Law & Order

Starting in September 2009, I will be yet again sitting down waiting in anticipation for the new series of the old American classic, "Law & Order". This year is the veginnings of it's 20th (!!!) season on American television, thereby making it the joint longest running primetime drama in American television history, and as everyone knows, it's not exactly easy keeping your show popular in the US. What's even harder, is keeping a show going that long, as the public knows, popular shows such as Scrubs, Desperate Housewives, even the supposed favourites such as Channel 4's Big Brother, struggle beyond the 5th season. They can still be popular, no question about it...however the strength in writing seems to start going downhill, or you begin to think you have seen it all before. Scrubs has even poked fun at themselves through the episode "My Deja Vu, My Deja Vu" where they admit they are running out of storylines. So the ability to keep a series still going strongly intowards 20 seasons is an amazing achievement. So how is it done?
The creator, Dick Wolf, has regularly admitted that the STORY, not the actors, are important. The premise is simplicity. The first half of the show is devoted to two detectives and their boss investigating a crime, quite often murder. They will find evidence and arrest a suspect usually half an hour into the show. This is the Law half, the second half is devoted to the District Attorney and his assistant trying to prosecute the suspect, with their boss helping them. A simple premise that has been used with varying circumstances for 433 episodes and a feature length TV-Movie. But what makes it more astounding, is that of the original 6 main characters in the first episode, of the first season, all of them have been replaced.

Since the Senior Detective Sgt Max Greevey debuted in the first episode, he has been replaced by 5 other actors. Since the Junior Detective Mike Logan debuted, he has been replaced by 6 other actors. Since the debut of Captain Donald Cragen, he has been replaced by Lt. Van Buren, who is now approaching her 17th season of Law & Order. Since the introduction of Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone, he has been replace by 2 actors, including the famed Jack McCoy, the second longest running character at 15 seasons. Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette was introduced and has been replaced by 6 actresses during the 2o seasons. And finally, the District Attorney, Alfred Wentworth, who appeared in just the pilot, has been replace by 4 other actors, including the famed Jack McCoy. This is an example of how the actors aren't the main part, but the premise and storylines. Since the 90's, Law & Order has been succesful enough to spin-off two shows, Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, which follows similar premises and have reached their 10th and 8th succesful seasons.

The creator, Dick Wolf, when asked why he feels the show has done so well, had this to say: "Most shows when debuted, are the equivalent of a 100 yard dash, hitting the ground running and eventually running out of steam. Law & Order, however, is the equivalent of a marathon, it's prepared for the long run." And despite the fact that the story and premise is supposed to be the main focus, the characters are all 3-dimensional with backgrounds ranging from recovering alcoholics, sons of abusive fathers, divorced mother, grandparents, ex-gamblers, all with a slight hint that resonates with real life people. They are all perfectly imperfect characters, with a perfect premise, that draws an audience in again and again. For people with an interest in intelligent crime dramas where the storylines matter, but with realistic characters, this should be a show for you. And shall surely be drawn in, from the first moment you hear "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."

A review of..... Lost: La Fleur - SPOILERS (obviously)

Remember grizzled, sarcastic, pain-in-the-ass Sawyer?...nope neither do I. At least not after La Fleur. I'm guessing the choice of name was no coincidence- James Ford's old alter ego is now dead and we are left with soft sensitive Jim La Fleur and with all the twists and turns that Lost offers up, the biggest surprise this episode is just how well Sawyer suits sensitive.

'La Fleur' is thankfully Sawyer centric, which is a welcome breath of fresh air as season four was criminally short on Sawyer. Although it could have centered around any of the 'Island crew' and it would have been a hundred times better than any o6 episode. Even the likable o6 members are getting tired and as for Kate and Jack you almost have to respect the writers for keeping them as central characters when their popularity has plummeted. They are needed, I get that but just so annoying. Hell! At least it's enjoyable to watch the them suffer!

Luckily unlike the o6 Sawyer's fate seems to be pretty good, in fact, with the exception of poor Danial who's heart brake over loosing Charlotte was genuinely touching, everyone seems to be loving the 70s. Jin is finally interacting with more characters now he can speak English well, Sawyer is head of security for Dahma and playing house pretty convincingly with Juliet.

Of cause they can't play Brady Bunch forever. Along come the o6 to complicate things and Horace's (love him, not sure why) question "is three years long enough to get over someone?" is fresh in Sawyer's mind. Well, personally I damn well hope so. I'd rather say something rude about Keamy's mum and suffer the results than sit through any more Jack, Sawyer, Kate angst. And after Daniel and Charlot's o so sweet relationship was cut rudely short I couldn't take it.

