Crime Drama TV

So this week there were a couple of very good twists in this week’s episode of ‘SVU’. It starts out as the detectives find an elven year old girl who has been kidnapped, raped, and put in the trunk of an impounded car. Benson and Stabler run the tags only to find that the car was rented by a man from Louisiana named Saul. They go to this man’s apartment to conduct an interview. The man nervously tells them he returned the car and shows them his paperwork. Well that checks out because it turns out that it was stolen from the rental agency. With that not checking out, they get a call over the radio saying another girl was taken. This time security cameras clearly show Saul leading the girl out of the bookstore. It turns out that right after he turned the car in he just stole it back. Through excellent detective work they luckily find them before the girl was hurt. Stabler cuffs him and starts walking toward the car when a car with a sign saying ‘Time to escape’ passes by. The man see this and proceeds to head butt Stabler which sends his head though the back window. He doesn’t get away though. Stabler is taken to the hospital where it is found out that he has been temporarily blinded. After they bring Saul in it is apparent that he is totally insane. He refuses to plea insanity. Louisiana also has a hold on him for a rape there so the FBI is trying to extradite him to Louisana. ADA helps the defense to show that he is insane putting herself in hot water with everyone around her.

I have to say that this was a very interesting episode of ‘CI’. It starts out with a dentist soaking up some nitrous for himself when someone turns off the oxygen and smothers him with the laughing gas. The detectives proceed to canvas the area finding a witness. The witness says that he saw a large woman go in and leave. After that he saw a couple of young kids go inside. They check the records only to find a bunch of cancellations that day. All the cancellations were from the same apartment building. It turns out that a boy the dentist treated had just died recently. When they go to question the mother she is holding her other child hostage. She tells them that dentist got her child drunk and fooled around with him. She also admits to murdering the doctor. Well things aren’t always what they seem. When another kid dies it is found out that the kids had stolen some mouthwash trying to get drunk. This mouthwash turns out to be counterfeit and containing DEG as well. If you don’t know DEG is a poisonous ingredient usually found in antifreeze. Third world countries often use this in knockoff mouthwash as a sweetener. The man at the company that tried to warn them about the counterfeit turns up very cleverly murdered using his allergies and a defective inhaler. A woman named Leslie, who was the one to tip them off about them knowing, was trying to get her boss fired so that she could get promoted. This lady was very motivated I will give her that. Check out my last post ‘SVU’.

This weeks episode of ‘NCIS’ was decent. The victim this week was a Navy cadaver named Marvin Henton. He was misdiagnosed as alcohol poisoning when really he was injected with mercury. When the ‘NCIS’ team runs a background check there is none. According to the files this man doesn’t exist. They start with interviews at the very nearby bar that successfully smokes out a woman dressed in a business suit. She promptly informs them that she is with the FBI. She also tells them that Marvin Henton is a paid informant for the FBI. Kreiger tells them that he was helping them to catch a man simply known as the Eraser. Kimal Konkami, also known as the eraser, is a counterfeit/forgery expert that can clear someones past and give them a new identity. Well they found traces of Indian food on a note of his so they check the local restaurants. One restaurant has a standing dinner delivery order that goes to a house registered in Henton’s name. So it seems to be that Henton may be Kimal. The delivery boy describes Henton to a tee. When they did a little deeper they find that the waitress at the bar was another client of the eraser’s. She killed her husband with mercury poisoning. After they interview her some new information comes up about Henton. They ID a tattoo he had as being done by a famous tattoo artist in L.A. That means that the delivery boy was setting the waitress up for the fall. They arrest him, and he quickly gives up Kimal. Check out my last post ‘The Latest CI’.

