Disclaimer: This post is based on the first two seasons, which I saw.
“Law & Order: UK” (2009- ) is a British adaptation of the American television show “Law & Order” (1990-2010). As in the American version, each show features a murder, which we learn about bit by bit from two police detectives in the first half hour and then follow into court with two lawyers in the second half.
British adaptation: They chose the best American scripts that would mean the most to British audiences and then rewrote them as they would play out in London with British characters and procedures. It is not as different as Americans might expect: there are judges, juries, witnesses, police evidence, police corruption, cross examination, bond hearings, etc.
Flat characters: Just as I followed actor Sam Waterston from “I’ll Fly Away” (1991-1993) to the American “Law & Order” back in the 1990s, so I followed actress Freema Agyeman from “Doctor Who” to the British “Law & Order” in the 2010s. In both cases their character became much flatter. In part because “Law & Order” is heavily plot driven, in part because it tries to do a police show and a courtroom drama all in one hour. There is not even time for a proper chase scene.
The main characters are noble but boring. They are model employees: they have no outside life. Their love lives, family lives, even rape and alcoholism, lie well in the past.
Even worse, for a show like this, the fight between good and evil lies not within their souls. They lack moral complexity – even when they have to destroy old lovers in the witness stand or out a beloved but dirty police officer.
What makes the show interesting are not the characters but the search for truth by the police and the fight for justice by the lawyers – despite the many things that stand in their way.
View of justice: Not only are the police and the courts imperfect and sometimes screw things up, they often have to deal with issues they were not designed for, like mental illness where guilt and innocence are beside the point. On the other hand, the police and courts are nearly always the good guys. Everyone regardless of race or class is equal before the law. That is so not believable.
Racism: Mainly limited to working-class characters who are openly and violently racist. The lead lawyer, however, does understand that his judgement can be clouded by racial prejudice. Little on police racism: police brutality, racial profiling, etc. Freema Agyeman’s character is a token and is rarely subjected to racism or sexism. The show fails the Bechdel Test for race and gender massively.
Language: As the show progresses it moves up the class structure and the English becomes easier for me as an American to understand: the accents become more RP, the word choice becomes more formal – “squaddie” becomes “soldier”, “Old Bill” becomes “the police”, etc.
– Abagond, 2013.
See also:
- Freema Agyeman
- American Violet – a far more believable police/courtroom drama even though it pulls out a miracle ending, which it can get away with because it was true.
- I’ll Fly Away – one of the best television shows ever. Morally complex characters. Deals with racism head-on.
- The Bechdel Test and Race – white men are not the centre of the universe – they just seem that way in film and television where they control whats gets made, what counts as “a good story”.
- RP: Received Pronunciation
- just world doctrine
- The police
- racial profiling
I wonder how your review of it compares to people in Britain.
Anyhow, I am sure that it is still targeting an American audience.
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I used to watch regularly, but I no longer do because I found it too difficult to understand the myriad of regional accents, dialects and worse…….. Their slang!!! Also, they tend to often talk way too fast, and waaaayyyyy too much! Also the storylines were not nearly as developed as in the US versions. As I said before, they talk too much, but not about the points that matter. And the scenes are too choppy, and move around more than necessary.
Aside from my complaints, I do like the idea of the show, it’s just not well executed.
For me the peek into everyday British culture, is very interesting. I’M A HUGE LOVER OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE!!
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Beeno:-
I found it too difficult to understand the myriad of regional accents, dialects and worse…….. Their slang!!
LOL – can you recall any of the words/phrases you struggled with? Its strange how the reverse, in terms of deciphering American dialects and colloquial phraseology doesnt seem to apply to peeps in the U.K.
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@Abagond
I know you’re a big Freema fan like I am. But that pic of her in the white wig is very hard to look at. It’s painful to see such a beautiful woman reduced to such silliness. Please change that pic. It’s painful to look at!lol
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The accents are hard to understand. I need closed captions. Please don’t judge me.
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OMG! I thought it was just me! I was thinking the same thing about that absurd, poorly constructed wig. It’s just sort of sitting on the top of her head like a cap, as it doesn’t even come close to covering her own hair.
It certainly does no justice at all to such a beautiful woman as Freema Agyeman.
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I’m with you Mary: I couldn’t follow the accents either. Close captioning didn’t help either as the dialects and slang used were also meaningless to me.
It’s too bad really, as I had looked forward to viewing the British version for its footage of England, as well as for the cultural differences between it and the original Law & Order (the now defunct Law & Order: Criminal Intent was actually my favorite show of the L & O franchise. Both Courtney Vance and Vincent D’Onofrio were great in their respective roles).
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I stopped watching it myself it is just the first few years of law and order with brits in the place of americans. I knew everything before it happened. I didn’t really have a problem with accents or slang as I watch bbc all the time.
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@ omnipresent – google “americanisms” and you will get a lot of articles on how American English not only baffles but infuriates the Brits. Americans tend to think the differences in our languages are interesting and we’ll adopt their terms and way of speaking, no problem. The Brits get hopping MAD over what they feel are Americanisms creeping into “their” language. I’ve read articles that are like 5 Americanisms, no 10, no 20, no 50 Americanisms that are positively dreadful and must be abolished immediately. Like they go crazy.
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ThatDeborahGirl:
@ omnipresent – google “americanisms” and you will get a lot of articles on how American English not only baffles but infuriates the Brits. Americans tend to think the differences in our languages are interesting and we’ll adopt their terms and way of speaking, no problem. The Brits get hopping MAD over what they feel are Americanisms creeping into “their” language. I’ve read articles that are like 5 Americanisms, no 10, no 20, no 50 Americanisms that are positively dreadful and must be abolished immediately. Like they go crazy.
