Path: Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 12:03:23 +0000 Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: Tony Goldwyn episodes Law and Order "Balance of Power" S23E07 "Facade" S22E08 (spoilers) From: Ubiquitous X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.12N (x86 32bit) Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 04:30:42 -0400 References: <818210182.732824925.484153.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com> Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: Injection-Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 08:30:42 -0000 Lines: 239 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-EC1mZYgpQ5kWTVsd+0zHWzFFbCH2kT8LYusPeKj8/OlGc3RvIesOBN4dQpBKcZZdYrWIWYzr1JCP2PC!KEy/M+XAIVHRt+eyAi6hrGBI5NPC4NczJVNIJDpTiSHdJzJuclSBLQ== X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 12782 anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote: > Ubiquitous wrote: >> s >> p >> o >> i >> l >> e >> r >> >> s >> p >> a >> c >> e >> >> We all, er, fondly remember the John Nathan-Turner era of the original >> Doctor Who series. Introducing the Sixth Doctor, JNT thought it would be >> absolutely hysterical to hire a decent actor, Colin Baker, saddle him >> with the same terrible terrible scripts we got since the Fourth Doctor's >> final season and throughout most of the Fifth Doctor's run, then add to >> it all new elements, especially the hideous multi-colored costume. >> >> To top it all off, let's make the audience absolutely hate the new >> character. >> >> JNT's ghost has returned from the dead to find all-new ways to make >> season 23 of Law and Order suck. Tony Goldwyn was introduced as the >> interim District Attorney Nicholas Baxter. We meet him on "Balance of >> Power" tromping through the crime scene, hysterically barking an order >> "Don't touch anything without a warrant!" Riley and Shaw give him looks >> of contempt while the viewing audience wants him to return Broadway >> before the end of the episode. I don't recall either Riley or Shaw >> saying anything particularly memorable. The investigation isn't terribly >> interesting. At one point, having issued a bulletin to watch for a >> vehicle because they want to speak to a suspect (who becomes the prime >> suspect and then the defendant), a beat cop is ordered to secure the >> vehicle that the woman fled from. She left her cell phone. >> >> Prediction: Evidence from the cell phone will be excluded. I've seen >> this show once or twice before. >> >> Sure enough, the moron beat cop picked up the cell phone. Instead of >> immediately putting it in an evidence bag, he picks it up to answer when >> it rings. Defense argued that he had to unlock it and therefore had >> access to other evidence on the phone. >> >> A woman murdered a man who caught her ripping off his substantial wealth >> and was going to call the police. The problem was that she was hired by >> him as his dominatrix, a financial dominatrix. (Googing it leads to some >> pr0n fiction, so it may not be a thing in real life.) >> >> They serve a subpoena on the bank in Panama to which she transferred >> funds. Oh for fuck's sake. There's no jurisdiction in a foreign country. >> Much much later in the episode it's revealed that bank refused to >> cooperate. Well, duh, but that didn't stop them from threatening to use >> the evidence they had not yet obtained to get a confession. It didn't >> work. >> >> Everything about the case is stupid. At one point, the case is going >> poorly for the defense, so the defendant offers video evidence from >> another S&M session of a man who she claimed was a serial rapist. The >> evidence had zero details but because the man was famous, Baxter wants >> to pursue the case and to make a sweetheart deal with the defendant. >> >> Massive STOOPID: A rape is a crime of control over the victim. The >> perpetrator DOES NOT have the kind of personality in which he himself >> craves domination. >> >> Baxter, Price, and Maroun start having serious discussions about whether >> it's important to pursue a case for murder, or even more important to >> pursue a serial rapist. This is a thing to discuss? Maroun actually >> argues that the public is in greater danger from the rapist. Wait. What? >> You can make a case against a rapist if the victims come forward. There >> were lots of victims, supposedly. This was nonsense. Odelya Halevi is so >> pretty. Why is her character so hateful? It's said in dialogue that >> Baxter is thinking about what he'll need to do to become well known >> enough to get elected, so prosecuting the celebrity would help. >> >> During the trial, at the point at which Price will have to offer the >> deal to the defendant, he makes repeated calls to Baxter to see if he's >> still pursuing the offer. Baxter blows him off. >> >> Yeah, now the audience completely understands that we are supposed to >> despise Baxter. >> >> At no point is the most obvious