Jonathan asks us who our Law and Order dream team would be.
Hmmmmm.
This is a toughie for me mainly because I quit watching a while back, so my choices are bound to seem dated. I stopped watching because if I had to listen to the phrase "Ripped From the Headlines!!!!" one more time I was going to gag. It was one thing for the writers to use real cases as an inspiration for their plotlines and to examine them from that angle, but it was another thing entirely to advertise it. It was like going from subtle tap on the head that asked us, politely, to pay attention, to being knocked over with a sledgehammer. Highly annoying. One of my all-time favorite Law and Order episodes was the one where they fictionalized the Tawana Brawley incident. Richard Brooks' assistant AD Paul Robinette was stuck between the proverbial rock of being a black man and the hard place of defending the law. It was a brilliant performance and one that sticks out clearly in my mind, all these years later. Even thought the writers were fictionalizing a real-life case, they did it with class and grace and no viewpoint was left untended. But at no point did they advertise this episode as "Ripped From the Headlines!" It was what it was, and it was brilliant.
The urge to make a Law and Order franchise struck down the integrity of this show, in my humble opinion. That's why I stopped watching. Bringing on a Baywatch babe only sealed the deal for me.
That said, however, here's my dream team.
The law side:
Chris Noth (with Benjamin Bratt a close second)
The order side:
Steven Hill (Dianne Wiest or Fred Thompson? Ha! I think not!)
Michael Moriarty (Sam Waterson is great. Don't get me wrong. I just get the feeling if I ever had to be around McCoy on the show, I'd be showered in spittle every time he decided to get righteous. Bleh.)
Jill Hennessy (With Richard Brooks a very close second. A very close second. In fact, I'd love to see them bring him back and put him in the Waterson/Moriarty slot. Claire's dead. (or so they say! I never saw a body!) I can't say the same for her.)
Posted by Kathy at February 18, 2005 01:16 PM