Star Struck
- L’episodio è andato in onda il 7 gen 1992
- TV-14
- 1h
VALUTAZIONE IMDb
7,6/10
403
LA TUA VALUTAZIONE
Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaAn obsessed fan is charged with the brutal beating of a soap opera actress. During the trial, he claims that a voice in his head told him to do it.An obsessed fan is charged with the brutal beating of a soap opera actress. During the trial, he claims that a voice in his head told him to do it.An obsessed fan is charged with the brutal beating of a soap opera actress. During the trial, he claims that a voice in his head told him to do it.
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Recensioni in evidenza
Obsessive stardom
Although Season 1's quality was higher and more consistent generally (writing and story that is, the production values got more refined in the second), Season 2 was solid viewing as well. It did very well with having to deal with a lot of change and while the quality did dip a little after "God Bless the Child" for a bit, the season got back on track with "Heaven" (a second season and early season gem). "His Hour Upon a Stage" could have been better but was still pretty good.
"Star Struck" is more than pretty good. Actually thought it to be a great episode and up there, as far as previous Season 2 episodes go, with "Confession", "Asylum", "God Bless the Child" and "Heaven" as one of the season's best. With it being one of the episodes up to this point of the season to be more than very good, most of the previous Season 2 episodes being that or a little bit less (no misfires, true for the whole of Season 1 as well).
Everything, well very, very close to everything, is done right. More than right, brilliantly even. If the very beginning (the first 10 minutes) got going a little quicker and had a little more of the tension seen particularly once the perpetrator is caught and brought to trial, it's very competently done but on the ordinary side, "Star Struck" would have been even better than it was. While a season high point, it just falls a little shy of being an early season one.
What always worked in the early seasons and still mostly continued to work in 'Law and Order's' run works brilliantly here in "Star Struck". It is slickly shot with a more refined visual style than with the first season. The music didn't feel to me too much, used sparingly and only properly dramatic, without being overly so, when all is revealed. The direction is accomodating but also alert.
The episode is very intelligently written and never feels over-simplified or muddled. Some may find Stone's writing at the end on the pragmatic side, to me it was quite powerful and honest and is hardly irrelevant today. Same goes for the story, not an easy subject and partly based on a taken from the headlines story still felt deeply at the time but handled tensely and sensitively. Nothing is too obvious but it's not hard to follow, one roots for the case to be solved too.
All the characters are written well, have always really liked Stone and the perpetrator is a genuine creep. The chemistry was understandably not completely settled at the beginning of the season but has gelled well now, which makes make the procedural/investigative elements intriguing. For me though the second half had more tension and excitement, which was actually true of a good deal of the early season episodes. It is a very well acted episode, Michael Moriarty really does sell it at the end and Bradley White is suitably unsettling.
In summary, great and one of the season's best. 9/10
"Star Struck" is more than pretty good. Actually thought it to be a great episode and up there, as far as previous Season 2 episodes go, with "Confession", "Asylum", "God Bless the Child" and "Heaven" as one of the season's best. With it being one of the episodes up to this point of the season to be more than very good, most of the previous Season 2 episodes being that or a little bit less (no misfires, true for the whole of Season 1 as well).
Everything, well very, very close to everything, is done right. More than right, brilliantly even. If the very beginning (the first 10 minutes) got going a little quicker and had a little more of the tension seen particularly once the perpetrator is caught and brought to trial, it's very competently done but on the ordinary side, "Star Struck" would have been even better than it was. While a season high point, it just falls a little shy of being an early season one.
What always worked in the early seasons and still mostly continued to work in 'Law and Order's' run works brilliantly here in "Star Struck". It is slickly shot with a more refined visual style than with the first season. The music didn't feel to me too much, used sparingly and only properly dramatic, without being overly so, when all is revealed. The direction is accomodating but also alert.
The episode is very intelligently written and never feels over-simplified or muddled. Some may find Stone's writing at the end on the pragmatic side, to me it was quite powerful and honest and is hardly irrelevant today. Same goes for the story, not an easy subject and partly based on a taken from the headlines story still felt deeply at the time but handled tensely and sensitively. Nothing is too obvious but it's not hard to follow, one roots for the case to be solved too.
All the characters are written well, have always really liked Stone and the perpetrator is a genuine creep. The chemistry was understandably not completely settled at the beginning of the season but has gelled well now, which makes make the procedural/investigative elements intriguing. For me though the second half had more tension and excitement, which was actually true of a good deal of the early season episodes. It is a very well acted episode, Michael Moriarty really does sell it at the end and Bradley White is suitably unsettling.
