Sundown

It starts as an admittedly interesting but run-of-the-mill case, but around the 20-minute mark it starts spiraling down to become one of the most devastating episodes I've watched in the franchise, up there with Season 1 "Indifference" and SVU's "Careless".

Carmichael's face as she is handed the mask, and the following scene with her, Skoda and McCoy literally had me in tears.

I saw the twist coming, but boy was I not ready for how the episode handled the topic.

Oddly enough I knew of a situation involving some elderly neighbors of mine many years ago similar to the plot of this Law And Oder story. the women next door had a boyfriend and her husband was fast losing it. The boyfriend was not the elegant Cary Grant like gentleman Mark Pinter is in this story.

It's the wife who is killed in a hospital and daughter Missy Yager and husband George Martin are visiting. Eventually it's the husband who is settled on as the perpetrator.

Martin is a pitiable figure, already half gone from Alzheimer's. Two questions remain, is he competent enough to stand trial and where do we incarcerate him?

J.K. Simmons points out what a problem the correctional system will have when the baby boomers hit their declining years and the prison population is filled with these cases. Angie Harmon is righteously appalled by the conditions these incarcerated folks live in now.

The questions that Sam Waterston faces preparing for trial. Note Glynnis O'Connor's good turn as Martin's defense attorney.

'Law and Order', and actually frequently the whole 'Law and Order' franchise (especially 'Special Victims Unit'), often excelled when it came to having cases that made the viewer feel truly sad and angry. It also often excelled when it came to tackling difficult topics. Alzheimer's Disease is very hard to discuss and something that will hit home for so many going through it or seeing it, as is the issue of whether a perpetrator is competent to stand trial.

While not one of the best episodes of Season 10, "Sundown" is very solid and tackles one of the more difficult and personal cases subject matter-wise very well indeed. It doesn't hold back, quite unyielding later, and has a large emotional punch as ought. It isn't perfect, with it being a case of one half being better than the other (which was the case with quite a lot of episodes from the early-mid seasons. But even the inferior half is still interesting, just not as riveting.

"Sundown" does start off on the routine side, from not standing above the ordinary, and doesn't have many surprises.

Did think too that it was lacking a little in tension and complexity.

On the other hand, "Sundown" does a lot absolutely right. As ever, the production values are slick, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started (never was it a problem but it got more fluid overtime). The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key. The performances are very good from particularly Angie Harmon, George Martin and Glynnis O'Connor.

Furthermore, the script is sharp, intelligent and gritty, again with a lot to take in without feeling too much. Especially in the latter stages of the second half and when one sees how much the case affects Carmichael. While the first half is interesting if routine, the second is truly riveting and emotionally powerful. It was very difficult to not feel angered or moved by what Carmichael finds going to the clinic and it is hard to not be completely on her side. Absolutely related to the subject and her and everything to do with the competence was handled intelligently and not in a heavy way.

In summary, very good with a riveting second half. 8/10.

An old woman was found dead inside the clinic where she was hospitalized for a biopsy. She was punched several times causing her internal bleeding. A servant who used to steal things from the hospital was taken to the precinct and he confessed about a man, maybe a lover of the victim. Victim's children knew about the affair (their father had Alzheimer's disease) as well as a travel agent. Her "fiancèe" is a piece of work, not so easy to find for the detectives, he showed up as a doctor or an antique dealer for his preys, but actually he was a thief (he stole a gold cross jewelry from the killed woman). Anyway even the children could have their own motive, because of a life insurance. Her daughter confessed the crime, but she wanted to protect someone inside the family....

It's not easy to deal with such a kind of disease. The sick old man (George Martin) is very pitiful, Carmichael is shocked when she visited a clinic full of Alzheimer's disease patients. I know that, both of my grandmothers died from that illness.