Law & Order (TV Series) Hitman (2002) User Reviews

"Sweet"

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 4 October 2020]

Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin catch a case of a contractor found shot to death in his apartment. The victim was found by the cleaning lady with a bullet in the back of his head.

As for the much younger wife Gretchen Egolf she was supposed to be at a health spa. Actually she was in Bermuda with boyfriend Bobby Cannavale.

Not to belabor the obvious but it truly does look like a hit.. More and more like one as the investigation goes deeper.

The real solution as described "sweet". Note a good performance by Tony Darrow who was a childhood friend of the deceased. He was a friend indeed.

A friend indeed

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 14 June 2022]

'Law and Order' was a great show in its prime and there has always been a preference for the earlier seasons over the more commonly aired late-Briscoe and post-Briscoe episodes. Not only love the show for its compelling cases and terrific writing and acting in the Briscoe and pre-Briscoe years. But also its admirable tackling of difficult subjects and themes (the 'Law and Order' franchise at its best was very good at that), their cases often based upon real-life ones and the moral dilemmas raised.

"Hitman" is to me a great episode. While not quite a 'Law and Order' high point, it is one of the best episodes of Season 13 and one of the conceptually not so novel stories feel fresh. Nearly everything works in "Hitman" and hardly anything disappoints, there are not many outings in Season 13 that would be recommended without hesitation personally but this is one of them. The type of story is quite familiar but not in a way that feels derivative.

The one drawback is Southerlyn continuing to be too much of a cold fish and Elisabeth Rohm is still too robotic. Things that were never solved when on the show, apart from a few bright spots.

Cannot fault the rest of the cast. Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin are such a well matched pair, Orbach does relish his one liners, and Sam Waterston is both ruthless and authoritative. His way of thinking when getting to the truth is a big part of the tension. The supporting cast are all fine as well.

Production values are slick and professional, not ever resorting to cheap or untested gimmicks or anything. The music is haunting in the right places and isn't constant or too loud, and the direction gives the drama urgency and breathing space. The script is thoughtful and intriguing with a lot of tautness in the legal scenes, can't get enough of Briscoe's one liners too.

While the story is very compelling in both halves, the second half is better than the first in many episodes or in a good number of them even better and "Hitman" is an example of the latter. As said, the story on paper is not innovative but the execution does not feel tired.

Overall, great. 9/10.

Parting is not sweet sorrow. It's just plain sweet.

[Mrpalli77 · 10/10 · 21 November 2017]

A housemaid got in a house for the housekeeping when she realized the alarm had not been set on. The owner lied on the ground dead. Detectives found out the victim had just remarried to a young and charming girl (Gretchen Egolf), out in Bermuda for a holiday at the time of the murder. His ex-wife didn't hold any grudge against him, because she left her husband years before for a dude much younger than her. The victim worked as a contractor and his business went bad, forcing him to get a loan from a loan shark. Detectives realized there was an insurance life policy, so the wife and her lover could have hired a hit-man (a wire transfer in a offshore bank account was the smoking gun), but the killer was unable to perform the murder, because he is behind bars. A video shooting that explains everything leaves the prosecutors speechless...

Sometimes conman could have a soul, knowing what friendship is. Nice episode, I give the highest grade to it, because I was very surprised by the way it ended up.