Swept Away - A Very Special Episode

Detectives Briscoe and Green get called to a homicide of a young man who went off a rooftop in Manhattan. The deceased was part of the cast of a reality show and as it turns out was killed by another cast member. The deceased had a reputation as a provocateur and did deliberately create conflict situations in the show.

I might just be not the one to write a review on this particular episode since I shun reality shows. I've never understood with all the films and literature available for our entertainment some of us just choose to watch ordinary people with no discernible talent just acting like our normal stupid selves. If that passes for entertainment they can have it.

In the end when responsibility is parsed out after getting a plea from the actual doer, Sam Waterston and Angie Harmon decide to go after the network as the real responsible party. Though that was not their intent a man's life was lost and a network vice president played by Adam Trese gets put on trial.

Newton Minow called television the 'vast wasteland' many years ago. What would he think of reality TV?

A bunch of actors were performing before a camera inside a flat. During the acting, one actress took a look outside the window, screaming out loud. A dead body was lying across the street, probably he jumped out of a roof. Detectives soon realized it couldn't have been a suicide, the victim was a member of the TV-show and he was actually shoved by some other actor. The TV-show, something similar to "Big Brother", broadcast from dawn till dusk the phony lives of several roommates confined in an apartment. All the actors are teenagers and they get used to arguing for any reasons, in order to rise the share. Briscoe and Green manage to find a footage of what really happened in that roof, thanks to a cameraman (Matthew Saldivar) who shot the entire argument occurred between two guys for petty reasons. But there is someone behind the scenes who pulls the strings....

Luckily, this kind of reality show is out of fashion nowadays, but at the time of the episode they were very widespread worldwide (even in my Country). Many people believed the people's behavior was actually real, not realizing the production staged every line of the show. There has been a change in audience's taste over the years and it's for the best.

When this episode first aired on Feb 28 2001 it was a 44 minute episode. Late night on Sundance Channel it was 8 minutes shorter w added commercials. As far as the episode goes I rate it a 4/10 with 3 points taken off for more commercials including the single 5 minute (timed)Jacuzzi bath remodel commercial at the beginning. When L&O first aired episodes were about 48 minutes. By 2010 they were about 42 minutes. Late night shortened even further.

The premise is one of not many premises up to this point of 'Law and Order's' run to not appeal to me at all. While 'Law and Order' and the franchise in general is so addictive when binge watching, reality shows are not my thing at all (most are sensationalist trash) and the channel in recent years after giving many a chance is always changed whenever they come on. And considering how much they dominate the news when they're on, nothing is missed.

"Swept Away: A Very Special Episode" does not change my mind at all, if anything it enforces it. It is a long way from special and indicative of why the premise of the episode did not appeal. There are some great episodes of Season 11 and it was starting to get better, but "Swept Away: A Very Special Episode" sees a return to disappointment. With a few of the similar flaws to the other disappointing episodes of Season 11 and others on the way.

It's not all bad. It's slickly shot and tightly edited with no drabness or garishness in sight, even with the gritty tone. The music is not too melodramatic and is thankfully not constant. There are moments of tension.

Also thought that the performances are all very good, particularly from the regulars. It starts promisingly with a hard hitting opening.

However, quite a lot doesn't work. It was interesting to see the portrayal of reality shows back then, but it is a portrayal that is quite old fashioned and out of date now with nothing insightful or subtle about it, such as how the audience perceives it. It represents everything that makes me hate 'Big Brother' so much for instance. The story apart from a promising start overall didn't grab me all that much, coming over as routine and thin on the ground, along with feeling predictable, at times silly and at times muddled. Also did consider the truth before it was revealed.

Pacing generally could have been tighter and the final quarter tries again to cram too much in in too short a time. The supporting characters don't feel like real people and more like reality show cliches. While there are a lot worse legal portions in the season, the legal portion in "Swept Away: A Special Episode" lacks tension and did feel strongly that the wrong party was prosecuted, especially considering that they weren't the direct causes or intended what happened.

Overall, not great. 5/10.