Spoilers

“System Down”

James Earl Jones guest stars in a dramatic episode that is as relevant today as it was back in the early 1990s.

The show is similar to the classic movie 12 Angry Men as the show features the conflicts and dialogue inside the jury room. Jimmy’s reputation as a fair man winds him up on the jury despite the fact that this case was involving the shooting of police officers.

A drug dealing black man shoots two police officers who are kicking in his door. There was a video as well.

It felt as if this should have been an open and shut case, but the defense argued that the suspect had a reasonable fear for his life at the time and that this was self-defense.

Watching the jury debate this point was fascinating. The jury spent almost an equal amount of time attacking each other in the jury room. We meet Ed Lawson, played by Richard Masur, who would become an important recurring character. He is an unlikable man who is implied to be a bigot.

There is no falling action in this story. I felt like I wanted to see how some people reacted to Jimmy on this decision, but the show does go to black with Jimmy sitting in the jury box after giving the ‘not guilty’ verdict.

A few scenes between James Earl Jones and Fyvush Finkel were epic. The show does a solid job of giving the jurors who we do not know personalities and an easy way to familiarize us with who they are as characters.