Fenrir-5

Although this started out as a promising show, a better title for what it quickly became would be "Law & Order: Liberal Lecture Hour". Each episode of the show is a transparent allegory or a direct presentation of some liberal crusade in which the dialogue completely focuses on the detectives, lawyers, clerks, victims, and random passers-by reciting some left-wing diatribe. At first they had the decency to at least include a cardboard cut-out of a figure to respond to these arguments. Now they don't even bother with that; it's a straight lecture, complete with occasional raps on the knuckles with a ruler for not caring as much as these fictional characters obviously do.

Many times the stories won't even involve 'special victims'. The writer might throw in some crime that at first appears to be under their jurisdiction, but this will quickly be discovered to be false. Yet the detectives just care so much (and so should you!) about the tenuously tangential political/social issue that they are compelled to make it their crusade. And laughably they are always able to secure some meaningless, fictional victory over it by the end of the show.

If that's not enough to drive you away, there's one other major problem with this series: the completely overbearing and ridiculous way the show worships Mariska Hargitay. Not only is her character completely preposterous - she has, in turn, been a cop, a detective, a computer crimes investigator/hacker, an undercover agent with the FBI (while making sure not to insult the hippies she's spying on, and making a point about police brutality), and so on - but also has an overbearing, sanctimonious back story and has to be told she's "beautiful" every third show. It becomes really preposterous when she decides to take one of her many vacations; while she's gone the show does nothing but mourn her absence, complete with shoulders-up close-up static scenes of her randomly inserted into stories so we won't go into deep withdrawal.

Chris Meloni doesn't fare very well in a role that has been almost entirely phased out. He was originally the 'muscle', but left-wingers don't like muscle, so now he's morphed into kind of a touchy-feely, whiny crybaby who pines for his cardboard cut-out of a wife and family and apparently feels bad for being the necessary tough guy. His role is unintentionally hilarious because the makers of the show have no idea what to do with him. They want a tough guy so people who like cop shows will watch (because enforcing the law requires tough guys), but if they make him too tough they'll lose the left-wing audience who likes the sermons and thinks violence is icky. So one show he'll punch a guy, and the next show he's in therapy for it. There's an episode where he takes down a combative perp using a choke hold - the only action sequence in the show - and is then castigated for the rest of the episode for 'excessive force'. On the ridiculous 'Abu Ghraib' episode they had him utter the completely laughable lie that he had "used force" to compel a confession, but "9 times out of 10 is was counterproductive". Makes one long for the halcyon days of Andy Sipowicz.

The rest of the cast are increasingly irrelevant, pencil-sketch background characters. Though there have been abortive attempts to flesh some of them out, they're almost entirely ignored except to occasionally throw in a line representing their one dimension of characterization. Is there a pimp in this story? Bring in Ice-T! Does anybody use the word 'conspiracy' in this one? Bring in Belzer! And there's usually not much courtroom drama in an episode - the cops generally browbeat the audience for at least 45 minutes, minus the occasional chase scene - so we generally only see the pretty ADA give her speech. Which always reflects the lecture we've been given all episode and comes to the obvious conclusion: everybody who doesn't agree with the left-wing point of view on the issue is evil and should be in prison. But not executed! They're against that.

So basically if you want to worship at the temple of Hargitay, believe everything sent to you in an email by MoveOn.org and love the Daily Show, and think the best entertainment is to hear your own opinion regurgitated to you based upon the latest opinion poll, this is your show. If you think Hargitay looks a little mannish, actually want to see a good cops/lawyers show, or find trite presentations of important issues tiresome, there's better to be found.

For quite a while I was convinced that this was a good show, largely from the strength of the first season. The first season was very honest and open, and all of the characters were quite well developed. The driving story was obviously that of Eric and Donna - a well-written teenage romance surrounded by interesting characters and funny jokes.

However during the second season things began to change. Suddenly everything seemed to be about feminism. Midge, the nextdoor neighbor, began talking about her "needs" and how Bob was an ass for not respecting them. Several shows revolved around comedically showing Midge trying to reach her goals, and Bob not understanding. Little heed was paid to the fact that Midge was a spoiled housewife who did nothing to aid the family, and that putting her own dreams in front of her family was selfish. Bob was just an ass for not understanding. I mean, how offensive is it to be asked to cook a meal for a person who works all day putting a roof over your head? The nerve of some people!

Then the worst thing possible happened: Donna became virtually the same character as Midge. In every episode dealing with their relationship, Eric would do something goofy or stupid (or which would be characterized as goofy or stupid), and he would end up apologizing to Donna. Again and again and again. Finally, when Eric asks Donna for a commitment we are expected to accept that this is wrong (because Donna is selfish and wants to put her individual dreams ahead of her relationship). So they break up, and then most of the fourth season deals with why Eric is such a dumbass for losing her, why he is wrong, why Donna is right and such a great catch, and so forth. Not once does the story revolve around why Donna was wrong for her attitude, or how she made mistakes. Because she's female, and thus perfect.

The attitude is visible in every aspect of the show. All the men beg for sex, and women grant them the favor ... if they're lucky. The men buy the women gifts and fret about how they may not be doing enough for their relationship. The women just complain about how stupid the guys are. Examine this show a little more closely. Kitty is the perfect mom, Red is the brutish and ignorant dad. Donna is the perfect woman, Eric is the goon boyfriend. Midge is the enlightened woman, Bob is an idiot. When Midge abandons her family it is ok because she was "unhappy", but Hyde's dad is a loser for leaving his family. Ah, the justice of the double standard.

"That 70's Show" became just another victim of the female market, like so many other shows during the early 2000's. In the spirit of revamped new-age feminism, women were consistently portrayed as the sage, wise members of a relationship, and men as the childish goons who always mess everything up. For years this paradigm has been visible, from prime-time dramas to comedy to commercials. Strange that nobody sees this as offensive. Obviously the common sense position is that men and women are of equal potential intelligence and both need to give up some things to have a relationship. But common sense doesn't sell, does it?

Most recently the show has become annoying because the stories aren't developed anymore, it's all about the joke. Like all Fox sitcoms which last more than three years, the show has become jarringly self-referential and complacent. Which is a sad ending to a show that had so much promise.