Law & Order (TV Series) Formerly Famous (2001) User Reviews

Vega Family Values

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 16 March 2018]

I'm supposing that Robert Blake felt like he had enough bad publicity plus a ruined career over the fallout from the murder of his wife to bother to sue Law And Order. Or maybe by making Gary Busey's character Tommy Vegaa singer instead of an actor they skirt the libel laws.

A breathlesss Gary Busey runs into a night spot he's known to frequent and tells the crowd his wife's just been shot around the corner. But when Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin find the gun and tie it to Busey's manager Joe Piscopo the pieces start to fall into place.

Making them fit is the job of the District Attorney and all I will say for the rest of the story is that the killing had several participants in it. And the motive, I won't get into that.

Busey has a great climax scene at the Grand Jury which Sam Waterston kind of forces him to appear before. Just part of a great guest star turn by him.

Out of the past

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 24 May 2022]

"Formerly Famous" left a generally positive impression on me on first watch, while not blowing me away. Benefitting primarily from the main guest turn and the climax, but hurt a little by that there is too much familiar ground and not enough surprises which made the story feel too predictable and ordinary. My overall feelings on Season 12 up to this point were like this episode, generally positive while not being blown away which is not too bad a position to be in.

On recent re-watch, my feelings are pretty much the same, well almost. There is a lot to like about "Formerly Famous", with the standout things on first watch being the main reasons to view it (as well as 'Law and Order' completest sake). At the same time, it did feel like something was missing and that more could have been done with the premise perhaps. There is also an aspect that was consistently a problem even when first getting into the show that fared even worse re-watching all the episodes over-time.

As said, a lot is great. The photography and such as usual are fully professional, the slickness still remaining. The music is used sparingly and is haunting and non-overwrought when it is used, and it's mainly used when a crucial revelation or plot development is revealed. The direction has some nice tension while keeping things steady, without going too far the other way. The script is thought-provoking and doesn't ramble. Briscoe always delights with his one liners, as does the gritty exchanges between him and Green.

Enough of the story compels, especially later on. It's not overly simple while being easy enough to follow. The legal portion does intrigue. Most of the regulars are excellent, Sam Waterston is full of ruthless authority and his tactics in getting to the truth continue to be ingenius. There are two particularly good things. Gary Busey gives a terrific guest turn that has the right amount of intensity that makes one unsure of how he is involved. The climax also stands out and is a tautly written and quite powerful scene, that is the most tense the episode get.

Having said all of that, "Formerly Famous" did have room for improvement. It still comes over as derivative but on recent re-watch my main problem with the story was not not enough surprises (the extent of the truth regarding the victim was the only thing that surprised), but more that it tries to cram in too much and that it revolves around too many characters which made it feel on the rushed side at times. The motive could have gone into more depth, and is not the easiest to swallow on first glance.

Southerlyn still leaves me completely cold and adds very little here, Elisabeth Rohm is still robotic.

In summary, not great but worth watching which has been the general standard up to this point of Season 12. 7/10.

He's gonna be the next Tom Jones. Who's Tom Jones?

[Mrpalli77 · 7/10 · 12 November 2017]

At a local pub old age people were talking about former singers whose pictures were placed on the wall. Suddenly, a man (Gary Busey) got into the bar totally freaked out, telling to bartender his wife had just been killed. This man was a well-known singer in the past, but now he's struggling against his alcoholic addiction. He has two sons from a previous marriage and he remarried a years and half ago. The gun used in the homicide belong to a security guard passed away for some time, whose grandson is a wannabe rapper. Anyway the murder weapon was at the producer disposal at the time of the murder; he kept it on a drawer without any lock, so every client could have stolen the gun. The victim was a piece of work, as stated even by her sister: she has always wanted to reach the fame since high school and when she realized to not have any skills, the next step was to marry a celebrity in order to drain his bank account....

Director wants the audience to hate the victim. She's really the one who take advantage of people, making out with several men so that it's hard to figure out who fathering her daughter. Briscoe, as well as McCoy, are always upset when the cameras show up, let the investigation become a circus.

A has-been

[lor_ · 9 August 2023]

Right out of an old "Perry Mason" episode, Gary Busey confesses standing up in court in this rather disappointing, perfunctory segment of the long-running Dick Wolf series.

His character calls himself a has-been, which over two decades later has certainly come true for the talented star of "The Buddy Holly Story" and many other plum roles way back when. Busey lives up to that epithet with a dull walk-through that leads up to a glum, boring ending of the episode.

As IMDb notes, this is the usual Dick Wolf "torn from the headlines" case, recalling Robert Blake's conviction for murder, which only makes me want to paraphrase that classic Vice Presidential Debate one-liner by Senator Lloyd Bentsen to opponent Dan Quayle: "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy", to "You're no Robert Blake" regarding Busey's casting here.