Cold Case (TV Series) Honor (2005) User Reviews

The Coward

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 10 February 2010]

A hero's welcome has been prepared for returning Viet Nam hero, Carl Burton. His young son Ned is surprised when they are finally reunited. Up to this point, Ned had been under the impression Ken is his real father. No wonder, his young mother, Janet, has been friendly in more ways than met the eye toward Ken, who came earlier from the war. Ned had collected a lot of those POW bracelets with his missing father's name that were worn by well wishers all over the country.

Carl is the object of much talk among the veterans that are back, trying to go back to normal lives. One thing for sure, Carl was no hero. Under pressure, and after many beatings, Carl decided to "cooperate" with his captors, and thus, his release from prison. Daniel Potter, the young son of one American POW, is particularly interested in Carl Burton's story; he is bitter about Carl taking credit for things he knows aren't true.

The Cold Case team goes into action to reconstruct the circumstances that led to Carl's assassination. What first appeared to have been a suicide, is found not to have been true. There were a lot of people that hated Burton for being a coward and for selling the other men that preferred to endure the punishment from the Viet Cong captors than cooperate with them.

An interesting episode directed by Paris Barclay, who is a frequent collaborator, working with Mark Turk's excellent screenplay. Detective Kat Miller, played by Tracie Tooms, who will become part of the team, makes an appearance. Good performances by Brynn Thayer as the older Janet Burton. John Alsopp is also good as Carl. An intense Michael Welsh is seen as Daniel Potter.

Mini Me Clone of Col Jack O'Neil (SG1) goes back to 72

[radarfirs7 · 8/10 · 19 July 2020]

First, I am a Vet who missed going to VN by ~8mo; but still saw plenty especially took care of WW1, WW2, Korea, VN, Beirut, 1st GW & few others as a USN / USMC Corpsman, later as a USN Nurse Corps Officer. Also saw over 30 countries while in Uniform. Took care of many POW's. It took me a little while to get to watching this. Most Vets (esp those in Medical) learn to use Humor to keep coming to work, and later sometimes get thru our bad PTSD days. Those who went to VN had it worst to the point that Confederate Soldiers were treated better until recently. Those Hippies sadly are todays Professors ... that called (and some still show disrespect) returning Soldiers "Baby Killers" / Etc. VN Vets only had each other and their Families at home on their side. So when you think of that, then someone did something to go home early were seen as Traitors, due to the Media, and Hippies etc were calling them negative terms. I bet most of those Hippies/Media types who burned their Draft Cards would have been the types who would have joined Hanoi Jane Fonda. I wonder if Jane Fonda had a part of this Characters choosing to give up? Same Year that this soldier came home early, as when Jane Fonda was at the Hanoi Hilton POW Camp of 1972. Jane Fonda, Donald Southerland, and few other actors did "ANTI-USO" Tours in Vietnam. Another reason some gave up seeing her with their Captors, and playing with anti aircraft guns. These are things that even some Vietnam Vets (& POWs) didn't know until a few years after VN was over, for the Media and gov't blacked those stories out as they did with the Letters. Most Vets / POWs will forgive their Brother/Sister in arms before they will forgive Jane Fonda. So before getting angry with this Pilot agreeing to do Propaganda for the VN Captors, think about how the Country treated them. What they are doing to Confederate Statues today (Which should have been done years / decades ago) is what protesters did to "LIVE" Veterans returning from Vietnam.

OH the Title is from SG1 "Fragile Balance" episode of 2003.

Very affecting drama

[candyapplegrey · 10/10 · 8 December 2008]

Before 'Honor', I could take or leave Cold Case. The stories were sometimes interesting but I didn't originally identify with the regular cast, finding Lil's (Kathryn Morris) unrealistic hair and unearthly pallor a bit irritating although I've come to appreciate her and Scotty (Danny Pino) over time. I loved the use of music from the era of the original crimes to set the scene, something which is particularly exquisite in this episode.

In fact, 'Honor' far surpassed the others I had seen in this and everything else, partly because of the nature of the tragedy and partly because of the faultless, immensely simpatico performance of John Allsopp as the damaged Vietnam vet, Carl Burton, heart-wrenching from the first notes of Elton John's 'Rocket Man' as he tries to reconnect with a son who doesn't recognise him, to the last strains of Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind' (was music really better in the 70s?), the final, moving salute and Carl's incredibly sad eyes. Now I can't listen to that song without becoming emotional. But this is what good TV should do, be put together so perfectly that it can affect you in this way.

Once again, horrible camera tricks spoil an episode.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 19 July 2013]

I have enjoyed most episodes of "Cold Case". However, tonight I watched two re-runs that really annoyed me. "Start-up" and "Honor" (both November, 2005). Perhaps the problem occurred in other shows--but in this case it was two in a row. Both had camera tricks that simply made the shows nauseating--especially as I watched them on a 58" TV. In "Honor", there were two huge problem: the flashback scenes and the spinning camera (also seen in "Start-up"). In the flashbacks to 1973, it appears as if the film was digitized and deliberately made to look VERY choppy. I have no idea why they did this--back in 1973, things were NOT like this and the look didn't help the plot at all. As for the spinning camera, while it's an impressive trick, it also is nausea-inducing. The camera literally does 360s around the folks in some scenes again and again. Nice...but hard on the eyes.

As for the show, it's not a bad episode. It involves a dead ex-POW from the Vietnam War. Now that a bunch of i.d. bracelets have been discovered, the case is re-opened and the case details the story of a guy who was broken while in one of these camps. Exactly who was responsible for this guy's murder is something you'll have to find out for yourself. A decent tribute to the guys who served and a strong indictment about freaks who pretend that they were POWs. Worth watching...provided you don't mind closing your eyes from time to time!