Law & Order 24.16: The "Luigi Mangione" Case

It's been a while since I reviewed any "Law & Order" shows here*.  It's even been a longer while that, as far as I can recall, that any "Law & Order" shows were "ripped from the headlines" -- what they used to proudly say in their ads back before the telephone was invented (well, not quite that long ago, either -- "Law & Order" debuted in 1990).

*Actually, not that long ago, I gave a rave review of Law & Order: SVU in January 2024.

But tonight's "Law & Order," just on last hour on NBC, more than made up for that, with an ethically scalding tale based on Luigi Mangione's murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in broad daylight in midtown Manhattan back in December.  Of course, like all of "Law & Order" "ripped from the headline" shows, this one differs in many ways from the true story.  If you're interested in what really happened, there are a myriad of factual accounts online.  "Law & Order" was less interested in dramatizing all of those details than in getting at the crux of the life-and-death ethical problem that underlies both the true story and its adaptation on "Law & Order".

Which is: are health insurance companies which deny claims by people in life-threatening conditions guilty in some sense of cold-blooded murder?  Now let me say here that I'm no friend of insurance companies.  They do a great job collecting premiums and spending tons of money on idiotic commercials. But when it comes to paying out money for legitimate claims ... well, let's just say that's where they fall badly down on the job.  And I say this after decades of fighting for justified claims for the cars that I drive and the home in which I live.

But does denial of such claims justify taking someone's life aka murder?  I'd say obviously not.  The ultimate proper course of action regarding those kinds of cases is to take the company to court -- civil court, where the penalty if the insurance company loses the case is money.  But then what about a case in which a health insurance company denies a justified claim which leads to a person's death?

That's the thrust of episode 24.16 of "Law & Order".  The hunt for the killer is obstructed by citizens who have their own, likely good, reasons for disliking the way they and their families have been treated by insurance companies.  That part is fact.  But, of course, the second half of "Law & Order" is the trial in the courtroom, which hasn't happened yet in the Mangione case.

I thought "Law & Order" handled that in a brilliant way.  (And it was great to Benito Martinez, who played David Aceveda on The Shield, back on the screen as the judge in this profoundly important case.) But, my recommendation is ... see it for yourself.

See also Skylar Blinn's (May 2025) paper Pistols and Paperwork: The Politics of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination

American Crime 3.1-2: 21st-Century Dickensian Focus

American Crime, one of the best shows on television - and on ABC, not cable or streaming, no less - is back for its third season, and off to a powerful start.

The theme this year is, again, remarkably apt, with a focus on migrant farm workers in Carolina, and the attendant ills and crimes that best everyone in the vicinity.  So far, a young prostitute, a young drug addict, and a father from Mexico in search of his son who came to make it rich in the United States are the best stories - along with the attempt of decent people, in and out of government, to help them.

This puts the third season in marked contrast to the first season, in which there was a homicide and near-homicide at its core, and the second season, which delved into a high school party rape.  But the third season has its own quiet power, which even after just two episodes is special and remarkable.

The most interesting story is about the Mexican father, played by Benito Martinez.  For most of the first two episodes, we didn't know why he wanted to come and work in the U.S.   Tonight we discover that it's to find his son, who after communicating with his family back in Mexico, suddenly fell silent.

The story of the drug user is also unusual.   He's played by Connor Jessup, picked up off the street by one of the crew bosses, played by Richard Cabral.   But it turns out this boss has something of a heart, and may, against the advice of a more seasoned boss, actually try to help the newbie.

Regina King, outstanding in now her third season on American Crime, is a social worker who tries to help the prostitute, and (of course) has problems of her own.   But speaking of outstanding, the acting of everyone in American Crime, by mostly the same cast in different roles each season, is excellent and riveting.  This, combined with the unflinching topics and 21st-century Dickensian focus, makes American Crime a series you just can't afford to miss.

See also: American Crime 2.1-3: So Real, It Hurts ... American Crime through 2.6: Brilliant and Unflinching ... American Crime Season 2: Too Little Info

And see also: American Crime, American Fine ... American Crime 1.7: The Truest Love ... American Crime 1.10: The Exquisite Hazards of Timing ...American Crime Season 1 Finale: The Banality of So-Called Justice

a different kind of crime

American Crime Season 2: Too Little Info

American Crime, arguably one of the best and most important series ever on any kind of television - network, cable, streaming - which I would be happy to argue on behalf, ended last night on a less than stellar note, with too many unanswered questions.

