I remember being unhappy when NBC put the original Law and Order on hiatus. I'm not really into crime series but I liked the formula of a crime mystery plus the give and take of the ensuing criminal trial. It would have been boring if it was too predictable; I found the following chart:
Of course, the original series has spun off other series, most notably SVU, which I have occasionally watched, but lacked, in my opinion, the more compelling variety and interesting storytelling of the original. (I was a big fan of the Criminal Intent spinoff, principally because of compelling lead character Robert Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio).) But why did the original series end after 20 years end a dozen years back? Expenses and ratings. So I was happy to see the series' recent reboot, including the return of some familiar faces like DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston).
In past opinions, I've been a harsh critic of progressive themes and talking points saturating entertainment, perhaps introduced by All in the Family with blue collar Republican patriarch Archie Bunker, portrayed as bigoted, uninformed, and inarticulate. You almost never see a balanced, sympathetic handling of socially conservative issues and characters. You typically see progressive characters as victims of bullying, angry, irrational, bumper sticker busybody conservatives, Even Hallmark makes films that demonize money-grubbing big businesses targeting small farms and businesses, green-energy struggling entrepreneurs battling the odds against the powers that be. I identify as a social conservative, but for example, I've always had a "live and let live" attitude about gays and their relationships; at the same time, I believe we need to avoid social experiments in public policy involving the foundational constructs of marriage and family. Probably 3 of my 21 nephews and nieces are gay (mostly inferred from certain photos); we've never discussed their preferences, but I love them and want them to be happy in life.
I had watched the joint 3 series' season premiere episodes (also including the SVU spinoff Organized Crime). I had no6 watched the interim 2 episodes and went onto Peacock over the weekend to stream them. I found the presentation annoying; they anchored the current episode link at the top of the screen. (I eventually discovered I had to upper-arrow from the current episode to get prior episode links.)
So I came on the second episode link. Here's my synopsis (I need to stop blogging while watching TV because I'll occasionally zone out while writing, something happens in the episode, and "what the hell just happened?"; I was not intending to write about the episode; I believe my synopsis is fairly accurate, at least in the big picture):
The episode opens with a Texas governor's daughter Becca Carter walking in unfamiliar NYC, confused and/or disoriented. She stumbles into a couple of unfamiliar characters. And then she turns around, and everything goes black. We next see investigators surrounding a dead Becca, apparently s victim of a fatal mugging. An enraged Gov. Carter arrives in NYC, vowing in front of the media he's going nowhere until NYPD ID's the murderer of his daughter.
At some point, we have a NYC acquaintance of Becca come forward, explaining she helped other Texas women who were pregnant, seeking abortion, given Texas' notorious new restrictive abortion law. She hooks them up with willing providers. Becca is the pregnant daughter of staunchly pro-life parents, neither her boyfriend or she are ready to be parents; she doesn't want to confront her parents, who she feels would not accept the abortion of their first grandchild. So apparently Becca was still recovering from a medical abortion (I think they find traces of the drug in her system) when she was assaulted.
At some point the police close on Becca's brother as a suspect; we later learn Becca's mother and brother have discovered Becca's pregnancy, and the brother chases her down in NYC, discovers residual abortion pills and in a rage murders her.
McCoy reminds the prosecutors abortion is not on trial. We get the usual pro-abort soundbite about hypocritical pro-lifers in favor of some lives. Long story short, the jury convicts Becca's brother, and the prosecutors offer the abortion facilitator witness to be escorted a different way so she doesn't have to face an angry pro-life mob. The episode ends with some engaged woman emerging from the crowd and shooting the witness dead.
This episode is pure pro-abort propaganda on so many fronts, it's almost arbitrary knowing where to start. I'm pro-life, and I have published multiple post-Dobbs posts.. I know there is a desire to link our movement to violence, like bombings of clinics or murders of abortionists. Pro-lifers generally reject violence and murder of any kind. We generally oppose the prosecution of formerly pregnant women, who we feel have lost their children regardless of the circumstance. In fact, the Catholic Church sponsors Project Rachel, which counsels women after abortion. It's unthinkable that a mob would oppose the conviction of a brother murdering his sister. You're more likely to encounter protesters praying their rosaries. And there are countless unreported incidents of pro-abort vandals and other violence. Consider this following excerpt from The Abortion Crime Report;
Pro-abortion violence and villainy in Los Angeles is not restricted to doctors. The report lists several incidents of pro-life protesters being viciously mocked, kicked, beaten and bitten.It's bad enough that the rogue pro-abort Catholic-in-Name Only Biden is aggressively going after pro-lifers like father of 7 Mark Houck whose home was recently raided by over a dozen FBI agents over Houck allegedly pushing some geezer escort getting in his 12 yo son's face.
Especially noteworthy is the March 1989 case of an Orange city police officer who dragged a pro-life demonstrator behind a wall at Family Planning Associates in Cypress to savagely beat him, even though the pro-lifer was offering no resistance. That same month three pro-abortionists were arrested after igniting an incendiary device in a church filled with 2,500 pro-life activists. Concussion grenades were also found beneath the speaking platform where the pro-life leaders were supposed to speak. A detonation would have gravely injured and probably killed anyone standing on the platform.
