The Shadow of Death

I always find that Quincy is better when it is a crime fighting episode. Unfortunately there are also many many episodes where our hero gets caught up in a "noble" cause, and the episode becomes preachy and judgy. I find them boring, but it's almost sacrilegious to admit it because of the nobility of the cause. This was one of those episodes...excellent cause, yes. But not enough exciting, seat of the pants dramatic crime fighting for my liking.

"The Shadow of Death" is an episode of "Quincy" about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)--particularly as it effects Vietnam veterans. While it's an important topic and well worth exploring on the show, as usual there is too much preaching AT the audience instead of just telling the story.

The story begins with a woman who obviously has a VERY serious drinking problem. What isn't as apparent is that her drinking is the result or at least exacerbated by her having PTSD. She was a nurse in Vietnam and saw a lot of death--and deals with it by drinking herself into oblivion. Soon, she is found dead. Quincy's autopsy shows the woman was also raped--though the autopsy and subsequent investigation are a small part of the show. The huge majority involves this dead woman's friend--a problem drinker who is also suffering from PTSD. But this friend is in denial and Quincy decides to make it his cause of the week to help her come to grips with this.

The idea of talking about PTSD is reasonable--especially since few think of WOMEN serving in the war also suffering. This is great. However, what isn't great is all the preaching--and one too many speech that seems directed directly at the audience. Not exactly entertaining and far from subtle.

By the way, although a huge to do was made about PTSD following the Vietnam War, this has ALWAYS been a problem--in wars before and wars after. This is not at all mentioned in the show--and it seems based on "Quincy" that is was ONLY specific to Vietnam (which it wasn't).

The Shadow of Death begins with two former Army nurses that served in Vietnam drinking heavily in a bar and one leaving with a man. She is later found shot to death and raped at her home, and Quincy conducts the autopsy at the coroner lab. He learns from the friend, Rachael Kane (Karen Austin), that the victim suffered from PTSD which she coped with through alcoholism, and it quickly becomes evident to Quincy that Rachael is experiencing the same problems. This leads Quincy to help Rachael better cope with her PTSD through a support group while they also try and figure out who killed her friend.

This is an OK episode which does feature a murder mystery and a surprising twist at the conclusion which are both good things, the only problem is that the murder investigation is so relegated to the background in favor of the PTSD treatment being given the spotlight that it makes it difficult to enjoy. While the large number of Americans returning from military service and suffering from this condition continues to be a critical issue to this day and I'm glad to see that this was addressed, I just feel like at this point in the series I have seen one too many group therapy sessions featured in these types of stories and I'm just over it. I think they could have left some of the therapy scenes out and beefed up the investigation a little more to make this a stronger episode that still delivered an important message effectively.

Overall this is an average Season 7 story that effectively addresses a complex social problem and has a crime investigation thrown in for good measure, but it comes off as a little unbalanced as we see much more of the former rather than the latter.