Law & Order (TV Series) In Memory Of (1991) User Reviews

The coldest case Cerreto and Logan ever caught

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 12 August 2017]

Construction workers renovating a brownstone discover the human remains of a child. Little Tommy Keegan went missing in 1962 so it is one laborious process for Paul Sorvino and Chris Noth ever caught. We're not even sure a crime was committed for quite a while.

Sad to say that back in the day the detective Richard Kuss with Missing Persons who handled the case thought that a gay couple living in the building might have been responsible. Had he been able to control his own prejudices he might have been responsible.

In the end for Michael Moriarty the case rests on a female contemporary of the deceased who has suppressed some unpleasant memories about this and other things from her home. Big help for the prosecution is Carolyn McCormick resident Law And Order consulting psychiatrist.

A sad case, glad justice is done here. You will be too.

murder will out.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 3 December 2010]

Workers refurbishing a building uncover the 30-year-old remains of a young boy behind a brick wall in the basement. It's up to the detectives to identify the victim and, if possible, find his killer. Pretty unusual premise, but then it turns a bit into one of those Sherlock Holmes trails full of lucky coincidences. The body has long been skeletonized but in addition to its bashed-in skull, the detectives find an unusual button on the remnants of the victim's blue blazer. Holmes used to find traces of a rare trichinopoly tobacco used by the murderer. This particular button is out of production, very expensive, and sold only to a select and small clientèle.

It leads through various meanders to a now-elderly couple who lived in the building at the time of the murder. It becomes apparent that the husband had an attraction towards young boys and, in a panic, killed this one and hid the body. The problem is the absence of any real evidence except the eyewitness testimony of the man's daughter. She saw him washing a bloody sweater the night of the murder. Her memory has been repressed for lo these many years and she's spent some time in a psychiatric facility. She hates her father and refuses to get involved.

It's an interesting episode in that it deals with a cold case and it raises interesting questions about "repressed memories" from childhood which, we now know, has probably caused more damage than they've done good. The writers never face the question head on. It's treated as a minor, ancillary consideration. But I don't know why. It was around this time, the early 90s, that the McMartin Pre School trial was held and dozens of other child care facilities were attacked, their staff convicted and imprisoned, in what students of collective behavior call a "moral panic." This issue is even more complicated than the decades-old murder of a young boy by a child molester, yet the writers choose not to go in that direction, and the problem of childhood memories is dismissed with a snap of the fingers. Repressed childhood memories are true, according to this story, and that's all there is to it. However, sometimes a trichinopoly cigar is just a trichinopoly cigar.

Cold memories

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 11 March 2020]

At this early stage of 'Law and Order's' run, it was a truly riveting and high-quality show. To this day, it is still one of my most re-visited shows. But the Briscoe-Curtis onwards episodes are aired far more than the early seasons so it is easy to forget, or overlook, the early seasons, a shame because when this period was at its best, the episodes were quite brilliant. Even when the period was not quite on form, the weakest episodes were still very decent.

There was the odd pre-Season 6/7 episode that did leave me a little cold while still appreciating them. "In Memory Of" was one of them. Does that mean that it is a bad episode? No, not at all. In fact, much of "In Memory Of" is very well done and a lot works. A large part of me wished that the episode explored its difficult subject more and connected with emotionally more, for early 'Law and Order', it was slightly on the bland though still intriguing side.

"In Memory Of", as aforementioned, has a lot working in its favour. It is slickly photographed and doesn't make its small number of locations too claustrophobic. The music is only used when needed and and doesn't go too heavy on the melodramatic-sounding tone that some similar shows can do during revelation points. The theme tune, like all the 'Law and Order' franchise theme tunes, sticks in the head for a while.

Writing is thoughtful and is neither too simplistic or too complex, the viewer is treated with respect while not having jargon or such going over the head. The acting is very good, Paul Sorvino has settled well and his chemistry with Chris Noth continues to increasingly gel with each episode. Michael Moriarty makes the most of his juicy material and dominates all his scenes without it being too much of a one-man show. The episode did make me think, the moral dilemma intrigues, some interesting questions regarding repression are raised and yes it is a sad case.

Part of me did wish though that "In Memory Of" explored its difficult subject further, everything with the repressed childhood memories while intriguing somehow didn't feel followed all the way through and raised questions but not enough answers. Although the case is a sad one and not an easy watch, other episodes connected with me a lot more because they didn't play it as safe and wasn't as careful to not offend too much.

Did not know what to make of the denoument, which relies too heavily on one major plot point that would make or break the outcome of the case and treated it indifferently somewhat at the end. It is a complicated issue absolutely and it was good that it was not over-complicated by the writers but the ending felt almost too convenient and rushed through. Some of the pacing in the early parts could have had more momentum.

Concluding, well done but left me a little cold by the end. 7/10

One that has not aged well

[keithg-1 · 6/10 · 10 March 2018]

The drama of this episode is gripping, as the detectives investigate the murder of a boy whose skeleton was hidden behind a brick wall for 30 years. Watching it in the mindset of the time it was aired, it's a difficult but worthwhile challenge for both the detectives and the prosecutors. Unfortunately the episode hinges on one witness recovering "repressed memories" of witnessing the murder as a child. At the time of airing, psychologists believed such memories were highly reliable, more so than conscious ones, and a number of criminal convictions were based on no other evidence than that. Then further research showed that repressed memories were in fact completely unreliable, almost always the product of suggestion by well-meaning but mistaken therapists, and those convictions were all overturned. The prosecutors in the episode find independent evidence that the defendant was a child molester, and so while watching we want them to get him. But watching now, it's impossible not to realize that they had no genuine reason to believe he was guilty of that particular crime. So either our heroes sent an innocent (of that one crime anyway) man to prison, or they got lucky and had the right defendant but he probably got released when the repressed memory house of cards fell apart within a couple of years. It's like watching a story where the solution to a mystery hinges on the flat earth theory being correct.

In memory of

[safenoe · 6/10 · 28 July 2023]

The early episodes of Law and Order are quite gritty and really quite get in depth and as one user reviewer stated for this episode, I'm not sure how this episode, the premise of repressed memories, would stand up today with me too and so on that would kind of make things complicated.

Anyway, this episode was bold for 1991, with a troubled daughter of the accused being central to a story of arrest and redemption in a kind of way.

The early episodes are gritty and I think about the opening theme where you see the overhead shot of cars crossing the bridge at night, with the drivers and passengers being part of Law and Order history.