Law & Order (TV Series) The Taxman Cometh (2010) User Reviews

The DA's office is flummoxed

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 24 January 2016]

This Law And Order story mostly concentrates on the law part as Linus Roache, Alana DeLa Garza and Sam Waterston are on to a scheme that smells to the high heaven. But how to go about figuring out who is guilty of what and then prosecute them for what.

A drug overdose of a young woman who was the potential inheritor of millions gets to the investigation of a controversial cancer clinic where there's a scheme to make sure rich folks like the young overdose victim's grandfather die in calendar year 2010. Too bad I didn't have a rich relative that died and left me a fortune that year. For whatever reason a change in the tax code left beneficiaries inheritance tax free. Anyone who was a powerball lottery winner in 2009 and died in 2010 made a lot heirs happy.

This one comes fast and furious and the DA's office tries to figure out who to prosecute. The dead folks were all at a controversial cancer clinic headed by Mark-Linn Baker who eschews chemotherapy. He's getting a lot of referrals from accountant Damian Young and he becomes the center of things.

I'm not sure there's murder here. Certainly one incredible fraud scheme. I give the Law And Order writers points for creativity, but I think they overreached.

Come away death

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 30 March 2023]

'Law and Order' was a great show in its prime and there has always been a preference for the earlier seasons over the more commonly aired late-Briscoe and post-Briscoe episodes. Not only love the show for its compelling cases and terrific writing and acting in the Briscoe and pre-Briscoe years. But also its admirable tackling of difficult subjects and themes (the 'Law and Order' franchise at its best was very good at that), their cases often based upon real-life ones and the moral dilemmas raised.

Despite liking Season 20 very much on the whole, there were a few episodes that didn't come together for me. "The Taxman Cometh" is one of them and a let down after the excellent "Crashers". Really do admire that it did tackle this subject, which is a difficult and controversial one that is not easy to make accessible and not done a lot on this show, but less admirable was the over-complicated, somewhat bland and not always plausible way it was explored.

"The Taxman Cometh" has things that it did well. Production values have the usual slickness and grit and the music is unobtrusive and gives big revelations even more impact without over-emphasising. The acting is very good in lead and supporting (despite the supporting characters being sketchy) with no exception, no stick out like a sore thumb acting here.

Linus Roache and Alana DeLa Garza are a great pairing and excel individually too. Have no issues with the character chemistry.

On the other hand, a lot of things could have been done better. The subject matter is a good one, worth addressing and is an interest point, but this is an example of an episode that had a good story conceptually but doesn't do enough with it or/and executes it in a patchy way. Did generally find it too over-complicated, namely from trying to cram too much already quite complex material in too short a space of time, especially in the second half.

Also found the suspense lacking and some of the pace over-stretched. The episode is not always plausible, with a head scratching conclusion and was too confused about what the murder charge was doing here. The dialogue is a little too talk heavy and not a lot is done in making the subject accessible in terms of understanding.

Concluding, watchable but one of the weakest episodes of a solid season. 5/10.