Well tonight’s episode of ‘SVU’ was very engrossing. It starts out with the chief telling them that there was a murder suspect that the normal P.D. has handed off to them. They brace themselves for another of the many perverts they see everyday when a seven year old kid walks in. It is obvious from this start that the case is going to be unique. The case just gets stranger when the district attorney decides to prosecute the seven year old boy for murder. The case looks pretty basic in a very sad kind of way. The little girl that was shot had a crush on the boy and constantly tried to kiss him. Although nobody knows what could possess the boy to kill the girl, the cops proceed to try to find out where the child got the gun. The parents are clean cut people who don’t own a gun as are the other parents in the child’s class. When the ballistics come back on the gun, it turns out that someone used the gun to kill a drug dealing the night before the shooting at the school. One of the people involved in the shooting turns out to be the great grandson of the boy’s babysitter. Upon closer inspection the great grandson was using the boy as a lookout during drug deals. When the drug deal went south, the boy saw the murder. After the killers left the boy grabbed the gun and ran.
He took it to school because he was scared of the killers. When the killer shows up outside of the playground the kid tries to scare him away with the gun. The gun goes off and an innocent girl gets shot. Well with the new information the cops grab the killer ,and the D.A. drops the case.
This story doesn’t end on a happy note though, as a twelve year old boy kills him the same day. By the way, check out my last post ‘Dangerous Son’.

The time is coming soon. It’s only two days away from the start of the “law and order svu” new season on nbc. I have been trying to brush up on my SVU by catching up on reruns on USA. Today was an interesting episode that I had not seen before. A prostitute is walking down the sidewalk when out of nowhere a car intentionally jumps the curb and hits the woman. As the story unfolds we find out that the hit by the car was not the cause of death. After she was hit, the driver of the car gets out and beats the woman to death. It turns out that there were three people in the car one of which kills himself two days after the murder. The remaining two suspects
say that a video game that they play influenced them to commit the murder. But in the end justice prevails with two guilty verdicts. Also I have news that Cynthia Nixon will be the first guest star of the new season as a woman with multiple personality disorder. I’m certain that they will start this season very strong as this is one of the best crime dramas on the air. I saw a preview of the next episode ,and it was entrancing. This will be one of the best guest appearances of the new season. P.S. Check out my “CSI” and “Criminal Intent” posts.

Today I watched the original crime drama Law and Order on tnt today. Like an old reliable friend I know that law and order will always come thru with a good strong story built on the strong formula that made law and order the crime drama to watch. While I do thoroughly enjoy watching CI and SVU nothing beats the original. Starting with a little glimpse of the crime to be, and then straight to the beat cops we go. They collect evidence, interveiw witnesses, and follow leads in the steady pattern of logic until they find a good suspect. Then they hand it over toi the D.A. who will build the case from there. With twists and turns both on the streets and in the courtrooms I get all the suspence without having to watch them do an autopsy(CSI) or the other grossout moments in most of the newer shows. I guess that was the golde

Well I tried very hard today to watch the pandora’s box episode of numb3rs but the cbs website was glitching real bad. Here’s as far I got There was a plane crash and somebody shot the first cop on the scene. And the way the crash was spread out it had 1000 more pounds than could be accounted for. Thats it. Was it drugs maybe or money or stolen things? I dont know because a fortune 500 company can’t keep a website that runs video. I’m sorry guys I will find out what happened and fill you in.

Hey guys so I’m back. So i have been down with the flu for the past couple of days sorry about that. Well over the weekend I caught the csi miami marathon on a & e. It was all about the murders that happened in and around nightclubs. All in all I’d say it was pretty good. Considering the show is based in maimi there was no shortage in goo episodes. My personal favorite was the arson in the nightclub. At the start it looked like a basic rewrite of the news story about the fire at the great white concert. If you don’t remember what happened, it was a great tragedy. The pyrotechnics caught the building on fire, but the building was not up to the fire code. The fire exits were blocked(just like in the show). But in this story over fifty real people died. Well the similarities in these two stories made this seem very plausible. And I have to say the wannabee fireman starting the fire was classic. P.S. If you noticed Isn’t Caruso looking kind of old?