First and foremost, we still can't be sure what happened to Taylor, on the night he presumably was raped, or had unconsensual sex with Eric.  The problem is that both Eric and Taylor seem sympathetic and convincing in their contradicting assertions.  I'm not sure I see the point in casting and leaving this situation in such ambiguous terms.   And just to add more insulting ambiguity to the injured storyline, we also aren't told if Eric is getting into that car at the end - a car which represents his coming out into a very new kind of life.

I also wasn't happy with the way the show morphed into a cautionary tale about hacking, again with no resolution.  The result not only diverted from the important sexual assault, gun violence, and racism stories, but with its hackers-being-hacked message pitched us into the paranoid world already and much more effectively explored in Mr. Robot.

Don't get me wrong - I love ambiguous endings, in some cases, as I made clear in my Sopranos End and the Closure Junkies little essay about the sudden cut to black at the end of The Sopranos.  But that was very different from what we saw last night in American Crime, which was more frustrating that suddenly, bi-explicably shocking.

Nonetheless, American Crime remains in a class of its own - a very good class, as I said above - and I'm therefore very much looking to a third season, which hasn't been announced at this moment.  I hope a third season brings back the repertoire company which played so well in the first two seasons, including Benito Martinez, who put in a brief, unexpected appearance last night.

See also: American Crime 2.1-3: So Real, It Hurts ... American Crime through 2.6: Brilliant and Unflinching

And see also: American Crime, American Fine ... American Crime 1.7: The Truest Love ... American Crime 1.10: The Exquisite Hazards of Timing ...American Crime Season 1 Finale: The Banality of So-Called Justice

a different kind of crime

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American Crime Season 1 Finale: The Banality of So-Called Justice

American Crime ended is first season last night with its story of star-crossed lovers, Carter and Aubry, whose complicated love was too pure, too innocent, too compelling and beautiful to ever survive this gaggingly ugly and brutal world.   Carter dies from Russ's bullet  just as he's trying to call Aubry, no doubt to tell her he loves her, and Aubry's last thought before she dies of her own hand is maybe somehow Carter survived.

But we can the narrow indictment to something more specific than the world, and I don't mean just the hapless, tormented Russ, whom I'll get to in a minute.  It's the breathtaking cluelessness of the justice system - more destructive, in some ways, than mere corruption - which can't get anything right.  We've seen evil in police work on television before - The Shield would be an outstanding example - but never an exposition such as in American Crime of a system so rotten at every level.   The season ends without our knowing who did the initial killing, and certainly the authorities don't know.  They're good at nothing - not catching the criminals in the first place, not protecting the souls who come into their custody - except providing an effective training camp for further criminal acts.   I suppose this banal ineptitude afflicts most parts of our society, but it's especially grievous when it inhabits a system in which life and death is literally at stake.

Certainly the inanity prevails in the ease with which people can get guns in this country.  I knew the moment Barb bought the gun that its bullets would be used to kill Carter, though I thought she not Russ would pull the trigger.   But, in retrospect, Russ was always more broken than Barb, and it figures that his naive belief in the justice system (taking its word for it, to the end, that Carter killed his son) - unlike Barb, who was finally maybe glimpsing a deeper truth, and was pulling away from the system - would propel Russ to his act, pathetic for him, the ultimate voice of the deadly ignorant injustice for Carter and Aubry.

There are slender threads of hope, maybe Carter's sister and Aubry's mother hugging, now that Carter and Aubry can't, and perhaps realizing that they contributed to the deaths of Carter and Aubry, too. Maybe Hector, maybe Tony, but the odds are against them, as long as this sick system of justice continues.

America needs more shows like John Ridley's American Crime and its splendid acting (special kudos to Caitlin Gerard, Elvis Nolasco, Richard Cabral, Benito Martinez, Regina King, Timothy Hutton, and Felicity Huffman, but everyone was just brilliant) to strip the system bare, so we can see it for what it is.  The more I think about it,  American Crime is the best series on television in many a year. I'm glad there'll be more of it next season.

