American Tragedy

SVU was always the most "band wagony" of the L&O shows, the quickest to jump on a social issue du jour, but this American Tragedy episode (obviously patterned after the Trayvon Martin incident and even with the same innocent Boy In Hoody narrative) ) lacks even the slightest of nuance to pull that off. The result is one overtly preachy, agenda driven mess of a TV show. Of course in this L&O episode, to hammer home their point, the script writers make the 'boy" who was shot, even younger, far more pure & innocent (church goer, honor roll student) than the real life person that this story was patterned after. Clumsy, heavy handed story telling that deserves a 0/10 rating, but was bumped to 2/10 due to some decent albeit sporadic displays of acting skills

Everything in this story is in black and white:

* He is a boy black with a wealthy white woman.

*The woman says she shot to protect herself, but opposite says she shot with prejudice because the other party is racist.

*The woman has been racist in the past, and the child has stalked her.

*The boy is well known to everyone. However, he is hooded and black like the wanted rapist.

*The woman says I warned her, but the boy is wearing headphones.

As viewers in such black and white, we sometimes take the side of the lawyer and sometimes the side of the prosecutor's office.

It is one of those cases where there is no common ground, no gray.

It is a good article on sensitive encounters and their consequences, fueled by the violence and chaos that arise in crises.

Brilliant performance by Cybill Shepherd(Jolene Castile), It was great to watch Sonja Sohn (lisa carter)'s playing power.

She got good legal power out of Cybill Shepherd. I think she would have made a much better play instead of the prosecutor at the end of season 11.

Cybill Shepherd who started out on the big screen playing southern teen beauty queens in The Last Picture Show now over 40 years later looking much a senior citizen beauty queen plays a cooking show host who shoots a young black teen out of fear. Trouble is that the only thing the kid was carrying was a cellphone.

Never mind there was a string of rapes in her area and never mind that the SVU squad captured the real rapist, Cybill sticks to her story and ADA Raul Esparza brings her to trial.

Her attitudes are clear, watch when Ice-T gets too close for comfort how she reacts.

The episode was inspired by Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida with the added element of fear of rape thrown in as this is a show about sex crimes. A state lawmaker from my area is the sponsor of a stand your ground bill inspired by the Trayvon Martin case. It's a bill whereby you can use a criminal defense fear for your life. Of course your fear is a truly subjective item. What Shepherd is doing in this case however fits the stand your ground pattern of the proposed law and what George Zimmerman did in real life to Trayvon Martin.

An interesting and thought provoking story from SVU.

It astounds me that you have thumbs. Although , living so far in the past , you are probably enjoying your lower taxes again. While I am aware that this is ' Old News ' attitudes never change. 2018......Innocent black men still getting shot. Guilty by your skin colour? Is that right? Ever?

The writers sure did have an off day here. They have a woman walking home alone late at night. Then some stranger, a fairly large black man starts to follow her. She ask him what he wants, gets no reply. She shoots the moron! Now they turn this into a racial incident! Ha, I would have shot the guy too! He did not respond to her repeated inquiries so she defends herself from a perceived threat. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that and nothing to prosecute a person over either.