Decent... (spoilers)

It seems like every TV cop show and First Responder-esque shows these days follow the exact same agenda--some of which, admittedly, is long overdue. But when they try to swing the pendulum too quickly and drastically, it becomes obvious to the point of patronizing. Each show now goes out of its way to show women and minorities in lead roles.....and, to show women not only doing anything and everything physically a man can do, but also to show women throwing men around routinely. It's an interesting dynamic. We need to show equality. But REALISTICALLY....with all the hand-to-hand fighting scenes we see each week on cop shows, the woman is not going to kick the man's ass 95% of the time. But it would be awful to show a man clock a woman in the face. I suppose it's just one of those things where....the older audience shakes their head with a small grin and simply recognize the patronizing pendulum swing was necessary, albeit too drastic too quickly. While the younger audience (whom the pendulum swing targets) can feel empowered. It is what it is. What bothers me, however is, in the meantime, with all this empowerment agenda going on, shows like L&O SVU go out of their way to make 99% of the criminals as evil white males.....doing horrific things (to women). And it's women cops taking the lead in catching the perps (and kicking their asses). Again, it's an empowerment agenda, and to an extent I understand it. But it can sometimes be overly heavyhanded and one-sided.

Another trend we see in EVERY cop ensemble....has already been mentioned: Each person in the ensemble gets a speaking part and adds a piece to the puzzle during the conversation, nice and cleanly orchestrated....to the point where key breaks in the case always happen conveniently...in a perfectly-timed entrance of a cop adding to the conversation with something like: "I just got off the phone with Alverez, and the bullet is a perfect match." Heck, the camera even bounces from person to person in the circle right before their orchestrated contribution. It's like everything comes together in one meeting in front of that stupid white board with the schematic and the photos of people linked to each other. We've seen that same scene (and that same orchestrated ensemble conversation) 100 times. LOL.

Oh, and I agree about the Jobal character. In both of the (FBI) episodes I have seen, all he does is hang out at "headquarters" and yell out orders into the air, not directing them at anyone in particular. Oh, but at least his sleeves are rolled up.