The first two hot female ADAs have been liberal feminists, so for variety the third one is a pro-life, right winger (Angie Harmon), who even makes Jack McCoy recoil. It’s a good idea and helps spice things up; Harmon is very good looking, but she’s annoying. Her character is far too arrogant – she hasn’t earnt the right to be that cocky, especially as she can’t really act. Also the more we get to know the character, the less likeable she becomes: pro-life, woman-hater, Canada-basher, affirmative action-basher; during an affirmative action episode she once comments “I’d like to think I got where I did on my own merits”… - Harmon, you got you were because you’re hot.
A lot of the stories have a family theme: incestuous con artists, fathers who kill babies, desperate childless couples, fathers who abduct children. There’s an un-enjoyable episode where the DA’s office (and Harmon) try to bully Canadians – Harmon can’t believe they oppose the death penalty (“Great Britain and Canada have nothing to tell us about human rights”). But its followed by a strong episode about a hate crime, which centers around the inflammatory speeches of white supremacists – this has special resonance in the wake of the Sarah Palin assassination controversy. (This ep is dedicated to some DA called Charlie Rose, who “made the world a safer place”.) Then to show how balanced they are there’s an ep on how affirmative action drives a black to murder.
The quality of episodes in this series are solid rather than sensational – there’s few eps where you go “wow, that was amazing”, like I used to in the earlier seasons. I did enjoy seeing Julia Roberts as a femme fetale who flirts with her then-boyfriend Benjamin Bratt; she’s a good actor, and gives a strong performance (I’m not just saying that because she’s a star either because she’s presented in Law and Order style). And there’s a terrific double-part finale, about the Russian mafia – like other Russian mafia eps the death toll is large and it contains some really shocking moments; it also has Benjamin Bratt’s touching farewell.
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