Every week I will be posting a new topic titled "Character Discussion". In this we will discuss a character, what we liked about them, what we didn't like, etc.


Kate Murphy

Head of the Los Angeles police narcotics squad. She played an instrumental role in the initial arrest and conviction of serial killer Dr. Zito and, as a result, earned Zito's eternal hatred.

Ohhhhhhhh NOOOO! I can't imagaine why you started with her!

I hate this character. Both from written and acted points of view. Hate isn't a strong enough word.

I'm going to have to gather, copy and paste my previous posts on this woman.

Lt. Kate Murphy. Kim Zimmer did a good job portraying her as a rough and tough policewoman- who also had a softer and vulnerable side. She's also one of the few characters to show up in 3 different episodes AND be portrayed by the same person. It was cool seeing her there in "Deadly Dreams", "Lesson In Evil" and "MacGyver's Women". It's nice to have some sort of police contact for MacGyver- which I guess would be her and Mike Kiley.
Yeah- I don't guess she's my favorite supporting character as such, but I like her fine. A nice addition to the cast of characters.

I have to say I don't really like Murphy. Her arrogance annoys the heck out of me and I have to admit, a small part of me can't help thinking shes getting a bit of her own medicine in some way.

I'v often pondered if a person like this would actually make it in a real life police force. I've always assumed not, but I have nothing to base that conclusion on, so it's nothing more than an opinion on my part.

Oddly enough I use to work for someone just like Murphy. She was arrogant, argumentative and showed little respect for other people.

She would quite happily argue with you about something and then in the blink of an eye be wailing her eyes out about how no-one liked her and everyone picked on her

We all came to the conclusion that she was a little unbalanced, to say the least.

I didn't elaborate much.

I think mostly I thought the character was poorly written. And then Kim Zimmer took it so over the top.

Murphy had problems... but isn't that what MacGyver does? Help people with problems?

She wasn't my favourite female guest-character, but I'm pretty sure her abrasiveness was an integral part of the story. In the end of 'Deadly Dreams' she comes around to face her fears which takes courage. At least she learns to appreciate MacGyver's help.

She's still a little unstable in 'Lessons in Evil', but I don't think she was out of character... Zito is a monster, and I think I would have fought just as hard as she did to keep him behind bars, and been just as upset when he escaped.

Her appearance in 'MacGyver's Women' was probably my favourite scenes of her, even though that episode is NOT one of my favourites. She was sassy, confident, and capable... I liked her a lot more than Maria! And Jenny, I would have drowned in the first deepish river that we crossed!

But this is about Murphy, so... I give her an OK. She's not my fav-fem, but she's by far not the one I dislike the most!

I don't really care for Murphy. She has the potential to play an interesting dynamic character but comes across as whiney and barely competent.

Kim Zimmer may not have been the best choice of actress for this character. She played it up a little too strong and instead of Murphy being a stong characte with a fragile psyche, we get an annoying whiney, poser.

She's not the worst of the guest actresses by far, but she's not the best either.

I just voted good. I accepted her. I didn't mind her being 'arrogant' as some say. I remember this woman who was always angry in Lesson in Evil when I was about five, when I started watching MacGyver. Those were still the days I didn't understood what they said.

Than when I saw Deadly Dreams, I freaked out on her haircut. It was like she aged much between Deadly Dreams and Lesson in Evil. In Lesson in Evil she seemed like nearing her forties while in Deadly Dreams it's like she hasn't passed 35 yet.

I liked her in Lesson in Evil much better than in Deadly Dreams. I think the idea was to let her play the arrogant bad cop hiding her problems behind a big mouth. In Lesson in Evil she has her emotions under better controle and she has good chemistry with MacGyver.

Would I have liked to see someone else play the role? I don't know, I don't think so.

In all I considered Murphy as a great asset of the team. In case of MacGyver it's always good to know a cop you can rely on whenever needed. Of course there's still Kiley and Rhome.

Not one of my favorite female characters either (does anyone really like her?, I mean LIKE her?). I thought she was written to be a strong woman working in a man's world but to be she was a bit over the top in my opinion.

Something that I was never sure is how old she is supposed to be. Is she meant to "flirt" at some point with Mac? If she is (I just have a faint idea that this is written in one of the episodes she is in), she looks much older than him to me.

And definitely NOT Mac's type! (but neither was Maria, or Amy, or Penny, or "falling-Mike", or Dr Ludlum, or... Who of all female characters in the show you think was Mac's type, BTW??)

Nah. I think she just softens up on him and after all MacGyver is known to be making friends with peoples that don't like him. Maybe in MacGyver's Women but hey, it was weekend and she said it herself: 'MacGyver and I are just friends.' Maybe she felt like she owed him something after he took care and stood up for her in Lesson in Evil.

And what's wrong with elder looking women trying to take on younger men? Remember Viktoria Tomanova?
He's like 40 when he dates Maria when she's 23. He could be her father and that's alright? But the other way isn't?

