YMMV / Motive

• Captain Obvious Reveal: Occasionally. The worst is probably "Crimes of Passion". Guess why the politician killed the idealistic college student. Go on. Guess.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Jon Heder, best known for goofy comedies like Napoleon Dynamite, is surprisingly convincing as an alcoholic stand-up comedian who kills his brother to stop a cycle of domestic abuse.
  • Similarly, Mad TV alum Will Sasso gives a Tear Jerker performance as a struggling music club owner and former thief who gets pulled into organized crime while desperately trying to support his apparent daughter.
• Ho Yay:
  Oscar: (about their supervisor, Mark Cross, several times in one episode) That is a nice suit.
• Les Yay: Hinted at between London Montgomery and Dale Barbizan, later admitted to by the latter, although she tried to let London down gently. She can't date a defendant's family member owing to a conflict of interest.
• Squick: The rather gruesome crime scene in "Purgatory".
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The struggling single mother in "Against All Odds". She’s clearly intended to be sympathetic, as she accidentally kills a man while trying to steal a winning lottery ticket in order to get money to support her daughter. However, she loses a lot of sympathy as she refuses child support from her ex-husband, who's shown to be a genuinely caring father. There's never any suggestion that he abused or cheated on her, she just doesn't want him to have any role in their child's life since their divorce, which he admittedly initiated, was acrimonious. Basically, she chose to resort to theft and murder rather than let the father of her child help her out financially.

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