This is a very well written episode. There are so much to appreciate here.
Firstly the dialogue is very believable. The words and connotations they use makes one think they are real cops and lawyers. There are also a lot of real laws and rules used in this episode so it's clearly written by experts on law and New York.
The acting blew me away. Every single actor in this episode brought their A game. Just watch it for the acting alone.
But what really made it great compared to other episodes is the twist and turns. The average Law & Order episode is not great. It's too fast paced and too focused on plot. We rarely see who the people involved are or how their personal life is. It's a collection of short scenes that really don't bring us close to the people. But for this episode it works as it's build up on twist after twist and it's not about single people feeling some deep emotion. And many of these twists just barely succeed as the judge can rule either way. It's a battle between intelligent equals but at the end the good guys win because well, they are the good guys. The judge chooses good over evil but just about. And it even requires that one lawyer and 2 police men don't tell the whole truth during the trial. So this victory was really hard fought. It's dirty, it's real, it feels realistic and it's some amazing writing!
Firstly the dialogue is very believable. The words and connotations they use makes one think they are real cops and lawyers. There are also a lot of real laws and rules used in this episode so it's clearly written by experts on law and New York.
The acting blew me away. Every single actor in this episode brought their A game. Just watch it for the acting alone.
But what really made it great compared to other episodes is the twist and turns. The average Law & Order episode is not great. It's too fast paced and too focused on plot. We rarely see who the people involved are or how their personal life is. It's a collection of short scenes that really don't bring us close to the people. But for this episode it works as it's build up on twist after twist and it's not about single people feeling some deep emotion. And many of these twists just barely succeed as the judge can rule either way. It's a battle between intelligent equals but at the end the good guys win because well, they are the good guys. The judge chooses good over evil but just about. And it even requires that one lawyer and 2 police men don't tell the whole truth during the trial. So this victory was really hard fought. It's dirty, it's real, it feels realistic and it's some amazing writing!