Girls, if, like me, you are fed up with corporate America and all it entails, then "Manhattan Vigil," the 300th episode of "Law And Order SVU," will press your buttons, as it offers up a plethora of male losers, who are scum. And two of them turn out to be deceased.
Let's start with Hamish Linklater. Would you believe he is the son of Kirstin Linklater, author of "Freeing The Natural Voice," one of the Bibles for those who are studying acting???? Well, you would never know it, from the performance he gives. He plays David Morris, a real estate magnate's son, who is nothing more than an entitlement prick. When he came onto the screen with that faux over aged jock appearance, complete with baseball cap, I wanted to vomit. But it is part of the character he plays. David Morris is a loser who can't hold a marriage, keep his appointments with his son in their times allowed by custody, and is all for pricing everyone but him out of their neighborhood apartments--just like his sleazy father and uncle. I hated this guy from the first scene. Now, you might think, that because of this, Hamish did some good acting. Frankly, I think he was playing himself--a real schmuck--because when the kid, Wyatt Morris, is abducted, he begins running around like an overdeveloped pituitary case on the basketball court, while voicing hysteria I have seen more convincing in first year acting students. How did they get this guy, anyway??? And who the hell is he???????????
The Morris family has been driving tenants out of the neighborhood for years, so they can make it high end. The grandfather and father were slum landlords, like David, and they had this lackey, Louis Hodda (played by Tom Sizemore as a convincing sleaze, but, again, who the hell is he, and what hole did they dig him out of?????). And all of them may or may not have been involved in a series of boy abductions and murders (the writers don't clearly establish this, but, judging from how the Morris clan is written, that is what I came away with!!!!!!!!!) , though Hodda says he took Wyatt, in the present, not to do anything "unclean", but to use as leverage to get the family to give him what he feels he is owed for all the work he has done for these A-holes over the years.
I was almost sorry when they found Wyatt. I mean, I was glad he was alive, but he is a fat, pudgy kid (couldn't they get someone cute, so the audience could sympathize???? Why doesn't the casting director(S) here get off their butt and do their job??????) who doesn't have a chance, when it comes to growing up, what with a loser father and a harpie bitch mother!!!!!!!!! This kid is headed for drug rehab as soon as he hits puberty. You can just tell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was interesting, considering Danny Pino is now on the show, that, in style, this episode was highly influenced by "Cold Case," the show Pino starred on with Kathryn Morris for its entire run. Though not as emotionally gripping--try watching that show's segment, entitled "Wishing,' a second time!!!!!!!!!! You can't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the scum on this show was completely hateful. And it was like no one got their comeuppance--not even that sleaze Louis Hodda, played by Tom Sizemore. Were they going to give him a deal so he could walk, just because he told them where Wyatt was hiding???????? It sure looked like it. The scum made me boiling mad to begin with, but that the two still alive did not get any kind of comeuppance (David Morris just takes his son, and lackadaisically, walks off!!!!!!!) which made the ending unsatisfying.
So, this show still has things to work out in its season. Like getting rid of flaws, and getting back to the kind of solid drama an episode like "Lost Traveler" can provide!!!!!!!!!
Someone should have told David Morris he is now an anachronism. That whole "Die, Yuppie scum!" thing has died out, but he does not seem to realize it yet!!!!!!!!!!
Neither has Jay McInerney, who keeps trying to write books!
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