Law & Order (TV Series) Mother Love (1993) User Reviews

Nothing but a heartache

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 6 June 2018]

Jerry Orbach and Chris Noth catch a case involving the shooting death of a young black woman who at one time was a scholarship winner, but her life went south when she got hooked on narcotics. At first the evidence points to her dealer Leland Gantt, but the ADAs look closer at it plus the fact this career criminal insists on his innocence. Maybe Gantt's due for some cosmic justice, but not for this murder.

I can't go any farther, but this is truly one of the most heartbreaking episodes ever done in the history of Law And Order. You will be most moved by the performance of Mary Alice and Douglas Turner Ward as the parents of the deceased.

No one should go through what they did.

When a drug addict is not all alone in the world

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 4 May 2021]

A woman is found dead, shot to death in a place where drugs are usually sold. At first the suspect looks obvious - the dealer that usually sold the young woman her drugs. The guy is a career offender and is very callous, but in spite of overwhelming evidence that will get him 25 to life if convicted, he refuses to plead out to a lesser charge on this one. The odd thing is, he pled out on a burglary charge just the year before. In fact he has a history of pleading out. Could it just be that he is being stubborn because he is indeed innocent? That he is standing on principle? This causes the shooting to be investigated further.

It's a very good episode on how having a child turn to drugs in a big way can upend the lives of a middle class family that is living the American dream on every other front. The dead woman was voted most likely to succeed when she graduated high school, and then she turned to drugs, and in the words of her family turned into somebody that they did not know.

Great acting by the guest performers and by the cast as usual.

Amazing acting

[Carriexoc · 8/10 · 3 May 2021]

The actress who plays the mother is INCREDIBLE. The scene where she tells how everything went down is UNREAL! It was hard to believe you were watching a TV show and not real life. What a great actor!!!

Driven to death

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 4 August 2020]

The 'Law and Order' franchise, namely prime-'Special Victims Unit', did often excel in episodes where there is a lot of emotional impact and where one cannot bring themselves to hate all the character that commit the crimes. Part of the original 'Law and Order', 'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent's' appeal, and prime-'Law and Order' was the best at this, is again how it deals with tough themes and subject matters and tackles any dilemmas that come with them and solving cases.

One of the strongest examples of all the above is "Mother Love". One of Season 3's best and one of its most emotionally powerful, with memorable guest supporting turns, a powerful case and it was great to see Robinette shine. Always did like him as a character and always did wish that he lasted longer on the show, and he is a strong character when his material is particularly meaty like it very much is in "Mother Love" when his feelings on the case is the source of the episode's moral dilemmas.

Everything here in "Mother Love" is wonderful. Everything that made prime-'Law and Order' so great and what contributes towards its best is all evident here. It's slickly shot and tightly edited with no drabness or garishness in sight, even with the gritty tone. The music is not too melodramatic and is thankfully not constant.

All the performances are strong. Jerry Orbach, love Briscoe's one-liners, and Michael Moriarty, doing conflicted edge better than most of the actors playing the show's primary attorneys, are spot on. But it was great too to see Richard Brooks be such a powerful presence, and one can identify completely with his objection. Mary Alice and Douglas Turner Ward are agreed affecting as the parents and one cannot bring themselves to hate the responsible.

Case is both tense and incredibly heart-wrenching, the subject is a difficult and hardly out of date one now and it's dealt with tactfully and with sensitivity. It's beautifully scripted too, nothing came over as misplaced to me and it doesn't take itself too over-seriously that it becomes dreary. The moral dilemmas surrounding how to deal with the case and the issue with race is not one-sided in how it's explored and doesn't preach even with the amount of insight there is here. The dialogue in the legal scenes really makes one deep in thought and resonates emotionally quite some while after.

Summing up, wonderful. 10/10

Do the right thing

[safenoe · 8/10 · 5 October 2023]

Mother Love marks the appearance of Edie Falco as Defense Attorney Sally Bell, before her career exploded in The Sopranos. This is a very thoughtful episode that draws on race and the disadvantages and oppression experienced by Black Americans over the years, and how the tide turns much to the chagrin of Paul Robinette who takes a more formal and non-discriminatory approach to the law.

Mary Alice was incredibly superb in her role as the anguished mother who did the murderous deed. She should have won an Emmy for her performance or she should have been invited back to join the cast full-time as one of the lawyers.