See also: American Crime, American Fine ... American Crime 1.7: The Truest Love ... American Crime 1.10: The Exquisite Hazards of Timing

a different kind of crime

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American Crime 1.10: The Exquisite Hazards of Timing

American Crime - which aired its next-to-last episode, 1.10, of this season last night, after the welcome news that the series will be back for at least a second season next year - continues to weave a mosaic unparalleled in television with its many pieces and exquisitely interconnected complexity.

So, right before our very eyes last night, Carter is released from prison, Abrey takes his place for the murder, and Hector is back in Mexican custody, having been outed as a total liar about what he says he witnessed on the night of the crime.   Timing is everything is this ticking clockwork time bomb of a narrative, as it is in real life, if you think about it.  Had Aubry not confessed last week - a logical step for her, after she saw what her mother had been doing to keep Aubry and Carter apart, which meant Carter likely headed to death row (for conviction on a Federal hate crime charge) or life imprisonment - Carter might well have been released from prison anyway, with the truth coming out about Hector, though likely not as quickly.   But one of the telling keynotes of this story is that almost no one knows what anyone else is really up to or even doing - another characteristic of life in general.

There was some good news at last though in these mercilessly spinning wheels.  Tony's released after the fabulously heart-felt testimony of his sister, which confounds the evil Fates who would have delighted in Tony's being denied release, because his father was forced to sell his store to hire a decent attorney, and the judges or whoever they are wanted to know that Tony's family had a sound business to support him.   In one of the best scenes, Alonzo the father - perfectly played by veteran Benito Martinez (of The Shield) - gives voices to this insane, self-defeating system for the defense.

The acting, as I indicated in my last review, continues to be in a class of its own .  Caitlin Gerard with her performance as Aubry was clearly in tour-de-force territory last night, as was Richard Cabral as he always is with Hector.   I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a network television show so much, and have learned as much as I have from American Crime.

See also: American Crime, American Fine ... American Crime 1.7: The Truest Love

a different kind of crime

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American Crime: American Fine

I thought it high time I checked in with a review of American Crime, the new ABC-TV series directed by John Ridley, who produced 12 Years a Slave.   In a word, the series is excellent - original, deep, superbly acted and plotted.  Well, that's more than one word, but they're all deserved.

In a very general way, American Crime is much like True Detective, the investigation of brutal murder(s) taking up an entire season.   In the case of American Crime, we have a married couple, the husband found murdered and the wife badly beaten and apparently sexually attacked.   They're white, and the suspects, quickly identified and rounded up by police in the first episode, are African-American and Hispanic.  The unfolding story reveals schism in the relationships of both sets of parents of the victims - as well as each set of parents to the other - as well profound differences in the suspects and their lives.   By the end of the third episode, we're giving some suspicions that the suspects may not be the perpetrators of the crimes.

Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman as parents of the slain Matt are outstanding, and put in what will be counted as among the best performances of their careers.   Hutton always had a large range, ranging from the comical to the cool, but his behind-the-eight-ball father in American Crime, struggling to the do the right thing in the face of a caustic wife and pressures from the parents of his son's wife Gwen, is  especially noteworthy and just masterful.

On the other side of this narrative,  Benito Martinez - whom I first got to know on The Shield - puts in a great performance as Alonzo Gutierrez, the father of one of the people arrested, a boy whose only crime seems to have been giving a car to known gang members.   Seeing Alonzo get chewed up by the legal system,  striving to keep his son out its legal claws but mostly failing because he doesn't fully understand what's going on, is a sight to behold as well as instructive about how minorities are treated when they get pulled in the criminal system in this country, whether or not through any fault of their own.   Just to underscore this point, we get a searingly memorable scene in the third episode in which his daughter Jenny, totally innocent, is almost drawn into this sick system herself - that is, she's almost arrested, when she has been doing nothing wrong.

Also memorable is Caitlin Gerard as Aubrey, drug addict and girlfriend of one of the incarcerated suspects, not dumb, but abused by life, literally thrown in a scrapheap after passing out and being sexually abused, and doing whatever she can to hold on.   We've seen characters like this on many a police drama over the years, but none quite as effective in this role.

