Which actress do I like better in the Assistant D. A. role, Stephanie March or Diane Neal? Both were outstanding, but I probably give the nod to Stephanie March by the absolute slimmest of margins.
And then I watch this episode and Diane Neal is exceptional.
Okay, it's a tie.
Also, I enjoyed Judith Light's limited but highly effective performance as the judge. This is a very strong courtroom episode.
There is one aspect of this episode that strikes me as rather unusual (the only reason why I deducted one star). A young woman is raped and murdered, although her body is never found. We the viewers are shown no visual evidence of the rape/murder, such as the body at the murder scene or at the medical examiner's office. Then, two of the young male defendants kidnap and murder the third young male defendant. There are no scenes of the kidnapping or the murder of the young man. We do see his body which is found in the next-to-last scene. That is the only scene in the entire episode in which we the viewers are shown any visual evidence that any criminal acts ever occurred during this episode. We only see the three young defendants presented in three different ways: either (1) on various surveillance camera footage the night the young lady from Toronto was last seen; or (2) being interrogated by the detectives with the boys' lawyers present; or (3) dressed up and sitting in court (or in the restaurant in the final scene) looking like choir boys. We never see them committing the criminal acts. We hear about the violent acts of these young men, but we never see either the criminal actions or the results (other than Jason's body being found near the end of the episode). When the two young men are arrested in the final scene, the whole thing seemed so sanitized to me that it didn't quite feel real.
Otherwise, the story and the courtroom drama were terrific!
And then I watch this episode and Diane Neal is exceptional.
Okay, it's a tie.
Also, I enjoyed Judith Light's limited but highly effective performance as the judge. This is a very strong courtroom episode.
There is one aspect of this episode that strikes me as rather unusual (the only reason why I deducted one star). A young woman is raped and murdered, although her body is never found. We the viewers are shown no visual evidence of the rape/murder, such as the body at the murder scene or at the medical examiner's office. Then, two of the young male defendants kidnap and murder the third young male defendant. There are no scenes of the kidnapping or the murder of the young man. We do see his body which is found in the next-to-last scene. That is the only scene in the entire episode in which we the viewers are shown any visual evidence that any criminal acts ever occurred during this episode. We only see the three young defendants presented in three different ways: either (1) on various surveillance camera footage the night the young lady from Toronto was last seen; or (2) being interrogated by the detectives with the boys' lawyers present; or (3) dressed up and sitting in court (or in the restaurant in the final scene) looking like choir boys. We never see them committing the criminal acts. We hear about the violent acts of these young men, but we never see either the criminal actions or the results (other than Jason's body being found near the end of the episode). When the two young men are arrested in the final scene, the whole thing seemed so sanitized to me that it didn't quite feel real.
Otherwise, the story and the courtroom drama were terrific!