Crossing Jordan Review – I Have Thoughts

Crossing Jordan, Jumping the Shark, and Apparently I Have Thoughts

Maybe this blog should have come with a warning label: Every once in a while, it’s gonna get random because let’s face it, that’s just who I am.

This is one of those times.

A Couple Decades Late, But Here We Are

I am a late bloomer to the TV show Crossing Jordan, which originally aired on NBC from September 24, 2001, to May 16, 2007. It ran for six seasons and followed Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, a Boston medical examiner played by Jill Hennessy, who helped solve crimes through forensic work, stubbornness, emotional damage, and a very strong commitment to not staying in her lane.

The main cast also included Miguel Ferrer as Dr. Garret Macy, Ravi Kapoor as Bug, Steve Valentine as Nigel, Kathryn Hahn as Lily, Jerry O’Connell as Detective Woody Hoyt, Ken Howard as Jordan’s father, Max, and later on Leslie Bibb as Lu Simmons.

And honestly? For the first five-and-a-half-ish seasons, I was in.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The First Few Seasons Had Me

There was something about the writing style that felt clever and different. It had crime, mystery, weird bodies, family trauma, medical examiner stuff, and this kind of quirky, almost offbeat rhythm that didn’t feel like every other procedural from that time. It wasn’t just “body shows up, people say science words, bad guy gets caught.”

There was personality in it.

Sometimes too much personality, but still.

Jordan Cavanaugh was messy in a way I appreciated. She was smart, impulsive, annoying, funny, intense, and constantly doing things that would get a normal person fired, sued, arrested, or all three by lunch. But Jill Hennessy made her watchable.

I remembered Hennessy from Law & Order, where she played ADA Claire Kincaid, so seeing her in this totally different role was fun for me. Instead of buttoned-up legal calm, here she was stomping around Boston like the morgue gave her a badge and a permission slip from God.

And I respected that.

These Felt Like My People

The early seasons had this strange charm, and a huge part of that was the cast. They didn’t feel like shiny TV people pretending to have problems. They felt like messy, smart, awkward, wounded, funny people who had somehow found each other in the weirdest workplace possible.

Honestly, they felt like people I would be friends with.

Garret Macy was serious but not boring. Bug and Nigel brought weird little science-nerd energy. Woody had that awkward, likable detective thing going on. Jordan’s relationship with her dad gave the show an emotional center, even when it got strange.

And Lily had heart.

Kathryn Hahn played Lily with such softness and vulnerability, and it is funny watching her now after knowing her as the witchy, scene-stealing Agatha Harkness from WandaVision and Agatha All Along. Before all that Marvel magic, there she was in Crossing Jordan, making Lily feel tender, complicated, and real.

She had this way of making Lily feel like the person who saw everybody else’s pain, even when she was carrying her own.

I loved that.

And yes, the show could be dramatic. But at first, it felt like the drama came from character and story.

Then Season 5 Got Weird

Then somewhere around Season 5, I started feeling like the writers walked into the room and said:

“Okay, but how can we shock them?”

And friends, I think this is where Crossing Jordan jumped the shark.

There is a difference between “out of the box” and “are y’all okay in the writers’ room?”

One episode that really made me stop and stare at my TV was “Mace vs. Scalpel,” where Macy discovers a young boy being held captive. That storyline was dark-dark. Not just normal crime-show dark. More like:

“Oh, hey, let’s see if the audience is still awake by making this as disturbing as possible.”

The show had always dealt with death and ugly human behavior, obviously. It’s a morgue show. I did not turn it on expecting cupcakes and emotional support puppies.

But this felt like it crossed from clever crime drama into shock-value territory.

Shock Is Not the Same as Story

And it wasn’t just that episode.

By the later seasons, some of the body stuff, the ooze, the graphic portrayals, and the “what horrible thing can we throw at these characters now?” energy started feeling less creative and more desperate.

Like instead of trusting the characters they had spent years building, the show started chasing the gasp.

That’s what disappointed me.

Because I liked these people.

I liked the original weirdness. I liked the cast chemistry. I liked that it didn’t always feel predictable. I liked Jordan being imperfect. I liked that Lily could be tender without being weak. I liked that Garret could be rigid but still human. I liked that Woody could be sweet without being useless. I liked that Bug and Nigel were odd little geniuses in their own ways.

I liked that none of them felt perfect.

I liked that they all felt a little bruised.

And I liked the fact that Jordan was not written as some polished, likable, agreeable woman who always made the responsible choice.

In an old Backstage interview, Hennessy even talked about loving that Jordan was strong, stubborn, and sometimes unlikable, because female characters are so often expected to be likable in ways male characters are not.

That part, I respect.

But there’s a point where “flawed character” turns into:

“What the hell are we doing here?”

I Didn’t Hate It. That’s the Problem.

Apparently, I am not alone in having complicated feelings. Some fans online still remember Crossing Jordan fondly and talk about the cast chemistry, the fun stories, the Las Vegas crossover episodes, and how much they loved Jerry O’Connell as Woody.

Others have gone back and rewatched it and had a much rougher reaction, especially to Jordan’s behavior, the character choices, and how bizarre some of the later storytelling became.

And that’s about where I landed.

I don’t hate the show. Not at all.

Actually, I think that’s why I’m annoyed.

If I didn’t like it, I would just turn it off and move on with my life like a normal person. But no. Here I am. Writing a whole blog post about a show that ended in 2007 because apparently my brain has decided this is important.

What Made Me Care in the First Place

The first half of Crossing Jordan had something special. It was smart, strange, funny, dramatic, and a little bit haunted. It gave us a messy female lead before every show was trying to give us a messy female lead. It had a cast that felt like they belonged together. It had stories that were weird without always feeling gross just for the sake of being gross.

And that’s what made the later shift so frustrating.

I wasn’t just watching for the cases.

I was watching for them.

For the banter.

For the weird morgue-family energy.

For the people who all seemed like they had their own baggage, their own scars, their own bad habits, and their own soft spots.

That was the good stuff.

Then, somewhere along the way, it started feeling like the show stopped trusting its own strengths.

And maybe that is my entire complaint.

I didn’t need more shock.

I needed more of what made me care in the first place.

Still, I am glad I watched it. I am glad I found it late. I am glad I got five-and-a-half-ish really enjoyable seasons before I started yelling:

“Oh come on!”

at my television.

And if nothing else, Crossing Jordan has reminded me of something very important:

Sometimes a show can be clever, creative, ridiculous, disturbing, charming, annoying, and worth watching all at the same time.

Kind of like people.

Kind of like life.

Kind of like this blog.