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I will begin with a general
overview of both eps, then give you my customary grades and notes based on
the individual eps. Whether you view this as eps 299 and 300 or 300 and 301,
you must say Mr. Wolf and company did a nice job to have season 13 end on a
bang! I liked the segue between the two when there was Lennie and Ed about
ready to head home after a long day and then they get the call about the dead
baby. To me, I consider these two eps as seperate since the plots and
characters were different. This is the 4th time I know of where a season
ended with two eps back to back. Now to my grades.
Couples
Lennie-10/10
Ed-10/10
Van Buren-10/10
Jack-9/10
Serena-8/10
Arthur-9/10
Supporting Cast-10/10
Plot-10/10
Performance-10/10
Value-8/10
Total-94/100
Notes:
Didn't someone say this was going to be just like Mayhem?
It certainly had that feel to it. Wonder how Lennie and Van Buren are
feeling considering this is the second time they've been through this. But it
was nice to see the "Law" side get considerable attention as they
should have. I feel they weren't necessarily the problem this season. They
did a good job and this was a nice reward for all their efforts. I was getting
a little worried about no "Order" side at all, but like the similar
season 4 ep, there was a little snippet. I would even say they got less time
than what Stone, Claire, and Adam received back then. Hope Sam isn't
complaining like MM did back then.
If there was any difference between the two, its that
there were fewer cases actually and we didn't get to find out what happened
to the Cadillac driving woman, the rich yuppie who acted like Scott Peterson,
or the two fighting brothers. I was thinking they might have mentioned
something in the second part, but that's typical L&O for you. Leaves you
hanging. Which takes us to:
Smoke
Lennie-10/10
Ed-10/10
Van Buren-9/10
Jack-10/10
Serena-10/10
Arthur-10/10
Supporting Cast-9/10
Plot-9/10
Performance-9/10
Value-8/10
Total-94/100
Notes:
They boiled up the entire life story of Jacko into this
ep. But at least they spared us from the marriage to Lisa Marie and other
sordid details. In fact, the comic became a secondary story to the parents
who engaged in this creepy tale. One question which bugs me is wouldn't this
be an SVU case? It certainly looks like it could have been on SVU with the
dead baby and the sexual abuse. I guess it was written for L&O because it
involved a possible arson and murder and once the sexual allegations
surfaced, Lennie and Ed were in too deep that it was best for them to keep it
instead of handing this over to SVU. Something about police protocol.
In any case, I liked how they started with the fire and
dead infant and then moved to a possible cover-up that's been going on for
years. The path which they took from A to B was easy to follow. It was
intense and emotional at times thinking these parents might get off because
of their sick child when they forgot about the other. I wished Olivet or
Huang or both were in this one to better explain the "indifferent
monstrosity" (as Jack put it) of these two. I won't say these two are in
the same league as the Lowensteins, but it would be an interesting debate.
A first must have happened as a former repeat offender
came in as himself. That of course being Larry Miller. I must say it was a
little awkward for Lennie to talk to the same guy as Dobson. But they
probably wanted Miller as himself to add some credibility. Personally, I
would have just given him a character name.
To wrap things up for tonight and season 13, this was a
great finish to what has been at best an average season. I'll mention more of
this when I give my state of the season 13 address along with my final season
13 rankings. The big question now is what happens to the direction of the
show. Of course, something which we must now consider in the summer is who
stays and who goes? Particularly settling the Rohm issue once and for all.
What do you
think? Email me!
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