Melting Pot

This episode hit on several topics as they tried to solve an apparent suicide.

A woman was discovered and the medical examiner ruled that the suicide was staged.

The attention first focused on Ali Mohammad (Sanjit De Silva), a veteran of all four Law& Order franchises. He worked as a sound mixer on the woman's film, which was blasphemous according to his religion. Detective Cassady (Milena Govich) really pushed his buttons, and did the best job I have seen her do.

Then the focus was on Julio Rodriguez (Reza Salazar), and the issue turned to illegal immigrants. A.D.A. Rubirosa (Alana De La Garza) got upset over this, and the whole issue of illegal immigration became the focus.

Guantanamo and terrorism come out in the mix, but all the yelling over these issues was moot when they discovered the murder was the result of good old American greed.

"Melting Pot", based upon what seems like the Adrienne Shelley case, is a "ripped from the headlines" type of story. The 'Law and Order' franchise often did very well to brilliantly with these types of stories when they had cases based on real life cases and crimes. Especially in the earlier seasons of the original 'Law and Order'. This kind of story can either be very intriguing and a harrowing watch or be too derivative, lacking tautness and feel exploitative. Most in the franchise (or at least at this point) are thankfully in the former category.

Was a bit worried that "Melting Pot" would be a bit too ordinary, as it did sound formulaic structurally, with it having been covered in episodes with relatively similar stories, and other Season 17 episodes tackled far bolder and heavier themes. As said a few times in reviews for previous episodes, 'Law and Order' has actually shown more than once that it can do something interesting and at times special with ordinary-sounding premises. The "doing something special" category is not quite achieved in "Melting Pot", but the episode succeeds in "doing something interesting" with the subject, though it also could have done more with it.

Cassady was always a bland character and Milena Govich never had enough personality in my view, and "Melting Pot" doesn't change my mind.

Did feel that it started on the too ordinary and familiar side and the final third was a little over-crowded.

Like with a vast majority of 'Law and Order' episodes, there is a lot to like in "Melting Pot". The production values are still fully professional, the slickness and subtly gritty style still remaining. The music is sparingly used and is haunting and thankfully non-overwrought. The direction shows some nice tension in the legal scenes.

The script is thought provoking and smart, thankfully not rambling or too complicated that it makes things confused. A lot of the legal scenes' dialogue really probes thought and pulls no punches, while the story intrigues and unsettles enough in the second half and a lot less ordinary than it sounds on paper. The supporting cast do very well, though their characters (apart from the perpetrator) are on the one dimensional side.

In summary, pretty solid but not great. 7/10.

After a chess game, two teenagers noticed that their neighbor hanged herself. She was a filmmaker, married to a guy not so close to her anymore . Medical examiner found a fracture on the back of the skull, she actually didn't commit suicide. The victim directed a controversial movie about girls in the muslim world; the film hasn't been distributed yet to the audience, so there were only three copy available. An arab guy (Sanjit De Silva) working as sound engineer in the film was the prime suspect, but detectives had to see on a different angle: there were issues about renovation in the building and the victim used to complain about the noises. An illegal colombian immigrant, a plumber, cut off the apartment water flow and an argument emerged, ended badly. The murderer was the sole support of his extended family in Colombia and it could mean something to jurors. But it's not over yet, his boss in the construction company played a role in the murder...

Van Buren, McCoy and Rubirosa had difficulties in dealing with this political situation. Rubirosa proved to be fluent in spanish and to have a heart, emotions, something McCoy didn't have in his entire life.

This particular Law And Order story sadly takes on a relevance for today with all the hot air rhetoric about immigrants.

Jesse Martin and Milla Govich catch a case of a murder pretending to be a suicide of a film director. She's left dangling from a noose, but Martin finds some inexplicable facts and the ME says murder.

We go all over the field with suspects. The first hot button is that of Moslems because the women wasa documentary film director and she was doing a film on women in that world being treated lower than whale dung. Then the focus shifts to some day laborers that a contractor was using in renovating the building.

I will say the suspect really came out of nowhere because previously he had been the model of cooperation before he was a suspect.

You can really feel sorry for Reza Salazar who the police took into custody who because of his illegal status seems to be facing nothing but bad choices.

Wonder how that character is doing now.

This show came out three months after Adrienne was murdered in her Greenwich apartment by a contractor working in the building who was trying to rob her. He hung her up to try to cover his crime. She was an actress, writer and director of the movie Waitress.