An attempted armored car heist leads to the prosecution of a suburban right-wing militia group that claims to be at war with the U.S. government.An attempted armored car heist leads to the prosecution of a suburban right-wing militia group that claims to be at war with the U.S. government.An attempted armored car heist leads to the prosecution of a suburban right-wing militia group that claims to be at war with the U.S. government.
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- (as Jesse Tendler)
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Did you know
- TriviaThe acronym SDS stood for Students for a Democratic Society, a student activist movement in the United States during the 1960's. SDS was considered the origin for the "New Left Wing" movement. It also heavily influenced "hippie" culture as well. It's members were outspoken opponents of many of the government's policies at the time: they were vehemently against the Cold War and the nuclear arms race as well as the Vietnam War. They also criticized racial discrimination, economic inequality, big businesses, trade unions, and political parties. The SDS has also been a large influence on past and current nonviolent civil disobedience movements.
- GoofsWhile looking at the disassembled handgun, the firearm technician and Detective Curtis state that the weapon's slide has been "filed down", making the gun fully automatic. While a semi-automatic firearm can be converted to fully automatic with some difficulty by modifying a number of internal parts, filing down the slide isn't one of them. While modifying the sear or other internal parts may be required to go full auto, modification of the slide is not.
- Quotes
Jack McCoy: This country began as an experiment in freedom. The foundation of that freedom is equality before the law. Everyone, whoever they are, whatever they may believe, must be equally accountable. Mr. Christie hopes you will ignore the evidence and nullify. A power, he says, derives from a higher law. I agree that such a higher law exists. And each of you, as members of the jury, bound yourselves to it when you swore, on your conscience, before God and as a citizen, that you would decide this case on the facts. You are asked to judge one thing, were the defendants, whatever their reasons, whatever their beliefs, part of a criminal conspiracy to commit armed robbery and murder? These guys did a great job of memorization; too bad they didn't lean from it. We all remember that phrase from the Declaration of Independence about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the unalienable rights of everyone. Notice that "life" comes first. You can forget everything else about this case, if you remember one thing: these defendants, these conspirators, targeted an ordinary citizen, someone just like yourselves, a guy with a job and in the private sector, with bills to pay and a family to take care of, and they took his life. They *took his life*! If it's okay for them to shoot him, it's okay for them to shoot anyone, including any one of you. Without the law, there can be no freedom, and without justice, there can be no law.
"Nullification" is a truly fine episode that does a great job with how it handles its topic. Not perfectly, but very, very admirably and compellingly. Unlike the previous Season 8 episodes, it doesn't start off in too ordinary a way and continues to surprise all the way through to the end. Sure, the idea of having to deal with extreme opposition from a group supporting the defendant is not unfamiliar territory, but this aspect is done very well indeed here.
Do agree that the portrayal of the militia could have done with more subtlety, it's rather one sided and on the nose cartoonish here.
Otherwise, there is so much to love here in "Nullification". Production values are still slick and suitably gritty (without being too heavy in it). The music is not too melodramatic and is not used too much, even not being too manipulative in revelations. The direction is accomodating yet with momentum.
Furthermore, the script is lean and intelligent, even with a lot of information to take in it doesn't come over as too much. Whether in the exchanges between Briscoe and Curtis and Briscoe's wry one liners or the thought provoking and well argued debates when it comes to trial. The way the militia fight against what happens in court adds a lot to the tension and provides a lot of suspenseful conflict. The story starts excitingly, intrigues in the policing scenes and intrigues and surprises even more in the legal scenes.
All the characters are well written, McCoy's ways of getting to the truth and his manner in the courtroom or in chambers always fascinates psychologically and the perpetrator is one that gets under the skin of the viewer every bit as much as he does McCoy. All the cast are excellent, Dennis O'Hare does creepiness so well and Jesse Tendler is poignant in the story strand that tugs at the heart-strings.
Summing up, great. 9/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jun 10, 2021