User Reviews

At the end of the first part of this story in episode one Michael Moriarty and Steven Hill are left with egg on their after Charles Cioffi walks. The DA's office is out for blood now.

They do a good job in setting up Stephen McHattie the hitter from the first part and now he rolls over in earnest from his prison cell. But Cioffi has some murderous moves left. He's not leaving any loose ends this time.

The real life links in Cioffi's performance to John Gotti and to Joey Gallo become even more pronounced in this second half.

The one to watch in this story is Cioffi's sister Christina Baranski. In the end she settles all accounts. In two episodes you can compare her character development to that of Talia Shire in all the Godfather films.

In fact this might be the best ending all around.

Stone uses a different tactic to catch Frank Masucci, expecting to find evidence that he has kidnapped the union leader. They bug his phones and arrest his brother-in-law Hary Beigal for bribing and official from the Building Department to release his real estates. Beigal does not accept a deal to testify against Masucci, but out of the blue, he disappears. Stone presses the widow Katherine Masucci Beigel and she tells off the record to him the place where her brother dumps the bodies. Now Greevey and Mike keep Masucci under surveillance when something unexpected happens.

"The Torrents of Greed: Part 2" is a good episode of "CSI" that shows the justice that works in the real world against the powerful. The plot is very well developed, but the conclusion is absolutely unexpected. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Torrentes da Ganância - Parte 2" ("Torrents of Greed: Part 2")

Season 1 of 'Law and Order', the original show of the popular franchise and my personal favourite (despite it not feeling the same post-Briscoe) was a very solid one. Even the weakest episodes were pretty good. Outstanding, ones rewarded my highest rating, episodes were not many, with most of the episodes getting the very good to great ones. That is not to say though that Season 1 was exempt from outstanding episodes, far from it.

Both parts of the "The Torrents of Greed" two parter fit that distinction for exactly the same reasons to each other and among the best episodes of the season. Had a slight personal preference to this more tension-and-intrigue filled second part. Perfect examples of why the early seasons of 'Law and Order', so pre-Briscoe and the early Briscoe years, are worth watching and not deserving of being forgotten in favour of the more frequently aired Season 7-onwards episodes.

George Dzundza and Chris Noth have the usual hard-boiled edge as Greevey and Logan and Michael Moriarty squeezes out every bit of juice from Stone (a character that the writers always seemed to have fun with). Christina Baranski continues to make Katherine an increasingly interesting and strongly developed character. It is Charles Cioffi's truly sinister Masucci once again, one of the season's most formidable characters, that dominates. They are helped by a tautly structured and thoughtful script and well drawn characters, it doesn't get much more threatning than the Mob and mob bosses and Masucci proves that.

Furthermore, the story is ceaselessly compelling and piles on the tension and intrigue, with some interesting moral dilemmas and a conclusion that wraps things up satisfyingly. The production values are still stylish, the theme tune hard to forget and the music placement and tone never came over as questionable, not being melodramatic either.

Overall, outstanding. 10/10