When a wife with a bullet in her brain goes into a vegetative coma, the prime suspect seems pretty obvious: her jerkoff comedy club-owning husband, played with an air of effortless a-holery by Larry Miller. Sometimes L&O side characters can be a bit sleepy and clichéd, so Miller's fast-talking performance as a blatantly selfish middle-class degenerate is pretty refreshing.
In a hilariously dark line, he even admits: "I don't need you to tell me I'm a son of a b***h ... But I happen to be a son of a b***h whose wife was shot by some other son of a b***."
This plot would be pretty generic without Miller's involvement, and without a classic L&O late-game twist: the DA's office desperately needs a ballistics report on the bullet embedded inside the victim. But the surgery could kill her. Is it ethical for them to sign off on surgery to get the bullet - and what if the bullet ends up not proving anything?
Debra Monk is great as the victim's grieving sister, who has always hated Miller's character. There's a certain amount of ambiguity to the way this one ends - it's intriguing rather than feeling like a cop out.
A great example of how to take a basic "husband vs. wife" plot and make it interesting.
In a hilariously dark line, he even admits: "I don't need you to tell me I'm a son of a b***h ... But I happen to be a son of a b***h whose wife was shot by some other son of a b***."
This plot would be pretty generic without Miller's involvement, and without a classic L&O late-game twist: the DA's office desperately needs a ballistics report on the bullet embedded inside the victim. But the surgery could kill her. Is it ethical for them to sign off on surgery to get the bullet - and what if the bullet ends up not proving anything?
Debra Monk is great as the victim's grieving sister, who has always hated Miller's character. There's a certain amount of ambiguity to the way this one ends - it's intriguing rather than feeling like a cop out.
A great example of how to take a basic "husband vs. wife" plot and make it interesting.