These are her stories

STIPIMM: “Knights of the Round Table,” by Monty Python

This July, when Bridget and I did Day-Old Plays with Cherry Red Productions in D.C., Bridget was assigned to a play that was a parody of Law & Order, focused on the Michael Jackson case -- two subjects that are ripe for ridicule. But after all was said and done, and we were talking about the creation of our separate projects, Bridget confessed to me that she had to have her cast explain to her the significance of the show’s “chung-chung” sound (which, of course, was featured prominently in the play). Here was Bridget being asked to direct a Law & Order parody with only a passing knowledge of the show she was targeting. Granted, she still did a great job with sub-par material, but it was still a surprise to learn that she didn’t much about what is (whether we realize it or not) one of the cultural institutions of our time.

My oh my, how that has changed.

Bridget has become a Law & Order addict. She watches it whenever she can, which, because of the ubiquity of the show in syndication, is essentially any time she is home. I don’t know when it started, but it has been a slow transformation. At first, she only watched it when she happened upon it while flipping channels. Now, at least twice in a TV-watching evening, she will cruise over the on-screen guide, looking for when and where Law & Order will be on. And it’s not just the original Law & Order. She’s checking for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. And since there doesn’t seem to be an hour of the day when there isn’t some version of Law & Order on TV (be it on NBC, Bravo, USA or TNT), her wishes are often fulfilled. (For the record: her favorite of the three is Criminal Intent, but she enjoys all of them.)

I’ve never been a Law & Order “fan,” per se. I sometimes will catch the show by accident if the storyline catches my interest (usually some hot chick has to get murdered or be the lead suspect). But it has never been must-see TV for me, and Law & Order has never been the anchor to any night of TV. Now that Bridget’s taken a strong interest in the show, I find myself watching it with her, and enjoying it quite a bit.

But even before Bridget’s foray into watching the series, I knew quite a bit about it through osmosis, and the episodes I had watched. I could talk along with the opening monologue (“In the criminal justice system,…”) years ago, and (like so many people) instinctively knew the plot formula that typifies the original series (murder, investigation, focus on suspect, arrest, arraignment, haggling, trial [sometimes], resolution). Now it’s getting a little deeper than that, and I’m sure Bridget’s getting it too; as time goes on, you start to realize that you’re developing a keen sense of the Law & Order universe: criminals from past shows; long-departed detectives; ongoing plotlines; etc.

Of course, Bridget has a thing about discovering shows, devouring them in the span of a few weeks (thanks to OnDemand), and then throwing the carcass into an ever-growing pile of shows (Sex and the City, Huff, the L-Word…), waiting for the next season to start, if any. Law & Order is a completely different animal than these other shows, however. It’s been around for 15 long years, each of which had a full season of about 22 shows, for a grand total mid-way through the 16th season of 360 shows. And that’s just the regular Law & Order. Law & Order: SVU has 153 episodes, Criminal Intent has 98. Needless to say, even if Bridget had access to all 611 episodes, and watched three episodes a day, it would be almost seven months before she had finished the Law & Order canon. Of course, in those seven months, there probably would have been 30 new episodes made… Needless to say, Law & Order is an elephant compared to the turkeys of other shows whose bones Bridget has picked through. Of course, how do you eat an elephant? One episode at a time.