The Ledger

13.2 Shangri-La

Almost terribly-written episode (13.2) in which a 16-year-old female student apparently kills a female teacher, at the urging of another teacher. I'm watching the episode as I type this, and it may be the first episode I've ever seen that I don't finish. The first half of the ep is filled with over-written colorful exchanges between Briscoe and Green that fall flat, and the plot details revealed in the second half are preposterous. The suspect --a chipper, bouncy member of the drama club from the first half -- becomes a brooding, manipulative vamp ("she was a runaway, living in the streets, eating out of garbage cans," her foster mother says) in the second half. I hate it when shows/movies change the performance of the kid based on background details that are revealed as the story evolves. It shouldn't work like that. A performance should at least hint at darker sides, because nobody can completely cover up their personality. Forcing an actress to dramatically change her character as the episode progresses (even though the underlying back story stays the same) is a simplistic device unworthy of this series. Thankfully, the last quarter of the show throws in a plot twist or two having to do with the suspects true identity that help explain the silliness, but these are not enough to completely save the show...especially after a suspect makes one of those not-completely-called-for confessions that throws their whole defense in the crapper.

One funny thing about confessions on Law & Order: whenever a character confesses something that is not accompanied by the familiar string music of Mike Post, you know s/he's lying. Only when the music comes on a few scenes later can you be sure you're getting the truth.

Anyway, the histrionics of SVU and Criminal Intent seem to have penetrated this episode of the original series. Let's hope it doesn't happen too often.

Posted by adm at January 9, 2004 10:48 PM

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