I don't watch a lot of television, but I have seen one or two episodes of the made-for-television Jesse Stone movies on CBS. I recently started taking advantage of DVD rentals from NetFlix to watch these in order. When I say "in order," I mean generally in the order they were released with the exception of watching the later-released prequel first.
As far as I can tell, the order of when each movie's story is to have taken place is as follows:
| Television Movie Title |
Year Released |
Order-Implying Plot Themes |
|---|---|---|
| Night Passage | 2006 | Recognized "prequel to Stone Cold" in which Jesse Stone leaves L.A. for the town of Paradise, Massachusetts. |
| Stone Cold | 2005 | Introduces Reggie and depicts later events related to Abby Taylor who met Jesse in the later-released "prequel" Night Passage. |
| Death in Paradise | 2006 | Events related to Luther 'Suitcase' Simpson in this episode tie it to preceding 'Sea Change'. |
| Sea Change | 2007 | Beginning ties to ending of 'Death in Paradise' and Molly Crane is away from the Paradise PD. This episode explains what happened to Hasty after his actions in 'Night Passage'. |
| Thin Ice | 2009 | Molly is not in this episode at all and Jesse's job in on "thin ice." |
| No Remorse | 2010 | Jesse is suspended from Paradise Police Department. |
| Innocents Lost | 2011 | Jesse has been involuntarily retired and the new Chief of the Paradise Police Department is related to one of the town's council. |
| Benefit of the Doubt | 2012 | Jesse becomes Paradise Police Chief again when the person who replaced him is killed in an explosion. |
| Lost in Paradise | 2016 | Jesse again moonlights on a Boston area case due to lack of criminal activity in Paradise, but deals with personal issues of loss and loneliness. |
I have found the Jesse Stone movies to be well worth the time to watch. They are unlike most crime or mystery television shows and focus more on characters than many of these types of shows. These are characters that are easy to care about, but at the same time they can be frustrating in their human weaknesses. The length of the episodes is also a positive.
I won't spend more time now on why I like these movies because the Amazon.com reviews of the above movies do a thorough job of these movies' positive features. However, I will state that for a person who typically prefers movies over television, these made-for-television movies bring substance back to reality-era television.
