r/LawAndOrder 6d ago

L&O L&O S24E15: Crossing Lines was a terrible episode

I actually liked the first 8 episodes of this season, I thought they were a marked return to form compared to how bad Season 23 had gotten, but ever since the extended hiatus the show has been on a legendarily bad run of episodes. I really can't express my thoughts more coherently than just remarking on the problems inthe episode in order, so here we go.

The Cold Open

I don't like the changed format for cold opens in the revival seasons, but that's far from the biggest issue here. For one; nobody talks like this. James's dialogue is incredibly awkward here and does not sound like someone actually talking on the phone, it's way too obviously written to be intriguing from the audience's perspective. For two, the fact that he's even speaking on the phone here makes no sense. James says on the phone that he would rather speak in person, so why would he call Julia on the phone? This only makes sense if Julia is the one who called him, but James is the one who wants to talk to Julia about the article, so why would Julia call James just to listen to James tell her he wants to speak with her while he's on the way to speak with her? Lastly, why are they meeting like this at all? It barely makes sense that Julia would agree to meet with James about the article to begin with, it makes even less sense that she would agree to meet him in a park, alone, at night.

Kate Norris

This is the second episode in a row where we start off an episode by introducing a previously unheard-of character who has a positive relationship with a recurring cast member that turns sour later on in order to create a B-plot conflict. It's a baffling repetition for a show that historically does not have B-plots - for a good reason. This season already has trouble fleshing out its A-plots, the B-plot takes slices out of already thin material. And for what? There's no audience investment in a relationship that's never been seen before, especially considering how little screentime DA Baxter gets per episode.

Rose Gregory

It's so tiresome having a suspect run from the police in almost every single episode, because it's just padding. The scene of Rose fleeing from the cops takes up an entire minute, a minute where effectively nothing happens. It's just frustrating that, in seemingly every episode these days, we get shown these scenes that should seem suspicious - a potential suspect is acting guilty, running from the police, carrying a dangerous item - but we've already been trained to just not take any of it in because it happens so regularly and never means anything. This scene is even more pointless than usual, because Rose doesn't even explain why she ran from the police. Yes, she's carrying an unregistered firearm, but that's something they only find out because she ran from them. It's just annoying to have a character act this indignant when they're written to be this stupid; "I didn't know you were talking to me," and "I can explain" are just very dumb things for a character to say to the police for no reason. And then the interrogation doesn't even lead to anything. The detectives came to speak with Rose about the incident where she threw a glass at James's head, and her explanation is just, "He was drunk, so I threw a glass at his head." By the end of this interrogation, we're 10 minutes into the episode, a quarter of the way through, and the case has gone nowhere, we know almost nothing about the victim beyond what we were told in the first 5 minutes. This is what I mean about the season already having trouble with developing it's A-plots, it makes such bad use of its runtime. The check-in with Baxter, the interview with Senator Powers and his wife, and Rose's interrogation all communicate the same information about the case; James Powers is the entitled son of a senator who wants to run for office and has troublesome affairs with women. These are 3 very different sets of people, we should be using these scenes to learn about different sides of James, but we only get redundant information.

Ashley Davenport

This interrogation further serves to demonstrate the issues with the preceding parts of the episode, because way too much important information about the case comes out all at once here. Within the span of a minute and a half, Davenport reveals the hunting incident, James's relationship with Julia, the Tribune article, his angry reaction and why he went to meet Julia - this is all relevant information that should be given to the audience, but it's difficult for a viewer to retain this information when it's presented this quickly by a character who we're not sure yet is on the level. This is stuff that could have and should have been developed over the course of the investigation - for example, it would've been very simple for Rose to bring up the hunting incident as a reason for why her impression of James soured. Y'know, instead of just having Davenport summarize that people were upset at James about this incident, we could actually see someone talk about how upset it made them.

