On the Glories of “Lt. Joe Kenda: Homicide Hunter”

It’s a red letter day at Travalanche, for tonight marks the season premiere of season three of Investigation Discovery’s Lt. Joe Kenda: Homicide Hunter.

It may shock and alarm you to know that we are fans of such things, but what are you going to do to for pure relaxation when your work is the study of all forms of SHOW BUSINESS? Our answer tends to be true crime and paranormal reality shows — no “thinky thinky” or “judgy judgy” involved. But Homicide Hunter is too good not to sing its praises, so here we are — back to work.

Around our house Kenda is a rock star. An impossibly sedate man, sightly shlumpy, he relates the high points of his career as a homicide detective in the small-to-medium sized city of Colorado Springs. And wouldn’t you know, they have a surprising amount of murder in that town! But of course Kenda spent a few decades on the job; I’m sure every single day wasn’t the adventure it seems on the show.

At any rate, I love how the show is directed. They take this very distinctive tack of shooting Kenda in extreme close up, as if you’re sitting across from him on a very intimate date, and in his low-key manner he weaves his amazing tales, which of course completely contrast with his implacable attitude. After all, these are stories of horror and murder. Kenda comes across as a decent man, appalled at the cold-heartedness of some of the people he’s had to deal with, and it’s made him just a touch cynical and jaded — not enough to corrupt him, just enough to give him a bit of droll gallows humor, of just the sort you’d want the cop from central casting to have. Something about his manner reminds me of the assistant principal, the one who’s in charge of discipline. He makes the bad guys look not just bad, but invariably foolish. They are people who’ve done the worst thing a human being can do. And, well, who DOES something like that? For the most part, they ain’t rocket scientists. His job is to scoop ’em up, and throw ’em in the tank.

The Duchess and I are not the only ones in his fan club. Others love to parrot his catchphrases, such as the ever popular “Well…my, my, my” (delivered to the perps in his stories with a single eyebrow raised). For maximum hilarity, he is played in the flashbacks by a man 30 years his junior who looks nothing like him — par for the course in true crime re-enactments.

So I guess you know where we’ll be tuned tonight. Here’s more info about the show:  http://investigation.discovery.com/tv-shows/homicide-hunter-joe-kenda

And here’s the last word from Kenda: