A celebrity Southern chef shoots and kills a teenage African-American boy that she thought was a serial rapist. But was her life in danger, or was she just an over-reactive racist?A celebrity Southern chef shoots and kills a teenage African-American boy that she thought was a serial rapist. But was her life in danger, or was she just an over-reactive racist?A celebrity Southern chef shoots and kills a teenage African-American boy that she thought was a serial rapist. But was her life in danger, or was she just an over-reactive racist?
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- Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
- (as Ice T)
- Captain Donald 'Don' Cragen
- (credit only)
- Aubrey Trisler
- (as Alice Barrett Mitchell)
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Dr. Melinda Warner: [during Mehcad Carter's autopsy] Kids can survive incredible trauma, but when they crump, they crump quick.
Rafael Barba: Crump?
Amanda Rollins: All the vitals go south all at once.
Odafin Tutuola: So we're looking at a homicide?
Dr. Melinda Warner: If getting shot what killed him? Yeah.
Olivia Benson: Jolene said that she fired in self-defense.
Dr. Melinda Warner: I can't speak to that, but there was no fouling or stippling on his body. He wasn't that close to her.
Rafael Barba: Is it possible the stippling disappeared during surgery?
Dr. Melinda Warner: It can't. Stippling burns into skin.
Amanda Rollins: What about on the clothing?
Dr. Melinda Warner: You mean after EMS, the evidence mangling service cut his clothes off through the bullet hole? I will hunt them down and kill them.
Odafin Tutuola: Melinda.
Dr. Melinda Warner: Sorry.
"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.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 1, 2022