Better quality was yet to come in later episodes of 'Law and Order', but its very early years were still solid while not completely finding its groove straight away. Found all the previous episodes good to great, my favourite being "Prescription for Death" and my least being "Everybody's Favourite Bagman" (which was actually the pilot and it has the feel of one).
Liked "Poison Ivy" a little better than the previous reviewers and found it a very solid episode. One with a lot of great things that was just missing the extra something. That extra something in this case being to my liking a little more tension and that it could have gone into its challenging subject with a little more depth. Greevey having doubts and the strong possibility of the victim not being what he seems being hardly novel, handled well still but could have been a little less obvious.
It was great though that "Poison Ivy" had an equal mix of the law and order sides of the case, showing both procedures in the show and its spin offs was a great idea and always makes me when done right think hard about the truth and making a judgment myself. The case does grip as does the inestigative/procedural work, even though we are completely on Greevey's side when he thinks things don't add up. The prosecution element is intriguing and it is great to see how these prosecutors work and get a result.
Again it was gutsy exploring a difficult current issue (which has always been a major interest point of the 'Law and Order' franchise and plays a sizeable role in its appeal), the regular characters' moral dilemmas and the complications of getting a result. Even if the depth wasn't always there, the intrigue certainly was.
Can't fault the gritty production values here or the sparingly used and unobtrusive music (also that memorable main theme). The script is thought-provoking and intelligently written, with no fat and no focus on soapy personal lives which could be a problem in the later seasons of 'Special Victims Unit'. Michael Moriaty as ever makes much of the juicy character of Stone Greevey's hard boiled edge is brought out more than convincingly by George Dzundza. John Finn gives a strong supporting turn.
On the whole, very solid. 8/10
Liked "Poison Ivy" a little better than the previous reviewers and found it a very solid episode. One with a lot of great things that was just missing the extra something. That extra something in this case being to my liking a little more tension and that it could have gone into its challenging subject with a little more depth. Greevey having doubts and the strong possibility of the victim not being what he seems being hardly novel, handled well still but could have been a little less obvious.
It was great though that "Poison Ivy" had an equal mix of the law and order sides of the case, showing both procedures in the show and its spin offs was a great idea and always makes me when done right think hard about the truth and making a judgment myself. The case does grip as does the inestigative/procedural work, even though we are completely on Greevey's side when he thinks things don't add up. The prosecution element is intriguing and it is great to see how these prosecutors work and get a result.
Again it was gutsy exploring a difficult current issue (which has always been a major interest point of the 'Law and Order' franchise and plays a sizeable role in its appeal), the regular characters' moral dilemmas and the complications of getting a result. Even if the depth wasn't always there, the intrigue certainly was.
Can't fault the gritty production values here or the sparingly used and unobtrusive music (also that memorable main theme). The script is thought-provoking and intelligently written, with no fat and no focus on soapy personal lives which could be a problem in the later seasons of 'Special Victims Unit'. Michael Moriaty as ever makes much of the juicy character of Stone Greevey's hard boiled edge is brought out more than convincingly by George Dzundza. John Finn gives a strong supporting turn.
On the whole, very solid. 8/10