Age of Innocence

The subject matter is a very sensitive one. It is also one of the most controversial there is, ith extreme opinions on both sides (more so than a lot of other controversial topics). Will always admire anything film and television related that explores it, regardless of how the execution fares. There are times where it is explored tactfully, movingly, intensely and insightfully, there are other times where it is handled heavy-handedly and with too much on one side. Which has been true for any subject tackled on 'Law and Order'.

It is not new territory as such for 'Law and Order', but it's very powerful when done well. Am always rather iffy when religion is brought into a case, and the franchise has really varied in its portrayal of religion, and just as much if it concerns a cult-ish group which risks the episode being a bizarre one. "Age of Innocence" may be one of the weaker episodes of Season 16 and is somewhat uneven, but it does a lot right and is an admirable episode on the whole.

"Age of Innocence" does do a lot right. The production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. The direction has momentum while being accommodating. The subject is mostly done with force and tact, with the attitudes being presented in an insightful way and where all sides are worth considering.

Script is taut and thought probing, especially in the second half, and the second half is suitably intricate and has a suitable amount of tension. The acting is very good from the regulars, and despite his character being rather over the top John Aylward is deliciously smug.

Did think though that some of the religious element was laid on too thick and on the bizarre side and that the supporting characters could have been written with a lot more subtlety and dimension rather than the overblown way some of them were written.

Felt too that the early portions were pretty ordinary.

Good episode overall. 7/10.

Botched end of life action, disconnecter just happens to drive there, car bomb happens minutes after starting while driving in parking lot. Brother did it, helped and orchestrated by preacher who blames blue states. Prior investigated by FBI & ATF not charged. The parents assisted son in killing son-in-law. the most guilty preacher gets a hung jury aka blame a secret prolifer on it. hilarious

Take Terry Schiavo tragedy then ruin it with antiChristian nonsense.

Too predictable, too biased, too unwatchable.

I don't there are too many people at the time this Law And Order episode was first aired who didn't see that the headlines that this story was created from were concerning poor Terri Ann Schiavo. We seemed to follow that story for months until the plug was pulled on her respirator.

Her husband did that deed just as in this episode the husband does the deed here. Only he is killed afterward and after a bit of investigation the brother of the deceased is arrested.

God only knows what goes on in the mind of someone like Derek Cecil playing the brother. The loss of a sister you remember as a vital human being and clinging to the forlorn hope that this vegetative creature could be that again or just ending her suffering. Decisions that should not be the fodder of public debate.

Cecil was involved in one of the right to life movements as was the rest of his side of the deceased's family. He was "counseled" by a self promoting reverend played by John Aylward.

Aylward was great as this smug, self righteous, holier than thou preacher who is very careful to keep distance from certain acts. He's even got his followers ready to fall on their swords for him so he can stay free and continue God's work. I really to punch him out.

Sam Waterston prosecuted another right to life advocate Edward Herrmann in another episode. But you'll have to watch the story to see how it comes out.

Religious fanaticism, indeed religion per se, has an inevitable corollary, the refusal of individual autonomy. Followers of religions tend to want to impose their moral principles on others even in highly private matters such as life, death and sex. To be able to justify these positions, they must necessarily deny the advances of science. Today, thanks to advances in medicine, biological life can be extended virtually indefinitely. This creates a contradiction between the possibility and the opportunity of life. In this episode, reason and fanaticism clash: a dignified death against the superstition that afflicts too many people, in America and elsewhere.

A grieving husband removed life support from his wife, who spent the last years in a vegetative state. A huge crowd of protesters were placed outside the hospital, insulting him for what he had done. Shortly after he blowed up together with his car much to the audiences surprise. Detectives found it hard to realize who could have done that, due to all the menacing letters the victim had received before the accident. Anyway the ones more upset with him are the wife's family, an old style christian family who hate the victim even because he started a new life with another girl. When detectives realized a reverend (John Aylward) so close to the family was the one who commissioned the bomb, they were about to close the loop, but jurors could be symphatetic on this delicate issue...

This episode focus the attention on a delicate matter of debating. Did a person on vegetative state deserve to live? Is she willing to live in that situation if she had a choice? I don't think some preachers should take media attention, it's all free publicity for them.