If the first three episodes are any indication, we can expect all kinds of twists and turns and heartbreaks and maybe a sigh or two of relief in the episodes ahead, and I'm looking forward them all.

a different kind of crime

Almost Human 1.4: Almost Breaking Bad

A top notch Almost Human 1.4 tonight - I've been saying that about every episode - in which the nerdy roboticist Rudy makes like Walter White, or pretends to be like Mr. White, except in Rudy's case a master chef of the bends, the futuristic equivalent of blue meth.

Of course, Rudy isn't at all like Walter White, in that Rudy is operating entirely within the law not outside it.  But it's beginning to become dangerously clear on Almost Human - which is to say, clearly captivating television - that we cannot completely know who is ultimately good and bad.   Certainly not with a new character, a captain who struts on the scene, played by Benito Martinez, who also played a captain in The Shield, one of the best series ever on television.  In The Shield, Martinez's captain is usually good but by no means always.   In tonight's Almost Human, he's just bad bad bad - a police captain who is king pin of the bends drug ring - which almost leads to Rudy's demise.

Kennex and Dorian and even Rudy prevent that, and Dorian in particular gives us an excellent scene reminiscent of The Terminator, in which he fights the bad captain's bad robot.  The robot has the braun, but Dorian has the brains, and gets the better of the braun in the end.

The mix of futuristic feel and gutteral humor continues to appeal, especially the literally live food that we see Kennex eating in a sushi bar at the beginning of the episode.  Years ago, I was in a sushi place in Riverdale, NY - a take out joint - and the sushi chef tried to talk me into taking a live, wriggling clam home for dinner, or as part of it.  I knew my wife would be less than thrilled, but, truthfully, I said no because I couldn't quite wrap my head around eating anything live.  But I always regretted that decision, and so it was good to see Kennex go for it, so I could at least relate to eating live vicariously.

That's the kind of series Almost Human is - strange, compelling, and unexpected in its rush of details.  It may be a new kind of television - at least, for the traditional networks.

See also: Almost Human debuts: A Review ... Almost Human 1.2: Sexbots ... Almost Human 1.3: Change of Face





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Lie to Me 2.19: The Shield Reunion

Lie to Me 2.19 last night - a Shawn Ryan production - was a special treat for devotees of Ryan's masterpiece, The Shield.   Lightman encountered a cast of characters whose actors and actresses added up to a veritable Shield reunion.


Lightman and Zoe are witnessing an execution - of the first criminal Lightman helped convict (Zoe was the DA) - when Lightman realizes that the murderer's last words, that he didn't take the victim, the "Pied Piper" did, were no lie!   A great set-up for an episode of Lie to Me - and the convicted guy, who is executed despite Lightman's protests, is played by David Marciano (The  Shield's Detective Billings and more).

Meanwhile, the victim's parents - he was an 8-year-old boy - are played by Benito Martinez (The Shield's Captain Aceveda and more) and Catherine Dent (Officer Sofer on The Shield).   Kenneth Johnson (Lem!) plays a pornographer on Lie to Me who's not guilty of the crime in question,  Cathy Cahlin Ryan (Mackey's wife Corrine) a nutcase interviewed by Lightman under cover as a nutcase in a mental institution (a fine scene, and she provides key information),  and David Rees Snell (Ronnie from The Shield) plays none other than the co-killer.   I couldn't help thinking that's the path that Ronnie took after Mackie left him high and dry ....

Speaking of which - I missed Michael Chiklis and Walter Goggins on this episode of Lie to Me, but, hey, you can't have everything.   I'd love to see a movie that tells us where Mackie went, though...

As for Lie to Me, Shawn Ryan has turned it into an often exceptional show, and I'm sorry he won't be co-running it next season.   But he's left us a really fine foundation for excellent television.