In summary, great and one of the season's best. 9/10
"Juries are not psychiatrists"
This episode of Law And Order deals with a defendant pleading insanity in the brutal assault of soap opera star Blanche Baker. Bradley White is our guilty party he is as obsessed with Baker as that demented fool in California who shot and killed Rebecca Schaefer on which this episode is partly based.
Michael Moriarty puts it plainly enough at the end. The ordinary lay people who make up jury pools are most assuredly not psychiatrists. That defendant White is absolutely nuts everyone agrees. But the standard is insane enough that he cannot appreciate the consequences of his actions. It is also clear that White, his father Werner Klemperer, and his attorney Stephen Joyce are looking for a John Hinckley type of verdict where he's taken to a hospital and then maybe let out and presumably he'd stalk Baker again. Or another example would be assassin Dan White who killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Although no one alleges it was an overdose of Twinkies that set White off.
Joyce has tried and has made a specialty of insanity defenses. Moriarty is up against the best in that field.
See how this one comes out and what 12 ordinary citizens do.
Michael Moriarty puts it plainly enough at the end. The ordinary lay people who make up jury pools are most assuredly not psychiatrists. That defendant White is absolutely nuts everyone agrees. But the standard is insane enough that he cannot appreciate the consequences of his actions. It is also clear that White, his father Werner Klemperer, and his attorney Stephen Joyce are looking for a John Hinckley type of verdict where he's taken to a hospital and then maybe let out and presumably he'd stalk Baker again. Or another example would be assassin Dan White who killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Although no one alleges it was an overdose of Twinkies that set White off.
Joyce has tried and has made a specialty of insanity defenses. Moriarty is up against the best in that field.
See how this one comes out and what 12 ordinary citizens do.
Not Inside a Bubble
Sometimes we all long for celebrity and fame. But if that happens, our lives are no longer our own. Here, a soap opera star is savagely beaten in a park. In attempting to discover the person who assaulted her, we find out that there are a ton of files of people who are obsessed with her. I had a landlady in college that routinely wrote letters to soap opera characters.
The issue here ends up being the sanity of the man and whether he should stand trial in a conventional setting. His guilt is never in question, but his motivations are.
Stone ends up unsatisfied with the law that governed the trial.
The issue here ends up being the sanity of the man and whether he should stand trial in a conventional setting. His guilt is never in question, but his motivations are.
Stone ends up unsatisfied with the law that governed the trial.
Lo sapevi?
- QuizThis episode appears to be based on three high-profile stalking cases involving actresses:
- Rebecca Schaeffer, who was stalked and then shot dead by Robert Bardo, who obtained her address through DMV records, prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California. Schaeffer was best known for her role in the sitcom Mia sorella Sam (1986).
- Theresa Saldana, the stalking victim of Arthur Richard Jackson, a 46 year old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland. Jackson stabbed her in the torso 10 times, with a 5 1/2 inch knife, near the front of her home in broad daylight, almost killing her. Saldana recovered after 4 hours of surgery, and a 4-month hospital stay. It was later revealed that he had hired a private investigator to obtain her mother's phone number.
- Andrea Evans, who dropped out of public view for nearly a decade. Years later she revealed that she had left to escape a persistent stalker who became too familiar with her schedule and kept showing up at the set, and had later gone as far as breaking into the ABC studios in New York City, intent on killing her.
- The assassination of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. On December 8, 1980, outside the Dakota apartment building in New York City, Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old former security guard from Hawaii, shot Lennon four times in the back as the former Beatle returned home with his wife, Yoko Ono. Earlier that day, Lennon had autographed an album for Chapman. Chapman, who remained at the scene reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, later said he was driven by a desire for fame and resentment toward Lennons perceived hypocrisy. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, where he remains. Lennons murder shocked the world and led to an outpouring of grief from fans globally.
- The Birgit Nilsson stalking case involving Nell Theobold. In 1966, Nell Theobald, an American model and aspiring actress, suffered a traumatic incident when she was mauled by a lion during a BMW photo shoot at the New York International Auto Show. She later received a substantial financial settlement from the incident. Following this, in 1968, Theobald became fixated on Swedish opera singer Birgit Nilsson after attending one of her performances at the Bayreuth Festival. This obsession led Theobald to stalk Nilsson for nearly a decade. In 1977, after her financial resources were depleted, Theobald attempted suicide in a hotel room adjacent to Nilssons in Vienna. A few months later, she died by suicide in a motel in Queens, New York.
- BlooperTutte le opzioni contengono spoiler
- Citazioni
Mitchell Burkitt: I didn't do the lady. What do you think, I'm crazy?
Phil Cerreta: Actually, you're about the sanest person we've met all week.
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