Thin Ice Broke Two Franchise Traditions (And Featured the Darkest Ending)

Jesse Stone: Thin Ice broke some franchise traditions – and ended on the darkest note of the entire series. Thin Ice is the fifth entry in Jesse Stone film series, which adapted Robert B. Parker’s novels of the same name. Parker gave Selleck two rules to follow during the adaptation Jesse Stone; one, Stone will always be worried about his ex-wife Jenn, and two, he will always have a drinking problem (via TV Insider). This formula keeps the character trapped in a toxic cycle, but Thin Ice I needed to mix things up after four films.

The TV movie features the same cast of characters – although Viola Davis’ Molly left after the fourth entry Radical change – as previous Jesse Stone films, with Selleck’s grizzled police chief investigating two cases. He is investigating who shot his friend Captain Healy (Stephen McHattie) and a cold case involving a kidnapped baby dubbed “Baby Boy Blue” by the media. At this point in the franchise, Thin Ice knew what viewers wanted – but it also marked a change in direction as Selleck took more control over the series.

Thin Ice is the first Jesse Stone that is not based on a book by Robert B. Parker or that features any death

Jesse Stone: Thin Ice took cinema out of Parker’s novels

The fifth Jesse Stone has a surprising opening, where Healy and Jesse are shot during a stakeout; Jesse is injured while Healy falls into a coma. Any other installment would have seen Stone shooting the would-be killer at the end or plotting his death. Thin Ice does not do this, since both Healy and Internal Affairs officer Greenstreet (Leslie Hope) warns him to avoid that path. Jesse he does get revenge by getting the shooter arrested for parole violation – but at least he gets to live.

Thin Ice is most notable for being the first Jesse Stone not based on a Parker book. Instead, Selleck co-wrote the story alongside Michael Brandman and Ronni Kern, with the latter writing the script. At this juncture, Selleck and his co-authors had become experts in the world of Jesse Stoneand each subsequent entry featured an original story. Thin Ice remains true to the basic principles of Parker’s books while delving into how Stone’s bad habits and talent for making enemies are finally catching up to him.

Thin Ice’s lack of killing was a positive step for Jesse as a character

Not every Jesse Stone story has to end with a shootout

The first four Jesse Pedras end with Selleck’s boss shooting the main villain or in Night Passage case, watching the villain to take shot by someone else. Stone has an old-fashioned sense of justice and has proven himself willing to break (or outright break) the law to ensure wrongs are righted. In the past, he also lured most of these criminals into lethal confrontations so that he could justify the shootings later. With Thin IceJesse is criticized for this bad habit sometimes.

It looks like his therapy sessions with Dix (William Devane) are also starting to pay off, as he decides to take a different path. He could have easily pushed the shooter, Leaf (Fulvio Cecere), into another “justifiable” shootout to satisfy his personal need for revenge – but he doesn’t. He resists the temptation and even though Jesse’s methods of dealing with Leaf are still suspect, it’s a healthier step than deciding that all problems should be solved with a gun.

Jesse Stone: Thin Ice’s shocking ending is an emotional tug

Thin Ice’s subplot brings the biggest shock in the series

There is something comforting in the formula of Jesse Stone saga, where two cases often unfold side by side. In Thin IceThis is where the mother of a supposedly deceased baby presents evidence that her son may be alive – and living in Paradise. Jesse and Rose (Kathy Baker) look into this, and for a brief moment, it looks like there will be a happy resolution. Thin Ice then delivers the most devastating ending of the series, where they discover that the child was in fact taken to Paradise, but died years later during an ice skating accident.

Neither film ends on a particularly uplifting note, as that is not in the nature of the character or the noir genre. Yet, Thin ice (which refers to both Jesse’s unstable position in the Paradise police department and the accident that resulted in the death of “Baby Boy Blue”) the ending is the scariest, as Jesse and his team are invested in the idea that the boy was still alive. The story ends with Jesse being suspended by the city council for his conduct and boarding a bus to tell Baby Boy Blue’s mother what happened. for your son.

Jesse Stone: Thin Ice may have broken away from Parker’s original books, but it assured readers that the film series was in great hands. It fulfilled the formula that the public expected, but still managed to add some surprises and even give Jesse a little personal progress.

Source: TV Insider