of the exact place. A much larger area to search.

As for Jackie Cooper's acting, he probably was directed to act in the manner shown. Perhaps he could have been a bit more emotional,even if he claims he and his wife were distant. After all, at one time he must have loved her, he married her. But I suspect the writers were more interested in the murder case solution than the characters. The actress playing Mrs. Harper got to show most of the emotion, perhaps they though that was enough.