Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) American Tragedy (2013) User Reviews

Stand your ground?

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 2 November 2014]

Cybill Shepherd who started out on the big screen playing southern teen beauty queens in The Last Picture Show now over 40 years later looking much a senior citizen beauty queen plays a cooking show host who shoots a young black teen out of fear. Trouble is that the only thing the kid was carrying was a cellphone.

Never mind there was a string of rapes in her area and never mind that the SVU squad captured the real rapist, Cybill sticks to her story and ADA Raul Esparza brings her to trial.

Her attitudes are clear, watch when Ice-T gets too close for comfort how she reacts.

The episode was inspired by Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida with the added element of fear of rape thrown in as this is a show about sex crimes. A state lawmaker from my area is the sponsor of a stand your ground bill inspired by the Trayvon Martin case. It's a bill whereby you can use a criminal defense fear for your life. Of course your fear is a truly subjective item. What Shepherd is doing in this case however fits the stand your ground pattern of the proposed law and what George Zimmerman did in real life to Trayvon Martin.

An interesting and thought provoking story from SVU.

Typical bashing of southerners

[marysammons-42220 · 7/10 · 19 July 2020]

They didn't even try to hide it. While Cybil Shepherd did a great job the overt bashing of southerners was clear. And Benson beats the crap out of some guy on the street. Then manhandles a suspect. Clearly therapy isn't working too well. What was interesting is Alice Barrett who played Annette Fox in season 12 Smoked and the actress who played Kimberly Phillips in season 1 Stalked (one of THE best episodes of the whole series) are both victims in this episodes.

This kid followed her and cane through her gate. She told him to stop and he kept coming. He didn't act like an innocent kid just walking home. Oh he just wanted an autograph. Then why didn't he approach her asking for one? Anyway Cybil gets off and the squad has a sad.

Gray's Black and White

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 2 August 2021]

Everything in this story is in black and white:

* He is a boy black with a wealthy white woman.

*The woman says she shot to protect herself, but opposite says she shot with prejudice because the other party is racist.

*The woman has been racist in the past, and the child has stalked her.

*The boy is well known to everyone. However, he is hooded and black like the wanted rapist.

*The woman says I warned her, but the boy is wearing headphones.

As viewers in such black and white, we sometimes take the side of the lawyer and sometimes the side of the prosecutor's office.

It is one of those cases where there is no common ground, no gray.

It is a good article on sensitive encounters and their consequences, fueled by the violence and chaos that arise in crises.

Brilliant performance by Cybill Shepherd(Jolene Castile), It was great to watch Sonja Sohn (lisa carter)'s playing power.

She got good legal power out of Cybill Shepherd. I think she would have made a much better play instead of the prosecutor at the end of season 11.

Tries hard to make an obvious point, but winds up a preachy liberal cartoon?

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 28 March 2016]

I know there are going to be fans of this episode, and while I can see some of its merits, I found it rather disappointing. The only reason I stayed with it and watched it to the end was because of Cybill's performance, which seemed to follow-up on her earlier role as Martha Stewart in two made-for-TV movies. Of course, here she's not playing Martha as much as she's supposed to be playing a broadly bigoted version of Paula Deen.

In some ways, Cybill seems wrong for this type of show, because we associate her mainly with TV comedy, and having her play a racist comes across as funny, and the writers obviously do not see this situation as funny. In fact, humor is virtually absent in the dialogue, though Cybill's slightly over-the-top performance makes us smile in places where we're supposed to be hemming and hawing about the social injustice that surrounds her character's particular situation. Instead of a thought-provoking thesis on prejudice and tragedy, we are pulled in the direction of a caricature and the script's very slanted presentation of events takes it even more into cartoon territory.

It would have been better if there was a possibility that two black rapists were on the loose, and that while Cybill's character Jolene jumped to conclusions, she might actually have been right. Taking the law into her own hands would have been the real issue, not using a weapon to perpetuate a violent form of racism. Giving the audience a grayer area in which to examine the events would have been much more thought-provoking and provided viewers with a riveting story that suggested alternate realities as opposed to any sort of pat solution. But what we get is a by-the-numbers story, where we know she has to be guilty in order to ensure that a preachy liberal viewpoint remains intact. The writers go the predictable route of offering a rich white racist stereotype we're supposed to hate, instead of depicting a flawed human being who acted out of fear because of how she might have been conditioned to perceive so-called threats to her safety.

And what really brought this episode down for me was the ending. How to hit the viewers over the head with the whole social injustice of it all, this character who has been presented as being guilty at every turn gets a verdict of not guilty. Why not end the episode just as the verdict is about to be read, with a close-up on Cybill, maybe showing remorse and not knowing if the jury bought her story or not. Wouldn't that have been more thought provoking to be left wondering if she was exonerated because she was right, or if she got away with it, because she was a celebrity and had a good lawyer, or that members of the jury were as racist as she might have been? The phony resolution, which is structured to seem like some sort of Shakespearean tragedy, seems even more hilarious than any overly affected mannerisms Cybill brings to the defense table.

whitman2 is a jerk

[pigmenty · 10/10 · 19 April 2018]

It astounds me that you have thumbs. Although , living so far in the past , you are probably enjoying your lower taxes again. While I am aware that this is ' Old News ' attitudes never change. 2018......Innocent black men still getting shot. Guilty by your skin colour? Is that right? Ever?

