Law & Order (TV Series) Born Again (2002) User Reviews

Alternative therapy

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 8 September 2020]

Wendy Makkena's daughter is found dead in Central Park by a pair of joggers and it's obvious she wasn't killed there, but left there.

The kid who was in the 8 to 10 range was a problem kid and Makkena was exploring alternative therapy techniques. Makkena lighted on Debra Monk who uses a technique involving a faux rebirth. Only this one had a very real death.

It's a question of culpability here for Sam Waterston and Elisabeth Rohm and there turns out to be more than enough to go around. It's a question of emphasis and some cold calculation.

See the show and find out what that means.

Ridiculousness reborn

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 26 May 2022]

'Law and Order' did numerous episodes with stories based on real life cases. "Born Again" was based on two, that of Candace Newmaker and that of Susan Smith. With perhaps more shades of the former. That is what is meant when calling an episode that does that "ripped from the headlines). The show and the franchise did this type of story often very well and even brilliantly at the best of times and the subject while intriguing could have gone either way.

"Born Again" didn't quite work for me, although it is a long way from being a terrible episode and starts with a lot of promise. It is an unnerving case to begin with with an unthinkable situation, but once the motive and circumstances are revealed to me the story lost plausibility. As far as the generally solid if not outstanding Season 12 goes, despite having one of the most hard-hitting and controversial topics "Born Again" is one of the weaker ones and did have potential to be a lot more.

There are good things here. The production values are suitably slick and gritty, with photography that is reliant on close ups that have an intimacy without being too claustrophobic. The music is didn't come over as too melodramatic or like it was emphasising the emotion too much. The direction is sympathetic while still giving momentum. With one exception the performances are great, Sam Waterston and Debra Monk giving the best ones.

Script has some punch and intrigue in the first half and really do enjoy the chemistry between Briscoe and Green. Briscoe is one of the most popular characters in the franchise for good reason and he and Green are my personal favourite of the lead pairings of the show (maybe it is because it was through the later episodes from that period that got me addicted). The first half starts the episode off very well, uncompromising and unnerving as well as sad.

However, the second half isn't as strong. Disappointing considering that with a lot of 'Law and Order' episodes the second half is the superior half. The tension and edge dissipate, the pacing slackens and the case becomes predictable and over-stretched. Also thought the story lost plausibility, everything with the rebirthing did have the danger of being on the far fetched side if not done well and once it was revealed what the technique was used for and what it was trying to cure it was hard to believe for me.

Especially considering that it in real life it was not likely to fullfill what it said it would do (as someone with mental health issues much of me is doubtful that rebirthing would be effective). And considering too that with the Newmaker case especially still having raw emotions people would have real doubt about rebirthing working and that it would be a danger. Elisabeth Rohm is wooden as to be expected.

In conclusion, not bad but could have been a lot better. 6/10.

Excellent Until the Final Few Minutes (No, Not the Twist)

[bkkaz · 8/10 · 4 February 2023]

Don't pay attention to the naysayers -- overall, this is a taut, well crafted episode, all the more remarkable because it was made in the final quarter of the original show's run. But it's still miles ahead of anything that beings done with the reboot or the terrible, terrible SVU now. The problem is in the denouement.

Everything is in good form -- acting, writing, directing. The series still has that glossy yet hyper realistic look that distinguished it from so many other shows, then and now. This is Law and Order firing pretty much on all cylinders.

It's also a relative rarity in that even though there is a twist, it's not one you can really see coming based on what's planted in the episode. There's no clear Chekhov's gun in that respect. Yet, when it's revealed, it makes a good deal of sense, and it paints everything in a different light. Now that you know what really happened, it makes you wonder about all the ins and out legally and otherwise that led to the trial.

That's why the episode doesn't get a higher rating from me. It's not that it doesn't work as is -- it certainly does -- but that the ending actually opens the door to one final scene, where everyone should stop and question where their initial suspicions took them. After all, they get it so wrong, it's the sort of thing that should lead to a great deal of introspection, professionally and otherwise. It doesn't. That's the dodge and hustle SVU has taken for the past 10 years and the Law and Order reboot continues to do, too. But the original Law and Order was still written for intelligent, sensitive adults.

Just a few minutes at the end for such inward searching would have made this episode a 10. What a shame.

I thought that I'd have a little girl who'd love her mom

[Mrpalli77 · 5/10 · 15 November 2017]

Two girls were jogging in the park when they bumped into a child body lying on the ground. The little girl was actually dead, choked to death with her own vomit. Two students at the local high school left some fingerprints in the crime scene, after a night spent smoking joints, but they have just tried to revive the victim. Forensic stated the victim was dumped in the park some time after her death, so detectives led the investigation to the grieving mother. She's not the biological mother, having adopted the kid shortly after her divorce, realizing she's unable to have child on her own. According to information given by her therapist and her fellow coworkers (she worked in a canteen), she's depressed to raise a child all by herself; furthermore the daughter suffered from a mental illness very hard to deal with. So she changed psychologist and went to a therapist who performed rebirth sessions....I have never heard anything more dumb than this!

An episode too unreal to be true. Anyway even in modern times, people attend wizard and shaman meeting instead of relying on mainstream medicine, luckily it's not so common in the first world.