Random Thoughts on Law & Order: SVU

[Enforcer]

I still like the original the best...even though Elisabeth Rohm can't act her way out of a wet paper bag. She's just awful...but hey, they at least replaced DA Nora with someone interesting! Still, give me back Adam Schiff and ADA Jamie _______ (you know, the short-haired one with the beautiful blue eyes).

Even Rohm isn't as awful as good ol' Vincent D'Annoying. I understand that his character is supposed to be a smarmy know-it-all, I just can't stand watching it. I'll start watching Criminal Intent if he starts getting punched in the face every episode by people he's just met. At least that would make his character more realistic.

SVU is good, but not as great as the original. But yeah, Wong is the bomb.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

*searching web*

Ahhh, so that's who Elisabeth Rohm is... Agree, she can't act.

Which of the assistants to Jack McCoy was the one killed by a drunk driver?

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Which of the assistants to Jack McCoy was the one killed by a drunk driver?

the first one, I believe it was Jamie Kincaid. There is much fan suposition that she and Jack were romanticly involved. In a later ep, Jack overzealously prosecutes a drunk driver and Lenny tells the new assistant about Kincaid - the driver who killed her got something like 18 months at either a minumum security prison, or a treatment facility. (I forget the name but it was made to sound quite cushy...) The new assistant brings Jack arround to seeing that he is just seeking revenge by proxy, and he scuttles his own case at the end of the trial.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Cor Azer]

the first one, I believe it was Jamie Kincaid. There is much fan suposition that she and Jack were romanticly involved. In a later ep, Jack overzealously prosecutes a drunk driver and Lenny tells the new assistant about Kincaid - the driver who killed her got something like 18 months at either a minumum security prison, or a treatment facility. (I forget the name but it was made to sound quite cushy...) The new assistant brings Jack arround to seeing that he is just seeking revenge by proxy, and he scuttles his own case at the end of the trial.

Kahuna Burger

Claire Kincaid. The actress (Jill Hennesey) now stars in Crossing Jordan.

Jaime Ross followed her as an assitant to McCoy.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Claire Kincaid. The actress (Jill Hennesey) now stars in Crossing Jordan.

Jaime Ross followed her as an assitant to McCoy.

ah, I get all the brunettes mixed up but was more comfortable on the last name, thank you.

I caught an episode of crossing jordan which guest starred Chris Noth aka the dark haired irish cop of the first several seasons. It was like old home day on L&O.

(damn, now I can't remember the character's name...)

edit: Mike logan! behold the power of google!

Kahuna Burger

 

[Atridis]

I was late on the SVU bandwagon. I found Mariska Hargitay's character on ER so irritating that I couldn't believe she could lead a show. Silly me. Now I watch SVU more than the other L&Os.

+1 for B.D. Wong. Yay for Asian-American characters who aren't simply "the Chinese Guy" (you know the one - he speaks Chinese, he knows all the important people in Chinatown, either he knows martial arts or he pointedly does not, etc).

+1 for Stephanie March. I missed the ep in which Cabot went into witness protection, the first time it aired. The first time I saw Novak, I actually shouted "who the f*** is that?!" out loud. But I have to admit that Diane Neal is growing on me.

+1 for Carey Lowell. The best of the assistants, imo. Best looking, too.

+1 for Vincent D'Onofrio. Whatever you think of Goren, you have to give him his props for Full Metal Jacket and that ep of Homicide. And I dig Criminal Intent's modern-day Sherlock Holmes thing.

 

[Crothian]

I really like L%O and SVU, but CI is just too convient for me. There always seems to be some really obscure fact or event that breaks the case, and it's always solved by the guy. It's like the other characters are just there because they feel they need other characters.

 

[jasamcarl]

My L&O rankings:

1) Original: Still has the most tightly constructed stories and the most tenable and interesting legal scenarios.

2) CI: The most charasmatic lead, which serves its Columbo-like storylines well. Smart, but perhaps a bit too smart..and stylized. Proves that it is often harder to write the mundane than the ridiculous.

3) SVU: Spends waaayyyy too much time on characters who are really no better developed than the standard L&O twist catylst. The targets and themes of the scripts are way too easy and skew the show to an overly sentimental vibe. "HEY!! WHAT CONTRIVED DISGUSTING YET ULTIMATLY DERIVITAVE SCENARIO CAN OUR PERVERTED WRITERS COME UP WITH NEXT!!" The only saving grace of this show is that it preserves some of Homocide's look; in fact, the urbane, multiethnic characters (more Levinson then Wolf) in their secondary roles evoke more for me than the self-righteous musings of the leads.... And they are funny.But the LO/Homocide hybrid formula has been steadily receding since 1st season. All in all, I have to say I hate this show.

 

[Joshua Randall]

1) The preview for next weeks episode... Benson may have HIV.

I rarely watch SVU, but I happened to catch an episode in which Benson tried to save an HIV-positive woman who had committed suicide. There was blood everywhere and he got some in an open wound on his hand. At the end of that ep, he was getting an HIV test, but since I don't regularly watch the show I never saw the followup (if there was one). I guess now we know....

I agree that it's an overused plot. (Main character has terminal illness / debilitating disease / rare, incurable foot fungus / etc.)