"Denial," written by Catherine Tregenna
Along with "Community Service," this is probably one of my favorite Catherine Tregenna eps. As much for the involving script as for the way in which it breaks free of the dock, so to speak, by not actually featuring a proper trial at all; it's nice, for a change, to see the CPS end of things handled in different surroundings under special circumstances. (Well, nice in as much as it's a change of scenery for us - it's not a "nice" situation, at all. When is it ever in L&O land, but this one.... :( Immensely infuriating and compelling at the same time.)
Juliet Stevenson is an actress I've always really loved, but she surpassed even my high expectations here. Such a difficult role to really make soar when you're bedridden for the entire episode and she's just a force of nature. Loved both her face-off with James in questioning, where he tries so hard to get her to respond as a victim and not as a judge and she just stonewalls him at every turn, and of course that completely heartbreaking scene with George. (I know it's totally NOT implicit in the script, but did anyone else get the idea that maybe they were an item once? Or at least, highly fond of one another. Oh, Jules, you married the wrong bloke... ) One other casting note, another surprise (since we don't have full episode descrips from ITV yet) - Diana Quick, who played the judge actually handling the case. If you're old enough (like me) you might remember her as the original Julia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. ;) (Among many other things.)
One aspect of this ep which we have seen before, though not much of this series, was the strict division between Law & Order; once the coppers are done, they're done here. Though as with all recent eps, it crackles - loved seeing Angie back in fine form. (Aww, that grin when Ronnie laid the line on her about "or the first Mrs. Devlin." Hee.) Jamie was also fantastic in the scene with the posh git who bought the Mercedes - loved a bit of Matt's scarcely veiled working-class contempt coming out. Ronnie was quite heavy on the snark this week, but it made for some great Jamie reaction shots. Matt, come on now, don't be so shy sunshine... push back a little. XD Of course, the extremely fleeting Action!Matt moment was a total keeper... see new icon.
I might (oh, who are we kidding - probably will) be back w/ more later, but go ahead and get the discussion rolling from here!
ETA: Oh, and
dramaturgca coined a new term that I'm deeply enamoured of. So much so that I made an icon to commemorate it. ;) -