S21.E03: Filtered Life

[howiveaddict]

23 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Well, the show was cancelled right?  Attempting to do the exact same thing but 12 years later when people care even LESS about cable TV wouldn't make much sense.  But I agree, it's too ridiculous as it is now and I don't think anyone wants to see fictionalized cases of news events that just happened every week.

 

Right, that's why it felt so clunky.  If he was found not guilty, he walks away, and there is also no motivation.  At least with a guilty verdict he's trapped in one place!  Also, it's a damn guilty verdict! 

I kept waiting for him to be found not guilty and going to Florida and killing himself in a swamp.

12 hours ago, TakomaSnark said:

Exactly. There's something to be said for choosing real-life launching points that didn't *just* happen and taking your time to transform them into interesting on-screen stories. 'Ripped from the headlines' doesn't have to be 'ripped from hot off the press.' 

I think maybe because the attention span of people today is so short that the producers grab the story lines to use before the story leaves people's memories.  It also helps to get those who followed Gabby's case closely to watch the show.

I did not care for the acting of the woman who played  Amanda's mother.  

[CraftyHazel]

I don’t mind “ripped from the headlines!”, but I would’ve liked to see a swerve…like maybe she is in the tropics after all and the man who was convicted was either being framed somehow or was guilty…but not of her death.  I don’t know, I just think a lot of the best L&O episodes have had that little “gotcha” moment and I miss that.  These episodes go so fast and it feels like they’re like cotton candy, just no real substance and no fulfillment afterwards.

[preeya]

29 minutes ago, howiveaddict said:

I kept waiting for him to be found not guilty and going to Florida and killing himself in a swamp.

I kept waiting for him to be not guilty because she was not dead and the entire caper was a stunt.

[shapeshifter]

The only thing that really bothered me was:
Wouldn't the shoe have had the victim's DNA? 
And, apparently that is a thing: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15374589/#:~:text=A DNA profile from inside,of different individuals is investigated.
Probably they didn't have enough time to thoroughly cover a shoe-DNA forensic examination–―for example, could the social media influencer who found the shoe have planted the DNA evidence, which could give the Defense an Alternate Theory of the Crime?
But they could have at least had a throwaway line from the Prosecution about such possible problems with pursuing shoe DNA.

Likewise, I would have liked a line about the likelihood of finding who posted the beach photo, pointing out that likely it was posted by someone not related to Garrett (the killer) which could also give the Defense an alternate theory of the crime, or at least confuse and/or distract the jury.

I'm glad they deviated from the Ripped From The Headlines case in having the killer not be her fiancé and not committing suicide, because it gave us this:

• [JACK] How old is Garrett?
• [A.D.A. SAMANTHA MAROUN] 27
• [JACK] If we take the deal, Garrett will wind up serving about 12½ years, which means he'll be 39 years old when he's released. Plenty of time to victimize a whole new generation of women. 
  Can you bring this one home, Nolan? 
• [E.A.D.A. NOLAN PRICE]I believe I can. 
• [JACK] Then pass on the deal. Bury this son of a bitch.

Personally, I appreciate this twist on the original crime because it speaks to Me-Too era tendencies to recognize predators as such who will attack again and not just look at them as individual cases that can't be won.

 

ETA:

When Anthony Anderson yelled at the first suspects:

• Time To Tell The Truth!

–—we were supposed to chuckle because he hosts the reboot of To Tell The Truth, and always delivers that line in the same tone right before the real guest person of the 3 possible is revealed, right?
And I'm wondering if Anderson adlibbed that line in this L&O episode and they left it in, or if the writers put it in for fun, assuming it would be cut?
I realize Anderson's quiz show airs on a different network than L&O, but that hasn't mattered in decades.

Edited March 12, 2022 by shapeshifter

[blackwing]

15 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Seriously. Thinking his kids don't is gravely naive. I hate how he whistles to get someone's attention. People have names, Frank. Use them.

Frank looks to be about 45, and he implies that his kids aren’t old enough to be able to decide they want social media, so my interpretation is that his kids are 15 or younger.  Maybe a 15 year old and a preteen.  I have kids about that age and my kids don’t have social media.  They text their friends but don’t have any of the other apps.

Agree about the whistling.  My boss does that to all of us at work and it rankles everyone.  I’ve told him before that we aren’t dogs and we have names, but he just doesn’t care.  I think he does it because he feels it gives him a sense of power to treat his employees like dogs.  Ass.

