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Reviews
Law & Order: Identity (2003)
Amazing guest performance and powerful emotional issues
What starts as a murder investigation into the death of a middle aged middle class white man turns into a much more complex and moving story.
It turns out that the 'victim' in fact was a fraudster who had perpetuated a scam on a vulnerable old African American WW2 veteran, conning him out of his home through a series of complicated mortgage and bank frauds.
However, it turns out the fraudster has bitten off far more than he can chew as the old man (played brilliantly by Paul Benjamin in a guest role that deserved an Emmy) hunts him down and kills him.
The scene is then set for a Courtroom debate over the competency of the old man to stand trial; he will not conternance an insanity plea, whilst his estranged son is pushing hard to have him declared incompetent so as to facilitate a not guilty by mental defect defence.
Its heady stuff, grappling with legal issues around mens rea, and wider philosophical issues about the duty of care children have to older parents. The script brings the best out of both the regular cast and the sterling guest cast.
It also features a welcome return of defence attorney Shambala Green - she had clashed with McCoy's predecessor Ben Stone in the early seasons of L&O.
A moving episode and definitely a case where you end up rooting for the defendant!
Murder, She Wrote (1984)
Nostalgic and fun
This show was a staple of my childhood - it seemed to be on repeatdly on Sunday afternoons on British telly in the late 80s and 90s! It's corny, wholly unrealistic and predicated on the notion that a retired teacher and mystery writer single handedly solves more murders than the FBI, but if you can suspend disbelief (and the gnawing suspicion that it's Jessica herself that's bumping all these people off - seriously if you were in town and Jessica turned up you'd run for the Hills knowing invariably at least 3 people were going to die!) then the show can be really fun, and a nostalgic throwback to a time when TV seemed simpler and the world somewhat less complex.
Diagnosis Murder (1993)
Undemanding but fun
This show seems very much to be aimed at the over 60s/afternoon TV set, mostly people who are old enough to remember Dick Van Dyke from his 60s heyday. Bits of the shows premise resembles Murder, She Wrote, or a really cheap version of Quincy ME. On the plus side it moves at a brisk pace and is certainly fun, but on the other hand some of the acting is terrible, the plots are vaguely ridiculous and most of the police/legal procedures depicted are just plain wrong. Although it was made in the mid-90s it has the look and feel of a older show, and consequently is rather quaint. It ain't exactly Law and Order or House but if your looking for undemanding TV to veg out off on a rainy day this might be your thing! It's no more implausible the Murder She Wrote!
Law & Order: Los Angeles (2010)
Law and Order's most troubled series
This episodes was meant to be Dick Wolf's big replacement for the original venerable L&O. The Big Difference was that the show was set in Los Angeles.
Right from the outset the show struggled to set the right tone and outlook. Many of the stories seemed like tired rehashes of stories told much better in the 1990s. The cast didn't seem to gel, and the chemistry which made all the other L&O shows so successful seemed to be lacking.
The move to LA didn't do much to add to the show either - the majority of the time LA seemed bland, generic, and pretty much could have been any city in America. The original L&O was so evocative of New York, but this might as well be a collection of establishing shots plucked from any number of TV shows.
The show seemed to struggle as well with a series of rapid destabilising changes in cast - such turnovers (plus a weird broadcasting run that seemed to have deceased characters coming back from the dead!) are usually the signs of a show in deep trouble, and low and behold the show died a somewhat undignified death itself after one season.
On the plus side the the show itself had some interesting premises, and it's not awful just..... A bit bland. It would have been interesting to see if a 2nd series would have allowed the show to develop its own character and style, but sadly it never really got the chance.
Worth watching if your a Law and Order devotee or if happens to be on your telly on a rainy Sunday afternoon
The Big Bang Theory: The Stockholm Syndrome (2019)
Perfect ending
After a bumpy couple of seasons in which the show had seemed to loose focus, this is the perfect send off; warm hearted, witty and sweet, with just enough drama to stop it falling into saccharine territory.
