Warm Up Post: Law & Order Inspired
Since it's been so long since my last post, I thought I'd warm up to the blog by writing about my favorite activity, watching Law & Order SVU. But that claim should be amended now, because I've started to branch out to the original Law & Order - SVU became less dependable as a daily date when I noticed that I've seen most of the episodes by now. But luckily for me, there's a whole other series to tap into.
My preliminary impression is: the Order part is much better, the Law part not as good. I can't get enough of Sam Waterston, aka Jack McCoy, because he's kind of an asshole, but always right. It's funny, that's exactly the kind of person I'd hate in real life, but that seems to be the rule when it comes to fiction. The same goes for Seth from Superbad. I thought he was just brilliant; I was discussing his character with a friend when an awful truth was uncovered:
"Aw man, that Seth guy was so funny! I feel like he reminds us of a kind of friend we all know...but I can't put my finger on who that would be."
"You know what it is? I even said this to Lisa when we were watching it: certain mannerisms, some of the things he says...they're EXACTLY VJ!"
Ahhhh, horror! That's pretty gross, let me tell you. However, I'll say this in my defense: VJ never drew hilarious pictures of penises.
But back to the subject at hand, Law & Order. As I said, the Law part isn't as interesting to me as it is in SVU. I think it might have to do with the revolving-door cast of characters, who all start to blend together after a while, and yet none of them are as dynamic to me as, say, an Elliot Stabler. The one exception I'll make is for Jerry Orbach. He's compelling because he's almost an anti-detective - semi-geriatic, disengaged, good with the occasional one-liners. He represents an unglamorized side to detective work that is fascinating because it's so routine: he asks normal questions, doesn't get too passionate about the case, and yet through old-fashioned thoroughness, he manages to crack strange and lurid cases.
The rest of this post will be about SVU, and hair.
My mom used to say when we were kids that white people can't cut Asian hair. She was absolutely right. Last night there was a rerun of an old 2001-ish episode in which BD Wong was wearing the most ridiculous, ass-clown haircut. Basically it was an 80s flat top, because the stylist went too short on the sides, and because Asian hair tends to be bristly, it didn't lay down flat to cover the scalp. I doubt a gay guy would have gone out and done this to himself, so it must have been the set stylist, and an Asian stylist would have known better.
I never really noticed how good-looking Zach Morris is, because that blond toupee-like thing wasn't doing him any favors back in his Saved By the Bell days. A few nights ago they were playing an old SVU episode with Mark-Paul Gosselaar as the guest victim - and I couldn't even recognize him at first. I just thought, that's a good-looking guy. Then I went off to eat, and was just listening to the TV. I heard the voice and it hit me: holy cow, that's Zach Morris! I wasn't expecting him to be a looker; after all, the last time I saw him he was turning into a fatty. But by 2001-ish, Zach was thin and dark-haired, and it was a nice improvement. You could definitely see more of his Indonesian heritage, which the blond used to obliterate.
My preliminary impression is: the Order part is much better, the Law part not as good. I can't get enough of Sam Waterston, aka Jack McCoy, because he's kind of an asshole, but always right. It's funny, that's exactly the kind of person I'd hate in real life, but that seems to be the rule when it comes to fiction. The same goes for Seth from Superbad. I thought he was just brilliant; I was discussing his character with a friend when an awful truth was uncovered:
"Aw man, that Seth guy was so funny! I feel like he reminds us of a kind of friend we all know...but I can't put my finger on who that would be."
"You know what it is? I even said this to Lisa when we were watching it: certain mannerisms, some of the things he says...they're EXACTLY VJ!"
Ahhhh, horror! That's pretty gross, let me tell you. However, I'll say this in my defense: VJ never drew hilarious pictures of penises.
But back to the subject at hand, Law & Order. As I said, the Law part isn't as interesting to me as it is in SVU. I think it might have to do with the revolving-door cast of characters, who all start to blend together after a while, and yet none of them are as dynamic to me as, say, an Elliot Stabler. The one exception I'll make is for Jerry Orbach. He's compelling because he's almost an anti-detective - semi-geriatic, disengaged, good with the occasional one-liners. He represents an unglamorized side to detective work that is fascinating because it's so routine: he asks normal questions, doesn't get too passionate about the case, and yet through old-fashioned thoroughness, he manages to crack strange and lurid cases.
The rest of this post will be about SVU, and hair.
My mom used to say when we were kids that white people can't cut Asian hair. She was absolutely right. Last night there was a rerun of an old 2001-ish episode in which BD Wong was wearing the most ridiculous, ass-clown haircut. Basically it was an 80s flat top, because the stylist went too short on the sides, and because Asian hair tends to be bristly, it didn't lay down flat to cover the scalp. I doubt a gay guy would have gone out and done this to himself, so it must have been the set stylist, and an Asian stylist would have known better.
I never really noticed how good-looking Zach Morris is, because that blond toupee-like thing wasn't doing him any favors back in his Saved By the Bell days. A few nights ago they were playing an old SVU episode with Mark-Paul Gosselaar as the guest victim - and I couldn't even recognize him at first. I just thought, that's a good-looking guy. Then I went off to eat, and was just listening to the TV. I heard the voice and it hit me: holy cow, that's Zach Morris! I wasn't expecting him to be a looker; after all, the last time I saw him he was turning into a fatty. But by 2001-ish, Zach was thin and dark-haired, and it was a nice improvement. You could definitely see more of his Indonesian heritage, which the blond used to obliterate.
posted by Rex at 1:02 PM
3 Comments:
What? Zack Taylor is Indonesian?
I prefer Ben Stone to Jack McCoy, but they never show the Ben Stone episodes anymore, so it's hard to compare them nowdays. But Ben Stone was like, awesome. I generally like the cop parts of law and order, because I can't deal with all the chick ADAs and then all the southernisms offered up by Fred Thompson. Like, how the fuck did some southerner get elected Manhattan DA. That shit does not happen. I always think of Sam Waterstone as EITHER Sydney from The Killing Fields OR the dad in Serial Mom. hah! How's that for like acting range!
I'll defer to your Law & Order expertise. TNT played a really old episode a few days ago (with Chris Noth), but it was about 2 in the morning and I just went to sleep, so I couldn't check who the ADA was.
Isn't it crazy what they did to that poor Hapa kid? Apparently his mom is Indonesian.
Oh damn! He really is half Indonesian! Doesn't look anything but white, dude! Damn. Apparently, according to IMDB, there was an episode of SBTB where Zack discovers his Native American heritage? Huh?
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