'Law and Order' may not have completely settled yet (that though applies to a lot of shows when they first start), but that is not to say that the quality early on was bad. The quality early on was actually very good, just that even better was to follow. And that was the case too with the two best known and best spin-offs for the franchise 'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent' ('Special Victims Unit' settling fastest).
"Happily Ever After" continues the very good if not quite great quality seen in the previous four 'Law and Order' episodes, up to this very early stage of the show the very first episode "Prescription of Death" is the best. The good things though are a great many and would go as far to say that the execution of those good things is actually great, as said before. Have always found that to be the case with the early seasons/Briscoe period episodes.
Did like that there was more of an equal mix of the law and order sides of the case. This is also, as commented upon already, a case that isn't based of a pre-existing headlines case as such and one that doesn't focus on tackling social issues and moral dilemmas seen before. Which was actually not a bad thing at all.
The case does grip as does the inestigative/procedural work, even though we are completely on Greevey's side when he thinks things don't add up. The prosecution element is intriguing and it is great to see how these prosecutors work and get a result. Didn't buy such lenient sentence offerings for such a crime, but did understand why with it being part of getting a result during the quite tense ending.
Can't fault the gritty production values here or the sparingly used and unobtrusive music (also that memorable main theme). The script is thought-provoking and intelligently written, with a priceless final line from Schiff. The performances are uniformly good, with Michael Moriaty standing out of the regulars and Roxanne Hart being excellent in her role.
Will admit though to not being surprised really by the truth of the crime, did figure it out out early on with suspects being relatively too few. Later 'Law and Order'-franchise episodes did better at this. It also became a fairly familiar scenario for the franchise, so it is more obvious when one saw the later episodes first, and a reminded me a little of the later and more-premeditated "Sunday School Killers" case.
It could have gone into even more depth too perhaps.
All in all though, very good. 8/10