Greg Donaldson

Ethics in Law and Order

Weblog 1

January 23, 2010

Weblog One

Question 1: How realistic was the episode?

Law and Order is designed to be a captivating program that turns the slow-moving and tedious work of the police and lawyers into a fast-paced, high action drama that glues a viewer to their seat. As a preface to my judgments on the show, I am required to say that I know very little about the legal system outside of the fundamentals. With that disclaimer, I feel free to discuss my opinion of the realism of the show. I feel that the episode of Law and Order did not stay true the legal system at all. Many questions came up with many of the actions of the casts. First, when the detectives arrest the wrestling coach, Detective Stabler starts kicking the chair out underneath the coach and roughs him up, I do not think that would be allowed for an officer of the law to do that. When they figured out the dad is the rapists, they go to his office to arrest him and then search the office for his laptop without a warrant, the detectives find the laptop in the closet where they could not freely search. When they make the deal to try to get the president of the pedophile organization, the officers put the child in direct harm with his father and the president in the same room. I believe officers of the law would never endanger a person, especially a child in an attempt to arrest another bad guy. One of the most notable problems with the entire show is the event move incredibly fast, practically no time passes between events, and the trial is over incredible quickly. Overall, I believe the episode of Law and Order portrays am extremely Hollywood version of legal workings.

Question 2: How effective was it?

While this seems to be an incredibly negative view of the program, I actually really enjoyed the episode. Due to the changes, it makes the legal system become a dramatic, exciting adventure. The cops make it so a viewer can really feel like the cops are creating a war against the pedophiles. When this atmosphere is created, the watcher truly pulls for the cops and there are no questions raised about whether this is real or not. In combination with the non-stop action brought about by removing all the mundane parts of legal work, creates the high action ride to keep the viewer in their seats, but also keeps enough truth for it to be believable. So by walking this line between action and reality, Law and Order has become one of the most riveting show on all of television.