Law & Order (TV Series) B*tch (2003) User Reviews

Costume portrayed this ep's point

[Noir-It-All · 8/10 · 24 June 2020]

Loved how costume contrasted the personalities of mother and daughter. Mother wore crisp, metallic white suits and gowns while "colorful," poetic daughter wore lacy, dark vintage.

Even Arthur Beach's final quote of the episode reflects the care and attention paid to costume.

Oh, the irony.

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 23 March 2020]

This episode, starring Lucie Arnaz as a fashion mogul, is supposed to be ripped from the headlines as per Martha Stewart and her insider trading in 2001. Arnaz, as this match-up of Martha, is implicated in the murder of somebody that both she and her emotionally fragile daughter are sleeping with. But was this a crime of passion or of penny stocks or of progesterone? The episode paints Arnaz' character as calculating, arrogant, predatory. Like we are supposed to look at Martha Stewart the same way.

Well, 17 years later and AT LEAST Martha Stewart was never accused of killing anybody AND she actually went to jail for awhile. And what happened in the 2008 financial crisis makes what Stewart did look quaint in comparison. Banksters taking taxpayer bailout money, cramming it in their corpulent wallets, and then throwing said taxpayers into the street when they couldn't pay their mortgages.

And then Atlas coughed and it has started all over again.

This episode is pretty entertaining, but like so many movies made about WWII during WWII it does seem like a shrill production today. I'd still recommend it as Law and Order was usually a well written and performed show, and an hour with that prosecutor of prosecutors Jack McCoy is never time wasted.

You pick a lane. And don't you let anybody ever cut you off.

[Mrpalli77 · 7/10 · 25 November 2017]

A dog sitter got into a fancy apartment in order to take outside the pet animal. At the bottom of the stairs the owner lied dead in a pool of blood. The victim was a stockbroker and a lady's man: he used to hang out with classy women (usually middle aged) and with some he had affairs. Briscoe and Green realized that among all the mistress there were a rich woman who ran a cosmetic business and her daughter (Melissa Errico). The daughter confessed the murder but that didn't convince the detectives at all. Her mother had a motive in the killing involving insider trading matters and police managed to place her at the crime scene at the time of the murder. Defense attorney claimed mental defect due to a cure involving hormones replacement that could have led to violent behavior, but McCoy at trial played well his role; could the defendant get away with it?

The wealthy woman is a real peace of work, as stated by Branch (she is an old acquaintance): she doesn't care about lovers and family members, all that count for her is success. When she pick a lane, no one has to stop her.

One of my top ten episodes

[mls4182 · 10/10 · 8 October 2021]

Chamless and slightly butch Lucy Arnaz is perfect as the Martha Stewart type accused of insider trading and a murder suspect. Perfect casting for camp. You won't believe the defense strategy!

"MR Thompson", To You

[hiltonsmithjr · 10/10 · 30 October 2019]

ADORED the ending scene with DA Branch. Always Wished they had Used Fred Dalton Thompson More than they did in The Series. He was a Fine And Exceptional character actor! A true legend and Made for his Role in this series. Too bad they left a LOT More of This/him on the Floor of the "writer's room"!!

DA Branch intervenes

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 3 September 2020]

Something that DAs Adam Schiff and Nora Lewin never did in the history of the show happens in this Law And Oder story. DA Arthur Branch personally intervenes in one of Jack McCoy's cases.

Fred Dalton Thompson has history with Lucie Arnaz a bilionaire cosmetics queen who is accused of killing a stockbrokertatboth she and daughter Melissa Errico were involved with. Both could have done th deed but the police settler on Arnaz.

The case at trial also features dueling psychiatric experts both Drs Olivet and Skoda appearing for prosecution and defense respectively.

In the end however DA Branch says he's going to be doing any potential retrial personally and the office will go through all th company records and private lives of the family,

Not even Sam Waterston when he became DA did that.

Psychosis

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 15 June 2022]

The story sounded very intriguing, though it also wasn't a massively unique premise. 'Law and Order' for a while, and still continued to do so a good deal post-Briscoe, did a very good job making ordinary concepts more interesting than they sound. Will admit though to preferring stories that have a wider range of emotional impact and that tackle more controversial and tougher subjects that isn't sugar-coated in execution.

While not one of the best episodes of Season 13, this is still very good and very nearly great. Like a number of episodes, one half is better, or at least more riveting, than the other. Don't get me wrong, despite how this sounds, it's compelling throughout but is even better in the second half. It also succeeds in making a character who usually does not shine that much more interesting and more involved in the action, in fact adding a lot to the tension more so than usual.

It's not perfect. It does try to cram in too much in too short a space of time towards the conclusion, not an uncommon problem in 'Law and Order' episodes.

Really don't want to sound like a broken record, but Elisabeth Rohm really fails to inject any life to Southerlyn and comes over as stiff and cold with one-note line delivery.

However, there is a lot of things that are great. The production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. The direction is sympathetic but also alert. All the other regulars are absolutely terrific, particularly in the legal portions and in the debates. Can't fault Jerry Orbach, Jesse L Martin and Sam Waterston while Fred Dalton Thompson gives one of his better performances of the show in one of Branch's most involving appearances.

Lucie Arnez plays her character with both class and menace without resorting to any scenery chewing. Furthermore, the episode has a thoughtful script that like a lot of 'Law and Order' episodes raises interesting questions worthy of debate with somebody, the moral dilemmas of the case treated intriguingly. The story is tactful but also pulls no punches, making one feel sad and angry. Nothing is too simple or too complicated and the second half even is riveting and keeps one guessing the more complex it gets. The character writing and interaction are near-on point and the conflict, mostly as a result of Branch's intervention, has genuine tension.

Overall, very good. 8/10.