5 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I guess I’m the only one who thought this was a really strong episode - to me it felt like a classic L&O case that was really good, it gives me hope that the show will continue to improve going forward as there were no major flaws in this episode and everything progressed very naturally it felt like from start to finish. Both the investigation and legal proceedings were strong, and I think everything really gelled in this one to make for a strong episode. And I’m not sure why the ripped from the headlines thing is an issue, L&O has always done ripped from the headlines cases, frequently right after they happen.

Overall I’m liking the show and I think it’s good, maybe I’m just used so used to the shitshow that is modern day SVU that I’m thrilled to see an L&O show that isn’t soapy dreck, but I’m thrilled to have L&O back and I think it will continue to get better.

I really enjoyed this episode as well and I’m really liking the show too.  I hope it does well and stays on the air.  I like the cast.

4 hours ago, ROEHUNTER said:

Frank's New York accent was gone and it was fabulous!

It was less pronounced but I thought I heard it at some point at least early in the episode. 

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

The only thing that really bothered me was:
Wouldn't the shoe have had the victim's DNA? 
And, apparently that is a thing: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15374589/#:~:text=A DNA profile from inside,of different individuals is investigated.
Probably they didn't have enough time to thoroughly cover a shoe-DNA forensic examination–―for example, could the social media influencer who found the shoe have planted the DNA evidence, which could give the Defense an Alternate Theory of the Crime?
But they could have at least had a throwaway line from the Prosecution about such possible problems with pursuing shoe DNA.

Likewise, I would have liked a line about the likelihood of finding who posted the beach photo, pointing out that likely it was posted by someone not related to Garrett (the killer) which could also give the Defense an alternate theory of the crime, or at least confuse and/or distract the jury.

I agree about the shoe.  There could be hair or finger skin or something of hers on it.  I was surprised they didn’t definitively establish that it was hers.

The photo in Cancun bothered me as well.  They said someone must have hacked her account, but who?  And why?  Garrett was in jail so it couldn’t have been him.  It was odd that nothing more was said about it.

[CrystalBlue]

I also liked watching the jury in action.  One or two of the guys caught my eye.  The judge was pretty good.

[shapeshifter]

20 hours ago, blackwing said:

Agree about the whistling.  My boss does that to all of us at work and it rankles everyone.  I’ve told him before that we aren’t dogs and we have names, but he just doesn’t care.  I think he does it because he feels it gives him a sense of power to treat his employees like dogs.  Ass.

I agree Jeffrey Donovan as Detective Frank Cosgrove whistling is irritating, and perhaps kudos are due to director Milena Govich for keeping the whistling to a minimum in this episode?
Presumably at some point Anthony Anderson as Detective Kevin Bernard will tell Cosgrove just how irritating that whistling is.
Maybe it will turn out Cosgrove has trouble remembering names–—maybe he has an old TBI that also makes him lose his temper? 
If not, based on this episode, I'm guessing Cosgrove had a sister who was a victim of a murderous stalker.
Stay tuned to find out more. 
Chung-chung.

Edited March 13, 2022 by shapeshifter

[GHScorpiosRule]

58 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Replying as someone who both has trouble remembering names and who worked under a terrible boss for 17 years:
Maybe your boss has a problem remember names?
I agree Jeffrey Donovan as Detective Frank Cosgrove whistling is irritating, and perhaps kudos are due to director Milena Govich for keeping the whistling to a minimum in this episode?
Presumably at some point Anthony Anderson as Detective Kevin Bernard will tell Cosgrove just how irritating that whistling is.
Maybe it will turn out Cosgrove has trouble remembering names–—maybe he has an old TBI that also makes him lose his temper? 
If not, based on this episode, I'm guessing Cosgrove had a sister who was a victim of a murderous stalker.
Stay tuned to find out more. 
Chung-chung.

But that’s not what happened.  Cosgrove did that whistle between his teeth to get Bernard’s attention, instead of speaking his name. Many times over the years one partner or the other would say “Hey Max…Hey Mike…Phil…Look here, Lennie, Ed…” But Frank thinks a dog whistle is okay? 

[Triviatrish2]

17 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I guess I’m the only one who thought this was a really strong episode - to me it felt like a classic L&O case that was really good, it gives me hope that the show will continue to improve going forward as there were no major flaws in this episode and everything progressed very naturally it felt like from start to finish. Both the investigation and legal proceedings were strong, and I think everything really gelled in this one to make for a strong episode. And I’m not sure why the ripped from the headlines thing is an issue, L&O has always done ripped from the headlines cases, frequently right after they happen.

