The other night I saw, for the first time, NBC’s Crime & Punishment, a spinoff of Law & Order. The producers claim that every bit of footage is genuine and unscripted, but I have my doubts.
[ul]It seems unlikely that litigants would consent to being filmed so up close and personal, and allow their testimony to be used as entertainment (although CourtTV does this).
Having seen CourtTV, I realize that closing arguments are not the tidy and emotional little packages portrayed on Perry Mason and Ally McBeal. They sometimes run for days, and are quite boring. Yet on this show, they seem like a TV series.
The people on the show seem way too good looking to not be professional actors.
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The openings and closings appear to be edits of much longer pieces. What we’re hearing are only snippets compared to what the jury hears. At any rate, the website for the DA of San Diego lists episodes involving the SD DA’s office, and I don’t think they’d lie.
This is the second season of the show, which is a summer replacement. I can only recall what was written about it just before it came out last year.
One of the things mentioned was that there were three shielded cameras in the courtroom that “looked like microwave ovens” so they could be ignored. If this is accurate we can assume those cameras are being operated by joysticks.
As to the attractiveness of the prosecutors? It’s San Diego! Even there they ain’t all photogenic. I’ve seen one or two that would make your socks rot.
Another reason San Diego was chosen was because (it was reported at the time) that area of California has a “better” history of handing out death sentences that the Northern area. That should add to the dramatic tension.
Whether or not it is real footage from real courts it is the worst of the L&O shows. It may not be scripted but it sure sounds that way. It’s put together by professional writers and editors who’s J-O-B it is to entertain you. I am neither impressed nor entertained.
I’ll stick with my things for Watterston, T and Belzer.
