Securitate (1993) User Reviews (3)

Cultural insanity

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 5 August 2020]

It is always great when any episode for anything explores different cultures. There are quite a lot of times on television where it is done very well or brilliantly, even a previous episode of Season 3 of 'Law and Order' did it very well with "Consultation". Have though seen exploration of different cultures done badly in visual media, for example most episodes of 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' leaves a bad taste in the mouth in this regard and it is infuriating when something that should be handled tastefully is instead done insensitively.

"Securitate" fortunately does this very well. It could easily have fallen into stereotyping, and in a less than subtle and prejudicial way, but to me (and have no problem if there is anybody that disagrees but it is just my perception) "Securitate" avoided that. It is not quite great and like "Virus" it had room to be better than it was with better pacing this time around, but on the whole it is a very good and well executed episode with a lot to recommend.

Am going to start with "Securitate's" many good things. It looks good, slickly shot, cohesively edited and with nice use of locations. The music is haunting and has presence while staying understated. The direction has intimacy without being static. As to be expected, "Securitate" is very strongly acted. Michael Moriarty gives the best performance, conveying moral conflict with both nuance and gravitas. Alan King is wonderfully sharp and Stone definitely meets his match in the courtroom. Jerry Orbach's casting proved to be one of the show's best at this point and even 10 years after the show ended Briscoe's still one of the franchise's most popular characters for good reason.

Like "Consultation", there is some exploration of cultures and again like that episode it didn't to me feel biased or prejudicial. Maybe not the most insightful, but it doesn't resort too much to stereotyping and as far as could be told not in a way that was insensitive. The subject is not an easy one, when did 'Law and Order' though ever do easy subjects, but it's hansled in a hard-hitting yet tactful way. The case is involving when it gets going and the script is thoughtful and tight with splashes of humour. Especially with one of my favourite lines of Season 3 in Briscoe's customary wisecrack regarding piranhas and daily c-notes.

However, "Securitate" could have gotten going a little quicker.

While the ending is very intriguing, it's also slightly rushed and abrupt.

To conclude, very good. 8/10

Good Old Romania

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 11 May 2013]

If the defense offered by Alan King for young Morgan Weisser were ever to succeed I'm not sure anyone would ever be guilty of anything. We could point to different cultural values as a valid excuse for murder.

That's what happens in this Law And Order episode as Jerry Orbach and Chris Noth investigate the murder of a furniture store owner who was an immigrant from Romania and had lived several years in this country. His brother Richard Council is a more recent arrival. He fled out of necessity as his boss was Nicholas Ceausesceau who as we know was violently overthrown as he tried to hold on to power with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Romania was the only country to have a short, but violent overthrow.

As a member of Ceausesceau's Secret Police the Securitate Council had to leave quick, nice to have a brother who is a successful businessman in America. But working in a furniture store just wasn't Council's style. He starts in with some rackets and he's arrested for killing the brother.

No sooner does Council get sprung on a technicality than he's killed. That one they get right and it's his son Weisser who is arrested.

Weisser gets a very sharp attorney in Alan King who wins a lot of sympathy for his client. But there might be deeper meaning in the reason why the son killed the father.

King in a good dramatic part gives us an attorney you definitely want in court for you could afford it. He makes Michael Moriarty and Richard Brooks work for what they want to achieve.

Romania

[safenoe · 6/10 · 9 October 2023]

We get a somewhat distinctive (by mainstream network standards) Eastern European accents in this episode, Securitate, and it kind of melds the fall of the Iron Wall and communism and the Soviet Union and its allies with the mean streets of Law and Order with the atmospheric beat of Serpico and The French Connection, another European connection.

I'm enjoying catching up on the early seasons of Law and Order along with Magnum, P. I. (the original one of course) along with Father Brown and Superstore. Anyway, Romanian politics plays somewhat of a role in this episode, but it's all about Law and Order.