This episode is a bit different, above average even, for a number of reasons. One is that the good guys don't really "win" in the usual sense of the word. Another is that the performance of the heavy is as convincing as it is.
A woman is found in her car, shot in the head, the bullet still in her brain. She's taken to the hospital in what appears to be an irreversible coma.
The detectives (Orbach and Noth) uncover a number of facts that seem to point to the husband as the killer. He beat his wife, he was supposedly alone in his office at the time of the shooting, he'd found out his wife was going to leave him and probably take his money and two children with her.
The husband is played by Larry Miller, balding and with a rough complexion. He runs a comedy club not far from the place of the shooting. And Miller's performance as a snotty, insulting, rotten guy is thoroughly convincing. His arrogance matches his looks. His pupils glint as if made of steel. And the contours of his speech carry their own sneer. He's the kind of guy who, if he had a neck, you'd like to wring it. The actress who plays the victim's distraught sister is middle aged and blond. She LOOKS like somebody's caring sister.
The prosecution is faced with a conundrum. If the bullet is removed from the wife's brain, they may find it matches Miller's gun. However, the operation that would extract the bullet is extremely dangerous to the wife's survival and they advise against it. Waterston and Hennessy press the nearest relative, the wife's sister, into granting permission for the operation. It extracts the bullet.
The episode raises some fascinating moral questions and points up some of the burdens carried by Waterston, whose job is to convict murderers even if the risk of doing harm to others is high.
Nice job. Good series.
A woman is found in her car, shot in the head, the bullet still in her brain. She's taken to the hospital in what appears to be an irreversible coma.
The detectives (Orbach and Noth) uncover a number of facts that seem to point to the husband as the killer. He beat his wife, he was supposedly alone in his office at the time of the shooting, he'd found out his wife was going to leave him and probably take his money and two children with her.
The husband is played by Larry Miller, balding and with a rough complexion. He runs a comedy club not far from the place of the shooting. And Miller's performance as a snotty, insulting, rotten guy is thoroughly convincing. His arrogance matches his looks. His pupils glint as if made of steel. And the contours of his speech carry their own sneer. He's the kind of guy who, if he had a neck, you'd like to wring it. The actress who plays the victim's distraught sister is middle aged and blond. She LOOKS like somebody's caring sister.
The prosecution is faced with a conundrum. If the bullet is removed from the wife's brain, they may find it matches Miller's gun. However, the operation that would extract the bullet is extremely dangerous to the wife's survival and they advise against it. Waterston and Hennessy press the nearest relative, the wife's sister, into granting permission for the operation. It extracts the bullet.
The episode raises some fascinating moral questions and points up some of the burdens carried by Waterston, whose job is to convict murderers even if the risk of doing harm to others is high.
Nice job. Good series.
