Law & Order (TV Series) Love Eternal (2010) User Reviews

Dark humor and a lively performance highlight the episode

[garrard · 9/10 · 18 May 2010]

"Love Eternal" begins in the usual "L & O way with the discovery of a corpse, this one being a dead man stuffed into a dog cage. The appearance of the quirky and extremely "fashion-challenged" wife gets the ball rolling in a story that involves fraud, deceit, infidelity, kinky sex, and, yes, rare and expensive comic books.

One has to marvel at the writers' skills who were able to pull all these aspects of the tale into a very coherent episode.

Anna Gunn is superb as the murdered man's spouse, the primary suspect in his demise. As the episode progress, other's become prime suspects, leading to a very satisfying conclusion.

Regular cast members Linus Roache and the always brilliant S. Epatha Merkerson also deliver in this, a nearly-perfect installment from the recently-announced last season of "Law & Order."

Vintage comic books

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 25 January 2015]

The performance of Anna Gunn the widow of the deceased in this case truly dominates this episode. Her husband is found naked inside a dog cage after being stabbed by a long sharp instrument through the bars. How the body is discovered is another one for the books. The couple were being filmed for a reality TV series so that Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto have a lot of surveillance video to see what married life might have been like from a respectful distance.

Gunn's character is truly one of the most outrageous that Law And Order ever had on the show. She's 40 something and dresses like a teen prostitute. As you can imagine her married sex life was colorful. In fact the Westhampton Police Department when she lived out there had a complete file on her and her late spouse because of complaints.

The husband however was among other things a vintage comic book collector and his comics were stolen. Don't laugh, they are worth a small fortune to collectors and it turns out that these comic books are the key to the mystery.

Once you see Gunn in this part you won't forget her.

Far from tacky

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 22 April 2023]

"Love Eternal" is another 'Law and Order' episode where the concept isn't anything original but still has enough to make one interested in seeing it. Personally do prefer the episodes that tackle difficult and controversial topics that are still to this day hardly outdated (which for me is what the franchise excels in doing at its best), or at least ones that are more so, but again if a fan of 'Law and Order' or wanting to see all the episodes there is no reason really to avoid "Love Eternal" in my mind.

On first watch, "Love Eternal" was a very, very good episode with a pretty unique character and a lot of fond vivid memories, and to be honest it was something that this reviewer was not expecting to enjoy this much. Rewatching it recently, it turned out great and even better than remembered, a great penultimate episode for the show and one of the season's most easy to remember long term. Despite the very tacky clothing, which doesn't really flatter Anna Gunn at all which was the intent, "Love Enternal" is a long way from tacky and is not near as weird and silly as it sounds.

Did think personally that Cutter's way of catching the murderer and how he is incriminated is too much of a risk and slightly silly, also it is one of the most cliched ways of getting to the truth in the genre.

However, no issue can be had with everything else. The episode is very well acted, with Linus Roache and S Epatha Merkerson (who was on scintillating form this season) standing out of the regulars and Anna Gunn is unforgettable as a deliciously outrageous character (indeed among the most outrageous the show has ever had). All the characters are well written, even the ones that sound strange when reading the plot synopsis.

Can find nothing to fault the production values for though, the slickness and grit still present and likewise with the more fluid editing. The music is used relatively sparingly and is not too intrusively orchestrated, fitting too with the mood. The direction is generally alert but also sympathetic, shining in the character interactions in the legal scenes. Liked the tautness, edge and thought-probing of the second half's writing.

The story is intriguing and intricate, especially in the second half and when things take an unexpected turn. The truth was a real shocker. The moral dilemmas are interesting and provokes a lot of thought.

In conclusion, great penultimate episode for the season and show that was very memorable on first viewing and still is. 9/10.

Things Writers Shouldn't Be Allowed To Do

[neroid · 3/10 · 3 April 2021]

Cutter catches the defendant through his knowledge of something known only to the police: the pink handcuffs. While this trick can work really well in interrogation, it can't work at trial, because the crime scene photos (which included the pink handcuffs) would already have been turned over to the defense, where the defendant could have seen them, or at least could credibly argue that he had. You've got to pull that particular rabbit out of the hat much sooner. And why the defendant would even testify in this case is really questionable: he was winning and had nothing particularly useful to add to his defense.