Tue 18 Jan 2011
A TV Review by Geoff Bradley: LAW & ORDER: UK, Series Three.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries1 Comment
LAW & ORDER: UK. ITV. Series Three: 09 September through 21 October 2010. Bradley Walsh, Jamie Bamber, Harriet Walter, Ben Daniels, Freema Agyeman, Bill Paterson.
Another seven episodes (making a total so far of 20) of original Law & Order stories adapted to a London setting.
Somehow it doesn’t quite work, partly, perhaps, because the stories were designed to operate in a slightly different culture. Maybe it would have been better to commission new stories and fit them within a more recognisable British setting.
An exception might have been “Masquerade,” based on the US episode “Good Girl,” which seemed, to me at least, to be rather stronger than the others. I’m not convinced, however, that prosecutors in England would investigate in the way they do here.
Of course when I’m watching the original I have no idea how the legal system works in New York (except from watching similar programmes — although as I’ve said before the difference in procedures between L&O, NYPD Blue and CSI:NY leaves this viewer rather confused) and accept it all without a quibble.
January 19th, 2011 at 11:26 am
You would think the local adaptors would take more verisimilitudinous “liberties”…I’ve found the UK series amusing enough, similarly, since most of my knowledge of UK law procedure comes from Leo McKern episodes…