The Drowned: The Shalvoys
The Saved: Jack McCoy and the DA’s office
Unlike the Law & Order SVU finale "Zebras" ”The Drowned and The Saved” successfully closed out a chapter in this season by tying together a story arc that has been building all year. I never liked Governor Shalvoy (I still think that Tom Everett Scott was wrong for the role) and I was very glad when he got his just desserts. It was also very pleasing that he got it at the hands of Michael Cutter, who for once used his slight of hand and trickery very wisely. It was worth tolerating the Shalvoys all season just to see them both taken down in such a gratifying manner.
Most enjoyable was Jack McCoy’s (Sam Waterston’s) soliloquy in Shalvoy’s home where he passionately outlined the extent of corruption and expressing concerns about his good works. My only question about that scene was what would have prevented Jack from going into that meeting wearing a wire? Is it illegal to record on of your own conversations with someone else? I think not. I wondered - if Jack would have recorded Governor Shalvoy's veiled attempt to buy him off, would the case against him or his wife have been a lot easier for the DA's office to make? But I suppose one does not enter the governor’s home wearing a wire unless one has cause. Me, I would do it in a nanosecond!
The episode was also peppered with some enjoyable lines. I loved when Jack made the reference to the fact they were trying to indict the governor, not a ham sandwich. Everyone knows that Jack can indict a ham sandwich – provided it has meat in it.
The closing of the episode was presented in a way that if it had been the last show of the series, it would have made for a satisfying close. Lucky for us, we will have Law & Order for one more season. With Shalvoy out of the way and likely Joe Chappell’s attachment to the governor being tainted by his wife’s murder trial, we are left to think that Jack will win re-election. Let’s hope that is the case...
 |
| Source:All Things Law & Order with a look at an important scene from The Drowned & The Saved (2009) |
From All Things Law & Order
"Well, this is it for Law & Order “the mothership” for the season. We will have Criminal Intent coming up in June to look forward to.
The season finale episode information from NBC is below. We will get another dose of Tom Everett Scott in his role of Governor Shalvoy. Let’s hope he can pull the role off better in this episode than he did in “Personae Non Grata.” I can’t help but see him and immediately thinking of him in the movie “That Thing You Do” with his band called The Oneders – pronounced ONE-DERS (or wonders), not O-NEE-ders. If you’ve seen the movie, you get it.
Law and Order Excalibur Air Date May 21, 2008
A JEWELER IS FOUND MURDERED EXPOSING A PROSTITUTION RING.
Jeweler Victor Madison is found murdered, and Detectives Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) and Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson) investigate a peculiar deposit made into Madison’s bank account. The deposit leads the detectives to investigate Madison’s brother-in-law, Frank Beezley, who was running an illegal prostitution ring, The Excalibur Club. Closing the case proves to be a challenge, as the trial gets risky for Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) when his job is threatened. Also Starring: S. Epatha Merkerson, Linus Roache, and Alana De La Garza. Guest Star: Tom Everett Scott...
"It’s rare that I find myself not even wanting to spend time recapping an episode, but this one is an exception. I found this episode tedious to watch and sometimes confusing, coupled with what I thought was a terrible case of stunt casting...
"While preparing a murder case, the DA's office stumbles on a potential scandal involving a prostitution business and the governor of New York, and it could have serious implications on Jack McCoy's future as District Attorney."
"A murder investigation uncovers connections to the governor's wife, and perhaps a scandal involving the governor and an appointment for an open US Senate seat. But can Jack McCoy successfully prosecute and not risk his chances at being elected?"
.jpeg)
So just to give you a little personal background about the 3 episodes of Law & Order, (that I call McCoy VS Shalvoy) first and that should give you a little idea why I'm writing about them and I'll also tell you what I think about them.
I'm a Law & Order junkie. I got into this series during my senior of high school in the mid 1990s and watched almost every episode up until the early 2000s, before my work life changed. But then I become a blogger 15 years ago and this is what I'm doing, which is writing about what I see in life and what interests and impresses me.
So for the last 10 years or so, I've been watching a lot of Law & Order on cable, watching the reruns, recording a helluva lot episodes from my DVR to DVD. And the McCoy V Shalvoy storyline impresses me. I guess the producers liked it as well because they produce 2 episodes where Manhattan, New York District Attorney Jack McCoy (played by Sam Watersnon) literally tries to prosecute and put away the sitting Governor of New York, Donald Shalvoy (played by Thomas Everett Scott) for political corruption and other serious felonies.
So this is what this is about: Manhattan District Attorney Jack McCoy, who obviously has a big job, but he's not even the DA for an entire city. Just the Borough of Manhattan, trying to take down the Governor of New York, which just happens to be the 4th largest state in the union. Which is my main problem with this storyline, which I'll get into later.
So it's not just the Governor of New York that the Manhattan DA wants to bring down. (I guess this guy is really greedy and has multiple sets of balls) But his beautiful, adorable wife, (played by Alison Elliot) who I believe is like the 2000s version of the femme fatale. Someone who is great to look at, but uses her physical appearance, her adorableness, as well as her intelligence, to protect her husband, as well as herself, and to advance her own career.
In the Drowned and The Saved episode (2009) the First Lady of New York State, Rita Shalvoy (played by Alison Elliot) hires a local, New Jersey security professional, to murder a man because he's in her way from getting to run a major charitable foundation... you have to have a pretty big set, to even think of that. But that's exactly what she does, even though she's the First Lady of New York State, in the Drowned and The Saved episode.
The expression: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely", I think applies to the Shalvoys: (played by Tom E. Scott & Alison Elliot)
Obviously the New York Attorney General isn't aware or doesn't care about what the First Family is up to.
The Lieutenant Governor is apparently clueless.
And the Legislature doesn't seem to aware of Shalvoy corruption either.
And the only reason why NYPD and the Manhattan DA is aware of what going on here with the Governor and his wife, is because 2 crimes that they're investigating, the Shalvoy's are involved in both of them.
So I think I've gotten into my problem with the storyline here. I mean a big city, borough DA, trying to bring down a sitting governor of his own state... I mean I could understand if he DA was going after the Borough President of Manhattan, perhaps even the Mayor of New York City. But the fact that a local, borough DA, who is not even responsible for an entire city, going after the governor of 1 of the biggest states in the union, I think is too much for him. I don't think it's believable either.
But other than that important fact, I think the Excalibur and the Drowned and the Saved episodes are really good and really interesting. I think Alison Elliot is the star of the Downed and the Saved episode and Tom Scott is the star of the Excalibur episode. She gets caught, but plays the femme fatale perfectly. And Governor Shalvoy is ja step ahead and plays his cards perfectly in the Excalibur episode.
You can also see this post on WordPress.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All relevant comments about the posts you are commenting on are welcome but spam and personal comments are not.