The gang are heading off to Stockholm for Amy and Sheldon's Nobel Prize ceremony - of course Sheldon becomes totally tunnel visioned, and reacts totally inappropriately to the news of Leonard and Penny's pregnancy, as well as Bernadette and Howard missing their children - it takes Amy to deliver some brutal home truths to him to make him see the real value of his friends.
The end speeches from Amy and Sheldon are wonderful, and the final moment brings the entire show full circle.
Ps the shows spin off 'Young Sheldon' aired a beautiful and moving tribute to its parent show - catch it if you can!
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Undiscovered Country (2018)
SVU's finest hour
One of the finest episodes in SVU's catalogue, this is a harrowing 45 minutes, which explores issues of right-to-death, magnified through the lens of a baby born with Mitrocondrial Depletion Syndrome.
Heavily influenced by the Charie Gard case in the UK, the plot sees ADA Rafael Barba on trial for the mercy killing of a baby condemned to linger in a miserable limbo with MDDS.
The baby and his family are caught up in a brutal trial of litigation around whether or not to withdraw life support. Unable to witness their distress any longer, Rafa ends up taking matters into his own hands, resulting in a courtroom drama that would stump Solomon himself.
The courtroom in this episode acts as a fulcrum by which fundamental concepts of right and wrong, life and death are explored, made even more pertinent by the fact that it's a series regular on trial.
One not to miss
Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005)
Underrated show
It's a real shame that the Network didn't keep the faith when it came to Law & Order: Trial by Jury. I found it to be an interesting and at times compelling look at the Justice system, exploring parts of the judicial process that other L&O shows had only hinted at.
The show definitely suffered from the loss of Jerry Orbach's legendary Lennie Briscoe character, his replacement Scott Cohen seemed to be telephoning in his performance at times, and it's also true that some of the cast remain little more than cyphers 13 episodes in, but consider how crowded the first season of SVU was before the cast was paired down for its 2nd season.
Some reviewers have commented on Bebe Neuwirth's performance as EADA Kibre, but I really enjoyed seeing a strong female lead, in a lot of ways she is like Christine Lahti and Judith Light over on SVU - hard edged and sharp but driven by strong ethics rather than a winner-takes-all mentality.
Some of the episodes explore issues which seemed ahead of their time, including transsexuality and homophobia within the NYPD.
Had this show been allowed to proceed to a full season I think it would really have found it's feet, and would have been a worthy addition to the L&O franchise - especially galling that it only got 13 episodes and the dreadful L&O Los Angeles got a full season!
Cagney & Lacey: Land of the Free (1988)
Wildly overcomplicated
Off the bat I can't fault the writer's ambitions in this instalment however anyone who doesn't have a working knowledge of Latin American politics would be lost trying to piece this one together.
Broadly, C&L get involved in a case involving El Salvadoran refugees. The case gets more and more complex, as the ladies seem to be dealing with a shadowy government agency and discover the complicated nature of US Government's involment with the Civil War in El Salvador.
In many ways this episode is well ahead of its time, and many of the themes would not be out of place in a movie, however the plot is so complicated I suspect even 1980s audiences may struggle to follow it. The episode foreshadows current concerns over the existence of ideas such as the presence of the 'Deep State', and we now know far more about the extent of US involvement in the civil wars in Latin America in the 80s but even so this episode is a bit of a slog - some great acting on display but make sure you have Google on standby to look up half of what they're on about!!
Law & Order: The Family Hour (2007)
About average ending for an under par season
So L&O's weakest season draws to a close with this uneven episode. The episode itself is all over the place much like the season itself, involving murders most foul committed within a wealthy and politically connected family with a dark history of abuse. The mechanics of the murder investigation and subsequent trial seem very contrived (the case apparently hinges upon the murdering Senator having read a book in which a murderer gets away with it by way of a concocted self defense story - all very Murder She Wrote), and the entire family all seem as ghastly as each other, however the real drama is in the casting problems behind the scenes; this is Milena Govich's final show as Det Cassady - she never seemed to be a proper fit on the show both in terms of the actress and the character she played. Unlike prior departures on the show, poor Det Cassady gets ushered out of L&O off camera after botching an interrogation and getting eviscerated by Van Buren and indeed is never even mentioned again! Her character never seemed convincing as a Homicide Detective, Lt Van Buren never took to her (neither did most of the audience seemingly) and the producers never quite seemed to know what do with her, so her departure wasn't really of much consequence.
