Law and Order: UK

[altariel]

I just left this comment in communicator's post on Law and Order: UK, and since it pretty much sums up what I thought, I'm copying, tweaking, and pasting.

As you know, Bob, I adore Law and Order, and I thought this was a pretty decent stab at it. I felt there weren't quite enough twists in the police story (L&O generally weaves around a hell of a lot in the first 20 minutes) and there was the notorious stock TV scene-ender at one point ("Oh, and [character]?" [character pauses at door and looks back questioningly] "Thanks." [character beams and leaves]) [1].

The legal scenes didn't capture that sense of civic society being constructed and enacted in the court-room (which programmes like L&O and Boston Legal do so well); partly because we, er, don't do that so much in the UK. mraltariel was saying last night that given the UK court system is about weighing competing narratives, it might work better dramatically to have cutaways as people gave evidence, like in Without a Trace.

[1] As noted in Rusty's The Writer's Tale.

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I wonder if most of the weakness of the show is simply that it's trying to apply the constraints of the L&O franchise formula in the wrong cultural background

That was exactly what I was hoping for when I heard this was being made: the strength of the plotting of original L&O, but with a serious attempt to think about how the legal aspect would work in the British context.

When I saw Chris Chibnall's name attached to the project, I set my expectation rating down to sub-Deed. Which meant that the episode the other night was actually a pleasant surprise.

But what I want, what I really really want, is what it says in the title: Law and Order: UK, not Law and Order: Imported from the US With Not Much Thought to How that Transplant Would Work. I think it could be done, but I suppose you'd have to be fairly gutsy to say, "Well, yes, I know this is one of the world's most successful franchise formats, but it ain't going to work here, for these reasons."

[manna]

See, if it had had anywhere close to the cracktastic glee of Deed (or Torchwood), I would've dealt with the awful plotting. But it was just a bit shit, and life's too short to waste on TV that's just a bit shit.

I'll just stick to Cold Case, I think. They're running a 'best of' selection on some channel at the moment which actually seems to have some of the best ones in it.

I think it could be done, but I suppose you'd have to be fairly gutsy to say, "Well, yes, I know this is one of the world's most successful franchise formats, but it ain't going to work here, for these reasons."

Do you really think it would be doable? I'm not sure. I think by the time you'd finish ripping out the parts of L&O which don't work in the UK, there'd be so little recognisably L&O left that L&O fans would be disappointed. And people who don't like L&O would still be avoiding it because of the name, so you'd be screwed both ways.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Do you really think it would be doable?

Oh totally. L&O's distinctiveness really comes from the three-act structure:

1. police
2. police and lawyers
3. courtroom

That structure would work fine, if the second act had the CPS batting the case back until the police had enough evidence (rather than the lawyers out doing investigating), which is what L&O often does anyway. And the third act was more like Crown Court. I actually think TV could do with a good courtroom-drama-of-the-week.

At least they kept the "doink doinks".