I don’t agree with this entirely. There is very little in the American vocab that has confused me on a personal level and not to a degree where I am infuriated by it. On a wider scale, the sheer amount of American made sitcoms that flood U.K TV is what grates on some peoples nerves – I suspect that people using ‘Americanisms’ and this annoying some British people is in response to that.
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I see what you’re saying. I know the history if the wig. I just think Freema looks very silly with it. That’s the point I was making to Abagond.
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@ Kushite
I changed the picture of Freema.
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Thanks. Beautiful pic! 🙂
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You met her? You’re very fortunate. I would love to see her in person. Where did you see her?
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Yes,I had heard her mother was Iranian also. Whatever combination she’s mixed with–it’s really working for her!lol
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As a black English person from the same area as Freema (and her character in Law & Order), I actually found her character refreshing. This is the 1st time I can recall seeing a representation of a black woman from a working class background who – through education and knowledge -is dealing with moving in different circles to her peers.
There were a couple of episodes where Freema is trying to get her head around the differences between herself and some (gang members, I think) from the same ‘hood. ‘Why me, not them?’ And I think a lot of black people from working class communities who ‘do well’ professionally or educationally confront these feelings.
So, in many respects, I see her character as quite revolutionary. Neither ruff neck, nor conservative middle class, not a struggling single mother or a white character with a brown face. Someone kinda like me.
And definitely not a token.
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The British have taken over in the entertainment business. I’m like why are we seeing more and MORE Brits on american tv, movies, jounalist in news/entertainment, etc. All these black people who LIVE here, born and raised here, went to school, studied communications to get a job as a news or entertainment jounalist, yet we see more brits all over the place. What the hell is going on? And Amerikkkans are definitely influenceing British people. And if the Brits are smart, they wouldn’t allow themselves to go back to being a backward country again,
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Tz:
I’m like why are we seeing more and MORE Brits on american tv, movies, jounalist in news/entertainment, etc.
Why not? U.K T.V has been saturated with American programmes – perhaps it might do Americans good to realise that they are not the centre of the whole bl00dy universe.
And if the Brits are smart, they wouldn’t allow themselves to go back to being a backward country again,
I’m sure I am going to regret asking this but, backward in what way? What is it that British people could learn for example from people in the good old U.S to prevent this?
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Like it or not….The British were backward people many years ago. America is STILL backwards and don’t look like its going to get any better. And by you saying Uk.tv is saturated with american programmes….that right there, is a bad omen for the Uk people. Exspecially when Amerikkkan tv show negative things about blacks. They ( and all of Europe) already see/hear negative things about blacks in Amerikka. Look, I’ve never been to the Uk, but I did hear that British people are very racist to blacks over there. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. And if they are racist to blacks, then I was right….amerikkkan tv has heavily influenced the brtitsh people along with all the rest of europe.
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Tz:
In all honesty I cannot make comparisons about race, mainly because I have never been to the U.S. Yes, racism is still about unfortunately and I guess that Football is a big example of that in the U.K.
The one ‘difference’ if I can say that, that I am aware of, is that neighborhoods seem to be much more diverse and many different ethnicities live in close proximity to each other. I saw a programme recently (I cant remember what it was called) but it seemed to say that this isnt the case in the U.S. There are still mono racial areas but I think it is more to do with wealth than race.
I think there have been some great programmes from the U.S and I dont feel that the shows dialogue gets ‘lost in translation’ even with Americanisms. I am just surprised that ‘language’ is such a barrier when it comes U.K imports. It just ‘lends’ to the feeling that some people in the U.S are much more insular than perhaps people in other parts of the world.
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Having lived in both countries, perhaps I am qualified to respond to Tz.
Firstly, I don’t think UK TV is over-saturated with US imports (but I don’t have cable, so…) We mainly have home grown programmes (whether through publicly funded BBC, or more commercial channels.) There is also a move towards European cop shows at the moment, for some reason. In general it is of a much higher quality than the US, partly because of the excellent documentaries, nature programme and the like, but also because of good writing and acting. It’s more REAL – our soap operas are about working class communities, rather than the super rich. There is a lot more risk-taking. US Cable produces some wonderful shows however, but they are not necessarily shown on terrestrial tv, but on cable (which not everybody has). Also a number of US shows are remakes of UK shows…
Re. racism, the US is a LOT more overtly racist than the UK; there is no comparison. I never experienced the kind of incidents and general feeling of dread as I did in the US. Furthermore, Black women aren’t even treated as women in the US. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the main difference I experienced. However, the glass ceiling is much higher in the US than the UK at the moment.
There are racists everywhere. but there seemed to be more of an air of white supremacy amongst white society, and a real feeling of living in separate worlds in the US. And this was in NYC! I’ve been to the South also, and that was something else….
@Omnipresent is quite right to denote the fact that we live together more in the UK (and as a consequence there are lot more mixed couples.) I think class is a greater factor in the UK, whereas in the US race takes the place of class. In reality, the two intersect all the time, but the ‘face’ of poverty (and recipient of the hatred directed towards ‘the poor’) is black in the US, and white in the UK.
As for the UK being backwords – I have no idea as to what you re talking about.
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You’re judgment is based on the first 2 seasons only but when the show runner Chris Chibnall left the show changed massively. I don’t believe a single one of Emilia DiGirolamos 12 episodes fails the bechdel test. She explored police racism, sexual violence and many other subjects bravely and brilliantly and has been applauded for her feminist approach and writing. You shoukd check the seasons she was lead writer on because it’s a very different show to seasons 1 & 2. Look at Survivor, Survivors Guilt, Broken, line up and Fault Lines – none of your comments ring true for those episodes and many more.
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@ Carol
Wow! I would love to see those. Thanks for the heads up.
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