Season 1, Episode 2 "Subterranean Homeboy Blues"
Nov 27, 2013 21:24:09 GMT -5
Wolf and clytie like this
Post by sharculese on Nov 27, 2013 21:24:09 GMT -5
Law & Order
Season 1
Episode 2
"Subterranean Homeboy Blues"
When Law & Order was at its best, it used the unique worldviews of its central characters to give a nuanced perspective on the crime on the week. But that’s a tough mark to hit consistently, and when it failed, the show tended to lean on didacticism and abrupt plot twists to pad ideas it hadn’t fully grasped how to articulate. That was especially true when the show took on high profile controversies. “Subterranean Homeboy Blues,” based on the 1984 trial of Bernhard Goetz, who opened fire on a group of alleged muggers on a New York subway platform, shows what happened when Law & Order aimed high and failed to hit the mark.
The episode starts strong. We see, Laura DiBiasi, our Goetz stand-in, experience a series of indignities on a subway train. In turn, she is jostled, her bag is almost snatched from her, and she is accosted by an unwell man and his bizarre dance. She steps onto a second train and we see two young black men, boom box in tow (seriously that was just like, legal back then?) follow her. Then we hear shots fired and it cuts to the title sequence. When we return, lest we think this is misdirection, the first witness identifies the shooter as ‘blonde’ and ‘a ballerina.’
The witness also suggests the victims were being sexually aggressive towards DiBiasi, leading to one of the episode’s bigger missteps. Tackling the firestorm of racial animus at the center of the Goetz case would have been enough to deal with; adding in the threat of rape is more than this hour of television is capable of doing. This leaves both elements underserved and strangely disconnected from each other. DiBiasi’s defense is clearly playing up the sexual assault angle, but in the investigation race seems to be all anyone wants to talk about.
Although, if anything, this episode feels more interested in talking about vigilantism in the abstract. And by ‘talk’ I, of course, means ‘shout’. I had actually forgotten how awful that first exchange between Logan and Greevey is. Mike calls Max a “good German,” Max says Mike isn’t thinking straight, Mike thinks that’s taking things to far, despite having just called his partner a Nazi. This is not good writing. Nor does it really pick up from there. The two have a set of predictable arguments over and over;iIn scene after scene, Greevey sides with victims Chernault and Jones while Logan sides with DiBiasi. A mid-episode phone call in which Max finds out his daughter was roughed up by some boys at school threatens to upend the status quo, but ends up blunted when one of the many twists reveals that Jones is actually a gang member and juvenile killer named “Mosquito” Mosket.
One bright spot is “Blues”’s brilliant use of Ben Stone. Stone defining trait very cold, distant sense of justice that masks incredible passion. His insistence that failure to prosecute DiBiasi will lead to a wave of vigilantism is absolutely sincere because vigilantism is the thing most alien to Stone’s view of the law. It’s a faith in the black-and-white nature of the law that will cause him to make a major misstep in his opening arguments, suggesting that if she really is so afraid to live in New York City, DiBiasi should leave. Stone doesn’t realize how that might resonate with all the people terrified in the place they call home. But it’s completely in keeping with the deeper motivation Stone reveals in the penultimate scene. Central to Stone’s concept of law and government is that it’s about maintaining the public trust, and, by firing into a crowded subway car, Laura DiBiasi broke the public trust. That deserves and demands punishment. To his mind, if you can’t accept that, you shouldn’t be part of the public. In other words, you should leave.
Sadly, that penultimate scene is a compromise brought on by the corner this episode paints itself into trying to have it both ways. DiBiasi turns out to be out for vengeance for the attack that ended her dancing career. The DA finds a series of targets in her bedroom demonstrating her increasing ability to target both heart and genitals. This never gets addressed at trial, because Mosket turns out to have a prior history of assaulting white women. Both sides end up getting basically what they wanted, but with concessions that will be difficult to handle. Stone says he feels like they made a wrong look like a right, which feels like a good summation to an episode that wants to say something about vigilantism but isn’t sure what that is.
Some other shit I think about Law & Order:
• Even though I knew it was coming, I still grinned when I saw Lorraine Toussaint’s name in the credits. Defense attorney Shambala Greeen, who we’ll see five more times before Toussaint moves on to other things in 1994, is one of my favorite recurring characters.
• Other guest casting note: that's a very young Cynthia Nixon as Laura DiBiasi.
• Stone insisting on opening the door for Green after she calls him a pig is a dick move, but it’s also so in tune with his character and a funny little cap to a tense scene.
• Stone and Greevey both very consciously bear down on the “Ms.” when referring to Green. Nice touch.
• Robinette is seriously underserved this episode. The show never really figured out what to do with him while he was with the D.A.’s office, but episodes about race tend to be the worst, with Paul having to listen to a bunch of overly-literal diatribes and not getting to say much in response.
• I couldn’t fit it into the body of the review, but another huge problem I had was that when the racial and sexual aspects of the episode meet up, it… goes to a very weird place. The combination of the comic book thug caricatures the defense employs for its re-enactment and the reveal of Mosket’s past history is not pulled off with the grace that writers think they have achieved.
• Also, from a legal standpoint, that whole scene was just weird and wrong. Stone questions DiBiasi first, as if she were a witness for the prosecution, and then throughout Green’s speech to the jury I kept waiting for Stone to make an objection that never came. Law & Order was generally good at nailing procedural details, so an early screw-up like this stands out.
