SPOILER ALERT / WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The First 48 Season 29, Episode 2. It also contains discussion of domestic violence.

Tulsa Homicide made their The First 48 Season 29 debut with an episode that will go down as one of the best in the A&E series’ lengthy history. Not because “Betrayal” was dramatic or thrilling—although it was both of those—but because of how it served as a microcosm for the entire series. And it quietly shone a renewed spotlight on one major reason why none of the dozens of other true crime series will ever compare to The First 48.

Fans likely braced themselves if they noticed that “Betrayal” was a two-hour episode. The First 48 doesn’t do two-hour episodes unless a case genuinely demands that level of introspection. The gold standard for the entire series will always be “Chain of Death,” but the “Unspeakable” two-parter and “Unforgotten: Mothers and Sons” are two more examples of stories that needed extra time and emotional space to be properly told. (The recent and sole exception is the Season 29 opener “Four Shots,” but one presumes there were logistical reasons.) The production team has always shown an incredible amount of respect in documenting homicide investigations—a level of tact that should be in every true crime series. And “Betrayal” highlighted one of the technical ways that’s possible: through the field cameras that are the backbone of the series.

THE FIRST 48 SETS A VISUAL STORYTELLING STANDARD

Obviously, The First 48 requires cameras in the field to even exist. The increasing rise in “found footage” true crime shows has ironically proved the value of having a professional camera on hand. There’s the technical reason of avoiding what viewers know as “shakycam,” trying to watch footage from a camera in motion. There’s a blanket belief that this active footage puts a viewer more actively in the moment with the subjects; that really isn’t the case. Wolf Entertainment’s scripted drama On Call, which wonderfully mixed body cam footage with traditional camera work, illustrates how each has their place. The camera being an active participant can actually take audiences out of the situation, either from the visual disorientation—and thus details more likely to be missed—or just the constant reminder that it’s there. What The First 48 has done very well, and particularly well in Tulsa, is make the camera essentially disappear. Which may be why the camerapeople slash producers never get enough credit, save their names being listed in the literal credits.

When they’re doing their job well, they don’t exist and yet they do, simultaneously. There’s a flow to the camerawork in “Betrayal” that does more to put the audience alongside the detectives than any amount of talking-head footage—which is refreshingly at a minimum across the two hours. The field team is not trying to get a story; they’re following it. The camera isn’t looking for a literal angle or attempting to make something look exciting; the most The First 48 might ever do is a reaction cutaway to someone in the scene. (Someone needs to provide Sergeant Nathan Schilling with a permanent reaction camera, because he is all of us in so many moments. In that sense, Schilling has become the new Justin Ritter—who makes a cameo appearance in “Betrayal,” but more on that later.) That lack of pronounced camera movement or obtrusiveness makes the viewer feel like they’re an organic participant, which is what so many other true crime shows talk about doing and fail at. The First 48 knows how to do it, and it particularly works in Tulsa because of the Tulsa Homicide team.

There’s a clear mutual respect that exists between the First 48 crew in Tulsa and the homicide detectives there, because it comes out on the screen. Part of that is the pure length of time that the show has been in Tulsa; these people know each other well by now. But it was also present with Mobile Homicide, and it speaks to the character of both the production crew and the detectives. The crew knows when to get out of the way; look at how the crime scenes in “Betrayal” are shot and the moments when the camera stays back or behind. And that respect for the work and those affected by a homicide goes both ways; the detectives don’t have to worry about the camera, and so they can just get on with what they should be focused on. They can be themselves. There’s nothing performative about this show, in either direction. It’s genuine, and that’s why it’s lasted this long.

“Betrayal” has a sterling example of this at the moment when the Tulsa detective start to realize they have a serial killer. Viewers ought to pay attention to where the camera isn’t. There’s no pushing the camera into someone’s face to generate a dramatic reaction shot. This is a massive moment that changes the entire episode—and it’s allowed to simply exist as it is. That’s what the production crew on The First 48 has that no found footage show will ever do. It’s not just their experience, but their human discretion to step back and capture the moment, instead of capitalize on it. One imagines they were probably just as stunned as the audience.

The First 48 predated the proliferation of true crime content; in fact, this helped break ground in the genre. And no one will argue that the show has been perfect. However, because of that, it lacks the sensationalism that now is par for the course. Season 28’s “Broken Youth” was an example of how the episodes don’t need a gimmick for the audience. One could call the on-screen clock a gimmick, but that’s a reach, because it serves an actual function. The most that the show has done in 29 seasons is change its title sequence. And that doesn’t make it dated; that makes it stand refreshingly apart. It has nothing to prove. It’s not creating more noise. It’s the most honest true crime show that exists. And the pathway to that is through the field team, because those people behind the camera never stop being human beings. “Betrayal” and its serial killer story would have been an “event” on any other show, but on The First 48, it was in safe hands.

TULSA’S THE FIRST 48 RETURN STRIKES A NOSTALGIC CHORD

The third reason “Betrayal” stands out, after the gut-wrenching case itself and the technical proficiency, is that anyone who has followed the show’s tenure in Tulsa was getting a look back at just how much history there is with this series in this city. So many elements of this episode evoke reminders of others that came before.

The most obvious is the return of numerous detectives who had been on the show previously. Eagle-eyed viewers would have spotted Lieutenant Chase Calhoun in the background of one shot, while Lieutenant Justin Ritter crossed the hallway to chime in during an important moment. Even that brief guest appearance was a reminder of how Ritter helped establish the personality of Tulsa Homicide. There was the bittersweet presence of the late Detective John Brown, who will forever be missed.

Most notably, former Detective Ronnie Leatherman made another return to play a significant role near the end of the case. Leatherman has popped up a few times, including on After the First 48 and in Brown’s final episode, Season 28’s “Deadly Connection.” The joy of The First 48‘s tape delay is a chance to check back in with people who have left the unit. Leatherman got a sizeable amount of screen time in “Betrayal,” which gave fans the gift of seeing him team up again with Jason White in a suspect interview. It was the very definition of saving the best for last.

Seeing all these familiar faces, no matter for how long, was a reminder of how many talented and dedicated people have passed through the door of Tulsa Homicide just in the time of The First 48. These people who have all had their moments where they have touched the audience. The domestic violence motive likely brought some viewers back to Ritter’s domestic violence case from Season 19’s “Truth and Consequences,” especially since Ritter also had to call on pathologist Dr. Angela Berg in that episode. The suspect’s behavior, particularly in his last conversation with Leatherman and White, was reminiscent of what White (and memorably also Ritter) had to contend with while interviewing the suspect in Season 21’s “Down a Dark Hallway.” And this is the best look viewers have ever gotten at what it takes to excavate a victim’s body, closer than watching the Mobile team do so in Season 21’s “The Abnormals.”

“Betrayal” is going to be on anyone’s list of The First 48 best episodes for a multitude of reasons. The triple murder investigation is one of those cases that absolutely needed a two-hour run time, as nothing (and more importantly no victim) got shortchanged to fit a TV slot. Getting to reunite with those familiar faces like Leatherman, Brown and Ritter is always welcome, but in this instance also a warm contrast to such a terrible situation. Their returns were that safety blanket of feeling surrounded by good people in the face of something horrific, and the field team had the presence of mind to capture them. And in seeing how well these cases were handled both on-camera and behind it, The First 48 reinforced its value to the true crime community. It’s the one show that leads with its humanity, and never loses sight of it.

The First 48 airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on A&E. Photo Credit: Screenshot/Courtesy of A&E.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.