Law & Order (TV Series) Public Service Homicide (2006) User Reviews

Judge, jury and executioner

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 4 September 2022]

Very like with Season 4's "Sweeps" and even more so with Season 11's "Swept Away: A Very Special Episode", the premise didn't appeal to me really at all. While 'Law and Order' and its spin offs have been binge watched on and off over-time, not every premise has appealed to me and a big part of the problem for me is that the reality/news shows concept those episodes and this centre around is the complete opposite of my idea of heaven. Actually find it sensationalist and little more than human bear baiting.

"Sweeps" and this episode "Public Service Homicide" ("Swept Away: A Very Special Episode" didn't work for me) turned out to be a lot better than expected. It wasn't one of those "loved it" episodes, but actually to me there was a lot recommendable about it. On recent re-watch, my pleasantly surprised thoughts are very much the same and actually appreciated it more. It handles the premise a lot more tastefully than feared and it is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Not one of the show's best, but Season 17 had not put a foot wrong yet when it came to overall episode quality and that doesn't change here.

Cassady and Milena Govich playing her do not work for me, they just lack personality (or at least a strong one).

Also thought that the truth in terms of who did it and the motive could have been revealed a little bit later.

Much is very good though. The production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. While the story is not extraordinary it is still very interesting and well constructed, not being exploitative and is a lot more intelligent and easy to buy than the premise makes out.

Furthermore, as ever, a great job is done with the interesting questions and dilemmas raised when getting a result. The indifference charge on paper sounded extreme but when watching McCoy's point of view is understandable. Other than Govich, the acting is very good. Jesse L Martin has still got it and Sam Waterston commands the legal scenes effortlessly. Zoe Lister-Jones beautifully plays one of those characters that has uncondonable and hateful actions but when seeing the context and finding out why she turned out to not be the character that is most hated by the end of the episode.

Overall, very good, much more so than expected considering the premise. 8/10.

Television acting as judge and jury makes me a little queasy.

[Mrpalli77 · 8/10 · 22 January 2018]

A woman noticed the one she was watching on a live TV drama show was her neighbor: he was described as a child molester. The same night before midnight the guy was discovered stabbed to death in his hometown by a delivery guy. Another neighbor had an eight years old daughter, he had no priors but he was in his apartment alone at the time of the murder and he changed his version three times at questioning room. The victim worked in a community service and he was fired some days before due to information brought by the neighbor. Anyway the little daughter witnessed a girl (victim's ex fiancèe, played by Zoe Lister-Jones) confronting the pedophile. Actually she wasn't victim's boyfriend but a girl raped by the pedophile in the past...

This episode show us what live TV shows aren't in the real world: the plot made by this format is always phony, like Big Brother. McCoy and Branch know that, entertainment must be distinguished from reality; McCoy had rather read a good book instead of watching this trash.

"I'm a journalist"

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 4 January 2015]

Jesse Martin and Milena Govich catch a case involving the death of a man who raped an 8 year old girl and some 20 years later she takes vengeance on him with a hunting knife. The whole thing was caught on video tape because the perpetrator Zoe Lister was doing it for a television reality series pilot.

Not that anyone told her to kill the man, but these things will happen. But not on Sam Waterston's watch. He goes after producer Nadia Dejani with a depraved indifference homicide charge.

Hard for me to be objective as I have a strong bias against reality television. Years ago when presenting the award for makeup at the Oscars Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe still a married couple remarked that without makeup people in film would look like those in documentaries.

For myself I like a clear demarcation between reality and entertainment. This kind of stuff belongs on the news not on prime time entertainment shows.

Many times on the Law And Order franchise shows you get a defendant who has no clue of what they've done in facilitating a major crime. Thus it is with Dejani.

Sad to say there looks like no end to these kind of shows.

A film school student must see!

[DestinyGrooveDavis · 10/10 · 30 June 2017]

As a film school student I love this episode because it starts the conversation on where the mysterious ethics monsters swamp can be found. I would have written involuntary manslaughter into the script instead of murder. I can of course see where the producer opened herself up to manslaughter by not sending a camera crew with the lady murderer to confront the man. I can honestly say I believe that a show like this would draw a crowd. I would hope that it would be hard to find subjects for though.

Repetition Compulsion

[Berlinerin2020 · 1/10 · 27 January 2021]

If I had $1 for every time that the name "Carl Mullaly" was mentioned in this episode, I'd be a millionaire! The scriptwriter needs a refresher course on screenwriting.