Ok, an innocence project version of Law and Order would actually be genius. Imagine bringing back like 20 of the actors for characters who were convicted who have aged because canonically they’ve been in jail for years since their conviction, and then showing that the cops got it wrong in that case. Tell me you wouldn’t watch that.

Imagine a surgeon saying "I went to medical school, but most of what I do, I learned from grey's anatomy"

Give a raise to whoever came up with "bananaphylactic shock"

“The NYPD is famously anti-shooting, unless, they are the ones doing it” John a f**ken savage for that 😂

One of my first jobs in mental health was working in a residential treatment facility for teenagers. Whenever SVU came on, they would all, girls’ and boys’ floors alike, disappear into their rooms to watch it. I asked a more senior staff one day why that was. She said, “Well, think about it. It creates a fantasy for them, in which the cops are the good guys, the victim is always rescued, and the person that was hurting them is brought to justice. Most of these kids never have and never will see that.”

When my mom saw this, she commented on how we basically expect untrained civilians to be responsible for deescalating encounters with the police instead of expecting our highly-trained, taxpayer-funded police force to be able to deescalate situations.

You know, the irony of Ice-T, writer of such songs as Cop Killer, No Lives Matter and Black Hoodie, being involved in one of the most well-known copaganda franchises in existence hadn't previously occurred to me.

I watched so much SVU in high school because I wanted to believe in a world where the rape and sexual abuse my friends were dealing with from predators in and out of school was taken seriously. It was cathartic. And a woman like Det. Benson refusing to apologize for defending victims paired up with a tough guy with a strong sense for women and children was super compelling. It helped that they always treated each other as equals, challenged each other, supported each other, respected boundaries, etc. It even showed all the gross ways victims get screwed out of justice, but in real life it’s even worse. In real life, almost none of my friends got justice, but it felt good to pretend that they would.

Honestly the only thing Law and Order taught me is ‘never say anything without a lawyer’

Every time "bad apples" are mentioned, it staggers me how police hypemen forget the rest of that saying. "A few bad apples _spoil the barrel."_ In other words, if you have a bunch of good apples and a couple of bad ones, pretty quickly it turns into _all bad apples._

And this is why the last season of Brooklyn 99 was so important and powerful. While other seasons had several episodes focused on corruption in the police, their last one had it as the main attraction throughout, and ending on what police reform could potentially do... while showing every challenge to it along the way

I was sexually abused up until the age of 4 by my biological father. There are multiple videos of me, a tiny toddler, describing in graphic detail what happened. Therapy at age five, years of symptoms of PTSD, and an official diagnosis of C-PTSD (PTSD caused by repeated trauma), and years of therapy as an adult. Thirteen years later, he still has never been held accountable. The case had to be reopened when I was 17, and while the cps officer I worked with was very kind, she simply couldn't do anything about it. The system is so fundamentally flawed that despite irrefutable evidence, the DA won't even take the case. He's allowed to be with kids, he's married, he lives in the same house he always has with a family that loves him and knows nothing. He worked with kids at a bookstore. I don't want to think about how many others have been hurt since then. Of course he's a monster and he forever will be, but I'm almost more angry at the system that allowed him to get away with it. The bad guy is bad, thats their whole shtick, it's just scary realizing that a lot of the good guys aren't good I will never and should never forgive him, but that automatic response of "he needs to die" is too good for these people. They can die a martyr, innocent and killed for no reason. They deserve to live in a world that knows what they are, be repulsed and shunned, they deserve to suffer like their victims suffered, death is too kind

Whoever wrote "bananaphylactic shock" has just hit their comedic peak. I'm sorry, in a career defined by comedic reporting of the news, you're not gonna get a better off-the-wall pun in without it feeling completely forced.

"The NYPD is famously anti-shooting, unless they are the ones doing it..." Had to be one of the top 10 savage lines of this series.

I remember once watching SVU with my very L&O fanatic parents, and saw a case very similar to my own get solved with justice. My parents empathized with the girl and she got closure. The same parents who blamed me for my own case that never got anywhere with reporting. L&O is fun, but it's a lie.