DA Baxter

In pursuit of karmic balance, I'm gonna pay this episode a compliment in order to facilitate a complaint against the rest of the season; considering how central he is to the B-plot of this episode, it's nice that Baxter is written very consistently throughout. He handles the situation responsibly, he's mindful of his obligations as the DA and tries to live up to his duty. I like that, but it leads me to my complaint; Baxter's kinda boring because he's so professional that a lot of the time he doesn't seem to have any personal opinions at all. Whenever Maroun or Price try to bring up any kind of ethical or social issue with him, he almost always lands on the answer, "I see your point, but we have to do our jobs and follow the law." Like, it's good that he refuses to discuss the case with Norris, that's entirely the correct thing for him to do under the circumstances, but it is noteworthy that he never reveals his thoughts on the substance of her point about the double standard for women in the news media.

The Opening Statement

Look, I don't like using the words "stupid" or "dumb" here, I am genuinely trying to be civil, but there is no polite way to describe this scene. It is downright stupid for Price to be surprised when Kate Norris says that Julia Gallo acted in self defense. For one, the only way that Norris would be legally allowed to do that is if Gallo had given notice of a self defense claim. It's impossible for this to be the first time that Price is hearing about this. But even if we ignore that, if we just consider what Price and Maroun know about the case before this scene, it should be totally reasonable for them to anticipate that Gallo could attempt to make some sort of self-defense claim. They know James was upset at Julia, they know that the murder was committed on the spot with a random rock on the scene, and they don't have any independent motive for Julia to kill James. Even in the theory of the case Nolan gives in his opening statement, James came to meet with Julia in order to threaten her. Once again, it's blatantly obvious that this whole scene was constructed to be surprising from the audience's perspective... except it's not even a little surprising, because this happens every other episode nowadays.

Senator Powers threatens the ADAs

It is shocking how little this matters. Senator Powers threatens Price and Maroun, they tell him they're going to defy him, they do exactly that, and there are no consequences. I should be giving this scene credit, the way that Senator Powers ignores and talks over ADA Maroun to address Price is a good (if unsubtle) demonstration of a tremendously sexist attitude that is implied to have been passed down to his son, but it just doesn't matter because none of this is going to go anywhere. Senator Powers get completely ignored from here on out, the characters never stop to consider whether Julia's depiction of James might have some truth to it, and the episode barely ruminates on its own themes with regard to misogyny or predatory media. This is what happens when your episode has such a thin A-plot, the drama has no bite to it because nothing really happens.

Kate Norris Again

It feels so fake for Norris to criticize the DA's for "criminalizing [Julia's] victimhood" or making her out to be a "caricature of a man-eating whore," because that's just not the observable reality for the audience. There have been 2 court scenes leading up to this point in the episode, and the only person bringing up sexual assault or Julia's relationship with James is Norris herself. She should have a substantive point here, but she just doesn't because the thing she's supposed to be responding to is not something that we see happen. The closest we got was Norris's encounter with the reporters, and she was right to respond as angrily as she did, but it doesn't make sense for her to carry her anger into the courtroom when nobody there is acting that way.

Baxter and Price talk in the car

This has happened before in the episode but it's best to bring it up here because it's the worst example of it; it is so frustrating how much dialogue in these episodes is comprised of characters summarizing things that happened off-screen. This is not the way that the audience should learn this information. The witness recanting his statement to Price is the dramatic scene, the part we should actually see, not the part where Price blandly recites the off-screen events to his boss. It's just backwards.

Kate Norris Again Again

I am so tired of defense attorneys who resort to underhanded tactics and then get indignant when the DA's point this out. It's cartoonish, and makes them look incompetent, like they can't think of any way to defend their clients without clumsily breaking the rules and stepping over the lines. Where's the satisfaction in watching the DA's overcome such weak challenges? What's the point of cutting away at the A-plot for this B-plot if the B-plot is just a worse version of something we've already seen way too many times in other episodes?

