In a criminal justice system...

My trusty college roommate Taylor read my most recent blog post about the conveniences some writers afford themselves in TV and movies and wanted to know if I see any of these reality missteps in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She asks this because Taylor, myself, and my two other senior year roommates have probably seen every episode of the show ever made. By the end of last year, SVU marathons on USA became us watching the first 30 seconds of every episode before one of us proclaimed: "Seen it."


I am sure SVU writers do plenty to circumvent real-life legalities, but the problem is, I know absolutely nothing about the real-life criminal justice system. At least when I called out medical dramas in my last post, I had stepped foot in a doctor's office, spent some time in a hospital, waited around for hours in an ER...


But when it comes to legal dramas...I, luckily enough, have never stepped foot in a court room, nor had any sort of brief or extended stay at a police station, jail or prison.


That being said, I've noticed some recurrences in Law & Order: SVU that maybe you guys have picked up on too. To keep things somewhat brief, I'll highlight my favorite two. I know good writing always means you give three examples...so I'm sorry if this post leaves you feeling unbalanced. Maybe you should come up with a third on your own!


One thing I have gotten used to on L&O: SVU is pinpointing who did the crime by who the most famous character in the show is. SVU can have a lot of plot twists. There have been times where I never could have imagined the final outcome (i.e. when the husband of a "disabled" woman pushes her and her wheelchair into their pool and she can actually swim...crazyy!!) BUT, you can bet your crime-solving butt that if James Van Der Beek is the cameo this week, he's the bad guy. That episode is almost ruined from the time you see a kind-of-celebrity's name show up in the opening credits. Almost though. It's still always a rare treat to see Robin Williams play an overzealous crazy man who has a talent for changing his voice...oh wait.


Now, my ultimate favorite thing (well, person really) that you can count on running into in not only every SVU episode, but in every regular Law & Order (R.I.P.) episode as well, is the focused worker. It's my favorite because it's so reliable.


The scene usually goes something like this: the detectives, let's say Olivia and Elliot, pull up to the work place of someone they wish to question about a recent murder. Usually they end up at the back door of a meat packing plant, or next to a delivery truck being loaded up on the curb, or in a library. Now, it's not that I don't think a butcher, a delivery man, and a librarian have extremely important jobs. I'm sure they're on a very tight schedule. But let me remind you...we're talking about MURDER right now. So Olivia and Elliot start going back and forth asking questions "Where were you last Wednesday night?" "Did you notice anything unusual about your truck?" "Have you ever seen this bloody t-shirt before?" and the person being questioned will not stop what they are doing for 10 seconds to answer these questions. Olivia and Elliot have to chase the 70 year old librarian through the children's section just to get her to answer "I was crocheting in bed when I heard a loud thump coming from the apartment above me." Is your job really that important? Because these questions are sometimes quite literally a matter of life and death. But no, really, repair men are ALWAYS on time, so hurry hurry, wouldn't want to ruin your perfect record!


Anyone have a third one so other people reading this don't feel like I left them hanging? (I recently have taken to blaming Obama for people always expecting examples, descriptions and action items in 3's. Listen for it next time he makes a speech. And appreciate the fact that I struggled extra hard to come up with the term "action items" so I could give 3 things that audiences expect.)




"In a criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories."
-Random Narrator, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit


...typed that up from memory. No biggie.