Law and Order and the Soda Police

Yes, this is the bias that drove me crazy about Law and Order--any version of it. The criminal was never a minority, or the homeless person, or the career criminal scum bag--the criminal was usually, 1) a religious, pious person, 2) the spouse, 3) a policeman or a judge or 4) a family member. Ripped from the headlines--oh yeah!

[Law and Order: SUV, Oct. 13] "Not only is she [the dead victim] guilty of killing children with soda, she’s also guilty of building gyms for underprivileged communities in her corporation’s name. Good thing she’s dead! In true Law & Order form, the episode has a (predictable) twist: it seems that Lindsay wasn’t killed for her soda-peddling after all, but over a personal grudge. Yet the real message of the episode is clear: soda is the new tobacco. It’s the monster in the closet; it’s coming for your children; and it’s to blame for whatever’s wrong with your life.

ObamaTV on NBC: ‘Law & Order: Soda Police’

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Bad dreams

We rarely see Law and Order in a current season, so we didn't see the 2005-2006 season finale until last night. It was really awful. I left the room and went to bed it was so brutal and vicious. Checking the show blogs and story lines this morning, I see that in April, 2006, Annie Parisse, who was playing Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Borgia, gave her notice because it looked like the show wasn't going to be renewed--or possibly, she was just tired after 34 episodes of the dumb lines and ugly clothes they always write for the ADA who does all the grunt work for McCoy, no matter who plays the part--Jill Hennessey, Angie Harmon, Carey Lowell or Elizabeth Rohm. Like a lot of series where women play the second banana, they are expected to look good if they peel. I never thought Elizabeth Rohm (the ADA before Parisse) was a very good actress, but she was stunning. I'm sure it was a surprise to her in her final episode to discover she was a lesbian--sure was to me. Smack her around a bit, Mr. Wolf; make sure the audience will always remember that just in case anyone casts her in a romantic lead. Sam Waterston and Jerry Orbach aren't pretty guys, how come they don't have beauty standards for men?

Annie Parisse (whose brother married Sam Waterston's daughter, according to Wikipedia) is not just brutally and graphically murdered in the final 2006 episode, but is found in a dumpster, not unlike the usual opening scene, mouth duct taped, having aspirated her own vomit and with her face bashed in. I hope they used a mannequin, because if it had been me, I would have refused that scene. Man, they were really mad at her!

I think it is time for Law and Order, all versions, to close up shop. Women, conservatives, anyone religious but especially Christians, and all honest and ethical law enforcement personnel should change channels; those are the folks either ridiculed, besmirched or written off as evil. No more reruns for me.

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Damages

is a first season thriller series on FX cable with a stunning cast and a heart in your throat story line that is as current and biased as today's headlines. I saw it for the first (and I hope last) time on Oct. 20 when the entire season was on a marathon, with the final episode next Tuesday. The cast includes Glenn Close and Ted Danson, both at their evil best. I've seen both of them in TV series and movies, and they've never been better.

This Saturday, FX is running the entire first season (up to now) of its legal thriller Damages as an all-day marathon, which means theoretically there will be viewers who will get to experience this show the way it might work best: as a rock ’em, sock ’em miniseries, compounding all of the story’s elaborate and sometimes preposterous shocks and twists into a roller-coaster ride that doesn’t require waiting a week between chapters. TV Guide blog

Yes, I tuned in during the episode where one of the main characters (also evil) blows his head off. Messy stuff, both his personal life, and what the make-up guys had to do. So of course, I had to google it and watch the next episode. But it did cause me to do some heavy thinking about how we use our leisure time in our comfortable living rooms or home theaters.

This may be the one area where I agree with the fundamentalist Muslims--our entertainment culture (TV, music, gaming, movies, theater) in the west is the most God-awful, slime pit you can imagine, and it is addictive, sucking in even those who know it is bad and soul-rotting--people like me, little old ladies who grew up in the 50s without a television set and never missed it. The sides of this pit are cascading body fluids, diseases, feces, drugs, money, evil intentions, violence, putrid souls and blood, a thick goo that has been building up well over 50 years on walls sloped to make it impossible to climb out or return to a safer era. Even a terrifically performed ensemble cast like "Ugly Betty" filled with surprise and charm, and a delightfully innocent and pure main character, has at its base wild sexual escapades and power-driven, one-dimensional characters, formed by their own excesses, but with enough redeeming qualities that the viewer soon gets sucked into the story line. All the versions of the decade old "Law and Order" feature not only incredible violence and evil, but the most evil characters are often those most religious or most loving, such as a parent, spouse, or child--a poster for family violence and evil Christians.

So today, in my One Year Bible, October 21, I read in Paul's letter of advice to Timothy, a young pastor:

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. . ."

All Christians, whether baptized as infants and confirmed before witnesses later, or baptized as a believer before witnesses, have made a confession to follow Jesus' teachings. This trash we call entertainment could not survive without the support of Christians (however they call themselves--liberal, conservative, evangelical, main-line, fundamentalist). We make another confession to the entertainment god when we tacitly and often eagerly agree to worship heaps of stinking garbage on a daily basis.

Damages FX