He's Chevy Chase, and this time he's not funny
11/02/06 05:50 PM
By ED BARK
Sagging creatively and in the ratings, NBC's Law & Order goes for Mel Gibson's jugular on the second night of the November "sweeps."
The show's "ripped from the headlines" motif has been in play for many seasons, but this is strictly cut and paste. Another hook: It's Chevy Chase's first dramatic role, and it shows. He mostly acts with a heavier hand than the scriptwriter, drunkenly spewing anti-Semitic put-downs when he's not simply being a sexist pig.
"Screw you, sugar tits!" he roars at detective Nina Cassady (Milena Govich) after being arrested for driving under the influence in a blood-spattered shirt no less. His subsequent tirades against Jews include, "You work for leeches, detective. They suck the money out of this town. They send it to Israel so they can make bombs and matza."
Chase plays Mitch Carroll, a fading TV star who can't get work and blames it on the Jews. An accompanying note from series creator Dick Wolf says that the story "may be 'ripped from the headlines,' but there are shocking twists and turns that are the trademark of some of he most provocative episodes" of the show.
Actually, they aren't that shocking, although there's no need to give too much away in an episode that's subtitled "In Vino Veritas." Carroll, as did Gibson, later goes on a television program (the very cheap-looking Barry Bishop Show) to ask for forgiveness. Then he's immediately arrested for the murder of a young Jewish actress. His 14-year-old son, John (Jaymie Dornan), also is implicated. A chip off the old block, he says of the murder victim, "She was just some Jew bitch."
Some of Law & Order's very best efforts are infinitely better than this one (Friday, 9 central, 10 eastern). The show is playing more and more like a vintage, nothin-but-the-facts Dragnet episode, only twice as long. Nuance is intended but seldom achieved. In its 17th season on NBC, the show increasingly seems mechanical and forced as it closes in on Gunsmoke's 20 seasons as prime-time's longest-running drama hour.
Wolf would love to have at least a share of that record, but Law & Order probably doesn't have enough juice to get there. This latest episode just leaves a bad taste. Clumsily exploitative, it makes its moral points with a sledgehammer swung at a figurative Mel Gibson pinata. We expect and we've seen much better.
Grade: C
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