This episode is also a swan song for Fred Dalton Thompson's much more memorable DA Branch - it's never addressed directly on camera but he drops a heavy hint in the final scene that he'll leaving soon - which he does indeed.
Two other highlights are Alana de la Garcia's standout turn as ADA Rubirosa, who gets her spot in the sun delivering a memorable closing argument at trial, and Jeremy Sisto as the Defence Attorney - in fact he was so attention grabbing the producers cast him in the following season as poor old Det Cassady's replacement!!
Star Trek: Voyager: Threshold (1996)
Without a doubt, the worst episode ever!
This is THE worst episode of Voyager without a doubt, and probably the worst ever episode of any incarnation of Star Trek; it's even worse than TNG's first season and that takes some beating!
The plot is ridiculous, the dialogue is atrocious and the actors spend most of the episode looking like they're fantasizing about killing their agents for landing them in this steaming pile of poop.
The basic story sees the hapless Voyager crew use an experimental engine design (tested in the Holodeck no less!) to break the Warp 10 barrier (there goes decades of Trek continuity, not to mention the very, very vague scientific basis for the physics of Trek). Tom Paris is the lucky, lucky chap piloting the test shuttle. More by accident than design, the contraption seems to work, then Paris disappears (cue much false jepordy) before miraculously reappearing right next to Voyager (how kind of fate to drop Paris off right here in the suspiciously crowded Delta Quadrant - seriously half the Alpha Quad seems to land here in Voyager's run!)
Following all this 'excitement' the writers then have what appears to be a moment of absolute madness - the Warp 10 jump seems to cause Paris to die (yay!), revive (boo!), kindnap Janeway (eh?!) before taking her back onto the test shuttle through the W.10 barrier where they promptly both de-evolve into oversided Samalanders, mate and produce muntant amphibious offspring (Wtf?!?!) Yes folks seriously that's what happens.....no amount of alcohol or hallucinogenics could produce a script this bad, the only sane conclusion is that writer Brannon Braga secretly hated Trek and set out to sabotage the show with this intergalactic turkey (actually based on his later writing on Enterprise and Voyager's later years that's not an unreasonable hypothesis)
There is nothing remotely redeemable about this episode, Voyager itself was a show which was riddled by internal inconsistencies elaborated on by other reviewers, one of its worst being the 'reset button' phenomenon - at the end of each episode everything just reverts to normal, everyone plods on trudging their way through duff scripts and stock nebula footage hoping a passing Borg or some wayward Romulans to put them out of their misery, and actions very rarely have consequences. This episode is one of the most egregious examples of this (Paris turned into a weird lizard thing, kidnapped Janeway and mated with her!!) Yet the following week everyone acts like nothing ever happened!!
In sum - dreadful and avoid at all costs!!
The Goldbergs: Dinner With The Goldbergs (2018)
A bad misfire from the Goldbergs
Normally this show is consistently funny and warm hearted (if a little eccentric - however this episode just makes them out to be utter horrors - rude, arrogant and at times sounding almost a borderline Jewish 'mean and avaricious' trope. The basic premise sees the 'Bergs heading out for a meal to celebrate Erica's birthday - chaos promptly ensues.
Some of the gags are funny, but a lot of the time the family just seem horrible - it's funny watching Bev harrasing teachers, its less fun watching her being cruel to mininum wage waiters and generally being a jerk. A few gags seemed really uncomfortable - Bev stealing other people's food, the family sending food back for no reason, and haggling over the bill - the last one seemed more like a bad stereotype than a joke. The best scene is where Geoff is finally pushed over the edge and calls the entire family out for being obnoxious but even that falls flat as the family pretty much ignore him!!
Poor effort from the writers and the voice over at the end just adds insult to injury - wittering on about love when in fact the family would likely be barred from every restaurant in town if they really behaved like this!!
