History Series / CrossingJordan

* CatchPhrase: "You want to the victim or the killer?"

* ThrowingOutTheScript: In the first episode, Garret is supposed to do a presentation about coroners at a career day. He starts off with a fairly dry and unenthusiastic presentation, which gradually becomes a rant that practically drives people away with the lurid descriptions of his work.

* {{UST}}: With pairings almost too numerous to list, but especially between Jordan and Woody

** For all the Non-American tropers that's not a technicality. That is such a huge thing that not only can it ruin a prosecutor's career and get them disbarred but it also can cause every case that the prosecutor to have done be up for a retrial.

* ThrowingOutTheScript: In the first episode, Garret is supposed to do a presentation about coroners at a career day. So he starts off with a fairly dry presentation with no enthusiasm, and then ends up in a rant practically driving people away with the lucid descriptions of his work.

* AndIMustScream: A particularly dark example. The victim is shot and spends the most of the episode paralyzed. He used to be a prosecutor and Macy's friend, but underwent a FaceHeelTurn to AmoralAttorney when Macy refused to falsify evidence to put away a serial killer. He keeps pleading with Jordan and Macy not to autopsy him, promising he'll change. He's only saved when [[spoiler: Macy digs the bullet out and realizes he's still bleeding. Turns out he and his two guests (who were killed) had improperly prepared [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu Fugu]], and his secretary shot him. On his way out of the hospital, Macy gives him a bell, and tells him that people used to be buried with strings attached to bells in case they were buried alive. The lawyer points out that Macy just effectively admitted the coroner's office is at fault, and he'll both be suing and representing the woman who shot him. [[LaserGuidedKarma Then he walks outside and gets hit by a bus]]. The last shots of the episode is the team looking down into his body bag, and their evaluator asking if they're ''sure'' he's dead. The bag is closed up, using the same POV shot from the lawyer's perspective as earlier, and then we hear a bell tinkling.]]

** [[spoiler:That is after he spends almost entire episode being mistaken for dead, having been paralyzed during the shooting. He is saved towards the end of the episode by the morgue staff, but instead of being grateful, he gleefully threatens to sue them all (and takes up the defense of the woman who shot at him, his assistant, and his client, just to spite the morgue staff). Then he is hit by KarmaHoudini, eh, a speeding car, and dies just in front of the morgue.]]
* BackAlleyDoctor: After a number of heroin overdoses are reported by one person, Dr. Macy and Dr. Winslow decide to investigate and find a former medic running an unlicenced clinic. Dr. Macy realizes that even though the clinic is not up to the standards of a real hospitical, it is doing good for the people it serves.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: One episode had a crooked FBI agent being hired to take down a high-profile witness, which he tries to do by shooting up the crowded diner she is in... he ends up killing everyone ''but'' her.

* FirstDayfromHell: Twice. One doctor showed up just in time for a massive blizzard plus an in-morgue ''E. Coli'' outbreak, and Dr. Devan Maguire got ''kidnapped'' on her first day after the team was caught up in a poorly-conceived government terrorism drill.

* CopBoyfriend: Lieutenant Woody Hoyt

* AndIMustScream: * A particularly dark example. The victim is shot and spends the most of the episode paralyzed. He used to be a prosecutor and Macy's friend, but underwent a FaceHeelTurn to AmoralAttorney when Macy refused to falsify evidence to put away a serial killer. He keeps pleading with Jordan and Macy not to autopsy him, promising he'll change. He's only saved when [[spoiler: Macy digs the bullet out and realizes he's still bleeding. Turns out he and his two guests (who were killed) had improperly prepared [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu Fugu]], and his secretary shot him. On his way out of the hospital, Macy gives him a bell, and tells him that people used to be buried with strings attached to bells in case they were buried alive. The lawyer points out that Macy just effectively admitted the coroner's office is at fault, and he'll both be suing and representing the woman who shot him. [[LaserGuidedKarma Then he walks outside and gets hit by a bus]]. The last shots of the episode is the team looking down into his body bag, and their evaluator asking if they're ''sure'' he's dead. The bag is closed up, using the same POV shot from the lawyer's perspective as earlier, and then we hear a bell tinkling.]]

* AndIMustScream: More on the trope page.

* OffOnATechnicality: In one episode, a judge overturns the convictions against a child molester/murderer because the prosecutor (now the DA) had failed to disclose evidence to the defense.

* Dr. Garrett Macy, Jordan's crotchety superior (played by Miguel Ferrer)

* TheCoroner: Jordan, Garrett, Bug, numerous others

** A man kidnaps and imprisons a boy in his basement. Garrett correctly deduces that the chains had been previously used to chain up the man when he was a child.

* ThrowingOutTheScript: In the first episode, Garrett is supposed to do a presentation about coroners at a career day. So he starts off with a fairly dry presentation with no enthusiasm, and then ends up in a rant practically driving people away with the lucid descriptions of his work.

* SympatheticMurderer: A father of a girl that was kidnapped, sold into sexual slavery, and believed to be dead exacts revenge on the child traffickers. Woody at the end even lets him out of his cuffs near the end.

* FreudianExcuse - A SerialKiller justifies her actions with her dad's infidelity.

* SympatheticMurderer: A father of a girl that was kidnapped, sold into sexual slaver, and believed to be dead exacts revenge on the child traffickers. Woody at the end even lets him out of his cuffs near the end.

* AssholeVictim: Where do we start with [[AmoralAttorney Shelly Levine]]? He used to be an ADA until a series of errors lead to great embarrassment when he prosecutes a guy that is actually innocent. He blames Dr. Macy for his failings on the case and becomes a defense attorney and takes great pride in making the morgue staff look like idiots. He's constantly taunting them, and even threatens to have Nigel deported. He collects trophies, weapons that where used by his clients to commit murders for which he has gotten them acquitted. Needless to say that the morgue staff are more than pleased when they see him on a slab. Woody stabs him with a needle out of sheer hatred.

* AssholeVictim: Where do we start with Shelly Levine? He used to be an ADA until series errors lead to great embarrassment when he prosecutes a guy that is actually innocent. He blames Dr. Macy for his failings on the case and becomes a defense attorney and takes great pride in making the morgue staff look like idiots. He collects trophies, weapons that where used by his clients to commit murders for which he has gotten them acquitted. Needless to say that the morgue staff are more than pleased when they see him on a slab. Woody stabs him with a needle out of sheer hatred.

* FreudianExcuse - A SerialKiller justifies her actions because her dad's infidelity that lead to her mother's suicide.

* Dr. Mahesh "Bug" Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy, a fellow medical examiner (played by Ravi Kapoor)

* CowboyCop: Jordan constantly, Woody on a couple occasions as well

* MagicalDatabase: Nigel, constantly