User Reviews

Not bad, but I would have liked a little more "attitude" from the alleged killer, a little more villainous behavior. I think they also reached as a jury would be unlikely to convict on 1st degree murder without a body.

Tonight's episode of the Mothership (S21 E3 - "Filtered Life") was finally a really good episode more akin to the original run. No spoilers. I hope they are finding their mojo. Very enjoyable I'm really digging Hugh Dancy as EDA Price after not so much in the first episode. The writing was better. The police work was more in depth and there were a few surprises along the way. Sam Waterston is still the man! There was an interesting decision the DAs had to make regarding the deceased persons parents.

It does sound familiar over in a van and a woman that disappeared that sadly her body was never recovered though they found clues and some blood.

The jerk that was the villain of the week had made some fake resumes over at least twelve social dating sites and how he is a lying cheating scumbag. And could be a murdered.

Really can't warm up to Frank Cosgrove but am warming up to Jack as used to not stand him in the most of the regular original series. Age does that to you.

Filtered Life kind of finds the Law and Order revival back on its feet in a way, but one gets the feeling that part of this episode has a painting-by-the-numbers feel to it (a vegan couple - make sure they drink kale (or some green) juice - check! Impersonating tweets - check! Perils of social media for children - check! Real-life murder podcast - check!). It seems as though social media was on trial here with a gentle send-up of the social media influencers who crowdsource to solve crime and post their thoughts on social media to gain fame and fortune for themselves on the back of a tragedy and all.

It's so sad to see this show come back in this form. I've watched the first three episodes of season 21, and find the writing mediocre at best. I'm not a criminal lawyer, but it's laughable that the defense attorney in Filtered Life said nothing about whether the alleged victim's DNA was on the show, or object to its introduction on chain of custody grounds, or posit an alternate theory that the witness who allegedly found the shoe in the defendant's cousin's cabin could have planted it there to incriminate the defendant after admittedly breaking into the cabin. And why would the defendant take the stand in any event - no body, no direct evidence tying him to any crime. Unfortunately, I could go on and on.

The writers have ruined this show. They have the prosecution pushing a murder case with no body and no evidence. Then the defense seeks a plea deal despite the lack of a case. To top it off, the jury returns a guilty verdict. All so implausible, but leads the viewer to think that somehow this is justice.

This is just reinforcing the popular view that opinions and prejudice prevail, while facts and the law don't matter. This show is now a joke.

I've had a chance to watch all of the newer episodes so far and I will probably watch the rest of the episodes this season to see if the show improves...but some of it is not really working for me. I think they can do much better. I would say SVU is outshining the original series...it is the best in this franchise because it plays on the culture of victimization more effectively.

Another reviewer has been criticizing Sam Waterston in these recent installments. He does seem to shake a lot when he's standing, and I have been wondering if he has Parkinsons disease, as that would also affect his speech and some of his words seem slurred. But I am still glad that he is being featured, even in just a few scenes each week.

However, I think his character is already becoming too repetitious. The other attorneys seem to go to him each week to ask if they should take a deal and of course he tells them not to take any deal from the defense and continue forward with the prosecution. He needs something else to say and do.

I don't have a problem with Miss Manheim and the detectives. I think they are doing okay. My bigger issue is with the writing. All the culprits have been caucasians so far this season. Every time a black man is a suspect, we know that he will not be the actual perpetrator. That part is getting too predictable, given the politically correct zeitgeist that has permeated the writers room.

I would think that minority viewers would want examples of people from their own race also brought to justice, since crime is reflected in their segment of society just as much as it is reflected in the whiter segments. To perpetuate the notion that mostly white people commit the big crimes in Law & Order feels patently false. Not to say curiously biased.

As for this particular episode's storyline, I felt it was mostly contrived. They are trying to craft a crime drama as a public service to viewers, by advocating for victims of social media crimes. That is admirable. However, I didn't think there was really enough evidence for the accused to be convicted in this story.

It was as if the writers just had to make him guilty to get their point across, instead of presenting a more realistic depiction that the girl's body may never be recovered and how because of that, the jury would not be in such a rush to convict since there was no confession or admission of guilt. In this episode the jurors seemed like a civilized lynch mob, because the writers and producers had a pre-determined outcome for the story in mind, instead of depicting the scenario as it most likely would have played out...with the defense most likely prevailing by poking holes in the prosecution's case, as the prosecution would not fully be able to connect the dots, even if the defendant was guilty.

Better than the dreck that was the first two episodes. The weakest link is this Hugh Dancy creature - he seems more like something out of Lord of the Rings going on a quest and takes quirky to an annoying level. His bug-eyed assistant is getting better, but she still spends a lot of her time with her mouth hanging open. I guess that's what constitutes intense acting these days. Sam Waterston seemed like he took his Geritol and got a good night's sleep, so there is that.

Jeffrey "Derp Derp" Donovan is a little less derpy when he's screaming and yelling at a perp (derp!), but the show still lacks the coconuts to let a cop smack one of these creeps around, like in the old days. I'm waiting for the episode where Anthony Anderson's arrogant character gets his comeuppance, though he's absolutely right about missing white woman syndrome. I think Camryn Manheim is getting bigger and taller, not quite Andre the Giant size, but it occurs to me she could have played his wife in The Princess Bride.

A big problem with the reboot remains all the commercial interruptions. While the writing team seems to be cobbled together from a bunch of people standing around Home Depot and looking for day labor work, they aren't helped by having to break everything down into 5-to-7-minute chunks before we get assaulted by three or four minutes of commercials. Just when a scene feels like it wants to go somewhere, here comes some idiotic interruption about antidepressants or home security systems or whatever. (Again, can't remember their specific names, so, womp, womp, commercials ain't working.)

The scripts still seem thin and empty - like the current SVU ones when you take out all the insipid lovey-dovey stuff with the cops sleeping with each other and the DAs. Wow, talk about boundary issues. In Law and Order, there's no effort anymore to develop either the victims or the accused like in the older version of the series. They're just cardboard for formulaic plots to unfold. You can tell that the current writing team has no idea how to write characters unless they're in soap opera or cliched situations.

Anyway, this one was some theater about a social media nobody who disappears and how some guy using fake persona on a dating app may have buried her alive. Yet again, this sounds like an SVU case, not a traditional Law and Order one. The writing on that show has gotten terrible, so they must be funneling over rejected or slightly reworked scripts to this show. If you're looking for an engrossing mystery - you know, like on the old show - you won't find it here. It may sound like I don't want this show to succeed. Not in the least. What's infuriating is how good the original was and how they're blowing it now. How does that happen to something that was on so long that making more should have been second nature for the producers. Oh, Dicky Wolf!