Who Let the Dogs Out?

Watching this episode which marked the debut of Elisabeth Rohm as Serena Southerlyn made me think of Burt Lancaster as the Birdman Of Alcatraz. If you remember Robert Stroud's interest in the birds developed into a business where he mixed chemicals as cures for bird diseases and had a thriving business on the outside while he served his life sentence. Was in fact Burt Lancaster working out his own rehabilitation was the issue of the film.

No one would say David Warshofsky was working out any rehabilitation when it is discovered he's got a business breeding fighting dogs for sport. That's illegal in a few different ways and it came to the attention of law enforcement when one of the dogs got loose and viciously mauled a woman to death in Central Park.

Running the ring in lieu of Warshofsky on the outside is his attorney Melissa Leo and her husband Bruce McCarty who is a CPA. They're the ones arrested and charged and who Sam Waterston and his new 2nd chair will prosecute.

They may live on Riverside Drive. But these two are a real pair of bottom feeders.

The only one who gets no justice is the poor pit bull, tortured in life and sentenced to die.

Season 12's first episode "Who Let the Dogs Out" signalled the debut of Abbie Carmichael's replacement Serena Southerlyn. There are not many regular characters on the original 'Law and Order' or the franchise that didn't make a particularly good impression in their first episode and continued to not make much impact, but Southerlyn was one of those characters and a contender for the worst example. Memories of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" were very positive, and positive feelings on episodes on this show usually hold up.

"Who Let the Dogs Out?", which struck me as very memorable on first watch for the case, is one of those episodes that does hold up in a positive way. It is a very good episode, both as a season opener and as an episode of 'Law and Order'. It's not the greatest of introductions to Southerlyn, but there is plenty in "Who Let the Dogs Out?" that is great and shows why the original 'Law and Order' was as good as it was when on form and in its prime (pre-Season 10, and even Season 10 onwards had winners).

The production values as ever have slickness and grit, with an intimacy without being claustrophobic. The music has presence when it's used but does so without being intrusive, some of it is quite haunting too. The direction is also understated but the tension never slips, the second half being full of it. Most of the acting is very good, especially from Sam Waterston. Love the way that McCoy acts, his ruthlessness and how his mind works continue to captivate.

As expected, the script is lean, even with a lot of talk, and incredibly thought provoking and gritty. A very difficult topic, that is sadly still a problem today (dog-related attacks and whether owners should be culpable when there is an attack) is raised here and it is handled uncompromisingly yet also tactfully on the whole, where more than one side is raised and where each viewpoint is worth pondering on. The story is very compelling, the investigating element of the story pulls no punches and is intriguing. Starting off really well with one of the show's most brutal and most gruesome deaths, even thinking about it and hearing about it makes the stomach churn.

On the other hand, there are a few issues. Did think that the defense argument was on the naive and not so realistic side (the show has had worse though) and that the verdict was not completely satisfying in a case where equal culpability would have been the most realistic sentence if found guilty.

Faring weakest is Southerlyn, who is such a cold fish presence and not really all that memorable in this episode, and sadly that was the case throughout her entire time on the show. Have never been a fan really of Elisabeth Rohm, and while not every character/actor is expected to settle (heck even McCoy took a little time to get used to) straightaway Rohm was consistently wooden and had the charisma of a robot.

In summary, very good start to Season 12, despite Southerlyn. 8/10.

A young teacher and coach of the local volleyball team was jogging in the park together with her Terrier dog. Suddenly another dog ripped them apart, let the girl and her dog drown in their own blood. So a dog hunt has just begun. After another accident happened not so far from the first (this time the dog only wounded the victim's arm), K- 9 unit barely managed to subdue it. Thanks to new technology (a microchip implanted in dog ear), detectives trace down the owner, just to discover right away he sold the dog to a company years before. At company address, they found a training place where dogs were tortured and starved in order to make them available for dog fight. The businessman can't pull the strings, because he has been in jail for the last two years without any contacts to the outside world apart from his counselors, who become shortly after the prime suspects.

The point of the episode is the following: could an enraged dog be regarded as a murder weapon? At trial defense attorney try to play the Jury with a naive justification, but McCoy tactics is very brilliant.