The prime suspect in the murder of a college professor is a domineering father who kidnapped his children and disappeared 15 years earlier.The prime suspect in the murder of a college professor is a domineering father who kidnapped his children and disappeared 15 years earlier.The prime suspect in the murder of a college professor is a domineering father who kidnapped his children and disappeared 15 years earlier.
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- TriviaIn the opening Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe refers to the transit worker urging him to release the train as "Benito". This is a sarcastic reference to Benito Mussolini, whose fascist regime in Italy was reputed to have kept the trains running on time.
- GoofsFallon's credit card records include a purchase from TKTS (half-price tickets for Broadway/Off-Broadway shows), but TKTS doesn't take credit cards, only cash or traveler's checks. (TKTS started taking credit cards in 2009, 10 years after this episode aired.)
- Quotes
Jack McCoy: It's like Jonestown without the Kool-Aid.
Featured review
A criminal mind
One of the biggest appeals of 'Law and Order' has been the topics it addresses and issues that come with the topics addressed. Also with how they are explored, the execution more often than not was hardly sugar coated or trivialised and was often pull no punches in quality. "Tabula Rasa" (even the title is easy to be drawn in by once one knows its meaning) is no exception and conceptually it is one of the most interesting episodes, because of the character of the perpetrator.
Season 9 was very solid and was at its best outstanding, though the first half in my mind is more consistent than the second. "Tabula Rasa" is not quite one of the very best episodes of the season and there are in my mind better 'Law and Order' episodes overall, but it is very, very good indeed and in the better half with all the ingredients to make it a near-season high point. Thanks to the legal scenes, the performances and character writing primarily.
Will agree that the whole "daughter being so far away with such a controlling father figure" was a bit hard to buy, though there have been premises in the show far harder to swallow (i.e. Season 8's "Blood").
"Tabula Rasa" benefits massively from the performances. Not just from the regulars, all on fine form in particularly the legal portion, but especially the supporting cast. JO Sanders is genuinely frightening and Anne Bobby absolutely kills it emotionally when her character is cross-examined. That scene is a truly powerful piece of writing and acting and one of the season's best.
Photography and such as usual are fully professional, losing none of its slickness. The music is used sparingly and is haunting and non-overwrought when it is used, and it's mainly used when a crucial revelation or plot development is revealed. The direction has nice and at its best (such as towards and at the end) thrilling tension while keeping things steady, without going too far the other way.
On the writing front, "Tabula Rasa" couldn't be better. The script is scary in its intensity later on and always probes thought. Always have loved Briscoe's wry wisecracks as well. The story is never dull and the moral dilemmas of the case, with a perpetrator that is not an easy one to beat and the whole process of trying to get some conviction despite limited evidence. The final third is eerily suspenseful.
In summary, very, very good. 9/10.
Season 9 was very solid and was at its best outstanding, though the first half in my mind is more consistent than the second. "Tabula Rasa" is not quite one of the very best episodes of the season and there are in my mind better 'Law and Order' episodes overall, but it is very, very good indeed and in the better half with all the ingredients to make it a near-season high point. Thanks to the legal scenes, the performances and character writing primarily.
Will agree that the whole "daughter being so far away with such a controlling father figure" was a bit hard to buy, though there have been premises in the show far harder to swallow (i.e. Season 8's "Blood").
"Tabula Rasa" benefits massively from the performances. Not just from the regulars, all on fine form in particularly the legal portion, but especially the supporting cast. JO Sanders is genuinely frightening and Anne Bobby absolutely kills it emotionally when her character is cross-examined. That scene is a truly powerful piece of writing and acting and one of the season's best.
Photography and such as usual are fully professional, losing none of its slickness. The music is used sparingly and is haunting and non-overwrought when it is used, and it's mainly used when a crucial revelation or plot development is revealed. The direction has nice and at its best (such as towards and at the end) thrilling tension while keeping things steady, without going too far the other way.
On the writing front, "Tabula Rasa" couldn't be better. The script is scary in its intensity later on and always probes thought. Always have loved Briscoe's wry wisecracks as well. The story is never dull and the moral dilemmas of the case, with a perpetrator that is not an easy one to beat and the whole process of trying to get some conviction despite limited evidence. The final third is eerily suspenseful.
In summary, very, very good. 9/10.
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- TheLittleSongbird
- Oct 13, 2021
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