Law & Order

I have been watching a lot of "Law & Order" lately, and I have noticed a few things. I don't much care for the original with Sam Waterson as the prosecuting attorney. The first parts of these shows are all right, but when they get to the trial portion, I lose interest. Sam is a prosecutor, he is out to convict the guy with the evidence he has, even if the evidence is very thin. He is very smug and self righteous. I don't much care for him. And I don't much care for the trial arguments, they just don't interest me much, too full of legal shenanigans.

I don't much care for the Special Victims Unit series either. Maybe I am too squeamish. I don't enjoy the tales of torture.

Criminal Intent is the series I like best. Straight forward murder and robbery, and it ends with a confession, no trial necessary.

The shows all run at a very fast clip. Sometimes the characters don't get to finish what they are saying before they have to hang up the phone in order to make their next line. And things jump from one scene to another lickety-split, a conversation will close with a telling remark that will lead immediately to the next scene where someone is being arrested. All the intervening filler is stripped from the story. Only the essential highlights are portrayed. The plots are often complex, with multiple scenes and multiple characters. Some stories will jump from one character to another and never land in the same spot twice. Others will go way out and then return to an earlier character.

There are always a few bits you can count on. The interview where someone knocks on the door and interrupts the questioning to hand the detectives a new lead. Detective Goren pulling out some really obscure bit of knowledge, displaying his erudite education. Goren wafting the air by the victim towards his nose and picking up some obscure smell that gives them a clue. I am sure there are many more, but those are the ones I notice.

One of the more interesting bits is when a character displays some falsity. You know they are hiding something. What is really interesting is how well the actor does it. It is usually very subtle, but of course it stands out in the show like a red flag. But trying to pin down just what they did that made them appear to be hiding something, well now, that is the part I cannot describe. Some shows you never see this in the "perp", they portray innocence to the end. Some people lie with a perfectly straight face, and you only find out about because the show explicitly exposes their lie.

Often we will look at the synopsis before we start watching and we won't be able to decide whether we have seen it before or not, so we will start watching it. The show may run for five or ten minutes before we have seen enough to recognize the characters and the story. Most other shows we can recognize much sooner. I suspect this is because the Law & Order jumps around so much. Sometimes I will keep watching the show, even though I know I have seen it before just because there is so much that I don't remember. But eventually it all starts to fall into place and at that point I turn it off.

NBC has a blog with a cool picture of all of the players.

Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.