User Reviews

Some poor cost accountant working for the NYC Parks Department is the target of a rather obvious mob hit. That was the first mistake, the mob made, they should have gotten creative in killing this guy otherwise Jerry Orbach and Chris Noth might never have been looking in that direction.

With this as a given, Orbach and Noth come up with the fact that he was on a jury against one of the big organized crime bosses up for murder and he was the one who hung said jury. The boss is arrested and the lawyer for the mob is Ron Leibman who with his wife Jessica Walter socialize with Sam Waterston. Leibman in fact went to law school with Waterston and their's a rivalry going back to then.

The jury was supposed to be anonymous as such a case might warrant and yet the evidence shows that Mr. Parks as he's identified was gotten to. And evidence on the tapes the Organized Crime Bureau has points that Leibman may have participated in the getting.

Leibman's is one of two great guest star performances in this episode. The man has totally lost a moral compass and he's completely convinced himself that Waterston is working off a vendetta and off personal jealousy. It's absolutely fascinating as you see how his mind has come around to think the way he does.

Secondly John Furini who was the actual triggerman is just great in the role. It's a part he plays over and over again, making a career out of playing mobsters. This is one of four appearance on Law And Order he's done, not to mention the Sopranos and other films and TV roles. This man will never be out of work as long as Mafia stories interest the movie and TV audiences.

Very well crafted episode from Law And Order.

L&O has a habit of taking plots that would be bland on any other show, and adding not just plot twists, but unique thematic layers, that make episodes stand out. This one begins innocuously enough, with a dead city worker and perhaps a link to the trial of an Italian mafioso. But it soon morphs into a character piece focused on the fascinating and electric personality of EADA Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston - truly one of the most compelling characters ever on American television.

McCoy faces a blast from the past when a friend/rival from law school, played by Ron Leibman in a ferociously brilliant performance, shows up defending the mafioso; the defendant, played by Fil Formicola, has almost no lines and gets very little screen time at all! There's a partial reason for that: the script is more interested in his enforcer, the magnetic Vincent Pastore of "Sopranos" fame, and there proves to be a second, more interesting defendant placed on trial before the hour is up...

As a reviewer before me noted, this one explores why McCoy does what he does: does he care about justice, or does he just care about winning? He's confronted with that question several times in this episode, by Leibman's character, by ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), and by Jessica Walter as Leibman's wife (both in the show and in real life, no less).

McCoy is smiling in early scene opposite Leibman, but there's not a smile to be found by the time this one's over with...

Although it seems to be "ripped from the headlines" in the sense that it resembles the case of John Gotti's lawyer being disqualified because he was deemed too involved in Gotti's activities, actually is a pretty original episode.

Here we get one of our first looks into the complexity that is Jack McCoy. He prosecutes a defense attorney for conspiracy to commit murder in the case of a juror in a mob trial who was paid off in exchange for voting to acquit the mobster. Later the juror was murdered to make sure he never talked. You're never really sure if McCoy is doing this entirely because he is convinced of the attorney's guilt and complicity, or if it is the result of years of sour grapes because the defense attorney has known McCoy since law school and has always been besting him in and out of court. For that matter, we're not sure McCoy is sure of his own motives either, as he appears to have mixed emotions about prosecuting his old schoolmate.

Almost all the previous episodes of 'Law and Order's' Season 5 are very good to fantastic, the best being "Virtue" and especially "White Rabbit". The previous episode "Scoundrels" to me was the only disappointment, mostly due to the truly improbable second half. Despite anything to do with the mob is quite familiar territory for mystery/procedural/legal shows, the concept actually didn't seem too old hat and it was great to see some development to McCoy and his motivations.

"House Counsel" did all of that wonderfully. It doesn't waste any of its potential and even exceeds it and proof that the early seasons should in no way be overlooked, as they are as good as the seasons often shown (as of now the late Briscoe seasons onwards). It's one of the best episodes of Season 5, nearly "White Rabbit" level, and leagues better than "Scoundrels". If not quite one of the best episodes of the whole of 'Law and Order', a brilliant show at its best with many great and more episodes throughout its run.

My only complaint of "House Counsel" is the character of Dosso being for my tastes underwritten and underused.

That didn't prove to be too much of a detriment as the rest of the supporting characters are very interesting. Especially Kopell, namely from a psychological standpoint where one sees how he came to be the way he is and how his mind works. It's fascinating to watch as is the tension between him and McCoy. Furini is also a character one doesn't want to mess with.

Loved the character writing for McCoy here, after really disliking his sackable offense-worthy conduct in "Scoundrels" it was great to see more development to him, see him more conflicted in his motivations and see how he came to be the person he is. The chemistry between him and Kincaid is great, the tension between him and the, in this episode, more by the book Kincaid scintillates. Schiff has a couple of great lines and the procedural parts while not as complex are intriguing and not too safe. The script is taut and smart and the story is thoroughly absorbing, especially the second half.

Cannot fault the performances. Sam Waterston shines most of the regulars in one of his best performances of the fifth season. Ron Leibman also excels, bringing a lot of complexity to Kopell and the less than amicable relationship between him and McCoy is brought out with tension and gusto. Vincent Pastore is suitably menacing as Furini. As usual for 'Law and Order' and its spin offs, the production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough while also taut.

Overall, great. 9/10

We have already seen variations on the theme over the run of "Law & Order": an old friend of a main character returns, only to betray his trust to some degree, which sets the drama in motion. Capt. Cragen's old mentor O'Farrell.from S1 ("The Blue Wall"). Ben Stone's old friend Roberto from S2 ("Heaven"), Briscoe's old cop buddy Ted Parker from S4 ("Kids"), Schiff's friend of many years Sol Bregman, also from S4 ("Snatched"). Schiff , in fact, will have so many Good Friends go bad on him over the years that you have to wonder about his choice of friends, and how he managed to become district attorney in the first place.

Yet despite the fact that practically every character in the series will be betrayed at some point by the Good Friend Gone Bad, Ron Liebman's incarnation takes the archetype to new depths of sinewy deceit. His condescension toward McCoy, his disregard for the canon of ethics, is so beyond the pale, one forgets after awhile that he's actually defending a mafia don. It's almost painful to see McCoy's far-too-belated realization that his old friend has become the mafia don himself.