Law & Order (TV Series) Promises to Keep (1993) User Reviews

Pushes the right buttons

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 15 October 2018]

Some white privilege is faintly observed in Michael Moriarty in seeking what to do about perpetrator Frederick Weller. Just how culpable is Weller when he's manipulated into killing his girlfriend.

The girlfriend's body is found in Central Park and the investigation by Jerry Orbach and Chris Noth lead to Weller, a Robert Chambers like character but without Chambers's arrogance. He is quite the sexy package, still is today and he's been undergoing mental health therapy. It is there that psychiatrist Lindsay Crouse just can't resist. I know this gay man would have difficulty.

But Crouse wants him all for herself and she being is therapist knows how to push the right buttons to make him do it. New York County DA consultant Dr. Olivet wants her punished and she persuades Moriarty to indict.

Assigning culpability and as beautiful a package as Frederick Weller, he's putty in Crouse's hands. Yet he did the deed and has to pay. With Carolyn McCormick's insistence on the primary blame Moriarty tries to work it out that way.

Watching it though you can't help but wonder if this was some minority youth gangbanger would Moriarty have been so concerned? This is where some white privilege comes in.

Weller is fascinating and sexy, Crouse is manipulative and cunning. There are also great performances from Gail Strickland as the victim's mother and Fritz Weaver as Crouse's attorney and Roger Sebagi as the judge.

Counter Transference May Be Hazardous To Your Health.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 24 December 2010]

A young woman is found bashed in Central Park and the detectives manage to track down the killer, her boyfriend, but they also determine that the boy's psychiatrist, Lindsay Crouse, may have encouraged the murder or at least permitted it. Crouse, it develops, was making it with the kid on the office floor in order to show him that, despite his low self esteem, he could still be loved.

It left me a little bitter. If I'd had a sexy, good-looking shrink, I doubt that she'd have gone that far for me. As it is, she was pretty naive herself, almost as much as the boy she was manipulating. I've been a shrink and a client myself, and it's bad enough if you boff your own patients, and it's a monument to your stupidity if you think that, when the affair ends, there isn't going to be payback. In a class on ethics, I read a book about such a real affair involving a name psychiatrist in New York -- something like Rene Hartog or Hartzog, I forget -- back in the 60s. He had his patient typing his records and running errands while he used her as a sexual receptacle but when he lost interest in her, he wound up in the soup. The patient wrote a book about it -- all from her point of view -- and Hartog/Hartzog paid the penalty in civil court.

The high point of the episode is the encounter between Dr. Elizabeth Olivet and the doctor played by Crouse. You ought to see it. Two women shrinks pecking at each other. We never learn what Olivet's orientation is. Olivet claims she was never into Alfred Adler -- all that emphasis on power. Crouse may have gone too far in her exercise of influence over a callow boy but to the extent that she follows Adler she has nothing to be ashamed of. Freud thought that the engine behind neurosis was sex. Adler believe it was a striving for power. I leave it to the viewer to decide which motive seems dominant in today's society.

I will only point out that a recent cover illustration of Machiavelli's "The Prince" showed a giant hand, palm up, with a dozen tiny people standing on it. (Follow Machiavelli and you have the world in the palm of your hand.) From villainous manipulator to guru in about one generation.

In treatment

[safenoe · 7/10 · 26 September 2023]

Lindsay Crouse, who was, before this episode debuted, married to playwright David Mamet, guest stars in Promises to Keep. This also guest stars Carolyn McCormick, who gets opening credit status again, and it's a shame she didn't get more regular opening credit status treatment.

Anyway, this episode is controversial because it deals with the power of a psychiatrist, played by Lindsay Crouse, to unduly influence a young man to do nasty deeds which will end up as an episode of Law and Order. Anyway, I'm enjoying watching the early seasons of Law and Order, along with Father Brown and Magnum, P. I..

Killing promises

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 3 August 2020]

With the episodes from 'Law and Order's' middle period and from its later seasons airing so often, it is very easy perhaps to overlook the early seasons. Meaning in my view pre-Season 7. That is a shame, because 'Law and Order' in its early years was more often than not good to fantastic with some truly fine episodes in each of the seasons in question. Even if there were a few not that major bumps along the way and times where it didn't always feel settled, Season 2 for example took some of its first half to completely settle.

"Promises to Keep" is one of the fantastic episodes. It is one of the best of Season 3 and an early season standout in its own way. There are many episodes that show perfectly what 'Law and Order' is all about as a show and "Promises to Keep" is one of them, if anybody got into the show via the later seasons (admittedly me being one) and hasn't seen any of the pre-Season 7 episodes yet should really do so and this is a strong example as to why. Everything here works.

It is a must for two things especially. One is the chillingly cunning performance of Lindsay Crouse in one of her better performances perhaps. The other is the powerful, quite the knockout scene between Meade and Olivet (played beautifully by Carolyn McMormick and they contrast just as beautifully).

They are not the only good things though. As said, everything in "Promises to Keep" is good. While Crouse gives the best performance, Jerry Orbach and Michael Moriarty are also excellent in their roles as one would expect. The character chemistry is right on too, especially between Meade and Olivet in that aforementioned scene. It's slickly shot with nice use of locations while the music is wisely not constant and is unobtrusive.

Furthermore, the script is thoughtful and tonally expertly balanced, whether it's the taut legal scenes, some of the tense interaction in the legal scenes between the regulars and Briscoe's one-liners. There are moments of unsettlement, like with Meade's matter of factness on the stand but it's balanced by moments of amusement from Briscoe and Schiff. The story is riveting, it's never too simple or convoluted and has tension and unpredictability too. The first half where we see how the conclusions are gotten to intrigues but the second half is even better, with more tension.

Overall, fantastic. 10/10

A real treat

[Ralpho · 10/10 · 4 April 2009]

What a treat it was to see Lindsay Crouse and Carolyn McCormick, two actresses who should be more famous than they are, play a scene together. Lindsay has been great in everything I've seen her in, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fourth season to first season of Hack to theatrical film House of Games. I'll always remember Carolyn from a guest role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a holodeck siren in first season. Boy was she hot! I felt Riker's disappointment when he couldn't get computer to reproduce her. But I digress. This was one of Law & Order's better efforts (not that I've ever seen a bad episode). Evidently, writers were giving Steven Hill better lines in third season because suddenly he's making me laugh out loud. Lindsay plays a psychiatrist who is accused of influencing a patient to kill his girlfriend. Her explanation on stand for behavior vis-a-vis patient is patently absurd, yet funny because she delivers lines so matter-of-factly.

Wow!!! failed

[mloessel · 3/10 · 16 August 2023]

Lindsay Crouse steals every scene she's in. Such an amazing actress. She does not do a tap dance when asked a question. In a very matter of manner she tells the prosector that she had sex with her client. It was a supposedly unique form of therapy. After the fact she admits it didn't have the result she was hoping for. Ya think. Crouse plays a therapist and her male client fell mady in lust/love with her when she had sex with him in a very unconventional therapy session. In other ancient cultures such a practice might have been acceptable. I was amused to note how Crouse's character was not overly disturbed. She was merely disappointed.