Stumptown ends its strong first season with an entertaining, emotionally rich finale

The A.V. Club

The Cobie Smulders-led crime drama's first season ended with "a smart, sometimes thrilling, and (as always) funny hour that practically demands a second season," says Allison Shoemaker. "This episode becomes even more impressive when you consider how directly the season-long stories of the other characters feed into the A-plot...It’s constructed with a lot of thought, but it’s also, in a way, just another case-of-the-week (and another trope: the detective is the suspect, a classic).

ALSO:

• Cobie Smulders on Stumptown's first season: "I think when we found our groove probably after the fifth episode, which just goes with any production, like now all the crew knows each other, we know the rhythm of this, we're establishing the tone of the show. But the thing about our show is that it's such a mix of tones — it's action, comedy, and drama — so you never really feel like, 'Okay, we got it now!'"
• Stumptown co-creator Jason Richman answers season finale questions