It's just TV....right?

The other day, I caught the last half of an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent that actually left me feeling physically sick. This version of L&O deals with psychology rather than graphic forensics, and can be disturbing, but this was just plain irresponsible.

This episode, in a nutshell, featured the detectives and the district attorney's office having absolutely no compassion for, and finding fully responsible for her crime, an older woman suffering from progressive dementia. I'm not trying to say people should get away with murder, but I do think it's irresponsible and sick for such a popular show as L&O to portray people suffering from dementia as being as equally guilty as people who are in full possession and control of their faculties. As well, the detectives who elicited her confession were unnecessarily and extremely cruel in their methods of doing so - something which they often do with suspects not suffering from mental illness or degradation, but which demonstrates a complete lack of understanding on the writers part of how to deal with such a person. The closing words, between the detectives and the DA, confirmed that there was absolutely no compassion for the woman, and that they didn't believe dementia counts as an extenuating circumstance to a crime.

I'm actually getting upset remembering this. I was lucky enough to have a grandmother who did not suffer from dementia in her old age, but I've known others who were not so lucky (such as the grandmother of one of my mom's best friends, who died just a few years ago), and have met people suffering from dementia. It's a serious issue, especially serious because there is such a prevalent lack of understanding and compassion towards sufferers. Various groups are fighting hard to promote understanding of people suffering from mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disease, and schizophrenia; this is an important step in the right direction but, unfortunately, dementia is not a pet cause of social activists and still carries the full stigma of sick, crazy, and useless, as so aptly demonstrated by L&O.

The episode was in syndication, and aired sometime between 2005-2007 during Chris Noth's run on the show, but that was so recent and I'm so angry I'm actually considering sending mail to the show - something I've never done in regards to a TV program. I've seen plenty of offensive, insulting things in prime time, but maybe the reason this gets my hackles up so much is because people suffering from dementia are so helpless. When a prime time or syndicated show says something offensive about a religious group, which happens almost if not every day, it bothers me, but we can stand up for ourselves, and don't need protection from stigma. Dementia sufferers do. They are some of the most helpless people in society - the elderly already being a group that constantly needs protection from bigotry and predators - , and everyone who participated in that episode of Law & Order should be ashamed of themselves.

Dick Wolf's L&O empire has for many years now descended into a joke of "straight from the headlines" cliches and sensationalism. That's just bad TV; nothing to fuss over. This, on the other hand...while it can and should be forgiven, that doesn't mean it's excusable. He has done society a great wrong in allowing the production of such a vicious and uneducated attack on the helpless.