watching Law & Order

[GKarsEye]

I never had an interest in cop and law shows so I decided to try the one that deals with both on DVD (Netflix rules!)

I'm towards the end of season 1 in the middle of a two-parter that seems to have been inspired by the John Gotti case. I don't remember the details of it, but if they make it somewhat similar there should be an inside guy that rats on him and he should be convicted.

My favorite episode so far was one that took from the scenario of the Tawana Brawley case in 1989.
In 1987 a black teenager was found with racial slurs written on her body. She claimed she was raped by white police officers and 6 cops were named. This electrified the black community and flamed up race relations.

Black leaders, most notable Al Sharpton, got involved and made a lot of noise, using it as an example to showcase racial injustice in the criminal justice system.

But the whole thing turned out to be a hoax.

The L&O episode invents a black congressman to make the grand speeches and piss everyone off. They present him as believing the girl at first (as everyone did) but then continuing his crusade even after knowing it wasn't true. It is an "ends justifying the means" thing.

It also was the first episode to address the fact that one of the DAs is black, asking his partner if he "sold out." The reply was to ask himself if he thought of himself as a "black lawyer" or a "lawyer who happens to be black." An issue that many urban blacks of prestige or power must deal with, especially New York, which is one of the most racially charged cities in the country.

So far the show has dealt with bombing abortion clinics, rape, vigilantism, race, the mafia, child and spouse abuse, kinky sex deaths and political corruption. All in the first season.

What the hell do they do for the other 12 seasons?

 

[wolfranger]

They do lots more, and then there are all the spin offs. L&O SVU is a very disturbing show in my opinion. I still watch but it usually always disturbes me because I'm sure most of the stories have some base in fact.

 

[PillowRock]

What the hell do they do for the other 12 seasons?

There are two somewhat contradictory answers to that question.

Their habit of pullng things from headlines (although they do change things to fit their dramatic structure etc.) means they are always being given new things to tackle.

On the other hand, after a while it does start to get harder to find social and political issues that they haven;t already examined through one of their earlier cases.

Over the years it has become a more standard crime & punishment series, albeit an intricately plotted as well as impecably written and acted one. I have also watched it less and less as that has happened.

In the earlier years, they did a lot of issue shows. To me, the brilliance of L&O, the real "difference maker", was that they didn't take sides in the issues. They would have well spoken, intelligent, sympathetic, regular characters that the audiance knew and liked arguing mulitple sides of an issue. They didn't formulate their cases to simplify things so that one side was obviously right or wrong (as a basic idea; individuals' hypocracy etc. might come off as being pretty indefensible). They didn't even take it down to an either/or, two sided debate. There were still multiple angles and approaches and shades of grey. In TV shows, that kind of discussion has always been rare.

So I preferred the first few / several seasons of Law & Order.

 

[GKarsEye]

In the earlier years, they did a lot of issue shows.

Yes, I like that.

After the Tawana Brawley episode (yes yes, I know, all characters are fictirious, blah blah ) there was one where someone died in a kinky sex act (I thnk that's the one with Number One that I posted about elsewhere). I never thought I'd say this about something involving kinky sex but it was boring. Maybe it wouldn't have been if I hadn't watched it after the previous one that dealth with rape and race and social movements.

What is a Special Victim anyway?

 

[PillowRock]

What is a Special Victim anyway?

They tend to deal with crimes with a sexual or abuse component. Those kinds of things are cases where the victims have to be treated / interviewed / handled differently than most "typical crime victims". In other words: victims that get "special" handling. I think that is where the "Special Victims" comes into the name of the unit that the show focuses on.

 

[Quagmire]

In the later seasons they also change characters frequently keeping the show somewhat fresh. I don't mean just a different actor presenting the writters' views but characters that are actually different from those they replace.

L&O is one of those shows that is quite good when I come across a rerun on a cable channel but which never leads me to seek out the current run. I'm not even sure what night it's on. What I've seen of the spin offs is nothing special and the fact that there are so many oi them probably contributes to my failure to follow the original.

 

[Bab5nutz]

I missed the early seasons of "Law and Order", but have watched it for the last few years. It's an interesting show. Quite often, I find myself sympathising with the criminal. I also watch "SVU" and "Criminal Intent". I find "CI" not quite as good as the others - the stories usually tend to be pretty much the same. Clever criminal, tricked or forced into confessing all by the end.
If the new show 'Trial by Jury" makes it here, I will check it out. I am also curious to see how they handle the fact that one fo the major actors for the show, Jerry Orbach, [who was in several seasons of L&O], died of prostate cancer soon after the pilot was filmed.

 

[Jonny_Fever]

I watch the current original Law and Order but missed the first few years of the series. Occasionally some of the storylines are similar but I enjoy the show none the less. I'm completely hooked on SVU. The cool thing about SVU is that is has Richard Belzer playing Det. Munch. He also played Munch on Homicide: Life on the Street which is a very good show as well. While Homicide was on they did a few cross-overs between L&O and Homicide. The scenes between Briscoe and Munch are great. It turns out that Munch had married and divorced one of Briscoe's ex-wives.

 

[The Juche Warrior]

What the hell do they do for the other 12 seasons?

Repeat themselves.

I didn't think anybody watched this anymore. Then again, I shouldn't talk. My TV habits have dwindled to the point that I only really watch ESPN on the chance that Jay Mariotti and Woody Paige will finally kill each other. God, I hate them.

 

[GKarsEye]

I watched the season 1 finale last night. It was pretty good- the captain involved with some sneaky dealings.

Season 2 next.

I learned that only season 1, 2, and 14 are out (!). So I'm gonna have to find something other old TV show to follow.