Although this episode was light on plot there were so many good character moments it was a real high note to go out on one week hiatus with. Besides, a bit of a brake from the Linus/Hawking/Widmore mind fu*kary is pretty welcome. It got the story where it needed to be in a artful engaging way- what Lost does best at the moment. All survivors are now back together, likewise the action and we have at last stopped the time travel. Whilst it's a shame this means the tantalising glimpse of the 4 toed statue will be the last and therefore there are no chances of a story line where Kate gets bloodily sacrificed by an ancient culture, the time jump cut off in the 70s worked out nicely. There will be three years of island life now for the writers to explore and it's given our islanders time to develop together. Plus it opens doors for lots of mystery solving involving the 1970's crew, like where did Adam and Eve (skeletons in the cave) come from?

The time travel was a huge risk for the writers and so far they have avoided any massive plot holes. It is incredible but they really have pulled it off. OK so it may have slightly 'jumped the shark' plot wise, but they jumped it with style! Lost is still keeping it fresh and me on the edge of my seat.

New questions: So John's resurrection was a given but there is new intrigue from this seasons 'suspicious newbee with ulterior motives' Cesar. I would be tired of another character like this but Dan, Charlotte and Miles have fast become my favorites, (we better not have seen the last of Charlotte) so fingers crossed.

Plus, for the love of Jacobe, who are the giant statue building-4 toed civilisation? (we are so never going to get the answer to that.)

A Review Of.....Aspirational T.V. Teens

If you have ever seen Charlie Brooker's amazing rant on aspirational TV you may have an idea of where I'm going with this. Having grown up watching various different long running American T.V. shows, one major difference between my life and theirs began to occur to me. Not the fact that generally they are all loaded (The O.C, 91210, Gossip Girl- it just makes easier for writers/producers as they are not limited by pesky reality), it's the fact that their central characters all seem to have one God given talent or dream that they can follow their heart to achieve.

In The O.C. Ryan was a gifted architect and Seth a born graphic artist who had a comic published and had met George Lucas by the second series (although to be fair Marisa did help to balance things a bit). Today's version, Gossip Girl is no better, Dan has always wanted to be a writer, although his stuff sounds mind numbing. His sister, Jenny/irritatingly angelic goodie godie/ irritatingly whinging teen/ irritatingly two faced bitch girl, is focused on fashion, and luckily for her she is already more talented than an Blair's Mum, an established designer. Really? Chloe On Smallville has always been after a Journalism career, likewise Rory on Gilmore Girls. Dawson from the Creek was making films before he could breath for God's sake!...I could go on. In fact the only T.V. American teens that don't have a dream either have some kind of supernatural calling or are 'IT' girls with issues.

By far the worst offender of this trend though has to be One Tree Hill. Lucas again wants to be a writer (an excuse for pretentious voice overs with all manner of intellectual quoting going on, just to prove that he maybe pretty, but he's still smart, honest). Brooke is again a talented fashion designer. Peyton makes up for the struggle she must have had in life from having such a ridiculous name by having two amazing talents, she rocks the decks and is an artistic prodigy. Haley is the worst of all with a singing career that rockets with ease.

Now I know that a lot of people who are talented find those talents early and know what they want as soon as they can crawl, but seriously, those must account of at most 20% of people. The rest of us are left to muddle through life feeling horrifyingly inadequate that we haven't had our life goal in place since nursery and are left to wonder when our special talent will emerge and if one never does does that make us useless?

What exactly are writers trying to achieve with this? They may be able to claim that it encourages goals and striving for your dreams. However dreams are a whole lot harder to achieve when you can't write in convenient plot twists that boost you to stardom. No doubt having a dream is a good thing, but for a lot of people they are stumbled on at different times of life- not handily pre-ordained, and I fail to see how pushing that idea is healthy.

UK T.V. teen shows are generally a lot better where this is concerned, proving that it is not a necessary plot device. 'As If' was full of confused complicated characters, in 'Hollyoaks' kids are mostly dealing with normal , if exaggerated, teen things, Grange Hill, Bicker Grove (What? I'm a child of the Nighties- P.j. & Duncan NOT Ant &Dec) even Neighbours from the ozzy end of things present real-ish young people that you can identify with not feel inferior to.

Not entirely free of the whole aspiration business and maybe in a worse way though is Skins (pictured above- just look at the pictures next to each other and ask which show looks more 'real' to you. I rest my case). Amazing show though it is and as much as it American rivals dead in the water quality and reality wise, it does have it's own aspirational quality. If I watch one episode I am left thinking "Damn, I never had that much Sex, Drugs and Rock and Role going on in my life- clearly I went wrong somewhere".

Well to everyone who, like me wonders why they are not as confident, focused or talented as the shiny people on T.V. The real people who have a million things they love to do, or are good at diverse things from maths to drama, people who have talents but have to keep them as hobbies and make their money elsewhere. Well if you are one of these people and are wondering if they are wrong in some way, well I find listening to sunscreen usually helps. Baz Lerman produced it, God bless him. I really hope the song is right. I think the woman who wrote it is an Angel.