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Today is my birthday so I am thinking about my childhood, and how it shaped who I am today. If there was a trivia answer to the question "what show was on in the Buford household most frequently when Jayson Buford was growing up", then the answer would be Law and Order. Mind you, not the SVU stuff that all of you transplants watch (I understand how important Olivia Benson is, but original is the much better show), but rather original, homicide, Upper East/Upper West Side, Law and Order. It's been thirty years since it was at his peak but it's still aged excellently. First off, the fashion is excellent, especially A.D.A. Claire Kincad, played by the vibrant Jill Hennessy. I like the buttons ups that Claire has; and the jackets. She looks so beautiful, yet she is so ruthlessly competent. She was the best A.D.A. Plus, the dashiki-like button ups and sweaters that Lieutenant Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson, EXCELLENT and REGAL) wears. The working class detectives look good too: Jerry Orbach's Lennie Briscoe and Chris Noth's Mike Logan are the best detective pairing there is. I used to think that it was Briscoe and Green (Jesse L. Martin) but the episodes that Logan has with Lennie are just so chic, dense, and compelling. There's the episode where the jury was bribed by a mobster and McCoy has to prosecute his friend, the rival lawyer; there's the episode where the OJ-like stockbroker chokes the life out of his boss and his lawyers come up with this defense called "black rage" -- rage when you have to deal with a white man's world, even though the defendant was obviously content to be in that world. (Courtney B. Vance plays the murderer shiveringly well. The defense is bullshit, so much so that it is hilarious. The law is full of wonder and whimsy).
There isn't TV like this anymore. Everything has to be spelled out to viewers now -- from political commentary to race to gender to sexuality. It must be so odd watching shows that only want to appeal to our worst instincts and traits. Law and Order, at its peak, did such a fearsome job tackling these things without catering to everyone's weak minds. It made watching the show breezy but still provocative. Nor, was it a prestige show that you have to have HBO to watch, or have to wait until Sunday night to follow. It was both a great show and one that your entire family could watch. You don't get that anymore. Watch Law and Order original on Hulu. I honestly say start from Season 3 on --- that's the season that the legendary Jerry Orbach joins the show. I miss when TV was this good. I have great taste because I watched a show this good growing up.
Related Recs
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Cheers, Chappelle’s Show, Northern Exposure, Prison Break, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (only the seasons with Vincent D’Onofrio, who is Sean Penn’s father-in-law in real life), Homicide: Life on the Streets, Twin Peaks Reloaded (which I really disliked when it came out but watched again recently and now like), Frasier, Martin, Unsolved Mysteries (Robert Stack seasons), Missing 411: The Hunted, Hunting for Hitler, Unacknowledged, America’s Most Wanted, COPS, World’s Wildest Police Chases (1993-5), The X-Files (seasons 1-4), Murder She Wrote, McMillan & Wife, Magnum P.I., Banacek, Columbo, The Young & The Restless, Forensic Files, Homeland, Designing Women, Roseanne
Mar 29, 2022
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Olivia Benson is my life
Sep 25, 2024
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If you’re looking for something like sex and the city/coming of age but lighthearted, HBO girls or broad city.
I’m rewatching VEEP rn which is a funnier version of Parks & Rec, but would also recommend Arrested Development and Community if you’re looking for something witty (assuming you’ve prob seen these though if you watch a lot of TV)
When in doubt I just binge old law and order SVU and it gives me my mindless mystery show fix
Apr 22, 2024
Top Recs from @jayson
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I'm often accused of being an "old soul", a categorization I vehemently dislike because it pretends as if my taste is because of nostalgia, as opposed to what is actually cool and compelling. (If something cool comes out now, I enjoy it, but we're in a down period when it comes to culture). But, something old about me, is that I do not care at all about TikTok ending, if does happen. If Elon takes it over from the Chinese, you might as well leave anyway, but I'm just worried at why this is a huge deal for people. It's just an app. Another one will be made. TikTok is not culture, it directly flattens culture into these ten second clips that take music, movies --- things that you need to process --- into something that is now consumed by everyone at a rapid pace, not allowing for the nuances, the style, the aesthetics to sit with us.
I have never watched something on TikTok and thought that this is something in that pushing American culture to deeper heights. I am sorry. Now I am sure they're good stuff on the app, but it's not really a necessity. Whenever I hear the words "it's blowing up on TikTok", my mind immediately growls.
I understood why X becoming overrun with Elon bots and right wingers is a big deal; X actually created things, made careers, made American life, and American events available to be seen by everyone. However, TikTok is a corrupt fantasy, chopping at the wires that make physical connection important.
Read a book! Go to the movies! Go to the restaurant of a cuisine that is unheralded, go to a baseball game. Who cares about TikTok?
Jan 14, 2025
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There's something quite startling about Martin Scorsese's 1980's period compared to the rest of his decades as one of America's greatest filmmakers. In the 80's, he was weird, strange, and making weirdly manic films that feel more New York than even some of his movies about the mob. They're movies about characters who aren't glamarous people that they want to be, but rather, are losers who can't seem to correctly fucntion in normal society. They're non-violent sociopaths. I saw The King of Comedy at Metrograph recently, and it's exhilarating, hilarious, manic, and scary. With Jerry Lewis, Bobby De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, Scorsese was able to create a world where incels who are bad at comedy are wishing for fame. Sound familiar?
This is a great movie. In 1983, it was a box office flop. But in 2025, it is magical in how it's telling the future. A future of scam artists who don't want to work to get there, and don't want to sit in their mediocrity: they want to steal to get their fifteen seconds. Go watch this masterpiece.
Jan 28, 2025
It's a perfect movie. It's almost too perfect. The fashion, the look on Cate's face when Theresa (Rooney Mara) is walking to her at the end, the line reading of "ask me things, please"; the fact that men are the joke throughout the movie.
It makes me wonder about representation and the limits of it because of how womanly and queer this movie is, despite the fact that it never feels like a movie made for women. It's just a great movie.
Feb 13, 2025