Law & Order (TV Series) Whiplash (2001) User Reviews

Crash Dummies

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 September 2020]

Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin get a case involving a dead man with no injuries that would lead one to conclude homicide. But as the investigation grows deeper this man suffered a whiplash injuries from a staged automobile accident.

Sam Waterston describes this as a 'cottage industry'. And the captains of this industry are lawyer partners Matthew J. Burg and Christopher Patrick Mullen. They filed personal injury lawsuits for almost 300 claims for these whiplash type lawsuits because they're not easy to prove or disprove. They hire mostly illegal alien day laborers for a couple hundred dollars and send them all to the firm's personal for hire chiropractor. The lion's share of the settlements go to them.

Law And Order occasionally has some unscrupulous lawyers portrayed and Burg and Mullen are two of the worst. The miracle is no one caught on before this.

As for the victim and in this case the surviving family.they get a pittance for essentially being live crash dummies.

A real bottom feeding racket.

Crash and burn

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 5 May 2022]

The subject matter for "Whiplash" is another one that is quite bold, and one not covered a lot up to this point of the show. Have said more than once about my long term admiration for the franchise's handling of heavy and polarising topics, some of them being ones that many shows would go nowhere near, and how it does not hold back when it approaches any of them. Regardless of the overall execution of the episodes, this aspect always is deserving of credit.

"Whiplash's" subject matter is no exception to this. This is a relevant subject that wasn't covered enough up to this point of 'Law and Order's' run and it is scary to see how truly unscrupulous people can be and doing so when thinking they are above the law. "Whiplash" does very well with it and for Season 11 it is very well done. Not a top 5 episode of the season, but in the better half of what was the first variable season of 'Law and Order'.

Did think that the first quarter was intriguing enough if not much to write home about, other than the chemistry between Briscoe and Green (as well as those two characters), with a seen it all before vibe.

Also thought that the last five minutes were a little over-crowded and rushed, a common problem in Season 11 and not unheard of either in the previous seasons.

However, a lot is truly great. Jerry Orbach (Briscoe is a very popular character in the franchise for very good reason) and Jesse L. Martin are never less than great leads and Sam Waterston shows his usual authority and ruthlessness in the second half. Matthew J. Burg and Christopher Patrick Mullen make unscrupulous very chilling, it is shocking at how much they got away with before caught and agreed it is amazing that it took this long. While the story starts off on the predictable side, it is riveting once it comes to trial. T no longer becomes too simple, surprises more and lots happens in terms of events and twists without being too complicated.

Furthermore, the dialogue is thought-provoking and has a pull no punches grit without being heavy-handed. It is shot with the right amount of intimacy without being claustrophobic and that the editing has become increasingly tighter over-time has been great too. Nice use of locations too. The music doesn't get over-scored or overwrought, even in the more dramatic revelation moments. The direction doesn't try to do too much and is understated but never flat or unsure.

On the whole, very nicely done once it gets going. 8/10.

People are willing to believe the worst about lawyers. Especially personal injury lawyers.

[Mrpalli77 · 9/10 · 8 November 2017]

A couple went outside a restaurant to have a smoke break. They noticed a dead body by the garbage, calling 911 right away. The victim had severe bruises on his chest and he turn out to be an illegal resident. Thanks to a local priest, detectives managed to locate his poor family: he was a family man from El Salvador and he is survived by his wife (Adriana Sevahn Nichols) and two little children. He worked at a building company that paid him just 50 bucks a day; anyway 250 bucks were found in his pocket, so he had to do something more on the side. His new employer (a moving company entrepreneur) is part of a car accident scam: the businessman provide car and people who staged the accident and a doctor makes the referral; there must be someone else who pull the strings and draw up papers to fraud the insurance. Anyway the real poor victims are not willing to testify because they're afraid of being deported, maybe the hustlers manage to get away with it....

Nice episode that shows us the life out of the spotlight. A lot of immigrants struggle to survive; they live in dirty flat and stand in the street corner waiting for a daily job for few bucks. I don't think in their country home life can be any worse than this.