An Act of Violence begins with two thugs following an elderly woman to her apartment where they force themselves inside to rob her. She is beaten so severely during the robbery that she dies from her injuries and an investigation is initiated. After the crime scene is processed and Quincy (Jack Klugman) examines the body, he decides to return to the victim's apartment and investigate further in hopes of obtaining additional evidence. Later while leaving the building, he is confronted by the same criminals who also rob and beat him severely. This incident causes Quincy a great deal of mental and emotional anguish and begins to affect his ability to sleep, interactions with others and willingness to assist the police in identifying the culprits.
I personally found the opening scenes of this episode very difficult to watch because my own grandmother was once followed in a supermarket parking lot and mugged when she arrived at the car. Fortunately, she wasn't harmed but was pretty shaken up over the whole thing. Seeing that elderly woman walking with the grocery bag and those two low lifes following her knowing what was about to happen just hit way too close to home for me and brought back some unpleasant memories.
Putting that aside, I can say that this episode does start out pretty strong in that there is a murder investigation and the scenes where Quincy is assaulted are very powerful, although very sad to watch. I think Jack Klugman's acting is superb throughout this episode where we get to see the full range of emotions he puts on display as his normally strong character is suddenly intimidated and struggling to cope following the attack.
My main complaint and criticism of this episode is that the latter part of it goes deep into the psychological effects of the beating on Quincy and we have to endure more of his wife and her psychiatry. Upon her insistence, Quincy does seek out professional help which means more therapy sessions, something that I've already had enough of from previous episodes in Season 8. While I think there is an important point made here about crime victims in that even the strongest of individuals can experience great difficulty in their mental and emotional recovery following a traumatic attack long after the physical wounds heal, I can't help but feel this was all written in to give Hanover more to do in this episode.
It's also important to note that while there is a murder investigation featured, it is not a mystery as the audience sees the killers in the opening scenes. This also causes it to lose a point or two in my book.
