Law & Order (TV Series) Crashers (2010) User Reviews

Another very good episode from the landmark 20th season

[garrard · 9/10 · 4 May 2010]

There are three incredibly good performances in an episode that delves headfirst into infidelity, prejudice against aging women, mental and physical abuse, and the recent "party crasher" story. Both cast member S. Epatha Merkerson and guest star Kathy Baker ("Picket Fences") show why they are Emmy winners and why they deserve another one of those revered statuettes. Not only do they deliver in this outstanding installment, so does the young actor that plays the murdered victim's brother Dustin. The young man is riveting in a part that requires him to display a variety of emotions.

Broadway and television veteran Tony Roberts is good, too, as Baker's husband, a politician for which much of the suspicion falls.

Again, L & O is really demonstrating this season why it has been a mainstay on NBC for two decades.

High quality hasn't crashed

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 28 March 2023]

My overall opinion on "Crashers" on first watch was extremely positive, with the acting immediately standing out as particularly noteworthy. Fairly recently overtime decided to rewatch the whole show and not too long ago completed the final season, and it was an interesting and on the whole very worthwhile experience with a few blips along the way (not unexpected). The subject is not an easy one and while the basic story is not original it did sound really intriguing.

And it was more than intriguing in execution, in one of the best episodes of the second half of Season 20. A vast improvement over the very disappointing previous episode "Brazil". The acting still is one of the biggest plus points and it still is very powerful and thought probing. "Crashers" on rewatch was every bit as good as my first viewing and actually one of not many episodes from Season 20 to be even better. High quality certainly hasn't crashed and even though not innovative perhaps there isn't too much of a running out of ideas feel.

"Crashers" absolutely wows in the acting department. S. Epatha Merkerson has truly shone throughout the season, especially in Van Buren's dealing with the cancer diagnosis, and it is another authoritative and heartfelt performance here. Kathy Baker is also dynamite in a performance that sears in many emotions that are not affected at all. Ben Schnetzer's performance is very nuanced, while Tony Roberts expertly makes one unsure of his guilt. The others are very, very good as well, if not quite as much.

It looks professional and the camerawork is neither overblown or static. The music has a haunting and not too melodramatic presence. The direction keeps things tight while allowing time to breathe. The script is intelligent, layered, lean and provokes a lot of thought. The story is compelling and is intricate without being convoluted, the moral dilemmas of the case are intensely and thoughtfully handled. The themes covered here are familiar but handled in an unyielding but never heavy handed way. The characters are all interesting and what easily could have been stock roles are actually of more than one shade.

Did think that the first quarter was a little slow and not as tight as the rest of the episode, but that is the one far from major nit-pick.

Excellent episode all in all. 9/10.

A burned body and a U.S. Senator

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 12 April 2018]

In this last season of Law And Order the writers came up with one of the strangest episodes ever done. The investigation leads from a burned body in a park to the re-election campaign of a U.S. Senator who happens to reside in my old stamping grounds of Brooklyn. I hope no one thinks that this is reflective of the senior Senator from New York Chuck Schumer who was senior senator then and still is.

The deceased is a model and if you think you know where this is going believe me you don't. The focus is first on her estranged brother who crashed a party she was attending at Gracie Mansion and later broke security at Kennedy Airport chasing the victim down all caught on video.

The brother is Ben Schnetzler and he's a person with lots of issues. Captured in the Gracie Mansion pictures is U.S. Senator Tony Roberts. Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson start fishing into his election campaign. Wife Kathy Baker and girl Friday Lily Rabe enter the picture also.

We don't learn right up until the end who the murderer is. We do learn right before that there's a juicy tabloid scandal revealed. But I guarantee it won't be what you think.

This one will keep you glued to the chair.