Besides putting an age on her is indeed difficult. With only or maybe not even two years between Deadly Dreams and Lesson in Evil, she sure looked a bit older. Than again it was just the hairdo. Maybe it was the stress. In the first two scenes of MacGyver's Women she looks more relaxed and maybe in that way better.

You know his type than? Are you his type?

Deborah if she wasn't evil, Nikki if the series didn't got rid of her because of jealous women and Kate Connolly if she didn't marry and got knocked up by the other guy.

But I'm sure we'll get time to discuss these characters as well.

I don’t think the character was a very believable police woman. For the reasons already mentioned in this thread. The writers put a woman who admits being disturbed by Zito and is obviously not handling the new developments in to the task force for finding his new pawn? (By the way why on earth would anyone lock up a man who had been brainwashed by Zito in to murder and suicide in to the same accessible cell?) And in lesson in evil she harped on about SOP but rushed on in and picked up the weigh scales evidence without thinking while MacGyver used a cloth to pick up the shears? I don’t think they took enough care about the details that would help her be believable to me as a successful police woman and being involved in the cases she was involved in but I did find the emotions for the character with regards to Zito believable (cause he’s so very creepy).
I vote average.

I voted average, for the reasons already cited.

Kate had the potential to be a really interesting character. Too bad.

I guess I get to weigh in with the minority report. I thought Kate Murphy was a great character. I don’t mean that I especially liked her, or that I’d want to be best buddies or hang out with her over a beer, but I thought she was a really well-done character for the purposes of the story being told.

(I also think some of the critiquing may not be fully taking into account how the story comes across the first time it’s seen, when you don’t know what’s coming or how it ends. But never mind.)

Murphy is set up as a really tough, hard-boiled cop – with a nice twist at the intro scene, where they put off revealing that she’s a woman until the last possible moment. She’s scrappy enough to stand up to Mac (which can take a strong personality), and she has a good reason to be at odds with him at first – his gadget doesn’t work in the intro scene, and it’s her basic police work that does.

But at base, she’s part of the overall Zito story, and I can’t separate her from that. We spend a lot of the episode gradually learning just how horrific Zito is, and much of the information is indirect. We’re never actually told what he did to his victims, but it was enough to nearly shatter a very strong personality – which gives us the opportunity, instead of being told specifics (and possibly disappointed), of imagining whatever we think would be the most terrible.

I didn’t find her edgy, near-breakdown scenes to be overacted, although it certainly wasn’t Shakespeare; I expect she was pushing the emotion as far as the director asked. As I said, it’s a major part of the discovery of Zito’s nature to first see the results of his work. More than that, it’s Kate Murphy’s reaction, not just to Zito, but to the requirement that she deal with another serial killer, that sets off Mac’s Hurt Person Radar – probably to his surprise, since she didn’t seem like someone who could be that hurt. As usual, it gets to him and he wants to help it, whether he’s wanted or not.

As a character, she’s so specific to this story that I didn’t see her as a likely recurring character – she did have potential, but it would have taken a lot of development. And MacGyver wasn’t a police procedural; it was an adventure show. When she was brought back, it was along with Zito – and I found her a lot sketchier in Lesson in Evil; at that point she’s just background. Zito has changed his sights and is focusing on Mac instead, and not much attention is paid to keeping Murphy consistent with her earlier appearance.

So as a nice, friendly, likable gal, no, she doesn't rank high with me. But I really liked the character.

I really like Kate Murphy as a character, for she's strong and yet vulnerable. In Deadly Dreams she is a female cop working for the LAPD and with the Phoenix Foundation to track a serial killer. She is tense because of her past experiences--Dr. Zito would make anyone want to switch jobs. I like how she slowly warms up to Mac--he earns her trust and respect--plus her friendship. I like the character and the episode, as well as Lesson in Evil. I don't like MacGyver's Women, but that the fault of the script and the storyline surrounding Maria. I think Kate is believeable, yet it is apparant that she has emotional baggage from working on Dr.Zito's case--another similiarity to the Silence of the Lambs. And for those who don't see Murphy as friendly--ask yourself, how friendly would you be if you had her job?

above average intelligence, and is very athletic. She has police training in hand-to-hand,weapons, and tactics like any normal cop on the force, It is said she got into the head of Zito, she saw what he saw his skills in killing was his art. Tough as nails, when she first meets MacGyver they do not hit it off on a friendship level but a level where hes just working with her for a while, after MacGyver saved her life she and MacGyver became friends not close but friends none the less.

I agree. I like Kate Murphy. I gave her an excellent. She made a good female character, which is rare in "MacGyver."

When I think of Murphy + police, I think Robocop. That was my first thought when I saw this character.

She seems ok. A little strong acted, little overboard in her first appearance though.

I love Murphy, especially in MacGyver's women.

I didn't care for this character.

I liked her a lot in Lesson In Evil.