User Reviews

This episode feels a bit derivative, and that's probably because L&O episodes from the first 4 seasons have dealt with this kind of case before: a male victim who was a sleaze ball being seemingly murdered by a female lover/associate. The woman's defense attorney argues she was compelled to act due to abuse she endured at the hands of the Japanese victim - in this case, "battered wife syndrome" is the defense tactic of choice. It's employed by Joyce Reehling, who is here doing her second turn as proudly feminist defense attorney Mildred Kaskel; she was previously seen in the season 4 episode "Mayhem." Her client is Laura Linney, in a fine performance.

The most interesting aspects are the stuff to do with Japanese culture, including the issue of whether or not American and Japanese cultures have fundamentally different views about women: this conversation progressively inches towards racism, and the judge - an authoritative Shawn Elliott - will have none of it in his courtroom.

Still, it's territory L&O has covered before.

We are still at a very early stage in Season 5 with "Blue Bamboo", only the third episode of it. These episodes were well done with a lot of great things, "Coma" especially, but the season doesn't feel completely settled yet and still was not completely used to McCoy yet (maybe part of it is down to loving Stone so much and not used to him being gone). 'Law and Order' though is a fantastic show at its best and Laura Linney is always worth watching.

She certainly is here. While "Blue Bamboo" was not great, doesn't stand out enough and could have been better, this is through no fault whatsoever of Linney. Despite what was just said, "Blue Bamboo" is also not a bad episode, not at all, and was interesting. It is not an easy subject to cover, 'Law and Order' often explored bold topics and didn't hold back, but the episode does its best with it, even though there was not much that was mind-blowing or illuminating.

Linney is the main reason to see "Blue Bamboo" as one of Season 5's most sympathetic characters. Part of me actually did sympathise with her and didn't think she was too overly perfect dramatically, despite her character writing being a bit too one-sided. The acting all round is great, it is great to see Carolyn McCormick again and Sam Waterston really does give his all as McCoy (still a problematic character but am blaming the writing here not McCoy). The character writing is not perfect by any stretch, especially McCoy, but it's interesting at least, have no problem with the rest of the regulars or with sympathetic Olivet.

The production values are slick and professional, not ever resorting to cheap or untested gimmicks or anything. The music is haunting in the right places and isn't constant or too loud, and the direction gives the drama urgency and breathing space. The script is thoughtful and intriguing enough, can't get enough of Briscoe's one liners. After seeing so many episodes of other shows (i.e. 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders') that treat different cultures in an insensitive light, it was good to see "Blue Bamboo" explore the cultural aspect tactfully and with insight. The moral dilemma of the case was also well done, again sensitively handled and the attitudes towards the subject hold up a lot better than the attitudes in "Second Opinion".

For all those great things, "Blue Bamboo" did have potential to be even better than it was. The case is agreed very derivative from having been done many times before (and since) and done with generally more of the same and too conventional execution. The episode could have been tighter pace wise, tends to lack tension and it generally is too predictable.

McCoy is back in jerk land, especially towards Olivet, and again there is too much premature conclusion jumping despite evidence being flimsy and pressing too hard in securing a conviction, which makes him look rather unprofessional.

Overall, decent and worth seeing for primarily Linney but not great. 7/10

It's interesting to go back and watch Law and Order in the 1990s and early 2000s. Clearly, they're willing to take more risks, including with offending their target audience (which, presumably, was meant to be people intelligent enough to think through the ideas rather than simply react emotionally).

In this episode, a blond White woman claims she was abused in Japan. While the episode traffics in stereotypes -- we're reminded that women "walk behind their husbands" in Japan when that is certainly not universally true or that Japanese men are "intimidated" by western women as though Asian men are somehow inferior -- it does get to the heart of American prejudices. When that blond White women murders a seemingly random Japanese man -- after letting herself be picked up in a hotel bar and even voluntarily going back to the room of the Japanese man -- we're to believe racism isn't at work but merely a form of "battered wife" syndrome. She could have walked away. And she has a library of books about battered women syndrome.

From there, it becomes who will the almost entirely White jury, defense, and prosecution sympathize with. Kudos to the writers and producers for having the courage to be honest with how things work in our justice system with the ending. Yes, the ending is infuriating, but it will remind us of closet bigotry.

Where the episode stops short, though, is in fully addressing race as an issue. By constantly reminding us her issue is with Japanese men only, it ignores the reality that then and now, most westerners don't see a distinction among the various Asian cultures and nationalities. This is why keeps the episode from having the full courage to be truthful.

Laura Linney is perfectly cast. Her flat, shrill, monotone presence is exactly what the character calls for, and if so many in the audience don't see any of those negative qualities, it just proves the point the episode makes about how something else is clouding their judgment.. But the lack of an Asian American regular characters on Law and Order -- then and now -- is even more apparent here. It's sad and amusing to see people constantly talking about Asians who aren't Asian themselves. Kind of takes the issue of prejudice to a meta level.

A Japanese businessman staggers down hotel stairs and falls dead in the lobby. That puts Jerry Orbach and Chris Noth investigating the case and it turns out the Japanese businessman ran a nightclub in Tokyo where American singers are an attraction.

The suspect they turn up is Laura Linney who is a singer, but singing in Tokyo was only part of her job. She was expected to be nice to the customers and especially nice to her employer. When she got a pelvic infection and could no longer be nice, she went back after this employer gave her passport back.

To say she's sympathetic defendant is putting it mildly. But Sam Waterston's chance for conviction really goes south when his own psychiatrist Carolyn McCormick agrees that despite a time lapse Linney is truly a battered woman. Not to mention the anti-Japanese feeling that was raging and almost fashionable in the USA during the time this episode first aired.

I'm not in complete sympathy with Linney, she did have options both here and in Tokyo. Still she's an appealing perpetrator.