Cagney & Lacey: Don't I Know You? (1988)
Amazing performance from Sharon Gless
This is the probably the best episode of Season 7 - indeed it's one of the best episodes of the shows entire run.
The episode shows the horrifying impact of 'date' rape, a subject very rarely shown on 1980s TV. What gives the episode its power in this case we know the victim - Det Christine Cagney. Christine is the victim of a terrifying ordeal at the hands of her date for the evening - after a dinner date, she declines to bring him into her flat for a nightcap - he returns shortly afterwards with some excuse and quickly overpowers Christine. The audience does not see this scene, but rather we hear Sharon Gless recounting it to Tyne Daly. Her delivery is amazing, and conveys the horror and violation. Tyne Daly is also excellent as she struggles to find the right words to support her best friend and partner. The episode does not pull any punches as it shows in stark reality the cold, clinical experience rape victims could expect at that time as they undergo forensic examination, before being subjected to personal, invasive and humiliating questions from the two (male) detectives assigned to her case. Throughout the episode, everyone around Christine imply that either they don't believe her, or that she would be better not pursuing the matter - all except Mary Beth who doggedly encourages Christine to stick to her guns and pursue the rapist. Eventually they are able to pursuade the DA to take the case forward and use the rapist's own lies to trip him up.
All in all a powerful performance from both leads, and a strong insight into a difficult and painful subject.
Cagney & Lacey: Greed (1987)
The worst episode of Cagney and Lacey?
This episode is the moment Cagney and Lacey jump the shark; its extraordinary to consider that less than 6 months ago the show was producing the amazing 'Turn Turn Turn' and now its reduced to this.
The plot (such as it is) follows C&L as they go undercover on a tacky game show which may or may not be rigged. The game show is a dreadful mix of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, only with an even cheaper set, and worse hairdos. The 'Undercover' part sees the ladies (plus Isbecki and Esposito) dressed up as (wait for it) Fruits and Vegetables (don't split your sides laughing now). The villian could be spotted a mile off and the plot is stretched so thin you can practically see the selotape holding the whole shabby affairs together.
There's nothing wrong C&L doing humour - often there's an under current of real life humour in previous seasons (esp Season 6's hilarious To Sir With Love) but this is just awful in every sense of the word; the script is terrible, the characters act ridiculously, and the actors themselves look miserable dressed up as pineapples and assorted fruits - Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly must be wondering how they went from Emmy Award winning episodes to this sub-pantomine nonsense. All in all this is not a good advert for an eight season, and is definitely one to avoid on the reruns or on the DVD releases! The 3 stars are pretty much for Gless and Daly showing enough restraint not to suffocate the scriptwriter with those wretched fruit constumes!!
Cagney & Lacey: Choices (1984)
Cagney has a pregnancy scare
One of the strongest episodes of the entire run. This episode follows two plots, as the ladies pursue a difficult and emotional case stemming from Season 2 ''Recreational Use" instalment, whilst Cagney also deals with a pregnancy scare and the strong emotions it stirs within her as she contemplates her biological clock ticking.
The episode also shows some real comic flare, especially in the first 10-15 minutes; Christine is having the morning from hell as she tries to get to the Court on time, only to find the case has been delayed yet again - cue a classic Christine rant directed at the long suffering ADA prosecuting the case. Things take a grim turn when the elderly victim of the case dies unexpectedly, meaning the case is likely to sink unless C&L can persuade another elderly witness to come forward. Tyne Daly really shines as she uses her warmth and empathy to encourage the nervous old lady to speak the truth.
However the real meat of this episode is Christine and her pregnancy scare; Sharon Gless is wonderful simultaneously delivering pathos and humour as she initially freaks out, goes into denial, then starts to feel excitement before untimately disappointment when she realises she's not actually pregnant. For the first time in her life she has to face up to her biological clock, and rages against the unfairness of it all - both actresses deliver a compelling performance, culminating in a funny yet poignant scene as the let off steam in a bar (Tyne Daly is priceless as a drunk!) Overall a great episode and a good example of how the show didn't need shoot outs, car chases or forced drama - just a emotionally compelling story from the heart.