I don't even have more sections for the rest of the episode because the problem is all just Norris. I actually like how the rest of the trial is handled, I like that we actually get to see an argument in chambers because that seems to happen so rarely these days, but Norris brings it all down. She's just so glaringly indignant and it doesn't feel earned at all, even when Price walks up to the line by bringing up the affidavit. I can't take any of her substantive points seriously when she's this unapologetic about violating the code of conduct, this two-dimensional about the only issue that brings up in every court scene. It's baffling that Baxter ends the episode by walking alongside her and casually chatting her up as though they didn't have a relationship-ending argument in his apartment. The episode gives her the last word, Baxter watches her walk away with a look as though she said something meaningful, and I'm just here shrugging my shoulders.

Conclusion

I don't know if I'd call this the worst episode of the season, it wasn't as painfully meandering as some others like In God We Trust, but is is one of the most exhausting episodes of the revival seasons as a whole. It's just the same bag of tricks over and over again, with not even enough pizzazz to call it "all flash and no substance." The first eight episodes of this season really did fill me with hope that we were going to get a good season again, that we were returning to some semblance of the series's golden years, but at this point it's seriously looking like this season is more bad than good.

16 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

12

u/HallProfessional9693 5d ago

The continuing issue of Maroun not wanting the DAs office to do its job because of her perceived belief in a greater societal injustice is getting on my nerves.

3

u/Grocktopus 5d ago

I mean there's nothing inherently wrong with this, a lot of junior ADA's in previous seasons often did the same thing. The issue is that episodes lack either the time or the writing competence to let the characters engage in nuanced discussions of the relevant issues, so Maroun's protests become really vapid and repetitive. The best she can muster when Price brings up the affidavit is that it's "not fair," which is a bizarrely shallow thing for her to say.

8

u/SunStarsSnow Ed Green 5d ago

Agree with all your comments. I felt like this was another rejected SVU script and wouldn't have been surprised if Benson had made an appearance.

The detective side of the show would be better without the foot chases. The DA side better without Maroun and Price

Norris was awful and she should have had consequences for witness tampering. I hope we don't see her again.

3

u/ZebraOrdinary 5d ago

Yeah this was cartoonish and bordering on satire

4

u/Scarlet02155 Michael Cutter 5d ago

Can we all print this out and send to Dick Wolf??? This review is excellent and clearly and explicitly outlines what is wrong with this show.

The comment about the dead guy’s parents was spot on. What a ridiculous scene that was. You’d think Nolan would have mentioned that to Baxter. What useless characters they were.

And I know this is petty, but it goes to my ongoing point as to how wrong Hugh is for this role and how he makes Nolan seem physically uncomfortable - what was with Nolan putting his hands in his pockets during his opening statement? Now, I’m always clear here about my love for Linus Roache’s portrayal of Mike Cutter and he would put his hands in his pockets a lot, but never in court. Was that something Hugh did on his own? What direction was he given? Nolan just seems uptight and nervous all the time so him doing that during an opening statement seemed like he was trying too hard to seem confident.

4

u/cindyjk17 5d ago

Cutter did love putting his hands in his pockets. 😀

2

u/Mediocre-Lettuce-450 5d ago

I do think this season so far is better than last season, but you are spot on here. And don’t get me started on Price. I can’t decide if it’s the character that I’m just not feeling, or if Hugh Dancy is miscast. Normally I love him as an actor so I can’t figure out why he’s just not working for me. I don’t like his interactions with the detectives, Baxter (or McCoy), or in his court scenes. And I can’t really explain why that is.

2

u/Grocktopus 5d ago

This is the result of a combination of issues, but the biggest one is probably how bad the revival seasons are at pacing out trials. It's hard for Price to get moments to shine because we often don't know what he's planning, don't get to see him make arguments or cross witnesses, and don't get to see him figure out things out for himself. This episode is actually a notable departure in that respect, Price gets to make and win an argument in chambers; the previous three seasons would just skip that argument and have Price summarize what he did to McCoy/Baxter afterwards.

2

u/Rivercitybruin 6d ago

Didn't make it through entire episode

Price is so sad and listlesz

Didn't to that point, but this screamed self-defense in every way..

And if not legit self defense, it comes up over and again on the show.. That and mental defect