Law & Order (TV Series) Virtue (1994) User Reviews

Fear and desire

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 25 November 2020]

"Virtue" did impress me a lot on first watch and struck me as one of the better episodes of a solid if uneven Season 5. It was a bold topic to explore for any television show back then and, although it has been a topic explored a lot to varying success since then, it is still bold. Absolutely loved much of the writing and the guest performances, and also gripped by the storytelling. Even though the prime suspect's character writing struck me initially as over the top, that one is convinced from the get go of his guilt.

My positive thoughts of "Virtue" on first watch still hold up today, and are even better perhaps now. The best episode of the season since "White Rabbit", though all the episodes in between that and this were well done, and among the better episodes of Season 5. If not quite one of the high points of 'Law and Order'. Nearly everything is great here in "Virtue" and the weak link of the episode will probably be seen by many as something of a nit-pick.

Have always felt that somehow the character writing for Talbert could have been more subtle and not been too much of one dimension, so the truth is not really that surprising at all.

Otherwise, "Virtue" is great. All the regulars are on fine form, especially Sam Waterston (one of her finer moments being the closing argument and his disgusted reaction to the way Talbert talks about Sarah). The supporting actors are equally good, with Regina Taylor giving a courageous performance showing her character's vulnerability and steel.

Anthony Heald does creepiness adeptly and Lily Knight agreed gives a more nuanced performance than most actors on the show playing defense attorneys. Loved the chemistry between her and McCoy, beginning to show signs of what made him a great character on the show once he fully settled. The script is intelligent and remarkably layered, not easy covering such a bold topic and raising the number of difficult issues the topic has without making too much of a judgement. "Virtue" actually manages to be quite smart and insightful in what it explores and there is no bias.

It's a slickly made episode, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started. The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key on the whole.

Summing up, great. 9/10

Regina Taylor and Lily Knight Are Brilliant, And the Script is Smart

[Better_TV · 9/10 · 9 May 2018]

This is a really good hour of drama. It's an episode tinged with cynicism, but it's one in which maybe, just maybe, justice might be allowed to prevail.

Regina Taylor gives a compelling performance as the main guest character Sarah Maslin. She is strong and resolute, with a burning inner fire; this is a woman who knows the evil that men do, but she has forced herself to carry that knowledge silently so she can move upwards in the law profession she loves.

We don't get much out of the primary antagonist, a married New York city councilman (and vocal supporter of the NYPD, we're told by Van Buren) played by Anthony Heald. He comes out swinging as a scumbag right away, and a scumbag he remains; women are just a series of good and bad lays to him, and he's so bold he doesn't even try to hide that fact from Sam Waterston as EADA Jack McCoy. What he does maintain, however, is that he's no rapist.

The script hits a variety of notes with regards to the rape issue, including slut-shaming, degrees of consent, whether or not it's even worth it for women to speak out, etc. It's smartly written, and it even features the DA's office sorta-kinda helping to re-write/re-interpret NY criminal law - far-fetched but cool nonetheless.

With a brilliant guest turn by Lily Knight as the councilman's defense attorney (she's more layered than the usual attorney of the week on this show, and she has a very unique dynamic with Sam Waterston), this is without a doubt one of the best episodes of season 5.

NOT inspired by the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy

[YakPro · 8/10 · 9 December 2021]

The first Trivia item is completely wrong. This episode was "ripped from the headlines", but not that one. They were working at a federal agency, the EEOC. This episode takes place at big-time law firm with a white partner supervising a black associate. In the actual case, a black, politically connected partner (Richard Glanton) at a Philadelphia law firm, Reed Smith, was accused of sexual harassment by a white associate, Kathleen Frederick, who accused him of basically forcing her into having an affair to boost her chances of making partner. Thomas had much less power over Hill's future than a partner at a big-time law firm would have over an associate. They did accurately portray the crazy hours and opportunities for affairs between partners, attorneys, and support staff.

An amazing episode with a very ironic twist 28 years later

[tzvikrasner · 10/10 · 22 May 2018]

One of the first television episodes to deal with the "sleep me with me to keep your job" phenomena. An absolutely incredible performance by all involved including the writing team.

