Called Home

A man committed suicide after a farewell to his charming wife and his daughter. He was the brother of detective Cyrus Lupo who was overseas at the time of death. The victim had cancers in lung and liver, that led him to the letal injection of potassium chloride that caused his death; anyway someone helped him on this. After another sick person committed suicide in the same way, it became clear a facilitator played a role on this. Who is the pusher? A video showed a patient thanked a reporter for helping him dying without suffering. But the way the journalist got information could have been inaccurate sometimes and a nurse whose father (Brad Dourif aged from "Mississippi Burning") had priors in assisting suicide wanted to frame him. Wait till the very end to see what happen on the stand.

McCoy becomes the chief, taking the Branch place in this season. I miss Milena Govich as female detective, the new one is half as good as her. The new prosecutor looks like a younger Michael Douglas.

Season 18's first episode "Called Home" introduced two characters. One was Mike Cutter, who on the whole was a great character despite the quality of the legal scenes being a lot less consistent in the last three seasons. The other is Cyrus Lupo, who was not a bad character at all (though better as co-lead than lead) and a vast improvement over his predecessor Nina Cassady. The subject matter is another interest point, not an easy one to do sensitively.

But on the whole "Called Home" manages to do so. It is a pretty good start to Season 18, which was uneven but was solid once it got going (the second half of it being much better than the first), but had potential to be better than it was. As an introduction to the two new characters, it's pretty decent and fares better than some of the franchise's character introductions despite the legal scenes underwhelming a bit. As far as Season 18 goes, it's in solid middle, neither one of the best or worst.

"Called Home" does a lot right. Have nothing to fault the production values for, which are suitably slick and gritty without being static or gimmicky. Or with the music, used relatively sparingly and didn't sound over-scored or over-emphasised. It is a dependably directed episode and is thoughtfully and leanly scripted on the whole. Did like the first half a good deal, where there was intrigue and it didn't feel routine. The subject matter is a difficult one and hits hard when done right, and it hits hard here in a complex and tactful way on the whole.

Jesse L Martin shows no signs of fatigue as Green and has proven that he is every bit as good as main lead as he as a co-lead. Jeremy Sisto fares well too and certainly has a lot more personality than Cassady (character development-wise he was a lot more interesting). While Martin and Sisto don't scintillate together, they do work well as a team and there is some nice grit and entertainment value to their interactions. Linus Roache makes a good first impression and does have presence in the courtroom, just wish that his material was as good as him. The supporting cast is solid.

Usually the legal scenes fared better than the policing on 'Law and Order', where they tended to be more suspenseful and intricate. For a lot of the first half of Season 18, it was surprisingly the opposite. There is some intricacy and suspense, but somehow the episode becomes on the bland and unsettled side when it goes to court and the complexity and tension could have come more consistently. Didn't like the underuse of promoted McCoy, and when he does appear the spark he had before isn't there.

Alana De La Garza is also blander than she was in Season 17. Did find the final quarter slightly heavy handed.

On the whole, pretty good if inconsistent. 7/10.

I hope that the writing for Sam Waterston as the D.A. will get better than these first two episodes gave us. He is too fine a talent to go to waste on what we got here. And Linus Roache is a very fine actor, also not well used. Or maybe I should say that the writers didn't seem to know HOW to utilize his new character. You are going to lose the show ultimately, with this big a change, if you don't get with the program (pun, pun). I mean it. The writing for the detectives was done with the ease that the many years have given the authors. THAT part of the two programs was great, as usual. But if the writers do not give these excellent actors playing the District Attornies some superior scripts I think that the show will finally find it's finish.

This opening episode of season 18 introduces Jeremy Sisto as Detective Cyrus Lupo who has been over seas on intelligence missions for the NYPD. His brother has taken his own life because of terminal cancer. But he's gotten some help from nurse Marin Ireland who is the daughter of and devoted disciple for her father Brad Dourif, a Kevorkian like doctor who has just been released from prison for some assisted suicides.

There is still a lot of controversy concerning the ethics of what Kevorkian was doing in real life. But Ireland has an agenda all her own involving a TV news reporter Michael McKean whose TV documentary helped put Dourif away.

The story was a good introduction to Cyrus Lupo and to Linus Roache as ADA Michael Cutter now that Sam Waterston is the new DA. Cutter's trial ends in a way that few could have foreseen.

Some folks if they have a cause will do anything to make a point.