When Law & Order and its various spin-offs return to NBC this fall, it’s safe to assume that late-night host John Oliver won’t be tuning in. On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, he devoted his main segment to the franchise’s oft-skewed depiction of law enforcement and took aim at show creator Dick Wolf. (Vanity Fair has reached out to Wolf’s rep for comment.)
“It’s presenting a world where the cops can always figure out who did it, defense attorneys are irritating obstacles to be overcome, and even if a cop roughs up a suspect, it’s all in pursuit of a just outcome,” Oliver said, calling the series “a commercial, and a commercial produced by a man who is, in his own words, unabashedly pro-law enforcement. And he is very good at selling things. And in this instance, he’s selling a complete fantasy that many people in this country are only too happy to buy.”
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Oliver began by noting that Wolf was influenced by the 1950s police procedural Dragnet, a series that collaborated so closely with the LAPD that officials from the force reportedly had script approval. Similarly, Wolf cultivated a “close behind-the-scenes relationship with the NYPD, employing officers as consultants and boasting about the access he had,” Oliver said.
He mentioned an anonymous Law & Order writer who once claimed that there was a sense amongst the creative team that if police were depicted negatively, the NYPD “could make it very difficult for us to shoot in New York.” Said Oliver, “Does make sense, doesn’t it? The NYPD is famously anti-shooting unless they are the ones doing it.”
The host then pointed out realities of the criminal justice system that Law & Order often ignores, including the 97% of cases that never go to trial and the fact that defendants often don’t reflect those seen on the show, who are “disproportionately white, male, older, and from the middle or upper classes.” “Obviously, Law & Order cannot reflect that reality,” Oliver said. “It would be unwatchable. Nobody wants to watch a show where 97% of episodes end with two lawyers striking a deal in a window-less room, and then you get to watch the defendant serve six months then struggle to get a job at their local Jiffy Lube.”
Oliver concluded his remarks on Law & Order’s glorification of policing by asserting that the show “is never going to grapple with the reality of policing in a meaningful way…because fundamentally, the person who is responsible for Law & Order and its brand is Dick Wolf, and he knows exactly what he wants his shows to do and, importantly, not to do.”
Elsewhere in the episode, the infamously anti-royal host acknowledged the death of Queen Elizabeth by criticizing new UK prime minister Liz Truss, whom he referred to as “Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue.” Oliver maligned Truss’s plans to counteract soaring energy bills in England with a tax on oil and gas corporations. “Look, I’m just gonna say this, and you may not like it, but it doesn’t make it any less true: The nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became prime minister,” he said. “Because for at least a week, she’s not going to get justifiably destroyed for answers like that.”
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September 13, 2022 at 12:25AM
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John Oliver Slams ‘Law & Order’ for “Selling a Complete Fantasy” of Law Enforcement - Vanity Fair
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