"Ladies and gentlemen the story you are about to see is bullshit the names have been changed to protect the LAPD because they helped to save a bunch of money on props"...instant classic

Bananaphylactic shock. Someone give that writer a raise.

I like how the main defence for anything cop related is 'one or two bad apples', when the original saying is literally that one bad apple spoils the barrel.

as a defense lawyer, a realistic show about what we do would be even more dull because most of it happens over email. lol

I need a shirt that says "Last Week Tonight Radicalized Me"

I feel like the phrase "dying of bananaphylactic shock" was very under appreciated for how brilliant it was.

Back in 2011 I was raped. Initially I didn't want to press charges, I just wanted to go to the hospital. I was turned away at 2 emergency rooms because they weren't equipped to do a rape kit. Despite me telling them I didn't want one, I just wanted the bleeding to stop. So I eventually felt pressured into calling the cops just to get any support. 2 male officers came in to interview me, mocked me, refused to take evidence, and told me that I wouldn't be able to afford a lawyer because the person who raped me was probably richer than I was. (That's not how that works) I did end up getting a rape kit which has either been tossed or is in the backlog, I don't have it in me to ask. My treatment at the hands of the cops and hospitals was honestly more traumatizing than the assault itself.

"It's an ad for a defective product..." That is a closing line if ever there was one.

I'm an autistic, disabled, trans guy who was playing a phone game in public park during covid and off duty NPYD beat my face in and broke my nose. Responding NCPD kept threatening me at the scene if I arrested him they'd arrest me too. Kept victim blaming. Kept making me try to prove why I was in a public park on a sunny summer day. Heard him say he would do it again and did nothing about it. I've filed complaints with IAB, CCRB, NCPD, NYS AG, two senators, NC DA, and more - all complaints magically go unanswered or disappear in an effort for them to cover up this attack. I'm still trying to get someone to listen.

NYPD SVU did literally NOTHING to help my case in 2019-2020. I was locked in my co-workers room and physically fought him to avoid being raped. He threw me into a TV and kicked me in the ribs about six times. He ripped off my clothes. And the NYPD hauled my ass to the station in front of my students. I gave another statement, about five or so in total. And the buck stopped at the SVU. The detective did jack shit to go after this man, question other teachers and staff, go to the dude's apartment, or anything. He just threw out my case and closed it within days. NYPD sucks! If you are not at least middle class and white, they will not help you, if not hurt you.

If I had a dollar for every time the phrase, "a few bad apples" was applied to police brutality and corruption I could pay my medical bills and trauma therapy for the rest of my years.

PSA: Do get a lawyer. Having been to trial, my experience was that the defense attorney is the only sane non-evil person in the room who is not trying to harm you for its own sake. Doesn't matter if the judge is a psycho, at least there's one person in the room who can speak your native language and talk facts and that just feels amazing. Defense attorneys are kind of the good Samaritans of the law world. Might not always be the case; this is just anecdotal. But yes, lawyer good. VERY good.

Whoever the musical director is that made their theme song into a law and order outro, you are a genius and I love it

Imagine saying: "I'm a lifeguard. I've learned most of what I know watching Baywatch." Or "I'm a surgeon. I was trained by watching Grey's anatomy and the Good doctor on netflix." Hard pass, right? Somehow that's OK for law enforcement? How?🤨

Older generations: "Don't believe everything you see on TV." Also older generations: "I've watched all the seasons of L&O. I'm practically an attorney."

I'm just really really glad John is still keeping tabs on all of Adam's work, past and present 😂

Internal Affairs is also portrayed as the villain for daring to investigate

"Bananaphylactic shock" Absolutely brilliant. We all need to just take a moment and appreciate whoever wrote that particular pun.

