Law & Order (TV Series) Ramparts (1999) User Reviews

Agent Provocateur

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 26 March 2020]

While looking for a tossed weapon in the Hudson on another case that Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt caught a Volkswagen bus is found in the river with a skeleton that had a bullet hole in the skull. Autopsy and forensics put this case back to 1968 and the height of student protests.

It took a lot of investigation but it turns out the deceased was an undercover cop at L&O's Hudson University to keep an eye on all the radical students.

Sam Waterston sees this as a grand opportunity to investigate all the activities of the NYPD back in the day. Steven Hill and Angie Harmon just want to see a murderer face justice.

As for the perpetrator it's Michael Higgins. More I won't say, but he is a pitiable figure and no matter what your politics that is what you will feel. It's an outstanding performance.

Deadly ramparts

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 16 September 2021]

Have loved the original 'Law and Order' for a long time, particularly the earlier seasons, and consider it my personal favourite of the 'Law and Order' franchise. Did like the idea for Season 9's "Ramparts", though on paper it may seem too basic and ordinary. 'Law and Order' do have a good track record at making something great and more complex than expected out of stories that don't sound out of the ordinary on paper and understandably one expects similar from "Ramparts."

"Ramparts" is a very good episode, if falling a little short of being great despite having a lot of great things individually. Like a lot of episodes in 'Law and Order's' mid period, it is a case of one half being superior to the other. But not because one half is bad, just that there is one half that executes the storytelling especially even better. "Ramparts" is not a season high point, but it was interesting to see it centered around a past cold case and how it is gone about solving it.

The second half is better than the first, which was slightly routine.

A lot is truly great on the other hand. . As usual, the production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough while also taut.

Moreover, the script challenges enough without being too much of a challenge in terms of understanding what's going on. It is taut and intelligent throughout. The story is always engrossing and tight in pace, with enough surprising twists and turns to be satisfied by.

Can't fault the acting of the regulars either and Michael Higgins is wholly successful in making one feel some degree of empathy towards someone that should on paper be detestable.

Overall, very good. 8/10.

History repeats itself.

[lifeisgood110 · 9/10 · 29 September 2022]

"Can our society survive secret police monitoring of law abiding people who question government policy?" - Jack McCoy

Sounds like what's happening these days except the people that used to fight against "the man" are now bowing the knee to him. History always repeats itself.

This episode from 1999 is a good episode with some twists that takes us back to the 70s and the Vietnam War era and Jack is on a rampage to expose the secret government agenda from that time period. It's obvious that he has a personal grudge from when he was young and against the war, as is stated in another previous episode.

A Generation Ago.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 17 November 2013]

In the case of an exceptional series like this, it's not an insult to say that once you've seen one, you've seen them all, as long as you're joking. By the ninth season, the writers had the characters and story lines down pat. Perhaps fewer of the stories were "ripped from the headlines" but so what? That was nothing much more than a gimmick in the first place.

The performers by now had mastered their characters. Sam Waterston, always reliable, never flamboyant, knew the role of Executive Assistant and Ipso Facto Pro Bono Publico Major Domo District Attorney Sub Specie Aeternitatis inside and out. Nobody else could have mastered the art of jerking back his head, tripling his chin and opening his eyes in momentary disbelief when something surprising happened. Nor had any of the actors become tired and robotic as sometimes happens in a long-running series such as "Columbo" or "Gunsmoke." (There were times when Amanda Blake couldn't seem to keep her eyes open.)

In this episode the cops stumble by accident onto a murder committed during the height of student activism. "Kensington University" must be the nom de TV for "Columbia University". An especially provocative student demonstrator has been shot in the head and it turns out that he was a member of a squad of undercover police officers. The special squad's responsibility, to put it bluntly, was to promote and commit more than usually outrageous acts in order for the uniformed police to bust some heads.

McCoy, who resents the misuse of force, pushes to nail the cops involved. Abby Carmichael (where do they get these names?) is intent on sticking to the undercover cop's murder. Adam Schiff no longer gives a damn. He shrugs in resignation and tells them to do whatever they want, just leave him alone so he can practice looking exhausted in front of the mirror.

Then, as it must to all series, pattern fatigue came to "Law and Order." It jumped the shark a few years later. The producers had to juggle the cast around so that it came out politically correct and they made some casting blunders. It died of natural causes, an excess of spin-offs and fecklessness but by that time Dick Wolf was taking baths in thousand-dollar bills anyway so it probably made little difference to him.