So, the Law and Order franchise does not have a good track record portraying Asian victims. Perhaps this is reflective of the NYC or the people making the show, but in addition to having no major Asian characters -- in a city with 1.2 million Asian Americans! -- it often treats Asian characters as meek, foreign, or malevolent. You know, all the standard stereotypes that have been around for at least 100 years in American popular entertainment.
This episode is more or less an adaption of the My Lai massacre, where a group of mostly White American soldiers slaughtered men, women, and children in a village. It wasn't the only such war crime in Vietnam, but it was the one that got headlines. Eventually, nothing really happened to any of the soldiers who were tried, and the obvious racial angles of a group of Whites slaughtering Asians was, as usual, dismissed as just the tragedy of war.
This episode follows a similar perspective -- at the end, we even have a self-righteous homily by McCoy about how these were just kids. Yeah. This is the same McCoy who prosecuted kids as adults. Unlike the superior Michael Moriarty character, Ben Stone, McCoy was constantly waffling on his principles. This week, he might -- Alan Alda style -- pontificate about a particular social cause he favors. Next week, he might take exactly the opposite stance. Binge watch Law and Order, and the inconsistency becomes far more obvious.
There are other moments, too. They end up dragging some poor elderly Vietnamese woman over the NYC, only to throw out her testimony because she apparently didn't directly witness anything. What? No one interviewed her beforehand? And everyone talks about her like she's an object rather than a person, their tone either condescending (the blond defense attorney) or matter of fact (McCoy, who seems indifferent to his own witness). Just unsavory.
In the end, there's a cavalry-over-the-hill arrival that saves the case, but even then, the two accused men -- privileged White men -- are more disgusted that they were accused than that they murdered people. Yes, this may be accurate to reality, but the episode offers little in the way of condemnation for it, with McCoy's idiotic epiphany at the end especially insulting. Not Law and Order's finest hour.
This episode is more or less an adaption of the My Lai massacre, where a group of mostly White American soldiers slaughtered men, women, and children in a village. It wasn't the only such war crime in Vietnam, but it was the one that got headlines. Eventually, nothing really happened to any of the soldiers who were tried, and the obvious racial angles of a group of Whites slaughtering Asians was, as usual, dismissed as just the tragedy of war.
This episode follows a similar perspective -- at the end, we even have a self-righteous homily by McCoy about how these were just kids. Yeah. This is the same McCoy who prosecuted kids as adults. Unlike the superior Michael Moriarty character, Ben Stone, McCoy was constantly waffling on his principles. This week, he might -- Alan Alda style -- pontificate about a particular social cause he favors. Next week, he might take exactly the opposite stance. Binge watch Law and Order, and the inconsistency becomes far more obvious.
There are other moments, too. They end up dragging some poor elderly Vietnamese woman over the NYC, only to throw out her testimony because she apparently didn't directly witness anything. What? No one interviewed her beforehand? And everyone talks about her like she's an object rather than a person, their tone either condescending (the blond defense attorney) or matter of fact (McCoy, who seems indifferent to his own witness). Just unsavory.
In the end, there's a cavalry-over-the-hill arrival that saves the case, but even then, the two accused men -- privileged White men -- are more disgusted that they were accused than that they murdered people. Yes, this may be accurate to reality, but the episode offers little in the way of condemnation for it, with McCoy's idiotic epiphany at the end especially insulting. Not Law and Order's finest hour.