December 30, 2003
Paranoia
This episode (6.6) deals with a young suspect who fantasized about killing a victim on an Internet S&M bulletin board. The first half of the episode seems corny now: lots of "information superhighway"-type talk. A major theme of the ep is the old generation/new generation tension between Det. Curtis and Briscoe. Curtis is very familiar with the internet and technology, but Briscoe doesn't know what a Pentium processor or DOS is. It's an early episode and Ray and Briscoe haven't completely gotten themselves in sync. In one of the first scenes, Ray chastises Briscoe for accepting a free lunch from a diner, saying it's unethical. But later in the episode, Ray refuses to bring the young suspect to the bathroom during interrogation, then threatens to castrate him. The kid wets his pants. Although Ray at first seems like he can communicate better with the tech-savvy suspect, after the pants-wetting incident, it's ultimately Briscoe who gets the kid to talk.
The defense attorney is played by Sandy Duncan, who is full of pep as usual. She and Jack pick up the morality/ethics theme when they strike a deal with each other that has an impact on Sandy's client.
The name of the episode, "Paranoia," is a fitting commentary on that syndrome's association with with technology, and the episode expresses a kind of paranoia about technology that is familiar from the time (1995). The title also refers to a possible mental defect of the suspect.
The one legal issue is whether the suspect's confession, made to the detectives while was waking up from a drug overdose, is admissible. Jack argues "spontaneous utterance," one of our favorite arguments.
Miscellaneous facts: The college in this episode is "Mount Amsterdam," a welcome change from the usual "Hudson University." Finally, Ray's wife and three young daughters visit the precinct, so we meet each of them.
Posted by adm at December 30, 2003 10:05 PM