- Criminal Intent: Keeping it in the Class (and Race and Gender): The latest episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent took on the Duke Lacrosse team rape case. When NBC was producing the show, this would have been a tricky premise for them to carry off (seeing as the real life case resembled a bad episode of of L&O). With the USA Network team, it proved to be a disaster. This episode contained: A working class American young woman of Dominican descent who’s been raped, supposedly by Ivy League college football players. Oh, ... READ MORE
- Law & Order: SVU – “Taken”: Since I’ve criticized Law & Order: SVU without citing examples in the past, I promised a while ago to watch an episode and write about it. Today I finally got around to doing that. I know this show can do better than the episode I saw today, so I’m not representing this as absolutely typical. It’s just a good example of when they fall well below my idea of a reasonable standard in sexual assault storylines. The episode was “Taken”. A ... READ MORE
- Troubling aspects of Law & Order: At this site, we usually stick to the topic of how women are being (mis)represented in film and TV, because that’s our chosen focus. We often reference in passing how other groups are being slighted, too, but we don’t talk about it in depth. I’m going to make an exception because I’ve had a lot of positive things to say about the treatment of women on Law & Order: Criminal Intent recently, and I’m likely to have a few more ... READ MORE
- Wheeler’s got what I wanted for Carter: Long ago when I first started watching Stargate SG-1, I was under the impression Sam was a serious, competent female military officer who had a fascinating mentor-student relationship with Jack, her equally competent, if sometimes goofy, commanding officer. It was up to Jack to either pass onto her the skills men had passed onto one another for centuries, or subtly stonewall her. For three seasons, a respectful partnership was clearly implied, if under-explored. Then things started to go seriously awry. I’m finally ... READ MORE
- Why does SVU beat the other L&O’s in ratings?: Naturally, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent are facing the possibility of cancellation while Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has already been renewed. Fans have started a petition to keep Criminal Intent on the air, but Dick Wolf seems more concerned about the old series. I’ll state my bias up front just so you know. For me, the original series jumped the shark when they decided to create sleazy and trope-ridden romantic tension between two of ... READ MORE
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent – To the Bone: I’m scared of Whoopi Goldberg. It’s only temporary. I’ve known she was a fine dramatic actor ever since The Color Purple, but she plays quite possibly the most chilling criminal in the entire Law & Order franchise in an episode called “To the Bone.” The episode also shows women relating to men in ways other than mom, victim or lover, so there’s a lot to talk about. Spoilers below the “more” tag.
- The Kincaid Effect: You’re watching a series. There’s a good female character in it that you enjoyed all last season. She made sense; she had flaws; she had strengths. She didn’t bang her male boss. They were true colleagues. It rocked. Then the man who played the her boss left the show, and they brought in a new boss character for her. Upon their first meeting, she tirades at him about how he’s slept with all his female assistants, but that won’t be happening ... READ MORE
- Why I hate L&O:SVU: Betacandy wrote a post last week praising an episode of Law & Order: CI, and within the comments I mentioned that I have deep misgivings about the Special Victims branch of the franchise, which focusses on (what else?) sex crimes. It’s not so much that a show entirely about sexual violence (or violence with sexual elements) almost inevitably becomes focussed on and driven by the shock value of just how sick some people can be–though that’s certainly true, and a part ... READ MORE
- Law & Order: CI “Blind Spot”: THIS POST CONTAINS TOTAL SPOILERS FOR L&O:CI EPISODE “BLIND SPOT”. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. A fairly recent episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent found a new use for female characters, and gave Eames a helluva chance to be her own hero. In this episode, a serial killer case had brought Goren back in contact with a childhood friend – Jo (Martha Plimpton) – and criminal profiling mentor – Jo’s father, Declan. On any other show, I’d have ... READ MORE
- Criminal Intent: Bishop: When Kathryn Erbe went on real-life maternity leave, so did her character, Detective Alex Eames. For several episodes, Erbe’s part was drastically reduced or non-existent, and the police squad brought in a temporary replacement for Eames. This is a tricky proposition for any show: you don’t want to bring in someone that’ll turn the audience off, but you also don’t want the audience to like the replacement more than the star. The powers that be behind Law & Order: ... READ MORE
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