Law & Order (TV Series) Return (2000) User Reviews

Possible spoilers for TWO episodes (11.5 and 13.11)

[je77-761-754168 · 7/10 · 13 July 2010]

I think Midnight Raider is confusing this episode of Law & Order with one that aired in season 13 (episode 11, "Chosen"). While each episode deals with a Jewish suspect and makes specific focus on Isreal, the subplots and issues surrounding each case are very different.

"Return" revolves around a murder-for-hire suspect claiming the right of return to Isreal in order to avoid being arrested and prosecuted in Manhattan and McCoy's efforts extradite, while "Chosen" deals with the robbery and murder of a bookie whose money is sent to the Isreali cause, a motive the defense lawyer is certain will play well to a jury he packed with Jewish citizens (which neither McCoy nor Southerlyn realized until it was too late).

Both are typical McCoy going to the extreme to make his case.

A Case of Identity.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 21 January 2016]

Good episode in the sense that it's up to par in an above average series.

The murder of an owner of a clothing store on Orchard Street leads to a couple of red herrings, including a transgender who has the role in his or her pocket.

The killer is quickly identified as a hoodlum who did the deed for $5,000, the deed being necessary during a felony robbery.

The man behind the deed is the son of the Jewish co-owner, and he flees to Israel. By law, Israel has first dibs on any Jewish refugees. But McCoy and his team uncover the fact that Eli, the miscreant, was ADOPTED and was the son of somebody named MARY KELLY.

So does he qualify for refuge from the NYPD because he's Jewish. Talmudic ponderings reveal that, while he was circumcized, had a Bar Mitzvah, and was given a Hebrew name, he has not led a Jewish life and in other respects so he is disqualified and Israel deports him.

Eli, in his mid-thirties, is bald and looks a little like the Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. It doesn't save him.

One wonders what the story would have looked like if Eli had qualified in all the required ways and been held in Israel. Delicate diplomacy, national conflicts, would have been involved and the story perhaps more interesting.

Denial Is Not A River In Egypt

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 6 April 2012]

Law And Order was really reaching for a good plot gimmick when they used the Israeli law of return as an integral part of the story. In fact they cheated a bit here.

Evan Handler is the son of one of the partners in a leather goods store who has his father's partner killed because he's been caught stealing to feed his lifestyle which consists of quantities of cocaine. When Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin get finally on to him he flees to Israel, citing their law of return which is that any Jew who wants it can claim Israeli citizenship.

That includes criminals and that's there for a reason as it's still uncomfortable in many places on the globe to be Jewish and Jews are subject to persecution which can take the form of arrest and warrants for specious crimes. This is all a result of the Holocaust and there for good and sufficient reason.

What it never was intended to be was to offer a place of sanctuary for a murderer who happens to be Jewish. But Handler invokes it and part of the episode involves the very WASP Angie Harmon going before a rabbinical court to get this guy declared unJewish because he was really adopted. So if he hadn't been adopted there would be no story.

I also cannot believe that politicians would bring to bear pressure on acting DA Dianne Weist for Handler. The man he murdered wasn't exactly an Eskimo.

The best performance in this episode is given by Sam Schacht who is Handler's adopted father and who flat out refuses beyond all reason to believe his son is guilty. I've rarely seen denial done so well on the big or small screen.

But this was in the final analysis an inferior episode in a series that usually has only good ones.

Not a return to greatness

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 2 May 2022]

A long way from that. Season 11 left me rather mixed up to this still early stage, with the exception of the brilliant season opener "Endurance". Between that and this, the quality got inferior with each episode and most of the episodes of the season in my view didn't come close to that episode's level. "Return's" topic is a bold one, quite a lot of topics the show covered were, but also a controversial one that could be executed very well or disastrously.

The topic in "Return" was not executed disastrously, personally do think that it is not quite as bad as others have said. At the same point, it is not executed very well with very flawed story execution. "Return" is one of my least favourite episodes of Season 11 and one of the lesser episodes of 'Law and Order' up to this stage. Its story had potential, but was done with too heavy a hand, not very tastefully and in a way that didn't grab the attention all that much.

"Return" does have good things and am going to begin mentioning those. The episode is well made, scored and directed, the grit and slickness present in the photography, the music not being overdone and there are moments of tension in the directing (though they come too far and between).

Furthermore, the acting is excellent from all the regulars (Jerry Orbach and Jesse L Martin work so well as a partnership). Despite really not liking how the supporting characters are written, the supporting cast also do very well, with one of the standouts being intense Sam Schacht.

Unfortunately, a lot is done disappointingly. The story is hugely flawed and almost single-handedly brings down the episode. It never grabbed me and is severely lacking in consistent tension and anything worth investing in emotionally. It is not hard to figure out, with another episode that's fairly thin case wise and plays second fiddle to the conflict that dominates the episode. It is also very heavy-handed in the muddled conflict and emphasises its points in a beat around the head way rather than exploring it from all sides, and some of it is ludicrous with a lot of credibility straining going on, like with the pressurising of the politicians.

Moreover, the writing for the supporting characters is very poor, they don't come over as real people and more exaggerated and over-generalised stereotypes. And not tasteful ones either, neither the character writing or the judgemental way they are treated. The ending feels rushed and underdeveloped, Lewin is underwritten and gets lost amidst all the heavy-handedness of the story and McCoy's extreme and near-unprofessional lengths to get to the truth with not much to go on distracts. The script is too talk-heavy and gets over-heated.

Disappointing episode overall, but more in a mixed feelings sort of way rather than outright hating it. 5/10.

Absurd ludicrous story

[PWNYCNY · 15 April 2019]

This episode stretches the boundaries of credulity. The son of a Jewish shop owner contracts with a gangster to murder his father's partner because the business will go not to him but to another relative. Then it is revealed that the son actually is not Jewish, event though he was raised as a Jew and even bar mitvahed. All of a sudden the story shifts from being a murder mystery to a social commentary about who decides who is Jewish. Soon the story is a complete mess as three rabbis are asked to decide whether a man who is Jewish is in fact Jewish. If this isn't ridiculous enough, the director uses the story to denigrate Israel's right to return and even implies that Israel provides cover for murderers. Between the stereotypical depictions of Jews and the anti-Israel political message of the story, this is not drama at its best. Instead it is another example of Hollywood using the media to spin a political message.

Of all the bad L&O shows, this may be the worst

[midnight_raider2001 · 1/10 · 2 June 2010]

Jack McCoy hits a new low for prosecutors in this case, prosecuting a man for first-degree murder (which at the time could have meant the death penalty) because he skimmed off funds from his company and sent them to Israel, and killed a man who threatened to rat on him. This show was made before the 9/11 attacks, which showed exactly how vulnerable Israel (and the United States) are and how crucial it is to support the state. One would hope that Israel issued a warrant for McCoy for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder among other things (he and the United States Government would ignore it, of course, but he should have that on his head). It is not stated, but I find it very likely that some Islamist prisoner in the pen quickly murdered the man for standing up for his country.