Monday, March 19, 2007
By HAL BOEDEKER
ORLANDO SENTINEL
Premiering tonight on Court TV: The story of the Florida funeral director who stabbed his wife to death, then buried her in the same coffin with an old woman.
But the story has shifted to Seattle. The names have changed. And film director John Waters plays the Groom Reaper.
"Why is it that the cops are never around when you need them, but as soon as you murder your wife, they're all over you?" the Groom Reaper asks.
The Groom Reaper opens and closes "'Til Death Do Us Part," an anthology series that debuts with back-to-back episodes. First up is "The Airplane Murder," explaining how one spouse has trouble disposing of the other's body. That episode screens in the show's regular 10 p.m. EDT Monday slot. Then "Funeral Parlor Murder" premieres at 10:30 p.m.
In tradition of Coen brothers
"Law & amp; Order" takes a serious approach in telling stories ripped from the headlines. "'Til Death Do Us Part" travels a darkly comic route.
"There's nothing funny about someone getting murdered," says Dara Cohen, the show's executive creative consultant. "It's in the Coen brothers tone. 'Fargo' is a funny movie, but it's a gruesome crime. That's how we walked the same line."
She says that the show looks for "obscure cases that had interesting elements." "'Til Death Do Us Part" remains true to basic facts: which spouses killed, how they did it, how they tried to cover up the crimes and how they were arrested. In the 13 episodes filmed so far, she says, the killers show no remorse until they are caught.