Season 11 Review
By Hank 74
School Daze
Lennie-10/10
Ed-10/10
Van Buren-10/10
Jack-10/10
Abby-10/10
Nora-10/10
Guests-10/10
Semis-10/10
Plot-10/10
Performance-10/10
Total Grade-100/100 or an outstanding A+!! Or as Mr. Burns would say
"Excellent."
Notes:
Talk about perfect timing. This afternoon the Florida jury gave their verdict
on the young man who shot and killed his English teacher. The same issues they
had to face were similar to those of this ep.
What can I say, this was the best episode of this season in my opinion. I know
"Teenage Wasteland" was great, and you had lots to say about
"Bronx Cheer," but wouldn't you agree the intensity and emotion
exibited by all of the main 6 characters along with Jaime and Skoda were top
notch. Clearly L&O has gone back on track after a dismal season 10 and on
and off performances this year.
I like to compare this year's ep with one from the past. Strangely enough, this
one reminded me strongly of "Confession" from season 2. Now killing
Max Greevey and schoolchildren are two different things. But these two are
similar in terms of the police trying to get hard evidence to catch the suspect
and then have it thrown out on a technicality by the judge. Then the DA's fume
at the cops for overstepping their bounds. I don't know who was more ticked
off, Ben at Mike for pulling the stunt with the 38 or Jack at Lennie and Ed for
not getting a court order and investigate the e-mail. But I loved how the DA's
and cops clashed swords with each other over how to do their jobs. It appears
that Mr. Wolf will have more interaction between the two sides in future eps.
That means more of Lennie and Ed in the second half and hopefully a sighting by
Jack and Serena in the first half. This formula has been working of late
because in years past it has worked very well, ie. "Confession."
What can you say about Abby? She appears to go in a blaze of glory, hell bent
to see the perps fry. But then she plays peacemaker between Jack and Ed. What
gives? We can get the clues about departing characters in their final eps. The
best example was Ben in season 4 with "Sanctuary" and Claire in
season 6 with "Pro Se." The big question though is who won the
catfight between her and Jaime. In terms of the verdict, Abby won. In terms of
maintaining their credibility, score one for Jaime. I can only hope there would
have been more clashes between the two.
Great to see Nora with some fire for once. I haven't seen her so animated since
she went toe to toe with Judge Wright in "Dissonance." I get the
feeling she is a center of calm, a woman with deep conviction and reason. I
only wish she could exert that more often and take control of the situation in
cases like this. This would have been another great opportunity to have a DA
Executive meeting to see what should happen to the boy. But I think Nora didn't
put the brakes on this and force Jack and Abby to get him committed or help or
at least deal with Jaime since doing so would harm her chances at election, if
that is what TPTB wish to do next season.
The only thing that would have made this more interesting is if Dr. Olivet was
brought back by Jaime and conflict what Skoda had to say. But this ep was
already full of twists and turns along with fireworks coming from all
directions.
What else can I say? Mr. Wolf wrote the
story himself. This ep has to be seriously considered as one of the best of all
time. It would be knocking on the door of the "Indifference,"
"Confession," "Savages," and "Sanctuary" league.
Finally, what do you think this ep would be like if the former regulars were
doing this? Pick any season and tell us how would the cops and DA's handle
this. I would be particularly interested in seasons 7 & 8 when Jaime would
be at the people's table. Lets say a black kid was caught doing this and
Robinette was defending him. How would Jaime and Jack react to that? Just food
for thought.
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