strike me a routine and as far a tv movie go . i can believe that it base on a true story because the plot seem too clumsy to have be write by anyone with storytelling skill . for instance and good old john ritter ( now a rather bulky and beard villain ) poison his wife enough to make her ill and then accuse her of be psychosomatic and leave to marry another young woman immediately . fourteen year pas before the story pick up again . why fourteen year . i would guess that though the narrative doesn not demand it and history do . some of the particular scene and however and be so cinematically apt that they be almost certainly dream up by a writer . paw through her attic and helgenberger and ritter first wife and stumble across an old electrical appliance and have one of those black and white flashback with sting on the score suddenly she recall when and fourteen year ago and she discover ritter shave selenium filing from a rectifier and carefully collect them and and put them in her shampoo and her eyelash liner ( or whatever it call ) . later it develop that he be put it into her coffee a well . frankly and i do not believe it . i do not believe either that she have that particular epiphany in the attic or that ritter put selenium shaving into her shampoo or eyeliner . selenium be refer to in the movie a a toxic metal and i suppose it be and in sufficient quantity and but it also an anti oxidant that sell over the counter in drug store and swallow . someone will have to demonstrate a no one do in this movie that it be a topical poison . many people have try the nicotine patch and fail . so how come some selenium in her shampoo give marg helgenberger immediate and drastic headache . and her eye become as painful a boil when she apply makeup . i think the anthropologist e. b. tylor call this simple mind idea sympathetic magic and but i be not sure . mais je divage . anyway ritter evidently try the same stunt with his second wife fourteen year later and although no evidence of trickery be ever produce when she become ill with the same symptom . wife number two be take to mexico and apparently cure but suddenly drop dead shortly after her return . circumstantial evidence pile up against ritter and who play the villain with all the stop out when his first trial be dismiss he smirk at helgenberger and who have prompt the investigation . you see and helgenberger be good friend with ritter second wife and be terribly disturb at her demise and it manner . ( i will bet . ) and she want to prevent the same thing from happen to the wealthy young woman who seem line up for third place in ritter marital schedule . ( sure . ) the best performance be give by the guy who play detective mauser lawrence dane . everyone else act by the number . they project emotion and thought with the subtlety of a warning at a railroad crossing . but dane do little thing that be original . i be tell you want to report a murder . ( long pause while he sit down and wait ) and then abruptly thrust his face towards helgeberger and inquires in a reasonable and curious voice and so who be murder . i suppose except for the bare bone of the historical event and nothing prevented character or their action from be draw differently than they be in real life . i mean and what the heck and ritter be still in jail convict of murder and helgenberger character be dead and so who be to object . i wish the forensic stuff have be make clearer . ritter seem to have use so many poison and toxic metal let me see and selenium and cyanide and a massive dose of chlorine and and maybe something else that i be confuse by it all . not that i be root for ritter . here a mathematician with a ph . d. who insist people call him doctor . he even correct people who address him merely a professor . most ph . d. s get that narcissistic problem behind them very quickly . jes call me whitey and even though i know how to get a standard deviation and you do not . average tv fare .