Merger

This is a strong episode with an interesting story and a very good cast, but Francie Swift in particular shines as a pathetically neurotic, chronically confused, and grotesquely over-medicated young woman whose parents have arranged for her to marry into a family that is useful to them and who continue to treat her upcoming merger-marriage as more important than their younger daughter's murder. As in so many L&O episodes, there's a rich family indignantly telling the police that law enforcement is targeting them because of their wealth--never mind that the evidence points to several family members--and the plot unfolds in a highly interesting manner, with multiple possible suspects. Definitely worth watching, especially for the performances of Francie Swift as the tortured ingenue and Anne Twomey as her mother.

Despite being hugely impressed by the previous three episodes (especially "Killerz"), somehow "Merger" never quite clicked with me. Will admit to not being entirely excited by it before even seeing it on first watch, as the premise didn't really sell it to me. One of the few premises of the earlier seasons for that to be the case, there's not much exciting and it did sound like a very derivative episode on paper. Or at least that was how it felt on first watch.

My feelings on "Merger", as indicated by the first paragraph, haven't really changed all that much and is one of my least favourite episodes of Season 10. It is certainly not a terrible episode, it takes a lot for me to call any episode of the franchise that, and has its good things such as the acting. There are other episodes however that grab the attention a lot more and don't make the mistakes of trying to do too much, being not easy to follow and being unevenly paced.

There are good things and they shall be listed first. It looks generally slick especially in the typically intimate photography and the locations have a nice atmosphere. The music is used appropriately and didn't come over as overbearing. Some of the dialogue is thought-probing and lean in the early legal portion.

Best thing about "Merger" is the acting, especially when the legal team take over. Sam Waterston and Angie Harmon display a lot of authority as McCoy and Carmichael, Jerry Orbach can do no wrong and Jesse L. Martin has settled very well. Love his gritty chemistry with Orbach. The supporting cast are good, nice turn from Tom O'Rourke.

However, there are big drawbacks as well. It is too over-complicated, especially in the final quarter, and tries to cram too much in in too short a space of time. Making the episode hard to follow at times, especially when leading into the legal portion and the final quarter. Some jumping around in the story editing doesn't help. Some of it felt odd, because of too many under-explored and not very useful connections and too many motivations left vague. The direction felt rushing-to-meet-the-deadline-like.

Do agree about the ending being introduced too out of the blue and also rather rushed. Didn't find it easy to buy either, as for it to make sense or easier to get the head round it could have done with it being revealed about 10 minutes earlier. The script has moments but there was a sense that it was written in haste, as there are too many parts that sound intriguing and not followed through enough. While the supporting cast are good, the characters themselves are not that memorable.

Overall, watchable but patchy. Didn't quite click. 5/10.

The 15 year old daughter of a rich family is murdered and at first the chauffeur of the neighboring blue bloods is suspected. Then semen from two men is found in the body of the victim during the autopsy and it's the spoiled sons of the neighboring blue bloods.

So we have statutory rape and murder. But are the crimes connected and how? That's the puzzle the police hand Sam Waterston and Angie Harmon.

The main theme of this episode is how when one is rich one has resources available to skirt the law. Sam Waterston is frustrated, but Steven Hill is not happy, but philosophic.

Some justice is meted out but not enough to suit Waterston and not enough for the viewer.

A fifteen-year-old girl is found dead of a head wound in the courtyard of the elegant apartment complex in which she lives. Brisco and Greene follow the usual initial red herring, the limousine driver who didn't show up for work that day and whose actions were problematic at the time of the killing.

He's rather quickly disposed of and the detectives now find themselves investigating two very wealthy families. The plot begins to look like some turgid tale by Charles Dickens out of Agatha Christie.

I was frankly confused by the editing as well as the complicated subterranean motives. They boggled the shrink's mind too, so I don't feel too bad. An example of what I mean by clumsy editing. One of the suspects says something to the effect that Brisco and Green should talk to a white informant who lives in Jersey -- something like that. The two detective look up at one another meaningfully. This exchange of looks is a device that ordinarily leads to a cut after which the detectives are interrogating the white informant. But, no. There is the expected cut, but then we see Brisco and Green entering the apartment of an African-American household whose connection to the plot is tenuous.

It doesn't get any clearer when Sam Waterston and Angie Harmon take over. There seems to be a gaggle of suspects, all of them rich, all of them powerful, all of them seemingly having something to hide. And the climactic reveal comes out of a clear and dazzling blue sky with only a few scattered wisps of cloud.

It's not a terrible episode but neither is it among the best. It raises no particular moral conundrums. It evokes curiosity and confusion rather than thought. The local color is as good as always. The setting is identifiably New York City and when there is thunder overhead it's followed in a later scene by rain. (You don't get that in LA movies.) The acting is up to par too. My suspension of disbelief was challenged by only one character, a matronly black cook who isn't around long. Waterston is a fine actor, good at circumspection. Angie Harmon is okay too but -- well, I miss Jill Hennessy terribly. She had a swan's neck, a face full of good bone structure, and an endearing and sexy wobble when she walked, and her voice was mellow and welcoming, whereas Angie Harmon's is a little hoarse. I wouldn't want to have an argument with Angie Harmon. She'd win.