Law & Order (TV Series) Purple Heart (1995) User Reviews

Michael Beach is the Reason to Watch

[Better_TV · 8/10 · 6 June 2018]

With a name like "Purple Heart" you might expect this episode to have something to do with the military. Instead, this one is about loan sharks and the wife of the victim, the latter of whom is briefly said to have fought in Operation Desert Storm. Soon there's a second murder too, and it's up to the prosecutor's office to link them.

The best part about this one is guest star Michael Beach; he really puts up a fight as the defense attorney, turning - as Steven Hill says in the episode - witnesses into suspects. The case gets even tougher when the judge (Dominic Chianese) rules that the prosecutors will have to make their case without hinting that the defendant was involved in her husband's murder.

This was a 7 for the been-there-done-that loan shark stuff, but Michael Beach's zealous performance raises it to an 8 for me - and LisaGay Hamilton is similarly excellent as Denise Johnson.

Good stuff.

Heart of blood

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 30 December 2020]

The title in retrospect is a curious one. Giving the impression that the story would centre around the military, which the title refers to in its usual meaning, but it's not. A long way from that, in fact the military plays no role here whatsoever. Plot-wise, reading the synopsis "Purple Heart" does not sound particularly special, but being a fan of 'Law and Order' and having loved the previous two episodes hopes were still oddly high on first watch.

On first watch "Purple Heart" struck me as a very good episode but not a great one, despite having a lot of great things. On rewatch, my feelings are the same. While "Purple Heart" is not one of the best episodes of Season 5 or of 'Law and Order', there is a lot to admire about it and still like it very much. Even if it is a couple of steps down in quality from the brilliant previous two episodes and doesn't quite have the extra something that they had so powerfully.

Not everything surprises, with the loan shark element of the story being a very been there done that strand that the episode does nothing new with and could have done with more tension in.

Luckily, everything else is great. Do agree that Michael Beach is the primary reason to see "Purple Heart". His performance is one of true ferocity and it plays a big part in as to why the legal scenes were so riveting and at their best thrilling to watch. He has strong interaction with Sam Waterston, who has by now settled as McCoy very well, while LisaGay Hamilton gives a powerful turn as a character whose actions are uncondonable but oddly at the same time one can see her point of view, if that makes any sense.

Although the story is not an innovative one, it is engaging and well paced and doesn't get simplistic or convoluted. The script has class and grit and is thoughtful without rambling, the moral dilemmas being tactfully explored and not one-sided.

"Purple Heart" again is a slickly made episode, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started (never was it a problem but it got more fluid with each episode up to this stage). The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key on the whole.

Summing up, very good with one truly great performance raising it above what could have been a little on the ordinary side. 8/10

Denise was the program

[Noir-It-All · 7/10 · 13 June 2022]

Agree that it was not difficult to sympathize with this hardworking defendant. Denise Johnson had "pulled herself above" eating mashed potato sandwiches for lunch to owning her own restaurant, Dee's The only persons who supported her effort were the owner of Contini's, the restaurant where she had been a hostess, and the hostess of Dee's.

Danny, her husband and cosigner of the business loan, undermined her success by being generous to friends and pursuing a gambling habit. Not one of his supporters - older brother, taxi company owner, and Army buddy - addressed his gambling habit. It's a relief to assume that older brother will take care of the Johnson's son but they should have encouraged Danny to be more responsible as failure to repay that business loan would hurt him as well as the "drill sargent".

I've known about successful, women-owned businesses in our area that went south once the husband changed the direction of the business. Another was undermined by a husband who gambled. These downfalls we're sad to see.

Of course crimes should be prosecuted. But, it was difficult to hear McCoy discount the value of Mrs. Johnson business goals in the final scene. Claire understood.

Hubby is a deadbeat

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 26 May 2013]

SPOILER: This is one of those Law And Order episodes where you really do have some sympathy for the defendant. My only problem with her is that in doing what she did she left her young son to the tender mercies of social services. Good thing a character of the brother of her dead husband is introduced, possibly to reassure the audience the innocent kid will have family to take care of him.

Lisa Gay Hamilton is a woman with career ambitions who was the manager of an upscale restaurant and now is starting her own place. As anyone in that business will tell you, it takes a while for a new place to start turning a profit if it ever does.

She's married to a total deadbeat who drives a cab. The man must have had some charm back in the day because the more we learn the more incongruent this couple seems. Anyway when he cleans her business bank account out to pay off loan shark Mike Starr off, that's the last straw. A hired killer does in the husband and she does in the killer when he holds her up for more money.

Michael Beach is Hamilton's attorney and he makes the most of a sympathetic client and a couple of other alternative theories. Sam Waterston and Jill Hennessy have their work cut out for them in this episode.

Art imitates life

[preuthun-64386 · 19 July 2020]

I believe this episode followed an actual case in my hometown of Detroit. A woman killed her veteran husband but not for the monetary reasons depicted. There wasn't a second murder in reality. They promoted the series with the tag line of "ripping cases from the headlines." This surely seems like one.

Conspiracy upon conspiracy

[safenoe · 6/10 · 19 February 2024]

LisaGay Hamilton, who later achieved stardom in one of the best legal dramas of all time, The Practice, guest stars as Denise Johnson who is a rather multi-faceted character may I say. She's a successful and hard-working restaurateur and she "is the program" and her husband, who won a purple heart, is unfortunately in the way of her ambitions.

But seriously, where Sam McCoy is trying to make his way through the conspiracy threads, well that kind of reminded me of Charlie Day's famous conspiracy theory in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia that's become a famous gif. Purple Heart is worth watching once.