Out of the Half-Light (Season 1 Episode 11)

One of the big news stories this week was about a 20-year-old McCain campaign worker, Ashley Todd, who claimed that she was attacked by a Barrack Obama supporter after he saw her McCain bumper sticker. The man tackled her, beat her, and then carved a backward "B" into her face (for Barack).  The only person who believed her was another campaign staffer, who briefly pushed the story to the media. There were several inconsistencies, including she wasn't in surveillance video of the area where the alleged attack took place.

Probably the earliest giveaway, however, was the carved letter "B." Writing on the victims body is a common characteristic of false allegations, a fact that she would have known if she had watched Episode 11.

Beside being topically relevant, this episode does a great job of recounting the 1987 Tawana Brawley rape allegation that pushed Al Sharpton into the national spotlight. The facts are nearly identical, only the names have been changed.

It also might be the best L&0 episode I've ever seen, worlds better than the two that put our friends Nate and Amanda to sleep and then drove them out of the house. One trend I'm noticing in Season 1 is that they were working hard to establish a formula that would keep them on the air. They're experimenting with levels of character development, with camera angles, and with plot twists. In this episode, those came together perfectly.

Comments

[~emilia]

sarah, i spoke to tony recently at a social function but now i've decided to make a direct appeal. please pick this up again. it's the best idea ever and you're very entertaining.