New show 'Law & Order: SVU Los Angeles' divides fans

Hollywood, CA - NBC's police procedural "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Los Angeles" has only been on for nine weeks, but already people fall into only two camps: love it or hate it.

The show, which chronicles a team of sexual crimes investigators in the LA / Hollywood area of California, has seen mixed reviews from fans but is still developing a significant following and likely to be continued into season 2.

The stories are often based on current headlines and portrayals of how they are really handled by police. Critics agree the cases are realistic, with one calling it "way too realistic."

Not all fans are convinced this makes good TV. Of the episodes so far only one has resulted in a prosecution and the main plot twists and suspense on the show appears to be the excuses used to not bring cases to trial.

As blogger stay_up_l@te puts it, "I'm not sure crime dramas need more reality; I watch these shows because I like when they get the bad guys. Instead, every week we are getting reasons why the criminals and sickos can't be brought to trial: one week it was faulty recording equipment, one week they lost the paperwork, another week the victim didn't seem believable... It goes on and on. Too much like real life, but I don't want to watch that. Real life usually sucks."

The popular industry watcher SVU_fan tweeted to #wantlessrealism recently, "TV terrorists are never 20-to-30-year-old Muslim males; so why should TV sex crimes perps ever be producers or senators?"

This was supporting complaints from watchers that episodes 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9 were about various "untouchable" people in the entertainment business or politics that get away with sexual assaults that everyone seems to know about but no one will do anything to stop.

Other fans are more forgiving, such as LA Times Reviewer Tina Blechly. She wrote after episode 7 that "...the team's motto is 'bring the criminals in - unless they are rich, famous, or politicians.' Their badge features the three 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' monkeys on it. What do you expect to happen on the show? Plus a lot of the backstory of the main characters and their bosses involves their complicity in the corruption. I love the backroom deals, journalistic hit pieces, and the payoffs - it's just so authentic!"
 

This follows another highly successful spin-off...

Law & Order - Criminal In Tent: A Law & Order spin-off, it follows Guantanamo detainee cases, often ripped from current headlines, from two different viewpoints. The first half of every episode focuses on the tainted and biased investigation, while the second half shines the light on the successful defense in court.

Watch the drama as progressive defense attorneys disrupt and impede US military operations around the globe.


 

Comrade! You left out the part where the righteous lawyers of the victims use private investigators to find out who was involved in 'denying their rights'. To make it better, the lawyers carry messages to and from the 'innocent muslims' and their innocent religious friends. Then those bad people who did bad things to them, trump supporters for sure, have to flee their homes because of credible threats against them and their extended family. But there are no members of 'Al-Qaeda' in the US, Barry said so. I mean like, it's ok to carry messages for 'victims' in GITMO. They had a rally for one lawyer who was convicted in NYC after Barry let her out early because she had cancer. What a humanitarian! I miss the 'Great Leader', you can't make up stuff this good if you tried!