New Law And Order Episode Eerily Familiar
NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Local shopkeeper Marion Paulson thought that last night's Law and Order episode lacked originality. She said the episode, which began with a pizza-delivery boy discovering 20,000 deceased Kurds in a third-floor apartment, was obviously based on the exploits of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"I know they supposedly 'rip these stories from the headlines,'" said Paulson as she made quote marks with her hands, "but they should change the stories a little bit."
The episode, which had over five million viewers, first showed detectives Briscoe and Green—played by Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin,— investigating a former love interest of one of the murdered Kurds. The detectives then turned their sights toward a character by the name of Paddam Mussein.
"Paddam Mussein?" Paulson asked reporters sarcastically, "Come on. And like I'm really supposed to believe that some woman committed genocide out of jealously. 'Oh! I'm so surprised! The killer isn't the person we were initially led to believe it was, but some other minor character instead!"
Lionel Aviles, a neighbor of Paulson's, disagreed, stating that he found the episode "interesting, and thought-provoking."
"I especially liked the dynamic between the two detectives. The black detective's kind of loose cannon and the old detective tries to calm him down a lot. It rings so true to life because black people are really angry a lot."
While television critic Jamie Anderson agreed with Paulson in that the episode seemed to follow along with world events almost to the point of stupidity, she did like the way that the case was handled in the courtroom.
"Almost having the Saddam character get off because the cop he confessed to was actually a priest. . . that was awesome, if I was a writer for Law and Order, I would probably be tempted to use that plot twist in like every third episode."
The hour-long drama exceeded the budget of most Law and Order episodes as the capture of Paddam Mussein involved shooting a scene in which thousands of heavily armed police invaded and destroyed most of Manhattan in their search for the suspect.
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