All in the Family

During the rush hour, four gunshots were heard in a overcrowded square. A man was killed and another one wounded. The victim was a jewelry businessman born in Uzbekistan (he was an orthodox jews) and he was married with four kids; that day his business partner noticed he took some diamonds from safe deposit box, maybe he was about to make a business transaction. Later on, detectives realized he hanged out daily with prostitutes at a local club and he was part of a scam together with russian mob involving diamonds smuggling from Central Africa (he polished the diamonds and give them ID and papers). The wife (Mercedes Ruehl) wanted the divorce, knowning all about his affairs and criminal activity, but the conservative community didn't allow it; russian mobs wanted him dead because they found out he was a snitch. What really happened?

I have never seen McCoy with the hands so tied like in this episode. He managed to cut some deals but at the end he didn't obtain what he really wanted due to Branch influence (his boss always care about votes more than justice).

This did have a quite interesting subject, although it is not new for the show or the franchise, the previous episode even was mob related. 'Law and Order' have done stories dealing with hitmen and the mafia quite a number of times before, almost all of them better than here. What 'Law and Order' and the whole franchise in fact has done well in quite a lot is its uncompromising handling of tough topics and also making something interesting out of basic or often explored premises, though the variety has varied.

As said, the basic concept here in "All in the Family" has been done better since and especially before. Where there has been more tension, surprises and also more variety, there is enough of two of those in "All in the Family" but not quite enough of one of them. Is it a great episode? No, not to me it isn't. Is it one of the best episodes out of Season 15? Again no. Is it one of the worst? Again no. Is it good? Yes and at its best even very good.

It could have done with more tension and edge, which is what one expects for a story like this, with it suffering from that it is fairly familiar ground. There are enough surprises certainly, but to me it did get on the over-complicated side later on from trying to throw too much in.

Elisabeth Rohm is very stiff and bland, not surprising as she was more often than not the cast weak link.

However, much is good in "All in the Family". The production values are still fully professional, the slickness and subtly gritty style still remaining. The music is sparingly used and is haunting and thankfully non-overwrought. The direction shows some nice tension in the legal scenes. The script is taut and intelligent enough and doesn't get too talky, despite a lot of information to take in.

The story generally compels and it never feels predictable or dull, it just needed more variety and didn't need to try and try to make it more complicated than needed. The twistier and more complex it gets, the more intriguing and tense it got too. Apart from Rohm, the acting is very good, especially in the second half. Mercedes Ruehl is agreed outstanding

Overall, not great but well worth watching and at its best very good. 7/10.