The subject matter is enough to make one want to see Season 4's fourth episode "Profile". Racism is such a bold and hard-hitting topic, that has been a big problem everywhere for decades and still is now and almost as bad. Regardless of the execution, whether it's handled tactfully or whether it's on the preachy side, credit has always been given by me for even trying. As well as that and my love for the show, another big reason to see it is James Earl Jones who is another person who makes everything he is in better.
"Profile" for me is an outstanding episode and one of the standouts of the fourth season. One of the most powerful, bravest and most thought-provoking (am aware that this word has been used a lot by me but it is one of the words that repeatedly sums the show and the franchise up) ones. And one that more than does justice to its subject, complete with a riveting case and being one of the episodes to have the guest stars being even better than the regulars.
Cannot fault the production values, it's slick and gritty as ever and is one of the better shot episodes of the season. It's intimate with the action but doesn't get claustrophobic. The music doesn't get intrusive and suits the mood well. The direction is understated but provides some great tension in the second half of the episode especially.
Of the Season 4 episodes, "Profile" is one of the best written. It is very intelligently crafted and has intensity and edge while handling the topic sensitively too, everything with the profile and the issues that come with it is particularly well done with some interesting questions raised that makes one think hard about the validity of evidence. The story is one of the most uncompromising, the episode really not holding back on its depiction and reprehensible traits of the perpetrator, of Season 4, while not getting heavy-handed (i.e. explicit messaging). The conflict has genuine tension and the second half gave me chills. The ending is one of the season's most shocking, and it's different.
All the characters are very well written, although the judge is frustrating (it didn't take away from the drama though and she does boast one of the episode's best lines). The regulars are all on top form, especially Stone, and the perpetrator is as as nasty a piece of work as one can get for any 'Law and Order' episode covering racism. Horace McCoy is the juiciest character, that is one shrewd character who epitomises the "characters meet their match" kind.
Performances couldn't be better. All the regulars bring their usual excellence, Michael Moriarty does authority and conflicted so well and he was missed when he left at the end of the season (with him being one of the best things consistently of the first four seasons). "Profile" is one of the show's finest examples of the guest stars being not just on equal level in quality of performances but perhaps even better. Joe Seneca is moving and William Carden is chilling, but best of all is Jones who brings a lot of gravitas and shrewd intelligence and dominates the legal scenes even more so than Moriarty. On paper, one does wonder how anybody could defend such an awful person whose guilt is so obvious but Jones manages to make McCoy plausible and somewhat entertaining which says a lot about how good an actor he is. His conversation with Stone explaining why he is defending indeed fascinates.
In summary, brilliant. 10/10
