Law & Order (TV Series) Breeder (1994) User Reviews

Twisted breeding

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 24 September 2020]

With the episodes from 'Law and Order's' middle period and from its later seasons airing so often, it is very easy perhaps to overlook the early seasons. Meaning in my view pre-Season 7. That is a shame, because 'Law and Order' in its early years was more often than not good to fantastic with some truly fine episodes in each of the seasons in question. Wasn't blown away by every episode but when the show was at its best it was brilliant.

It is not in my view at its best with Season 4's thirteenth episode "Breeder". That is not disparaging the episode's quality though, because it is another very good offering from a generally strong season that does a lot right and excellently so. "Breeder" is just missing the extra something that more tense and more emotional episodes such as "Profile" and "American Dream" for examples had that made them season high-points.

"Breeder" is a little over-heated in places, especially in the scene when two character turn on each other.

However, "Breeder" is shot with the right amount of intimacy without being claustrophobic and that the editing has become increasingly tighter over-time has been great too. Nice use of locations too. The music doesn't get over-scored or overwrought, even in the more dramatic revelation moments. The direction doesn't try to do too much and is understated but never flat or unsure.

The writing is intelligent and although, like the show in general, there is a lot of talk it doesn't feel long-winded. Can never get enough of Briscoe's one liners, which Jerry Orbach always delivered so well, or Stone's character writing and that Kim Basinger line is priceless. Another tough topic is explored here, as is often the case with 'Law and Order', and it is dealt with in a pull no punches but still tactful way. The case is absorbing and suitably shocking, as well as truly twisted in tone later, and it isn't too obvious even if there is no revelation that left me absolutely floored.

All the regulars are great and Angie Phillips is chillingly depraved as one of the season's most detestable and twisted supporting characters.

Concluding, very good. 8/10

This One's Pretty Twisted

[Better_TV · 7/10 · 30 April 2018]

A solid episode that got a little too histrionic for my liking, though the performances are all solid. Of note, Ann Dowd, who recently won a Primetime Emmy for "The Handmaid's Tale," is briefly featured here as one of the mothers seeking to adopt.

Unfortunately, she and several other couples had the misfortune of being involved with a broken, evil woman played by Angie Phillips, who has a habit of promising would-be families a child and then never delivering while milking them for cash.

The wrinkle here is that there is a certain degree of legality to what she's doing, as it apparently falls within the bounds of private adoption rules. At the very least it makes her tough to prosecute, so the DA's office will have to get at her another way...

What she's good at -- making babies

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 2 September 2017]

The young woman who Michael Moriarty and Jill Hennessy end up prosecuting is maybe one of the most evil defendants in the history of Law And Order. Ironically enough Angie Phillips starts off as the victim as she passes out in a hospital emergency room as she is hemorrhaging badly from giving birth. But where's the baby?

It's found in the custody of her boyfriend Judson Mills after a merry chase. Now to sort it all out.

It turns out Phillips is in the baby making business. Just like that old line from HMS Pinafore - "In a manner most alarming she took up baby farming". She gets pregnant and puts her baby up for auction. In the meantime the modus operandi is to get several couples bidding for her and getting all kinds of money for things like medical care, rent, expensive dinners, etc. In the end the baby goes to someone probably the couple she gets the most out of and there are others heartbroken and disappointed.

For a woman with limited education Phillips has knowledge enough to keep this side of legal. Moriarty and Hennessy have enough trouble coming with charges.

I noted during the course of the episode that Phillips looks the innocent victim, but during the course of the show her features get harder and harder. In the end she admits she's white trash with one talent, that of fertility. And she makes people pay and pay and pay for her product.

Phillips will sicken you with her depravity.

Hard Wired.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 7 July 2012]

A young woman is pregnant. She and her boyfriend answer some newspaper ads from childless couples and manage to convince three of the couples, independent of each other, that the child will be theirs. During the pregnancy, the woman and her boyfriend shake down the three couples. They get money for medical care, depression, rent, debts of various sorts, and they threaten abortion if the money isn't paid.

It's an interesting episode because, from a legal perspective, the two frauds have done nothing illegal as long as they haven't signed contracts. They've been very clever in the deployment of insinuations and verbal agreements, but, as a Hollywood mogul put it, "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on." The episode is engaging for more reasons than just legal ones. There isn't space enough to get into this, but there's reasonably good evidence that something is going on with respect to child bearing and child rearing that we don't know anything about.

Why is it that couples yearn for babies in the first place, especially, it seems, the mothers. From an economic point of view, they're liabilities. It costs a fortune to raise a child. And if you're unlucky enough to bear triplets and they all are accepted to Yale University, you're talking an outlay approaching a million dollars just for their college educations. And in industrialized societies, unlike primitive communities, the children don't live at or near home, so they're of little use to you in your old age. (The government now assumes that function.) Here are three couples who want to adopt a baby whose genotype is unknown to them. They have no idea if the adopted baby will measure up to their expectations or not. My own adopted Korean child had spotty brain damage but, following the advice of the Roman philosopher Seneca, I had lowered expectations and have never been disappointed or angry that he never became the filthy rich doctor or lawyer I would have liked! If he had, I wouldn't be living in this DUMP. Oh -- and he NEVER CALLS.

I'm just kidding about my son but these three couples are dead serious, especially the wives, and nobody understands why we are so anxious to have children. There is so much about human behavior that is simply unknown. The depth of our ignorance is plumbless. It all must involve hard wiring, of course, shaped by evolution because for all of human history except the last one or two hundred years, families with the added labor and skills of children were more likely to survive and pass on their genes than were childless families. Most of us are reduced to explanations like, "Oh, they're so cute." Well, yes, they are, and so is a St. Bernard puppy.

None of this is brought up in the story, naturally, because the title is "Law and Order", not "Evolution and Psychology." But the question lurks unspoken in the background for anyone who dares to look.