| 6/28/2005 |
I FOUGHT THE LAW by The Clash
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Now is the time of year when most of the regular network shows are off for summer vacation. Within the last few years the trend has become to break away from the typical season format and in an attempt to retain summer viewers new shows start in the summer. It is also the time to catch up on shows that you might have wanted to watch before, but never got the chance. I was tuned in a few episodes late on both Lost and Grey's Anatomy. It was nice to catch them in reruns now. Both of which are great shows!
Remember a few years ago when you could turn on the TV and during the hours of 8AM and 10PM you could find a syndicated rerun of FRIENDS? It was crazy! Good for those of us who liked the show, but crazy that there was such a domination. Now the show that is taking of the airwaves is Law & Order and it's subsequent spin-offs (L&O:Special Victims Unit, L&O: Criminal Intent, L&O: Trial by Jury (short-lived)). Law & Order has been on for over a decade. It's children do just as well, if not better. This past weekend there was a L&O:SVU marathon. I can't tell you how much of it I watched. Not because I lost track of the time, but because Time, as I know it, is now divided into parts known as "Law & Order Is On" and "Law & Order Is Not On".
Q: What time is it?
A: Fifteen minutes till Law & Order:SVU is on.
At least two cable networks carry syndicated episodes as well as what is shown on NBC during the week.
What is happening as a result is that I consider myself to be somewhat of a amateur detective. It's like I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and suddenly have all this intimate knowledge about forensics, crime solving, the law and it's enforcement.
"Do you have a Masters in Criminology?" they ask. No I just watched Law & Order for the last ten years with a focus on Special Victims Unit the last year and a half.
With all the high profile cases lately (Runaway Bride, Missing Teen in Aruba, BTK Confessions) it just gives me a chance to practice my knowledge of criminology via Law & Order.
How did the BTK Guy in Kansas evade police for so long? Wasn't there any DNA evidence? If they'd tracked evidence down to his church at one point, couldn't they have just narrowed it down to one of the members sooner?
Did they try playing the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" routine on any of the young men in Aruba to see if they could get one of them to change his alibi?
What motivated the Runaway Bride to runaway? What was she scared of? Is her family actual part of some weird cult and her marriage would seal an unholy deal?
Ok, so that last one is a little bit XFiles, but with some of the episodes of SVU it's not that far-fetched.
Law & Order sometimes will show symptoms of The Simpson's Syndrome. The episode will start out as a seemingly run of the mill gang member killing and by the end of it, you've got a couple of wealthy, sexually androgynous adolescents who have a secret language between the two of them and are seeing a sex therapist who makes them simulate fornication, and your left wondering how the hell they are connected.
There have been a number of times where I will read the description of the episode and turn it on half way through it and wonder what the hell a Grandma poisoning her Grandchild with mercury has to do with a Michael Jackson knock-off and pedophilia. (I'm sure that will drawn some odd Google searches.) It all usually makes sense in the context of the episode, but you could very easily be lost if you didn't see something from the very beginning.
There are some simple rules to help a person solve a Law & Order crime.
#1 If there is ever a bigger name guest star (C-List or higher) in the episode they are the perportrator 90% of the time.
#2 If they ever introduce a character by name early in the episode and you never hear from the again, you will in the last 10 minutes when the detectives find that last piece of the puzzle they needed. This is classic story telling. The gun in Act III, must be shown in Act I.
#3 The Good Guys don't always win.
Every so often they will even throw you a curve with...
#4 Sometimes there is no resolution, and you will be left hanging to talk amongst yourselves about what might happen.
So if you ever have a mystery that you need resolved, I've got several very interesting episodes of experience to help me help you get to the bottom of things. |
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I posted this @ 6/28/2005 12:09:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
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