L.A. Law (TV Series) L.A. Lawless (1992) User Reviews

A Must watch Episode for 1 reason!

[MrCitizen · 10/10 · 20 October 2006]

Ah!Finally,I get to post a first criticism of something that nobody has critiqued before! Anyway,I had an old girlfriend who adored the show LA Law.She had me tape it for her.While I forget the plots and stories to the shows after all these years,this was one episode I'll never forget! If you are a HUGE Simpsons fan,like I am,Dan Castellena-the voice of Homer Simpson-was a guest star on this show.His role was that of a cartoon character at a amusement park who was accused of assualt.What character was he at the park?Homer Simpson!He appeared in the courtroom as Homer and I thought they did an excellent job on the costume and to hear him speak as Homer was priceless!For this one reason this was a must watch episode of LA Law.

Exploitative and weak

[yaornw · 4/10 · 31 August 2020]

I lived through the riots and 28 years later rewatching this, I was rather disgusted. This felt very Hollywood and exploitative. "Look how woke and sensitive we are." I don't remember how I originally felt about this episode all those years ago, but right now I'd say it was the weakest episode of the series so far in my rewatch. Just not up to standards and way too contrived and manipulative. Which is said, because the show at its height could do so much better, but truthfully, the first 3 Bochco-run seasons were noticeably better than anything that followed, even the Kelley years, and this is just another example of a decline.

The beginning of the worst disaster to afflict a major show

[Niv-1 · 1/10 · 13 April 2007]

John Tinker and John Masius almost destroyed the show with their ignorance of law and their soap oriented storytelling. No show in history had such a disaster befall it when NBC hired those two to take over L.A. Law. Certainly the sixth season wasn't great but it had good episodes. Tinker and Masius (who did do great work on St. Elsewhere) flat out did not know what to do with L.A. Law. This episode which terribly botched the L.A. riots showed what the show was in for. Instead of focusing on the legal ramifications of the riots which I am sure David E. Kelley would have done Tinker and Masius had Stuart beaten, Brackman and arrested and a whole lot of other ridiculous stuff. Luckily their reign of terror only lasted for 14 mind-numbingly awful episodes until William Finkelstein took over and in dramatic fashion saved the show and did well enough for it to get an eighth season before it went off the air.