defense pursued: She had access to all >> of the victim's accounts because it was with his permission. Therefore >> she hadn't stolen monies. The state had no evidence that she had >> transferred monies for her own use to that account in Panama so the jury >> wasn't even going to consider that this was stolen money and Price >> presented no other examples of monies that she'd stolen. The jury wasn't >> even going to consider her scheme so all they were left with was that >> she had access to his money and he was NOT going to call the police. She >> had no motive and wasn't the murderer. >> >> If the defense had argued that, she should have been acquitted. But she >> was convicted even though what little evidence there was generally >> pointed in her favor. >> >> The episode ends with a dramatic confrontation between Price and Baxter, >> in which Price doesn't actually threaten to quit. >> >> "Facade" is massively stupid in different ways. The episode opens like >> a horror movie with a young pretty female victim willingly going into >> scary situations to meet her fate, except she hasn't first had hot sex >> with a teenage boy. She enters an empty subway station with no one on >> the platform except maybe a homeless guy. I thought she'd find a corpse. >> On the train, some tallish guy in distress falls against her; she >> apologizes. Cut to the crime scene in which he's the murder victim. >> >> Turns out he's a comedian. Riley also thinks he's a comedian but cannot >> pull off the gallows humor like Greevey, Cerreta, and especially >> Briscoe. >> >> They find evidence that he'd gotten into an altercation with an older >> comedian. That was a red herring. It leads to the dead guy's boyfriend. >> >> Then there's this, well, it's not exactly a dojo. It claims to be MMA, >> but it's this weird training academy for men that, later in the episode, >> we learn is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (do >> they literally do investigations or coordinate investigations being done >> by member law enforcement agencies?) as part of a nationwide domestic >> terrorist recruitement center for the evil white supremicists trying to >> take over the country. >> >> At one point they think the owner of the academy is a white supremicist >> on the basis of some tatoo, but he's said nothing and done nothing and >> had an alibi for the crime. But one of recruits sort of confesses to the >> killing. >> >> Price calls the boyfriend as a witness because the defense made all >> sorts of claims about what the dead guy was saying. Here we have yet >> another witness, as we've seen on multiple episodes this season, giving >> testimony without offering evidence. At one point he offers the opinion >> that the dead guy wouldn't say what he was accused of. Defense's >> objection was sustained. I vaguely recall defense putting on a witness >> who similarly had no evidence to offer but maybe I'm thinking of >> something else. >> >> Nothing about the crime makes any sense. The coroner's finding was that >> the death was caused by an arm across the throat compressing blood >> vessels and cutting off his air, while he was having an asthmatic >> attack. Brain death occurred more quickly due to the asthmatic attack >> but the strangulation was the primary cause of death. >> >> But the victim was relatively tall compared to the perpetrator, and they >> thought he was killed whilst upright during the fight and not on the floor. >> He couldn't have been killed like this. >> >> All along, the defendant claimed he acted because a woman was attacked. >> Finally, just as the defense is about to put on its case (I think she >> was a defense witness and not called as a rebuttal witness) she makes >> herself known. >> >> Price objects to the surprise witness. If she weren't a rebuttal >> witness, then defense had to give notice to the prosecution, right? She >> should have at least been interviewed. Denied. >> >> In her testimony, she's credible and keeps calling the defendant her >> hero. But in the one moment that didn't entirely suck, Price takes her >> through the situation and gets her to realize that she wasn't being >> attacked, that the guy was in respiratory distress and fell on her. In >> the tiny bit of the scene was saw in the cold open, it appeared to the >> audience that she didn't think she was being attacked. On the stand, she >> came to realize that she was at fault. >> >> She screamed. That's when the defendant came to her aid. >> >> Let's pause for a moment and think. That she got it wrong and wasn't >> being attacked does not change anything about what the defendant did as >> he was motivated to rescue her. >> >> Getting back to the fight, somehow the guy in respiratory distress is >> able to fight off, for a time, the shorter guy with a bit of fight >> training. The fight actually goes on long enough that the train makes it ========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========