Law & Order (TV Series) Captive (2007) User Reviews

Best type of episode

[lifeisgood110 · 8/10 · 28 March 2022]

Murder, kidnappings, a perv, the victim becoming the perp, etc.

The best episodes are the ones that make you question which way you would have gone if you were on the jury. This is one of those episodes.

I give it an 8 because it's not the most exciting episode, despite being really good on the content level.

Locum

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 14 September 2022]

'Law and Order' was incredibly good at exploring challenging topics and themes that hit hard and are still relevant and important to address. It was also, as has been said more than once in previous reviews, incredibly good at exploring them in an honest and pull no punches way and in a way that still holds up for many episodes. One of the most challenging topics from Season 17 is for "Captive", a case that is incredibly intense and sad.

Those adjectives are perfect ways to describe the execution of "Captive". Was generally impressed by the overall standard of Season 17, and this is one of the best episodes and one of the most shocking. Remember very vividly how the episode moved and shocked me on first watch, and not only does it still do both those things they do so even more so now, partly because of being more aware and understanding of the subject and understanding more of what is being argued.

Everything works here. The truly powerful performance of Liam Aiken is the main reason to see "Captive", his character's actions are awful but his circumstances are truly tragic too. It is hard to not hate him at first because of such dreadful crimes, but once more is revealed about him it is even harder to not feel sympathy for him without being manipulated in doing so because of how he was treated. In the end, it's not him one hates. David Warshofsky does sinister extremely well. The regulars are every bit as top notch, especially in the legal scenes.

Moreover, the production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. The direction is sympathetic but also alert.

It is a brilliantly written episode, thought provoking, tightly structured, tough as nails and also sensitive. The story is intense in the second half the more the tension of the legal scenes builds, but also heart-breakingly tragic. The outcome haunted me and Aiken's character is very interesting.

Only Milena Govich, who gets lost amidst everything else being so powerful, doesn't quite work.

Concluding, excellent. 9/10.

We were a family. A family? Maybe in your deviant mind.

[Mrpalli77 · 8/10 · 20 February 2018]

A traffic warden was giving fines to illegally parked cars when she noticed a baby boy kidnapped inside a vehicle. The driver ran away and she called the police as a result. The boy was picked up in his way home from school; thanks to information given by a schoolmate, detectives located the kidnapper's home, but there was a misunderstanding due to a mistake in the car plate: wrong guy. Shortly after, police found the abducted boy smothered to death in a dumpster. In the same neighborhood, Green and Cassady found out the right car and they discovered another abducted teenager, missing for five years, who pointed out where to find the kidnapper (David Warshofsky). Branch wanted the death penalty, McCoy tried to do his best to keep the teenager out of spotlight, but he was not so innocent.....Stockholm Syndrome?

Jealousy among captives is something I've never seen in movies. Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, in one of her last appaerances in the series, was able to let the boy talk. Nice episode after all.

Not the easiest case

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 19 July 2014]

The abduction of a young boy starts this Law And Order episode off as a meter maid spots a frightened kid in a car she's about to ticket. But that's only the beginning. When Jesse Martin and Milena Govich track the perpetrator to a quiet Queens neighborhood, they find no little kid and no adult perpetrator, but an older teen. Later on they find the little kid they were looking for dumped in a park. David Warshofsky is arrested for kidnapping and murder.

But of murder he's not guilty. The guilty party is Liam Aitken the teen who has lived with him approximately five years and is a missing persons case as well. Whereas a jury might have said life in prison without a possibility of parole for Warshofsky, for Aiken it's a different matter. Just the circumstances of the captivity and the sexual abuse would make him sympathetic even with Stockholm syndrome so clearly present.

Aiken gives a tightly controlled performance of a young teen with some deep issues. Warshofsky as the abductor also did a nice job.

Not the easiest case for Sam Waterston to try.