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I just left this comment in [livejournal.com profile] 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. [livejournal.com profile] 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.

Why not CI?

Date: 2009-02-25 02:03 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Because the two episodes I managed to endure featured a lead detective who was painful, absolutely painful for me to listen to. It's as if he wanted to be Columbo and Monk together, and it caused me to want to tear my ears off. His female partner was absolutely bland as bananas by comparison, and appeared to have all the independent thought of a ready-made foil. Two episodes turned me off that show and I purged even the names of the characters from my brain almost immediately and have never looked back.

L&O:SVU is creepy and makes me writhe with uncomfortableness. I have not managed to force myself to see Trial by Jury or Crime and Punishment - at a certain point, enough is enough!

I have roommates who love Boston Legal, and the episodes I've seen/had to listen to by virtue of the nearness of the television to my room and the thinness of walls were very funny, but it's not something I feel compelled to follow. We have to get everything on DVD anyway due to not paying for cable and having crappy reception even before the Great Digital Shift.

Dwim

Re: Why not CI?

Date: 2009-02-25 06:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] altariel.livejournal.com
Aw, poor Goren (weird lead) and Eames (wise-cracking sidekick)! They're one of my favourite detective pairings, but I totally understand how he could set teeth on edge.

I watched Trial by Jury for the sake of completeness, but it was pretty unmemorable. Crime and Punishment hasn't reached these shores yet. SVU is a nasty, voyeuristic show.

BL can wait till after your thesis when you need to let your brain rest! It's coming to an end soon, so it's not like you'll be chasing to catch up. Shatner's finest hour (as I type I'm watching original Trek, 'Mirror, Mirror', and realizing he's nowhere near as bad as I remembered him).

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