December 30, 2003
4.8 American Dream
Best episode (4.8) I've seen in a while, notable mostly for the performance of Zeljko Ivanek, an actor you will no doubt recognize if you watch a lot of series television.
Zeljko is probably best remembered as Ed Danvers, the District Attorney on Homicide: Life on the Streets. He was good on that show, but his character always came off as a little effete. He also turned up for a stint as a terrorist mastermind on the first season of 24. On that show, he was decidely menacing, and served as a nice prologue to the arrival of Dennis Hopper, who showed what menacing really was (even through his silly accent). Zeljko has made many other appearances on L&O over the years (as different characters) but in none of those performances is he as captivating and dominant as he is in this episode. He plays a Wall Street whiz kid who always had a passion for making money and manipulating every one. Although he is sent to prison for 8 years for committing a (nearly) perfect crime, he gets his revenge when the victim is finally found and represents himself to the Court of Appeals and gets himself a new trial. The episide then becomes a lawyering battle between Stone and him, and he more than holds his own. His performance during the trial is compelling to both us as the audience and all the participants in the trial. Even Schiff warns Stone that he is about to get "out-lawyered by an amateur."
Things go badly for Stone, but don't count him out just yet...he's always got a trick up his sleeve.
The episode begins with a cold case: Briscoe and Logan begin with a skeleton and some gold buttons found on Roosevelt Island, and eventually tie it to a murder that occurred 8 years earlier. Zeljko had been convicted on circumstantial evidence at the time (by Stone), but it turns out that evidence is contradictory to the actual evidence unearthed by Briscoe and Logan.
Posted by adm at December 30, 2003 09:19 AM