Overall I’m liking the show and I think it’s good, maybe I’m just used so used to the shitshow that is modern day SVU that I’m thrilled to see an L&O show that isn’t soapy dreck, but I’m thrilled to have L&O back and I think it will continue to get better.

I agree, best episode, so far.  My take, enough with the ripped from the headlines, cases. Go back to crime stories. I also feel that with these current story lines, they are trying to attract the younger crowd, but, my take, only true L&O fans, from waaaaayyyyy back are going to appreciate the return, because we loved it so much.  Anthony Anderson, shave that beard! Yuck!  Donovan is coming along.

[debraran]

On 3/10/2022 at 8:17 PM, Clawdette said:

His rap sheet is like a receipt from CVS.  That's the Law & Order I know and love.

That would have been Lenny's line years ago. ; )

[debraran]

To soon to tell ratings, they can improve. First show of course was high, second was OK, but they needed to have a way to bring viewers in the first few shows. Nothing gratuitous but good writing like they used to do. We don't want Criminal Minds, rapes, just good stories. They can do it. This was better than last but before they didn't have as many reviews and social media telling their opinions.

There were shows back in the day that had great writers, L&O was one of them, MASH, many comedies, even Cold Case was good. Lazy writing and standards dropping made it slowly change. I still hope it will bring back the magic.

Edited March 12, 2022 by debraran

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Quote

The ratings last night were steady and adjusted up. The show starring the genius kid  is first in the ratings

 

I believe it. I have to fight with my DH every week because he wants to watch that.

[FozzyBear]

4 hours ago, Triviatrish2 said:

I agree, best episode, so far.  My take, enough with the ripped from the headlines, cases. Go back to crime stories. I also feel that with these current story lines, they are trying to attract the younger crowd, but, my take, only true L&O fans, from waaaaayyyyy back are going to appreciate the return, because we loved it so much.  Anthony Anderson, shave that beard! Yuck!  Donovan is coming along.

I agree this was the best episode so far but…low bar for me. It’s still so low energy. None of the cast seems to have much chemistry with each other. That could get better as it goes on.

[dubbel zout]

5 minutes ago, FozzyBear said:

None of the cast seems to have much chemistry with each other.

I feel like in the OG version the writers gave the characters more personality than what the current group has. They could recast nearly everyone and I'd hardly notice. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

So this was taken from Gabby Petito's story as well as West Elm Caleb, or would the WEC thing be too recent for production purposes? It'll be funny if they do a WEC or Tindler Swindler episode where he has been killed by one of his victims. (Though I'm pretty sure at least one of the L&Os has already done that basic story. They made the point that it wasn't against the law to misrepresent onself when dating. Or a justification for murder, of course.)

Is that really a thing in NYC, for people in campers and vans to take up residence on a city street next to a public park? Aren't there parking meters or no parking signs? I'm surprised the city allows it.

Toby and Megan: worst liars ever, lol.

The perp suddenly wanting a deal because the victim's missing shoe was found wasn't believable to me. The person who claimed to have found the shoe wasn't credible IMO and I was surprised they risked letting her testify in front of the jury.

Did the DAs office have the EXIF data on that photo of Amanda on the beach examined? If the identifying data hadn't been stripped when or before the photo was uploaded, they could've found out that photo had been taken months or years ago, or it could've been photoshopped to make it look like Amanda was there.

Ditto comments upthread, this episode felt closest to the OG Law & Order to me. They seem to be working the reboot bugs out.

[Samsnee]

It’s not a coincidence the killer looks like Penn Badgley who plays a stalker and serial killer in the show You. 

[andromeda331]

Parts of it were better. The police side was better. I liked Camryn's remark about the rap sheet.  I still missing the twists and turns. They could have had the twist being she was still alive. Maybe she got tired of being an influencer and constantly having to provide content. Or just took off.  We haven't really had the lawyers look into the case and find something unexpected.  The shoe dropped into place. Why wasn't any DNA done on the test?  The woman who found it could have easily been someone trying to solve the case or get likes. She does mention he lied to her in the past to get her alone. Why wasn't that brought up? So far in the show he lied to every woman w know he met. Are they even sure Amanda was the first woman he murdered? I'm not sure why him being convicted means he won't tell where the body is. There's still a chance he will if it means getting a few years off his sentence. 

