User Reviews

Craig Walker playing a killer who should have gotten the needle escapes and kills two correction officers in the process. As he massacred six people in the original crime that sent him up,the city goes on high alert as Jesse Martin and Milena Govich go on the hunt. Along with just about the rest of the NYPD.

A lot of people can never wrap their minds around the concept of pure evil. Walker is the reason we have a death penalty statute, a stone cold killer without remorse or regret or even a qualm about taking a life. Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Walker's character is in their mold.

Before taking him down Walker kills several school children in a school he took refuge in. Sam Waterston seeks to apply capital punishment and get it from legislative limbo from where it is. But before that can happen, Jeremy Davidson the father of one of the murdered children kills him on the courthouse steps.

As his lawyer Catherine Dent is also a candidate for State Senate and she offers her assistance pro bono. But this trial and the media attention it's getting is worth more than all the advertising she can buy on the air. She's working her own agenda as both Waterston and Alana DeLa Garza plainly see.

All I can say about this one is beware of certain pro bono lawyers.

Good episode.

One of these reviewers needed to double check the cast list before submitting. Craig Walker played the killer, MATT (not Mark) D'Amico played his brother. I suggest just using the characters' names in reviews and let readers look up the actors who play them. The correct information is right there on the front page.

An inmate stabbed to death two prison guards during a transfer and run away as fugitive. Green recognized him: he testified against him at trial several years before, but due to change of law, the convicted man managed to escape death sentence. The guy paid a visit to his girlfriend, drank some booze and changed his clothes. Then he moved to a bad neighborhood and killed an arms dealer in order to steal him a weapon. He had no intention to skip Big Apple, he had a plan in committing other murders for revenge. Anyway he had a heart and paid a visit to his mother who was about to die of cancer; detectives located him at a local primary school, where he shot dead five children. Death sentence can't be applied: as easy to presume, someone (Jeremy Davidson) decided to take justice into his own hands.

Then it's all about political debating over death penalty law. The point is that it's not easy prevent people from committing homicide in a Country where you could buy a gun at a bodega across the street.

Actually started watching 'Law and Order' from the later episodes of the Briscoe and Green period. Seeing the whole Briscoe and Green period overtime, it came to me that some of the earlier episodes were among the best from it. The previous episodes were mostly of an incredibly high standard and most of the season's episodes in general ranged between very good and great. "Deadlock" left a big impression on me on first watch, in a good way.

My big impression on me in a good way reaction is pretty much the same now in a very strong contender for the best episode of Season 17. "Deadlock" is a wonderful and powerful episode, and while there were some great episodes in Season 17 there were not many that were pretty much flawless. Yet "Deadlock" is one of them, even the aspect that was a big issue throughout the season (Cassady, who was mostly not an interesting character) didn't bother me this time.

"Deadlock" has so many things that are good. The production values are suitably slick and gritty, with photography that is reliant on close ups that have an intimacy without being too claustrophobic. The music is didn't come over as too melodramatic or like it was emphasising the emotion too much. The direction is sympathetic while still giving momentum.

The writing is intelligent and although, like the show in general, there is a lot of talk (as always for the 'Law and Order' franchise) it doesn't feel like there is too much or too loose. The moral dilemmas of how to approach the case being sensitively but not in a sugar-coated way handled. There is a lot of tension, especially in the middle act with the heart-stopping scene in the school. The story is very absorbing throughout, especially in the early portions this time.

Can't fault the acting, with all the regulars on point (one of the few times where Milena Govich was not an issue) and Craig Walker is the personification of evil.

Summing up, wonderful. 10/10.

With a heinous death row voided murderer that was weakly guarded to escape and kill some more.

All predictable by McCoy over charging, then moralizing, a Grand Canyon jump over jury nullification, cherry topped off with an indictment of the death penalty supporting defense attorney to finish..

Simply unbelievable. Skip this one