But what really makes this amazing is the conversation between the character of Sarah Maslin and Claire Kincaid about the perpetrator in the episode forcing her to have sex with him to become partner when viewed in context with what we now know about Hollywood's "sex for roles" culture. While Jill Hennesy has never publicly claimed to have been abused like this, an especially beautiful young actress in Hollywood probably would have been subjected to it.

Is Your Body Your Property?

[rmax304823 · 14 August 2011]

The episode is up to the usual standards we associated with the first decade or so of the series. A young woman is found dead in a car crash. It's discovered that she was a passenger, that she appears to have been raped shortly before she died, and this leads the detectives to a congressman who has a pattern of coercing his employees into having sex with him.

It raises some interesting issues. First of all, what is "rape" anyway? The area between consensual sex and forcible rape can get pretty murky at times, however much we might wish it weren't so.

How about if, as in this instance, you're a smart, pretty female lawyer who has worked assiduously for a firm for eight years in pursuit of a partnership? You're on the brink of success that you've earned according to any reasonable standard. Then, your boss tells you to take off those pantyhose or you're out the door. You comply. Is THAT rape? McCoy hasn't enough evidence to convict the politician of rape but he does an end run around the problem by charging him with "larceny by extortion". That's a charge usually reserved for the protection racket. Give us $5,000 or we blow up your grocery store.

But it requires the definition of one's own body -- in this case the victim's -- as "property", just like anything else you own -- a car or a computer. It's a good argument against slavery and, in fact, libertarian philosophers have linked it to an argument against taxation. But jurors aren't philosophers. They're bus drivers. Will they buy it? SHOULD they buy it? And how about another instance of sexual harassment by that slimy pol? Years earlier, he cornered an employee at a party and began ripping off her dress in a fire exit. An untimely appearance by other guests interrupted the proceedings. The victim is going to bring a civil suit against him but he buys her off with fifty thousand dollars and she accepts rather than go to court. How good a supporting witness will she make? With a slight twist, it begins to sound as if SHE is blackmailing HIM.

Another observation. It was a good thing for New York City to have this series being filmed there. Every episode is filled with minor roles. It provided employment for anybody who looked the part and could act in some minimal sense. Young black kids who looked and sounded like street rats had jobs. Gray-haired old ladies in wheelchairs could get an occasional gig. And for those not in the union there were dozens of silent parts for people with ordinary faces, of all colors and ages.

All together, the series, without being a masterpiece of the cop genre, was one of the few respectable presentations on the tube, otherwise a "vast wasteland", as Newton Minnow described it long ago.

One of my Favorite summatations by Jack McCoy

[matthewmlang · 9/10 · 13 August 2021]

"Give me the keys to your house, or I'll charge you with murder. I'm the DA, I can do it. Give me $10,000 or ill tell the Feds about that shipment of heroin I saw you pick up at JFK. I'm the DA, they'll listen. What would you do? I can tell you what I'll be doing, spending the next 10 years in Attica, because what I did is called extortion and it's a felony. Sleep with me or I'll ruin your career..."

Prescient

[safenoe · 7/10 · 5 December 2023]

Virtue, a fifth season episode of Law and Order, is quite prescient in dealing with the me2 movement years later and how powerful and unscrupulous authority figures use their power and authority to get their way with those they can manipulate and play upon the anxieties of subordinates who are seeking to legitimately rise up the ladder.

Anthony Heald, who later starred in Boston Public, guest stars as a politician who has trouble controlling his bodily movements to people of the opposite gender, and this results in him being arrested. Anyway, the political angle and the pressure on the prosecutors was intense.

One big reach

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 31 January 2016]

Not my favorite Law And Order episode because I think this one was one big reach. What starts out as car accident and the driver leaving the scene with a dead woman in the car turns into first a rape and then sexual harassment with rape as the conclusion. In fact the DA's office goes looking for a victim. No way in real life.

The female victim found dead worked on the campaign of a city councilman and the Medical Examiner finds evidence of rape before the accident. It traces back to the councilman Anthony Heald who truth be told is one arrogant piece of crap. Even before he went into politics, back when he was a senior partner at a white shoe law firm.

So the DA's office looks for living rape survivors and finds Regina Taylor who is modeled on the real life Anita Hill. She gave in to Heald's casting couch, but is real reluctant to talk about it. With what she has to give up who would blame her. I still can't believe she gave in.

In real life the DA might have made note and kept an eye on Heald. You know sooner or later a recent and cooperative victim would have surfaced.