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

Are they even sure Amanda was the first woman he murdered? I'm not sure why him being convicted means he won't tell where the body is. There's still a chance he will if it means getting a few years off his sentence. 

Yes, we didn’t even get a throwaway line about possible previous victims of his.
But since there’s now no death penalty in NY, they won’t be offering life in prison in exchange for the whereabouts of the corpse either.  
And as for taking a few years off of a life sentence? Well, this week in Brooklyn that didn’t work out so well: nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/83-year-old-convicted-in-2-prior-killings-arrested-in-case-of-torso-found-on-nyc-street/3592292/   
So it would have been really bad timing if this episode had them making such a deal. 

However, they could offer some sort of privileges in prison in exchange for the whereabouts of the body—–but I can’t imagine what. Typically on L&O-type shows, the convicted killer has a family the DA's office can use as a bargaining chip since the killer wants to be relocated to a prison near them. But this guy was supposed to not have a family, right?  

Likely social media followers will find the body—–but probably not without a lot of false claims first—–some of which might be bodies of his other victims, which might be unverifiable due to corrupted evidence by amateur sleuths.

Edited March 13, 2022 by shapeshifter

[jabRI]

The prosecutors had such a weak, physical evidence case, I'm surprised when they had him on the stand, they didn't show him lurking in the background on her blog posts.  Would have refuted that they had coffee and he didn't really care that she blew him off.  Seems a pretty big miss to me.

[mojito]

On 3/10/2022 at 9:15 PM, Door County Cherry said:

A not guilty verdict wouldn't have been any better for them.

I AM NOT A LAWYER. I am, however, in this instance, a bit of a Devil's Advocate.

Because of double jeopardy, couldn't the guy come back and reveal where the body is and not risk re-prosecution? Yeah, I know he could still get sued in civil court. So there's that.

But it seems to me that there could be a better likelihood of his telling the parents where to find the body (an anonymous tip to the police) if he's a free man than if he's a pissed-off one doing time for the crime.

I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of parents who are desperate to bury their daughter properly; they seem convinced enough that she's dead. Me, I'm not too interested in remains of dead people and allowing them to "rest in peace". They were at peace at the time of death. But that's a whole 'nother thing, I know. 

I liked this episode. I wondered if I could've gone for conviction if I were on the jury. I think I would've found myself pre-occupied with the thought that they should've waited until they had more evidence to take this case to trial. A part of me would wonder if she were really dead. 

 

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, mojito said:

Because of double jeopardy, couldn't the guy come back and reveal where the body is and not risk re-prosecution? Yeah, I know he could still get sued in civil court. So there's that. But it seems to me that there could be a better likelihood of his telling the parents where to find the body (an anonymous tip to the police) if he's a free man than if he's a pissed-off one doing time for the crime. I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of parents who are desperate to bury their daughter properly; they seem convinced enough that she's dead.

No, even just for the reason you mentioned——being liable in a civil suit (I think "Wrongful Death"?)——I can't imagine him wanting to reveal where he buried her.
Perhaps even more, in this case, I think there's a very good chance he hid another body there, which would not have Double Jeopardy attached. 
But the biggest reason this killer would not reveal where he buried her is because he's obsessed with finding new targets, and revealing a body would tend to make all future prospects swipe left.
 

Edited March 14, 2022 by shapeshifter

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 3/11/2022 at 5:38 PM, dubbel zout said:

At the beginning, no, but once they found the guy in the park with those supplies, I think it became much more likely the girl was dead.

Yes, was he planning to zip tie a bear if he came across one?  How does lye protect you from wild animals?

[Zaffy]

After 3 episodes  my verdict is that show is weak. 
The writing is weak, directing weak, the casting is mostly weak...well you get the idea.

[TD3000]

RE: The Cosgrove whistle, Jeffrey Donovan used it periodically on Burn Notice, so I guess someone with L&O liked it well enough to use here.

This episode actually reminded me of the CI episode Weeping Willow with Michelle Trachtenberg. That one was kind of ahead of its time, cause 2006 social media was quite a bit different from what we know it as now.

[Cristofle]

I don't know about doing the Petito case this soon, or removing the domestic violence angle, but I overall still enjoyed the episode.

Still not wild about Donovan's character, but this was better.

[KeithJ]

No mention of the illegal search Michael Weston conducted when he found the missing girl's ID in the guy's house / apartment?  I guess it didn't really matter because the guy's blood was all over her van but I'm still pretty sure that was an illegal search.

