Punk

Two black boys were playing american football in a playground, when one of them noticed a white middle aged man on the ground, shot dead. He begged before being killed on his knees. The victim, a correction officer, lived Upstate and he came to the Big Apple to pay a visit to his child, a football player. Detectives tried to collect information about the inmates who got parole in the last few months. Anyway the officer was not so clean: working in a women's prison, he used to blackmail prisoners (raping them from time to time); the only chance prosecutors had to reach the truth was to persuade a single mother (Cara Buono), currently in the prison hole, to speak. The gun used in the murder belonged to a scarred portorican, connected to her thanks to prison brotherhood. When prosecutors realized she had a miscarriage because of the rape, things got worse....

It's hard to have sympathy for the murdered guy as the episode moves on. Who is the real victim after all? Other guards are involved in the case, so all become very difficult, because they considered inmates like "cage animals". Eventually we learn some "shocking" personal information about Carmichael.

Last night I watched a season 24 episode of L&O featuring Cara Buono and I found her performance so good that when a reviewer here mentioned that she'd been on the show previously I decided to go back and rewatch her other episodes. Good decision. Very good decision.

In her first episode, Buono played an absolute b**** of a spoiled student who ran a prostitution ring at her college and had no problem accusing her own father of the murder that she'd committed. Here, she's a far more complex character who you end up feeling very sorry for. She portrays the contrasting mixture of little-girl innocence, world weariness, fear and defiance brilliantly. If she'd won an Emmy for this role, I wouldn't have any objections.

Angie Harmon also does a great job here, even though it portrays her character in a very negative light. Abbie really does seem to have a personal grudge against Alice and doesn't hide it, to such an extent that Jack and Adam are shocked when she eventually softens a little. I'm not sure that the reveal of a trauma from her past at the end of the episode really explains or justifies her extreme hostility against Alice, but the antagonism between the two women is what makes this episode special. A special mention for the always excellent Tovah Feldshuh as Jack's perpetual antagonist, Danielle Melnick. And I have to admit that the team of Orbach, Bratt, Merkerson, Waterston, Harmon and Hill was always my favourite of all the numerous combinations over the show's run. It would have been hard for this episode to let me down. And it didn't.

Okay, that does it! After I watch Buono's next episode, in season 17, I'm going to have to go back and watch the entire series from the beginning. I did it in 2011, so it's been long enough that I won't remember all the plots beforehand. Special thanks to two gorgeous ladies, Angie and Cara.

Law & Order S9,E8 'Punk' : a 1998 episode I'm viewing again on Prime. I probably saw the first presentation 25 years ago without noticing anything wrong. Now a senior, I realize I've become more attentive to details, more observant of mistakes, and less forgiving.

'Candy' is a young female inmate testifying in criminal court. Her acting is fine but something struck me as bizarre : her eyebrows are perfect, her eyelashes also perfect, her lipstick just perfect. Since when do inmates get to benefit from a professional makeup artist before going to court ?

Obviously a blunder by the support staff. They got the principal inmate character right (no makeup at all), but goofed for the other.

As I said, I notice more with time passing. Pros must act like Pros, and supervisors must supervise...

One of the biggest appeals of 'Law and Order' has been the topics it addresses and issues that come with the topics addressed. Also with how they are explored, the execution more often than not was hardly sugar coated or trivialised and was often pull no punches in quality. On first watch, "Punk" struck me as a very good episode that does so much right. Despite disliking Carmichael's, speaking as somebody who usually likes her, attitude.

My feelings on "Punk" are pretty much exactly the same. It is still a a very good episode on the whole with many fantastic things, as well as a couple of things done not so well that were also sporadic recurring problems. It's not one of the best episodes of Season 9 and not one of the best of 'Law and Order', but still has plenty to show why 'Law and Order' is such a fine show and why it in its prime was my personal favourite of the franchise.

"Punk" is another case of one half being better than the other, with it starting off quite unexceptional and routine.

Also really didn't like Carmichael's selfish and non-empathetic attitude towards the case, which is laid on too thickly.

However, so much is done fantastically. It is a slickly made episode, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started (never was it a problem but it got more fluid with each episode up to this stage). The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key.

Furthermore, "Punk" has a thoughtful script that like a lot of 'Law and Order' episodes raises interesting questions worthy of debate with somebody, the moral dilemmas of the case treated intriguingly. The story is tactful but also pulls no punches, making one feel sad and angry. Nothing is too simple or too complicated and the second half even is riveting and keeps one guessing the more complex it gets. The character writing and interaction are near-on point and the conflict has genuine tension.

While not caring for Carmichael's character writing, Angie Harmon still plays her very well and has settled likewise. Melnik is a great character with a lot of passionate energy. A big selling point with "Punk" is the exceptional performance of Cara Buono, who has a complex unsettling presence and makes her character feel real.

Concluding, very good. 8/10.

Cara Buono's performance here as the working class girl who makes some bad choices and winds up in the state prison system dominates this particular Law And Order story. What also drives this story is the history between her and Angie Harmon.

Back in the day when Abbie Carmichael was working in the Narcotics Bureau Buono was one of hundreds of people she prosecuted. Buono made a really bad choice in that one, she was left holding the bag with her boyfriend's drugs. So instead of turning him in, she took the rap for him out of some misplaced sense of street loyalty. It wound her up in a women's prison where she joins the ladies' auxiliary of a gang called the Paganos and uses those connections to get a certain correction officer killed because he was harassing her.

The portrait of this victim is one of a true sleaze-bag, but one who would probably never be caught because of the code of silence among prison guards. After all they're the ones you have to rely on to get yourself out of tight spot if you find yourself in one with all those prisoners.

Tovah Feldshuh makes one of her guest appearances as Sam Waterston's favorite defense lawyer Danielle Melnick. The jury hears all about the victim and has a real problem here. I love Feldshuh's character she's such a passionate advocate in all her appearances.

I've known people like Buono in my life. They make bad choices and continue to make them. You love them, but you want to strangle them at times. I also have to say there's an element of narcissism in Buono's character the way she personalizes what Angie Harmon did back in the day. It's called doing your job.