Law & Order (TV Series) Illegitimate (2009) User Reviews

THE Family

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 17 January 2015]

Three dead bodies, one of them a cop, two others discovered by Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson all are in one way or another attributed to the wealthy Christopher McDonald. You would think that McDonald whose family made their fortune manufacturing and selling toilets and accompanying fixtures would be happy. But that's not the kind of wealth for him.

McDonald is a collector of presidential memorabilia. But there's one item this man HAS to have in order to complete his collection. Not just so he can have a rookie Mickey Mantle card so to speak. But this will allow him to gain entry to that elite group of presidential relations. One of the deceaseds had a lock of the hair of John F. Kennedy and McDonald needs it to prove he's the product of one of Kennedy's numerous conquests. He's absolutely obsessed with the notion he's a Kennedy born on the wrong side of the blanket as that old expression implied.

We see where McDonald got his obsession from. Rue McClanahan has one wonderful scene with Linus Roache where back in the day she met JFK at a fundraiser and he whisked this married woman away for Bump-Ba-Da-Bump as Kennedy was wont to do. In a book about David Niven he was described as doing just that to Niven's second wife on the presidential yacht the Honey Fitz.

Roache does win his case, but he has to play to McDonald's obsession. His expensive lawyer tells him no, but McDonald can't help himself.

A really wild Law And Order story.

Wild mastermind

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 22 November 2022]

'Law and Order' was a brilliant show in its prime and overall is actually my favourite of the 'Law and Order' franchise and out of it, 'Special Victims Unit' (the longest running) and 'Criminal Intent'. Despite not feeling the same post-Briscoe. While the Lupo and Bernard teaming started bland, it grew a lot overtime once the characters settled. Cutter was a great addition from the very start, excepting a couple of appearances, and Rubirosa is the best assistant generally since Carmichael.

"Illegitimate" is another good episode, though falls short of greatness. It took a while to get the head around the story's tone to begin with, but if that puts anybody off my advice is stick with it as it does get better and comes together just about. As far as the surprisingly solid Season 19 goes, "Illegitimate" is not one of the best episodes. It is also not one of the middle. If anything, it's probably somewhere around high middle which is a good position to be in.

A lot is good, though it isn't perfect. It is very wild and strange at first, which does affect the story's coherence at times. So not the easiest of episodes to get into at first.

Maybe it tries to cram in a little too much as well, a lot goes on and it could have done with more time to go into more depth and could have afforded to do a little less.

Despite how that sounds, a lot is positive about "Illegitimate". Can find nothing to fault the production values for though, the slickness and grit still present and likewise with the more fluid editing. The music is used relatively sparingly and is not too intrusively orchestrated, fitting too with the mood. The direction is generally alert but also sympathetic, shining in the character interactions in the legal scenes. Liked the tautness, edge and thought-probing of the second half's writing.

The story does get more cohesive and more compelling in the second half, with lots of intrigue. Absolutely loved the scene between Rue McClanahan and Linus Roache, both strong. As is chilling Christopher McDonald. The regulars are all very good.

Good but not great. 7/10.

The Kennedys on Law and Order

[wmschoell-67025 · 7/10 · 21 October 2021]

On previous episodes of Law and Order the famous Kennedy clan might show up in one form or another but the name was always changed to the "Flanigans" or something similarly Irish. On this episode the Kennedys are called the Kennedys and that's that. The family uses its influence to have the Feds shut down an investigation -- the head villain insists he's the son of JFK -- and issue a gag order. One can only imagine what the real Kennedys thought of this episode, in which JFK's illegitimate son -- or is he? -- is a multiple murderer. Twisty, interesting, and very weird episode with good performances from Christopher MacDonald and Rue McClanahan, a riot as his sassy mother. NOTE: This was obviously inspired by the real-life Jack Worthington (who was NOT a murderer) who claimed in a piece in Vanity Fair that his mother told him he was the son of JFK-- and there are indications that this might well have been true. The magazine was going to do a follow-up piece but Ted Kennedy shut it down.