[Halting Hex]

So even though I found this the best of the three, I clearly wasn't enraptured, given that it's taken me all week to comment.  I guess all these "ripped from the headlines" stories are wasted on me, since I don't follow the news.  (I wouldn't have known about Holmes being convicted if it wasn't on the financial channels.)  All I care about is a decent story, not "ooh, Gabby Petitto!"  Seriously, whatever.

There was one clearly obvious plot hole:  Ms. Knight (defense attorney) never did move for that dismissal she told the arraignment judge she was going to seek.  Yes, the arraignment judge still decided to remand the defendant, but that has no effect on the trial.  Since Price still had no evidence, not even a body, I'd at least have liked to hear a reason why the judge wouldn't throw this out the moment he rested his case.

And, I've already forgotten most of the details, but Dan was a lousy witness on his own behalf, right?  So why did Knight put him on the stand?  That's just giving the prosecution a free shot.  I mean, it's nice if the defendant makes Price's case for him, but that's just lousy writing.

And Lisa should have never been allowed to testify about finding the missing shoe.  Price already rested his case; new witnesses can only be called to rebut testimony offered by the defense.  If Dan had said "I have no idea where the other shoe is; it's certainly NOT in my cabin", then Lisa could rebut that.  But I didn't see that, so I don't see how she could have testified.

(So Dan buried the body and removed all forensic evidence from the cabin…but he missed the shoe?  Convenient.)

Finally, if "Daniel Garrett" sounds familiar, that was the name of the killer in 3.14 "Promises to Keep".  (He was the psych patient that Maggie Walsh was having the affair with.).  I know they have to "clear" character names used in the episode, so people with that name don't sue (if they already have permission from a "Halting Hex" in Texas, then I can't sue them if I don't like that they had a character named "Halting Hex" who eats babies), but recycling names is just lazy and cheap.

I mean, I'm not sanguine about how they occasionally got around the "clearing character names" issue by naming characters after "public figures" whom they hoped the audience wouldn't recognize.  (That's how there was a "Richard Branson" in 6.11 "Corpus Dilecti" because the staff thought Branson wasn't well-known in the US [at that time] and why there was a "Geno Marchetti" in 14.7 "Floater", because they thought nobody remembered the star Baltimore Colts defensive end of that name.  [And yes, he was the "Geno" in "Geno's Pizza Rolls"; a former teammate, Jerry Richardson, founded the company.). But two wrongs don't make a right.  And two "Dan Garrett"s would only make sense if one was from an alternate dimension or something.  JMO.

[Prairie Rose]

The show still needs work (and more chung-chungs!!!), but at least one of my favorite tropes is back - the suspect giving the cops a foot chase!!!!

[Gregg247]

This was the worst episode yet.  I can't believe they got a guilty verdict based on the evidence that they presented!  They weren't even able to prove that anyone was dead!

The photo of the victim at the beach in Cancun was "probably" a fake.  Why not prove that by having their police experts go onto her website and determine if the picture was photoshopped?  Also, they could easily prove that the picture was uploaded from a different computer and possibly even track it back to the actual computer that it came from!

The woman who knew the defendant and found the victim's shoe in his cabin was extremely helpful, but the ADA dude said that they couldn't prove that it was the victim's.  Why not?  Did they test the show for her DNA from sweat, hair follicles or blood?  She was wearing it when she was abducted; surely there's evidence on the shoe.

Why didn't the police know that the defendant's family owned a cabin in the woods backing up to the forest where the victim was supposedly buried?  Isn't that something that should have been investigated?

Did the police use cadaver dogs around the defendant's campsite and around the cabin where the victim's shoe was found?  They didn't even need to show any of this; they could have simply mentioned it during the investigation.

The defendant stupidly took the stand, opening himself up to a serious cross-examination.  The ADA guy asked like 2 questions and said, "Oh well.  Nothing further." and that was it!

I swear, each of these new episodes feels like they're 1 hour episodes edited down to 30 minutes.  It just seems like we're missing half the stuff that an episode of L&O seasons 1-20 would show and/or tell us about each week.

[Mellowyellow]

"Two vegans in love"

Bahahahaha 🤣🤣🤣

Love it!!!!! I love the Mothership. It's been a long time since I watched the Mothership but this feels like it to me, maybe a bit older and grumpier (some of the lines in the episode made me think they were written by a "Get off my lawn" aged person, really cracked me up)but still do humourous and solid overall.

I really like the jury selection discussion and their ongoing strategy discussions.

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Mellowyellow