American Tragedy

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.

Video surveillance HD cameras would have helped in cases like this. They are sorely needed to record activities in every public space. Every cubic inch should be covered in high resolution. There should be no expectation of privacy outside one's own home. Everyone should have the right to walk safely in public. The only way to ensure this is to have a record of public conduct. We already have some video surveillance systems in place. I myself have installed dash cams in my vehicle, and I wear a couple of concealed body cameras in public. In the near future, individuals should have the option to wear a Personal Recording Device (PRD) that uploads Point-of-View video to the Internet through Wi-Fi. That should put an end to this kind of American Tragedy.

The previous two Season 15 episodes were of exceptionally high quality, "Surrender Benson" was surrounded by a lot of hype and lived up to it in a tension laden and superbly performed episode. And "Imprisoned Lives" was a perfect example of how to do a ripped from the headlines storyline well and one of the better and more tactful examples of this type of story from the latter seasons (which is saying a lot, as most of the later ones weren't great).

"American Tragedy" unfortunately was a major disappointment. Not a tragedy of an episode but after following on from such a promising start it was a shame to see such a drastic decline on a story that could easily have been done well. While having its moments, "American Tragedy" suffers from being over-stuffed, over-written and from being heavy handed and not in good taste. Didn't care for it on first watch, and don't care for it every bit as much.

It does have good things. It is as ever shot with the right amount of intimacy without feeling too up close, even with a reliance of close up camerawork. That the editing has become increasingly tighter over-time is great too. The music isn't over-scored, manipulative or used too much.

Did think that the regulars were fine and Raul Esparza continues to bring so much spark to his material, just like he gave so much spark throughout his time on the show. Jeffrey Tambor is suitably smarmy and is a sturdy presence.

Cannot say the same for Cybil Shepherd, who comes over as very stiff and melodramatic here throughout. Hated how her character was written too, to the extent that it unbalanced the episode by a large degree, found her to be too caricaturish and too much of a cartoon. Actually found myself not caring at all whether she was guilty or innocent. None of the supporting characters are interesting or worth caring for, and one of the episode's biggest problems is the distastefully one-sided and stereotypical portrayal of southern people. There is a lot of trite and over-heated dialogue, other than some nice one liners from Barba. Too much of it also came over as too preachy.

Which was true for "American Tragedy" as an overall whole, preachy and too much of a political statement while exploiting a still raw case by staying too faithful to it. The story in particular is badly executed, it has such a kitchen sink-like quality to it. It tries to do too much and ends up not being tense or suspenseful in the least. Olivias therapist subplot is illuminating for her character but slows the episode down in momentum. Couldn't get past Bill Irwin's creepiness in 'CSI' to find him plausible as a sympathetic doctor. The ending is unrealistic.

Overall, mediocre at best disappointment. 4/10.

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.