Nov 19 2008
Life and Law & Order
Life was obviously written from/for the male viewpoint this week. The story centered around a murdered “Badge Bunny”–one of a group of women who are obsessed with policemen and pretty much act as their geisha girls. Sensational enough, but then they have to have Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) “interviewing” them by having them all over to his house to make out with him and swim naked in his pool. Yeah, okay. I realize they painted him as something of a womanizer last year, but the whole scenario just rang false. The best part of the episode was watching Detective Reese (Sarah Shahi) seethe every time she came near this vapid pack of police fangirls. You could just feel the disgust rolling off of her. She at least gave us the female point of view we could identify with, amidst a man’s fantasy playground episode.
As for Law & Order, I’ve been meaning to give a shout-out to one of the newer cast members, Linus Roache. A talented Brit, I’ve been longing to see more of him ever since his compelling turn in Chronicles of Riddick. He has a great face, with a sort of permanent melancholy/world weariness that he’s able to project, and large soulful eyes. It was a delight to discover that he’d be appearing on my TV screen every week. As you’ll see in the interview below, he knows well the challenges of stepping into Sam Waterston’s shoes:
The problem seems to be that the show writers aren’t entirely sure what to do with his character Michael Cutter, as opposed to Jack McCoy (Waterston). I was very excited when he was first introduced and Cutter had a bit of a fan worship going for McCoy, but seemed to have less of that cutthroat edge McCoy is famous for. I liked that about him, that he was maybe going to have some lines he wouldn’t cross and it would set up a good balance between he and McCoy. Then a few episodes in, they decided he was going to be more fanatical than McCoy and take more risks. The writers seemed to be flipping their characters, pushing McCoy into the more political role and making Cutter the wild card. Perhaps the showrunnerss felt that viewers were used to a get-the-win-at-all-costs ADA and needed Cutter to be that guy.
Certainly, as Roache suggests, McCoy was a non-political guy who ended up in a position he said he’d never be in. We expect his character to change, so it’s not totally off the mark that he’d consider taking the PR route occasionally. I just think it would have been nice to have Cutter carve out his own niche, and while he has his moments, sometimes it feels like he’s being constantly overshadowed. Waterston’s such a Law & Order fixture that I feel like he’s in the episodes a lot more than previous DAs, and Roache doesn’t get as much of a chance to take center stage. I also would have appreciated a more sensitive edge, which Roache is so good at, rather than the cooler angle they started going for.
Law & Order definitely needed a shake-up, and with the four newest castmembers they’ve managed to create a different dynamic. The Law & Order formula is still intact, but we’ve got some new personalities to work out and explore. That helps make the show worth tuning in for.
Watch Life and Law & Order on Wednesdays on NBC, starting at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central.