This is pretty poor quality writing

[SlimJim39 · 6/10 · 13 December 2021]

The writers sure did have an off day here. They have a woman walking home alone late at night. Then some stranger, a fairly large black man starts to follow her. She ask him what he wants, gets no reply. She shoots the moron! Now they turn this into a racial incident! Ha, I would have shot the guy too! He did not respond to her repeated inquiries so she defends herself from a perceived threat. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that and nothing to prosecute a person over either.

Tragically disappointing

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 1 August 2022]

The previous two Season 15 episodes were of exceptionally high quality, "Surrender Benson" was surrounded by a lot of hype and lived up to it in a tension laden and superbly performed episode. And "Imprisoned Lives" was a perfect example of how to do a ripped from the headlines storyline well and one of the better and more tactful examples of this type of story from the latter seasons (which is saying a lot, as most of the later ones weren't great).

"American Tragedy" unfortunately was a major disappointment. Not a tragedy of an episode but after following on from such a promising start it was a shame to see such a drastic decline on a story that could easily have been done well. While having its moments, "American Tragedy" suffers from being over-stuffed, over-written and from being heavy handed and not in good taste. Didn't care for it on first watch, and don't care for it every bit as much.

It does have good things. It is as ever shot with the right amount of intimacy without feeling too up close, even with a reliance of close up camerawork. That the editing has become increasingly tighter over-time is great too. The music isn't over-scored, manipulative or used too much.

Did think that the regulars were fine and Raul Esparza continues to bring so much spark to his material, just like he gave so much spark throughout his time on the show. Jeffrey Tambor is suitably smarmy and is a sturdy presence.

Cannot say the same for Cybil Shepherd, who comes over as very stiff and melodramatic here throughout. Hated how her character was written too, to the extent that it unbalanced the episode by a large degree, found her to be too caricaturish and too much of a cartoon. Actually found myself not caring at all whether she was guilty or innocent. None of the supporting characters are interesting or worth caring for, and one of the episode's biggest problems is the distastefully one-sided and stereotypical portrayal of southern people. There is a lot of trite and over-heated dialogue, other than some nice one liners from Barba. Too much of it also came over as too preachy.

Which was true for "American Tragedy" as an overall whole, preachy and too much of a political statement while exploiting a still raw case by staying too faithful to it. The story in particular is badly executed, it has such a kitchen sink-like quality to it. It tries to do too much and ends up not being tense or suspenseful in the least. Olivias therapist subplot is illuminating for her character but slows the episode down in momentum. Couldn't get past Bill Irwin's creepiness in 'CSI' to find him plausible as a sympathetic doctor. The ending is unrealistic.

Overall, mediocre at best disappointment. 4/10.

Politically Correct on steroids.

[arnoldripkin · 1/10 · 6 October 2013]

I can honestly say that I have watched every single episode of SUV, and have enjoyed them all until this one. They have always addressed current news stories, but this was too much. It was about the "hoodie" controversy and the Zimmerman/Martin shooting. But that wasn't enough for Wolf. He also included a large portion of Paula Deen to the recipe. Cybll Shepherd plays the part of a rich business woman from the South (of course)who kills a Black "kid" for no other reason that the fact that he was black and wearing a hoodie. She is acquitted in the end and the SUV unit sadly sighs. Sgt Munch turns to Tutuola and says, "sorry", to which Tutuola says, "ain't your fault, that's just the way it is". My question to Hollywood is: When will all Southerners stop being profiled as racists and bigots? Where do most most racist and homophobic crimes occur? Read the news, it ain't down South.

Written With A Sledgehammer

[CCRider01 · 2/10 · 24 March 2021]

SVU was always the most "band wagony" of the L&O shows, the quickest to jump on a social issue du jour, but this American Tragedy episode (obviously patterned after the Trayvon Martin incident and even with the same innocent Boy In Hoody narrative) ) lacks even the slightest of nuance to pull that off. The result is one overtly preachy, agenda driven mess of a TV show. Of course in this L&O episode, to hammer home their point, the script writers make the 'boy" who was shot, even younger, far more pure & innocent (church goer, honor roll student) than the real life person that this story was patterned after. Clumsy, heavy handed story telling that deserves a 0/10 rating, but was bumped to 2/10 due to some decent albeit sporadic displays of acting skills

PRD is the answer

[whitman2 · 24 October 2014]

Video surveillance HD cameras would have helped in cases like this. They are sorely needed to record activities in every public space. Every cubic inch should be covered in high resolution. There should be no expectation of privacy outside one's own home. Everyone should have the right to walk safely in public. The only way to ensure this is to have a record of public conduct. We already have some video surveillance systems in place. I myself have installed dash cams in my vehicle, and I wear a couple of concealed body cameras in public. In the near future, individuals should have the option to wear a Personal Recording Device (PRD) that uploads Point-of-View video to the Internet through Wi-Fi. That should put an end to this kind of American Tragedy.