A Short-Runner Police Procedural that aired on NBC from 2014-2016, adapted from the Spanish Telenovela Los Misterios de Laura, Detective Laura Diamond (Debra Messing) is trying to juggle her job and her two sons while working with her ex-husband while they deal with the pressures of the job.
The series also starred Josh Lucas, Laz Alonso, and Janina Gavankar.
It was canceled on May 16, 2016 after two seasons.
Tropes in the series:
- Affectionate Pickpocket: In one episode, in order to get information about the suspect's relationship to a murder victim, Laura flirts with him and steals his phone from his pocket.
- All Abusers Are Male: In the "The Mystery of the Watery Grave", a woman crashes her car into the river, but the body is not found. By minute 5 of the episode, and with no actual evidence, Laura has decided that the husband is abusive and killed her. When the woman turns up alive, Laura's theory is now that the woman staged her own death to get away from her abusive husband. She's right, of course, however at no time does the episode seriously consider any other theory, and the show goes out of its way to break its own standard of the last-minute-twist and reinforce that if you assume the man is abusive, then he is.
- Autopsy Snack Time:Coroner:: Diamond, what did I tell you about bringing food into my lab?Laura Diamond: (with mouth full of noodles) I ... skipped lunch.
- A Bloody Mess: In the pilot, Laura is shown a room where something red has been splashed all over the walls. She says that this is "a depraved and unspeakable act" and that the perpetrator will be "inside for a long time." It turns out that her two young sons were throwing paint around at preschool, covering both the walls and themselves.
- Enfante Terrible: Laura's twins are notorious troublemakers who have gotten kicked out of their preschools for pulling pranks and making messes.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Laura is curious why new captain Nancy Santiani would have transferred to a precinct literally across the city from her old spot. Meeting a cop from Santiani's former district, Laura learns that Santiani had been up for a promotion and, at her "farewell party," got drunk to tell her cops what she really thought about them. No sooner had she sobered up than Nancy learned the promotion had fallen through. Knowing there was no way she could return after that, she took a new spot as far away as she could get.
- Internet Jerk: The Cracker from "The Mystery of the Ghost in the Machine" is revealed to be a college kid, and his crimes as a chain of Disproportionate Retribution. He mercilessly harassed a girl online until her cop brother tracked him down and beat the crap out of him. The kid took revenge by leaking the cop's identity to the gang he infiltrated, who kill him. Even after he's caught, the kid says it's all the first victim's fault for assaulting him.
- Mistaken Confession: The first suspect in "The Mystery of the Dead Date" thinks he's being arrested for killing a squirrel by sticking a firecracker up its butt.
- Spotting the Thread: "The Mystery of the Fertility Fatality" has the team investigating the murder of a fertility doctor. Laura and her ex-husband Jake go undercover as a couple where the doctor shows an ultrasound of Laura pregnant. As the two aren't together (and Laura hasn't been with a man in months), they know it's fake and figure the clinic is scamming women by making them think they're pregnant, charging them for expensive treatments, then a drug that replicates a miscarriage. Eventually, Laura finds the killer to have been a husband whose wife had undergone several of these fake "pregnancies". He reveals he figured it out as he's a film editor and on the third go-around, realizing the "ultrasound" was the exact same footage as the previous two times.
- "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder: Done with a twist: the first murder was committed by neither of the two connected with the plot and the person who agreed to murder the second victim goes through with it to hold up his end of the bargain.
- Tragic Stillbirth: Laura and Jake lost what would have been their daughter before the twins were born. It's a secret she keeps even from her coworkers.
- Working with the Ex: Laura and Jake, as they used to be married and have two children.
