Is it possible anymore for the Law and Order franchise not to do an episode that has some angle to sex crimes? I mean, I get it, the well has run dry, so they're just recycling stuff. I'm assuming Law and Order must have lost much of its male audience, too, because no matter which show you're watching, there's going to be a sex crime angle, abortion, gender, patriarchal verbal abuse, "slooot shaming," etc.
No, these topics are not restricted only to women, but if you watch Law and Order, you'd think good ol' fashioned murder doesn't happen anymore. Plus you can see in the advertising between the snippets of programming that the meat-and-potatoes guy with more than half a brain who might have cheered on Michael Moriarty and Sam Waterston has been replaced by people who shop ecstatically for lamps at Target and say, "Charge it, charge it, charge it!" with whatever credit cards are being pushed.
This episode has a bit more energy than some. I mean, it seems like Sam Waterson got a good night's sleep and his Geritol, for starters. "Derp" Donovan derp derpy derp derps with the new giant they hired (just imagine how easy a target such a hulking guy is for some street gangster with a 9 mm and you can see the incongruity).
Some kind of murder goes on -- someone is pushed off a bridge -- but really, you'll lose sight of the actual crime because of all the pontification about abortion and victim blaming. If there's any suspense in this episode, it mostly gets lost because you have to listen to speeches about the social issues involved. Here's a test: When the episode is over, write down what you recall about the arguments over abortion. Then, write down the names of three guest characters. Which list did you find easier to create?
There's more of that SVU-style super sensitivity going on. Are the ADA's crack legal minds going after the accused with gusto? No, they're extra-careful and even apologetic if anything they say might in any way be interpreted as adversarial (even though they have by definition an adversarial relationship with the accused) and even the defense attorney follows suit. I'm sure it's meant to be all warm and fuzzy, but in what fantasy world does Law and Order now exist?
Remember, when the show debuted more than 30 years ago, the concept was to do a procedural; that is, a show that mimicked reality, without the forced melodrama of other shows, so that it seemed more like a documentary. Boy, we've a long way from there. Now the show seems to take place in an alternate universe where the cops and prosecutors are not just Boy and Girl Scouts, they're the sort of Boy and Girl Scouts you only meet in the handbook.
And at the same time, the show very, very carefully dodges the reality of police corruption and brutality, not to mention the baked in racism. The same goes for the District Attorney. While all parties involved nauseatingly wax on about their crusades for the downtrodden, the lack of diversity is hopelessly lost. (This is a show that defines diversity 1950s style, which is whites in all the top positions and a few black and brown people here and there so they're not called out for their racism.)
No, these topics are not restricted only to women, but if you watch Law and Order, you'd think good ol' fashioned murder doesn't happen anymore. Plus you can see in the advertising between the snippets of programming that the meat-and-potatoes guy with more than half a brain who might have cheered on Michael Moriarty and Sam Waterston has been replaced by people who shop ecstatically for lamps at Target and say, "Charge it, charge it, charge it!" with whatever credit cards are being pushed.
This episode has a bit more energy than some. I mean, it seems like Sam Waterson got a good night's sleep and his Geritol, for starters. "Derp" Donovan derp derpy derp derps with the new giant they hired (just imagine how easy a target such a hulking guy is for some street gangster with a 9 mm and you can see the incongruity).
Some kind of murder goes on -- someone is pushed off a bridge -- but really, you'll lose sight of the actual crime because of all the pontification about abortion and victim blaming. If there's any suspense in this episode, it mostly gets lost because you have to listen to speeches about the social issues involved. Here's a test: When the episode is over, write down what you recall about the arguments over abortion. Then, write down the names of three guest characters. Which list did you find easier to create?
There's more of that SVU-style super sensitivity going on. Are the ADA's crack legal minds going after the accused with gusto? No, they're extra-careful and even apologetic if anything they say might in any way be interpreted as adversarial (even though they have by definition an adversarial relationship with the accused) and even the defense attorney follows suit. I'm sure it's meant to be all warm and fuzzy, but in what fantasy world does Law and Order now exist?
Remember, when the show debuted more than 30 years ago, the concept was to do a procedural; that is, a show that mimicked reality, without the forced melodrama of other shows, so that it seemed more like a documentary. Boy, we've a long way from there. Now the show seems to take place in an alternate universe where the cops and prosecutors are not just Boy and Girl Scouts, they're the sort of Boy and Girl Scouts you only meet in the handbook.
And at the same time, the show very, very carefully dodges the reality of police corruption and brutality, not to mention the baked in racism. The same goes for the District Attorney. While all parties involved nauseatingly wax on about their crusades for the downtrodden, the lack of diversity is hopelessly lost. (This is a show that defines diversity 1950s style, which is whites in all the top positions and a few black and brown people here and there so they're not called out for their racism.)