Just once I would like to see a very realistic crime drama. I’m not talking about some true story fictionalized and dramatized so that there is a cliffhanger right before the commercials. I know that it makes for riveting drama but its just not realistic. Like on csi where both the murders for that week are always connected. Or how anytime the detectives on law and order regularly circumvent the fourth amendment rights against illegal search and seizure. Every time they get to the door they say something like ” do you smell a fire?” like that one sentence an obvious lie is enough to be probable cause. Or how on numerous crime shows they “rough up ” the suspects to make them talk. I guess if its not rodney king then its ok. I dont have any problems with the dramatizing so much as the bending of the laws to serve the purpose of the story. I think that it places the idea in the heads of the public that is ok to blatantly ignore the bill of rights if you are a cop. With as much authority as the police already have why give them the idea that the law doesnt apply to them. Just a thought…

Monday’s episode of the Closer was very exciting. Honestly, this season has not kept me too engaged, especially compared to last year—but this most recent episode was definitely an exception. The crime was shocking but believable, and because they were dealing with a serial murderer, the clock was ticking for Brenda and her team, and the pacing of the episode reflected that. We also saw some exciting personal developments: we still haven’t gotten totally to the bottom of Brenda’s illness, but in the process of helping her deal with it, Fritz proposed! It was wonderfully romantic, and in a way that was characteristic of her, Brenda became completely overwhelmed by the situation, but graciously accepted his hand, asking only that she keep her name.

You’ve heard the complaints: “Crime drama is so unrealistic” “It’s not that exciting in real life.” “Cops are never that attractive.” Every serious crime drama fan is hit with an onslaught of attacks every once in awhile from an otherwise intelligent, well meaning friend who just doesn’t understand. Here’s the deal: accuracy is not the most important thing for me when I’m sitting down for a new episode of Law and Order. Sure, I want the shows I watch to have a reflection of reality, but if the legal or medical jargon on a how isn’t quite accurate, I am not going to complain. You see, the moment you start to critique the minutia of a good television program is the moment that you lose sight of the bigger picture. There are so many good lessons about ethical growth, interpersonal relationships, and societal development in good crime drama. I think that all good producers and writers should strive for accuracy in a show, but I think viewers should try hard not to lose sight of what the show does give us. Maybe we need a little fantasy in our programs to make them interesting–if that’s the case, I say, bring it on! Because with the inaccuracies that grow from that fantasy also come a more compelling, and arguable more truthful show, especially if the truth that a person is seeking is less about forensic procedure and more about moral and emotional achievement.

I am turning into a huge fan of the official websites for crime drama shows. While I wouldn’t ever abandon my favorite fan sites, the bar for the official sites seems to be raised constantly. Now they almost all offer extensive video clips (or even full episodes) in addition to the character and actor bios and other features they’ve had for awhile. Speaking of character bios, these are definitely worth having a look at. You might feel like you know all relevant information about a favorite character, and maybe you do, but I was surprised to see what kind of details I was missing when I was perusing the TNT website for The Closer. Seemingly minor information about a character–past job, divorce, country of origin–can help you read a character and his or her actions. Don’t ever rely on just watching a show to get your background info–who knows what you might miss!

I just want to apologize for the lack of updates recently. I’ve been sick with some mysterious illness (two trips to the university health center and two rounds of antibiotics and they STILL have no clue what the hell I had) for about three weeks and to top it all off, this week is finals/moving out week at my school. So that’s my excused absence.

Your regular posts will resume next week. I’ll be covering The Closer for sure, but I’m not decided on what else I’ll be covering during the summer.

Veronica Mars returns tonight, people! Not only will I be watching to get a fresh fix of my favorite show, but because I’m still bitter at FOX for cancelling Drive. WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS TAKE NATHAN FILLION AWAY FROM ME?! WHY?!

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

April 16, 2007, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Virginia Tech community and the world beyond.

To remember and honor the victims of those tragic events, the university has established the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to aid in the healing process and generate financial support.

The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:

• Grief counseling
• Memorials
• Communication expenses
• Comfort expenses
• Incidental needs

If you plan to give, please click the link below: