S2.E10

Heaven

Episode aired Jun 4, 1995
TV-14
1h

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Paul Sorvino and Chris Noth in New York - Police judiciaire (1990)

An arson at an Hispanic social club that killed 53 people is related to a powerful Cuban, an INS agent, and the sale of fake green cards.An arson at an Hispanic social club that killed 53 people is related to a powerful Cuban, an INS agent, and the sale of fake green cards.An arson at an Hispanic social club that killed 53 people is related to a powerful Cuban, an INS agent, and the sale of fake green cards.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

370

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos13

+ 10

User reviews3

7.6370

Featured reviews

7bkoganbing

A considerable risk

I well remember the social club fire in New York City that inspired this episode. Unlike that real life tragedy this involved a lot more than some poor mook's jealousy.

As Fire Marshal Robert Hogan say this was a professionally done job and the method used involves a considerable risk to one's person. In fact the arsonist came real close to dying himself. Luis Guzman plays the luckless arsonist who had considerable injuries and saw not a dime of his promised payment.

This social club has a considerable following among Central American immigrants, legal and illegal. That was why the place was targeted.

All I can say is that it really takes one coldblooded fish of a human being to perpetrate this kind of tragedy as a form of intimidation.

Michael Moriarty and Richard Brooks build a case that has some considerable corruption uncovered. This is one time you are glad to see the bad guys arrested and exposed.

10TheLittleSongbird

The cuban godfather

While none of the previous nine Season 2 episodes were bad, all actually ranging from decent to outstanding with not a misfire among them, the quality did start to dip a little between "Misconception" and this. All three episodes in question being solidly executed in most areas if a bit ordinary. Season 2 of 'Law and Order' generally was a good season and hardly a disgrace to the remarkably consistently good first, though not as consistent in quality.

"Heaven" turned out to be a great episode with pretty much everything done very well and almost all of it outstandingly so even. One of the better episodes of Season 2, one of the best of the early seasons and the best easily since "God Bless the Child". If not quite a 'Law and Order' high point, not too far off from that though. It is very tense and tautly written, as well as not being an easy watch and even quite harrowing. Then again, what do you expect from something as gritty as 'Law and Order' that is quite powerful at its best?

As usual, the photography is slick yet opened up enough to not make the action too confined, while being suitably intimate when needed. The music has presence without being over the top and is not constant, allowing the dialogue to speak. As for the dialogue there is a lot of it, but didn't feel overly so in a very taut and thought-provoking script. Where nothing feels out of place, nothing gets over-sentimental, it's never childish and it never gets confused, from personal opinion of course.

The story here has the most tension and intrigue of all the Season 2 episodes up to this point of it. Both are present from the get go, not where it is ordinary to begin with and gets better in the second half like the previous three episodes, and mounts up all the way up to the ending. Where one is so glad of the outcome (one of the season's, and early seasons', most satisfying). The characters are interesting and it was appreciated that the Cubans were not stereotyped in a biased way. With the truly nasty piece of work that is the episode's villain being the most reprehensible one of the second season and one of the most reprehensible of the early seasons full stop.

Cannot fault the performances either, all the leads are on fine form and the villain is played to chillingly cold-blooded effect.

Overall, outstanding. 10/10

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
This episode appears to be based on several separate cases/incidents:
The 1990 Happy Land Social Club Fire caused by Cuban refugee Julio Gonzalez. On March 25, 1990, Gonzalez poured a gallon of gasoline at the only exit to an illegal Bronx social club, which resulted in the deaths of 87 people. The few who survived jumped through the flames, one of whom was the intended victim of the crime--Gonzalez's girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano.
The 1980 Denmark Place fire in Central London. The fire, caused by arson, killed 37 people of eight nationalities. Most of the victims were Spanish or Latin Americans, and were patrons of two unlicensed bars in the building. At the time, The Sunday Times said the fire could be "the worst mass murder in British history".
The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
The Rudolph Lee case. Winston v. Lee was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that a compelled surgical intrusion into an individual's body for evidence implicates expectations of privacy and security of such magnitude that the intrusion would be "unreasonable" under the Fourth Amendment, even if likely to produce evidence of a crime.

Goofs
Branch says that Guerra should be charged with, among others, criminal solicitation in the first degree. Criminal solicitation in the first degree is when a person over the age of 18 solicits, commands, requires or forces a minor under the age of 16 to engage in conduct that would constitute a class A felony. Since both Collins and Guerra are adults then Guerra would be charged with criminal solicitation in the second degree. CS in the first degree is a class C felony, second degree is a class D felony. Since Branch is the District Attorney he should know the difference.