User Reviews

Ned Beatty shines in this episode as a judge who won't pack it in even though it is patently obvious that he's suffering Alzheimer's. His law clerk Sherry Stringfield has been propping him up and telling him what to do for years.

The case itself is a double murder. A witness to the murder in New Jersey of a police officer is herself murdered in Manhattan. The New York case goes first and Linus Roache and Alana Dela Garza are up against a very shrewd defense lawyer in Deanna Dunnegan.

Roache is a bit of a boy scout here and Sam Waterston warns him his career is on the line. I've seen a few time serving slugs on the bench over the years and it's quite true they protect themselves.

Beatty rea;lly stands out in this story. He was a brilliant attorney, but he stayed too long.

Decided three years ago to review all the episodes of the original 'Law and Order' and 'Special Victims Unit' ('Criminal Intent' too, but that lasted 10 seasons compared to the original's 20 and 'Special Victims Unit' still going), being someone who really likes both shows in their prime/early years. Really loved a lot of the early seasons episodes of both shows, while also finding both less consistent later on. With the original not feeling the same post-Briscoe and even began to lose consistency in Season 11.

"Zero" is a long way from being zero quality as an episode. The complete opposite, to me it's absolutely brilliant and one of the best episodes of a season that this reviewer was not expecting to like as much as they did. A lot of tough topics were dealt with in Season 18 and that for "Zero" is no exception to this. Mostly they were executed very well indeed and even brilliantly in the best cases, with some quite hard hitting episodes in the season. Very few of them disappointed. "Zero" is one of the hard hitting episodes and one of the finest examples.

Production values continue to remain high, while the direction lets the dramatic intensity of the second half to blister. The music doesn't sound melodramatic and the direction has momentum while also having enough breathing space when necessary. The acting is very good all round, especially in the legal portion. Best of all and the best thing about "Zero" is a superb Ned Beatty on commanding and unsettling form.

Story is absolutely riveting, pulls no punches and never comes over as too simple or over-complicated. Especially the legal scenes. The tension and emotion factors are high. The characters are written well and don't feel like stereotypes. "Zero" never comes over as dull and it doesn't feel routine, and the improvement seen in Lupo and Bernard's chemistry hasn't been lost.

All in all, brilliant. 10/10.