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Reviews
Law & Order: Chosen (2003)
This Episode Is Absurd and Honestly a Disgrace Towards the Show
I have many things to say about this episode so I am just going to number off my points, but the main idea is that this episode was insane, fairly confusing, and insulting on multiple levels.
1. First off, the concept was cool, what happens when a lawyer's only hope is to play the jury? I think its a good simple premise that this show could have fun with, but it clearly got carried away. Instead of just having the one, they decided to also include a debate about culture or religion vs citizenship. Both are cool but this show was not built to handle both at once and the episode feels disjointed and incredibly preachy, both literally and metaphorically.
2. The entire Israel thing is totally and completely shoed in and I hate it as a plot line. This whole segment completely dominates the episode, even its characters are suddenly commanded by it as
the judge is completely ridiculous and the assistant to the main lawyer (I forget everyones names my bad) is claiming everyones anti-semetic. Logic totally goes out the window and everyone forgets theyre in a court room, and all just to make some half hearted point about culture. Its almost like bringing up Israel flips a switch on everyone. I get that this was almost 20 years ago and post-9/11 was a crazy time especially for nyc but still. They also decided to choose a very deep, long, and complicated conflict when they could have just done something simpler and it would have been much more effective.
3. For a show that loves showing both sides, this episode completely abandons any hope of fairness or nuance in the slightest. There was no defense of the Arabs of Palestinians at any point, with the perps wife claiming that Palestinians "do not exist" which is a pretty egregious thing to say (and very much false by the way), and the defense "attorney" even claims that the Arabs are WORSE than the Nazis at one point which is just an insane statement that everyone should know is insane. Its wild that the episode is so concerned about being anti-semetic that they will demonize and perpetuate pretty horrible rhetoric towards Arabs and theyre culture. I am sure my Arab friends would be appalled by this episode, but I doubt they would be surprised to see this sort of racism on American television, especially during the era it was made in. The I/P conflict is notoriously one of the most complex in modern history, and to see it portrayed like this is almost disgusting, as its entire portrayal is offensive, unfathomably biased, and a disgrace to the namesake of the series, law and order.
4. This ones just personal I dont have grand argument or anything. I despised the defense attorney and I wanted him to go away every time I saw him, he was so annoying and irritating that I couldnt stand it. I feel similarly, but not as strongly towards the judge as he just completely forgot that he was an actual judge and not a complete fool.
If you have read this far then just to summarize, this episode is ridiculous and I hate it, it is not deep, interesting or thought provoking, it is simply ignorant, disrespectful, and fails to say anything meaningful.