[PEN-L:11973] Re: Big mouth

[J Cullen <reporter@xxxxxxxx>]

Law and Order, like nearly all cop shows, is inherently conservative, but
at least it provides some nuances. It is likely to show judges throwing out
evidence for what appears to be capricious reasons, but the judges also
occasionally tilt toward the prosecution. My major criticism is that the
public defenders on Law and Order appear to be capable and smart enough to
file exclusionary motions, research cases and stay awake during court
proceedings. Here in Texas they are likely to pull in a civil lawyer off
the street and give him $500 to prepare and present a capital defense. The
New York Public Defender's Office may have more resources but I bet it's
squeezed, too.

As I recall, didn't Michael Moriarity, who used to play the chief
prosecutor, walk off the show in a dispute with the producers because of
the rightward tilt?

I agree with Max Sawicky that Homicide is a better show and more likely to
deal with ambiguity. Its detectives have, for example, gone back to clear a
man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and who had been on death row
for years. And even after the evidence clearing him was submitted, they
noted that it would take time to get him a court hearing and release.
Homicide is more likely to go into why someone committed a crime.

However, you can go too far with moral ambiguity and conflicted
personalities, witness the fate of EZ Streets, where you never could figure
out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, and there was no
guarantee that those distinctions would be revealed anytime soon.

I would bet on something like the toilet-plunger case appearing on one or
the other of the cop shows this fall. But cops and/or prosecutors will end
up as good guys in that episode, because that is the only way that
producers think they can sell the shows.

-- Jim Cullen

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