See also The Shield in Perspective (no spoilers)  and  The Shield: Thoughts on What Might Happen after the Final Scene

And see also my reviews of Lie to Me and Bill O'Reilly, Saddam Hussein, and Ben Reynolds in Lie to Me 2.6 and Lie to Me 2.7: The Redeeming of Loker and Lie to Me 2.8 in Afghanistan and Viva Lightman and Las Vegas in Lie to Me 2.9 ... Lie to Me 2.11: Double Feature ... Lie to Me 2.12:  The One Prevarication ... Lie to Me 2.13: The Whole Truth and Rep Joe Wilson ... Lie to Me 2.14: Paranoids Can Have Real Enemies ... Lie to Me 2.15: Melissa George and Shawn Ryan ... Lie to Me 2.16: Ria's Sister ... Lie to Me 2.17: 'Poling on the Campaign Trail' ... Lie to Me 2.18: Lightman on the Darkside





The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book  

24 Season 8 Hours 1 and 2: Stop-Watch, Heartbeat Perfect

Another superb 24 2-hour premiere tonight - 24's been making a good habit of that.

Here's the set-up.   Remember the protests in Iran last June, over a good-guy being robbed of his election win?  Well, let's say he hadn't been robbed - let's say the good guy had won, wants peace, and is now at the U.N., negotiating the nuke disarmament of his country with President Allison Taylor, in return for  a bushel of American aid.   The bad guys would want to kill him.

Meanwhile, Jack's also in NYC, about to leave for L.A. with Kim, her husband Stephen, and their sweet little daughter, Terry (named after Jack's wife, stunningly killed at in the finale of the very first Season or day of 24).  You know that Jack's not going to get to L.A. just yet.   But the way he's delayed is, so far, about as stop-watch and stop-heartbeat perfect as a TV show can get.

In the first hour, Benito Martinez (played Captain to Mayor just right in The Shield) comes to Jack with a story about an assassin's plot against Iranian President Hassan.  He's wounded, Jack believes him.   But Jack's attempt to bring him in is blown up - literally - when the helicopter that CTU (re-established and now in NYC) sends is taken out on the roof, right before its pick-up of Jack and the informant, who dies.   The last thing he tells Jack is that the assassin is on the inside, and close to Hassan.

On to Hour 2.   In addition to who the assassin is, a question immediately arises about why the roof extraction team had no protection.   Freddie Prinze, Jr plays Agent Cole, who presses Director Hastings about this back at CTU.  (Hastings is played Mykelti Williamson - who had one of the best minor roles in one of my all-time favorite movies, Heat.)   I think Hastings is someone to watch - it's hard to believe that a Director could be a bad guy, but on 24 you can't rule anything out.

Also back at CTU is Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackoff - looking good and pretty high up on the team - playing Dana Walsh (she's actually Jenny, but that's another story which hasn't fully kicked in yet).  She's supposed to marry Cole, and is supervising Chloe, who's having a bit a trouble learning all the latest computer programs - she just came back to CTU - but Chloe's sharp enough to realize that Hastings' pick for the assassin (an American reporter that Hassan is having an affair with) may not be the culprit, even though lots of evidences points at her.

In one of the best scenes of the evening, Jack wants to leave CTU and get to the airport to fly to L.A. with Kim and family.  Chloe pleads with him, saying that she's always helped him when he'd called on her over the years (that's exactly what I thought she should tell him).  But Jack says no.   Kim comes to the rescue - she'd called Chloe to find out what was going on - and tells her father it's alright if he needs to come to L.A. a day later in order to save the world.   It was probably Kim's best scene in the series - she's finally grown up (she was on her to doing this last season), and Jack and Chloe were letter perfect in their responses.

24, against all odds, looks to be well in the way to re-inventing itself for another season of fresh, smart, adrenalin-pumping television.   It has been one of my top five television favorites since Day One - often my favorite - and it's going to be another contender this year, too.

Fortunately, we'll get the next two hours tomorrow night! And I'll be back within 24 minutes of the show's conclusion with my review.



6-min podcast review of 24


See also Season 8 reviews: Hours 3 and 4

And also Season 7 reviews: Hours 1 and 2 ... Hours 3 and 4 ... Hour 5 ... Hour 6 ... Hour 7 ... Hour 8 ... Hour 9 ... Hour 10 ... Hours 11-12 ... Hour 13 ... Hour 14 ... Hour 15 ... Hour 16 ... Hour 17 ... Hour 18 ... Hour 19 ... Hour 20 ... Hour 21 ... Hour 22  ... Hours 23-24 

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