Next week: Law & Order decides assisted suicide isn't enough for one episode, so "The Reaper's Helper" also takes on the AIDS crisis circa 1990. We'll find out if it's less awkward than this week's episode.
Season 1
Episode 2
"Subterranean Homeboy Blues"
When Law & Order was at its best, it used the unique worldviews of its central characters to give a nuanced perspective on the crime on the week. But that’s a tough mark to hit consistently, and when it failed, the show tended to lean on didacticism and abrupt plot twists to pad ideas it hadn’t fully grasped how to articulate. That was especially true when the show took on high profile controversies. “Subterranean Homeboy Blues,” based on the 1984 trial of Bernhard Goetz, who opened fire on a group of alleged muggers on a New York subway platform, shows what happened when Law & Order aimed high and failed to hit the mark.
The episode starts strong. We see, Laura DiBiasi, our Goetz stand-in, experience a series of indignities on a subway train. In turn, she is jostled, her bag is almost snatched from her, and she is accosted by an unwell man and his bizarre dance. She steps onto a second train and we see two young black men, boom box in tow (seriously that was just like, legal back then?) follow her. Then we hear shots fired and it cuts to the title sequence. When we return, lest we think this is misdirection, the first witness identifies the shooter as ‘blonde’ and ‘a ballerina.’
The witness also suggests the victims were being sexually aggressive towards DiBiasi, leading to one of the episode’s bigger missteps. Tackling the firestorm of racial animus at the center of the Goetz case would have been enough to deal with; adding in the threat of rape is more than this hour of television is capable of doing. This leaves both elements underserved and strangely disconnected from each other. DiBiasi’s defense is clearly playing up the sexual assault angle, but in the investigation race seems to be all anyone wants to talk about.
Although, if anything, this episode feels more interested in talking about vigilantism in the abstract. And by ‘talk’ I, of course, means ‘shout’. I had actually forgotten how awful that first exchange between Logan and Greevey is. Mike calls Max a “good German,” Max says Mike isn’t thinking straight, Mike thinks that’s taking things to far, despite having just called his partner a Nazi. This is not good writing. Nor does it really pick up from there. The two have a set of predictable arguments over and over;iIn scene after scene, Greevey sides with victims Chernault and Jones while Logan sides with DiBiasi. A mid-episode phone call in which Max finds out his daughter was roughed up by some boys at school threatens to upend the status quo, but ends up blunted when one of the many twists reveals that Jones is actually a gang member and juvenile killer named “Mosquito” Mosket.
One bright spot is “Blues”’s brilliant use of Ben Stone. Stone defining trait very cold, distant sense of justice that masks incredible passion. His insistence that failure to prosecute DiBiasi will lead to a wave of vigilantism is absolutely sincere because vigilantism is the thing most alien to Stone’s view of the law. It’s a faith in the black-and-white nature of the law that will cause him to make a major misstep in his opening arguments, suggesting that if she really is so afraid to live in New York City, DiBiasi should leave. Stone doesn’t realize how that might resonate with all the people terrified in the place they call home. But it’s completely in keeping with the deeper motivation Stone reveals in the penultimate scene. Central to Stone’s concept of law and government is that it’s about maintaining the public trust, and, by firing into a crowded subway car, Laura DiBiasi broke the public trust. That deserves and demands punishment. To his mind, if you can’t accept that, you shouldn’t be part of the public. In other words, you should leave.
Sadly, that penultimate scene is a compromise brought on by the corner this episode paints itself into trying to have it both ways. DiBiasi turns out to be out for vengeance for the attack that ended her dancing career. The DA finds a series of targets in her bedroom demonstrating her increasing ability to target both heart and genitals. This never gets addressed at trial, because Mosket turns out to have a prior history of assaulting white women. Both sides end up getting basically what they wanted, but with concessions that will be difficult to handle. Stone says he feels like they made a wrong look like a right, which feels like a good summation to an episode that wants to say something about vigilantism but isn’t sure what that is.
Some other shit I think about Law & Order:
• Even though I knew it was coming, I still grinned when I saw Lorraine Toussaint’s name in the credits. Defense attorney Shambala Greeen, who we’ll see five more times before Toussaint moves on to other things in 1994, is one of my favorite recurring characters.
• Other guest casting note: that's a very young Cynthia Nixon as Laura DiBiasi.
• Stone insisting on opening the door for Green after she calls him a pig is a dick move, but it’s also so in tune with his character and a funny little cap to a tense scene.
• Stone and Greevey both very consciously bear down on the “Ms.” when referring to Green. Nice touch.
• Robinette is seriously underserved this episode. The show never really figured out what to do with him while he was with the D.A.’s office, but episodes about race tend to be the worst, with Paul having to listen to a bunch of overly-literal diatribes and not getting to say much in response.
• I couldn’t fit it into the body of the review, but another huge problem I had was that when the racial and sexual aspects of the episode meet up, it… goes to a very weird place. The combination of the comic book thug caricatures the defense employs for its re-enactment and the reveal of Mosket’s past history is not pulled off with the grace that writers think they have achieved.
• Also, from a legal standpoint, that whole scene was just weird and wrong. Stone questions DiBiasi first, as if she were a witness for the prosecution, and then throughout Green’s speech to the jury I kept waiting for Stone to make an objection that never came. Law & Order was generally good at nailing procedural details, so an early screw-up like this stands out.
Next week: Law & Order decides assisted suicide isn't enough for one episode, so "The Reaper's Helper" also takes on the AIDS crisis circa 1990. We'll find out if it's less awkward than this week's episode.
