headhunter46 I like the pace of Jesse Stone TV movies. They are too slow for some folks, but the pauses give the discriminating viewer time to guess at what Jesse is turning over in his head. I thoroughly enjoy the banter between him and his psychologist friend and Capt Healey. As a man who survived all the banter that accompanies time in the military, I actually get a kick out of hearing the dialogue.Jesse is rehired as chief after some police are killed in a car bomb. He is caught between not liking one of the dead and wanting justice even if it proves the dead cop was innocent of a crime. There is some touching of old friendships and a few surprises. We get a small hint of something to come but it is hard to actually piece all of what we see together and know how it will play out.I enjoyed it very much, hope you will too.

sharbrough I like Jesse Stone and would watch one every week. I quibble about the story - but I love the visuals and the music. New England is a moody place. As was suggested in other reviews, Paradise seems big enough to have more policemen. We see one, they ought to have more. But my struggle with Benefit of the Doubt is a more basic plot question. What was gonna happen on the 24th? Let's review.1. Sometime prior to 21-Apr, Butler made a cryptic entry on his desk calendar, 2AH10, which we later learn referred to Hasty and Pier 10. 2. On 18-April, Hasty serviced one of the Paradise patrol cars, and planted a bomb on it. 3. On 21-April, a fake call about some kids starting a fire was called in. Cash and drugs were placed in the trunk of the squad car with the bomb. This might have happened while it was being serviced, but we aren't told when. 4. Butler and D'Angelo are barbecued by the car bomb. Long before we had IED's, the mob had car bombs. It doesn't burn all of the money or drugs, just some of it. 5. When Stone tells Hasty about his theory that Hasty is the boss, Hasty reacts in haste, calling Art Gallery (that's a hoot) and saying that "the 24th won't work." The implication is that the thing on the 24th was a sniping murder of Jesse Stone. So, are we to understand that Hasty was planning to blow up Butler, reinstate Jesse, and then shoot him too? And that Butler got wind of it before the movie started?I guess Hasty planned to call in a fake report of a fire on the ship or something? Because when he moved it up, he didn't call Jesse out there or anything. If Jesse hadn't shown up, what would Art have done at the ship? What would Hasty have done? I can only imagine how slow the ending would have been if they had spent a whole afternoon out there and no one ever showed up. Are we supposed to figure that Hasty was leading Jesse to the ambush? They didn't offer much hint or explanation of that. As has been speculated elsewhere, why would Jesse have focused on the calendar clue in the first place? We are told it was a hunch. Fine, but no hunches about anything else?I can't wait to see the next one. I'll try to pay better attention.

SanteeFats I really enjoy the Jesse Stone movies. Here is a man who became a drunk because of his cheating and now divorced wife. She cheated on him and he turned to booze as a solace. He gets a last chance job as police chief in a small New England town. In this particular movie he gets hired back as the chief after two officers are killed in an explosion. One is the son-in-law of the town council president, the other was the infamous and not very likable D'Angelo. The council president manipulated the firing of Jesse and the hiring of his son-in-law as the chief. It is seemingly poetic justice that the boy is dead and Jesse is back in charge. William Devane is back as Jesse's shrink. He is very good in this role. Rose and Suitcase have left the force because they just didn't like the new chief. He contacts Suitcase, who still has the weird sixth sense, on a fishing boat run by his father but Suitcase stays with his Dad on the boat. This is not what I expected. I thought Rose and Suitcase would both come back to the force. As the case widens more suspects come in to the scope of the investigation. Saul Rubinek is in the film as arestored city councilman after his release from prison. Now I thought his crime was a felony and would thus preclude him from holding office. Turns out Sal has been the driving force behind the drug trade in the area. William Saddler does an excellent job of playing the bottom feeding crime boss Gino Fish. Of course everything comes to a crescendo conclusion and Jesse solves the case to the chagrin of a few people. At the very end of the film Suitcase returns to the department. I sure hope there are more Jesse Stone movies in the offing.

stonesdoor-51-269486 I could watch Tom Selleck sit and think for hours -- and that's pretty much what I did in this latest Jesse Stone episode. It was slow, but that's Robert B. Parker for you, and yet I return to the Jesse Stone novels just as I will for the Tom Selleck portrayal of our flawed hero. Two small things that bothered me: One, Rose is portrayed by 61 year old Kathy Baker; did I understand that she had a baby 3 years ago? Maybe I misunderstood that. Two, Jesse wakes up in the morning and is freshly shaved. With a beard like his, I don't think so. Oh, a third problem: Jesse never did talk to the dead Chief's wife and we never saw any closure for her dad. Did I mention I could watch Tom Selleck for hours, even if he's sleep-walking through a murder mystery?