Another problem with L&O is that the bad guys are just that - bad guys. They aren't "people" who are considered innocent until proven guilty. They're bad guys who need to be stopped at all costs. This is how police see suspects when they learn their tactics from this show. Also why so many cops immediately become hostile when you know your rights. They think you must know a lot about your rights BECAUSE you expected an encounter with the police, and thus they believe you've obviously committed a crime.

"Go off, girl boss." 😆

This is journalism at its finest, the only news show worth watching. Over&over, John Oliver dishes out the ugly truth like bananaphylactic shock.

I want to see Law and Order: Internal Affairs. Just an hour every week of dirty cops being arrested.

You coulda got way more mileage out of that “bananaphylactic shock” joke. That is pure gold.

I've watched Law and Order SVU since I was little and as I grew up I appreciated Olivia Benson SO much. What she represented, even if a fantasy, was a bit of light in a very depressive subject. We all want to believe in that SVU department even if in real life, your crime would never be solved

You would legit risk ending your time on this planet if you interrupt my grandma while she is watching Law & Order. She died in 2016 and we still don’t have the balls to go in and disturb her cause the show is still on.

“He was allergic to bananas”.. Tremendous writing

I was talking to a friend and he said, "when they say 'a few bad apples' about the cops, (as Dick Wolf did there) they never finish the idiom 'spoil the whole bunch'." He was so right. Policing is broken. Period.

I remember when I was 15 and had just gone through the most traumatic event of my life that left me in a temporary catatonic state. I was in New Mexico (never been before) in a town, all alone and terrified. The cops there picked me up and took me to their station, and one of them proceeded to verbally abuse me, calling me a bitch and saying "what's wrong with you you crazy bitch, you can't do anything," due to my catatonic state. Then they made me watch Keeping up with the Kardashians in an interrogation room for hours, lmao. Cops, just like humanity in general, are often terrible and abusive and power doesn't usually bring out the kindness in people

The biggest coincidence just happened I was watching this clip from the show, got up to use the restroom, and walked by the living room where my mother was watching the Adam Driver episode.

“He was allergic to bananas” comedians will try for decades to write a better punch line than that and will come up empty handed. Peak unintentional comedy right there.

I laughed way too hard at "letting your wife watch television could give her notions"

OMG, John Oliver. I couldn’t love you more. Thanks for what you do for all of us.

John should do a critique of The Closer (2005 - 2012) and Major Crimes (2012 - 2018). While I enjoyed these 2 series immensely, I did learn two important lessons: 1) Never speak with the police, 2) Always request a lawyer.

"Law and Order: Oopsie!" would be a great show... covering all the cases where police and the rest of the system ruined people's lives for no good reason.

One of my favourite crime shows in Germany for years was "Unter Verdacht", which translates to "Under Suspicion". The premise was that an older, female investigator was transferred to the department for internal affairs of the Munich police - and the show made it a point that she mostly got the position because her higher-ups considered her half-retired and figured she wouldn't actually do much. The only assistant she got was seen as too incompetent for any other department, further strengthening the point that they didn't want her to succeed in her investigations against other officers. Additionally, her boss was often shown as fundamentally corrupt and trying to hinder her in any way possible due to his own political ambitions. While Eva Maria Prohacek, the main character, was portrayed as empathetic towards the victims, hard-working and just, the show was going for realism, which meant that the episodes would sometimes have her lose - she'd crack the case, but the officers would get away with light punishment or there would even be a cover-up. They also did a pretty fantastic episode on brutality against African refugees in the Mediterranean by Frontex officers, basically the European border department that is charged with pushing people off their boats. Bold, uncomfortable, top-tier German television and rightfully won a couple domestic awards. Fun fact: Christoph Waltz was on one of the episodes before his breakthrough in Hollywood.

The Dick Wolf misleads had me rolling 🤣

Broderick Crawford,the star of "Highway Patol",was such a lush that the CHIP Officers who were on the set as technical advisors nicknamed him "Old 502". FYI:502 is the California Highway Patrpl code for DWI.

They did do one episode called “Justice Denied” where Olivia realized that she forced a false confession from someone, but it seems like a largely untouched topic outside of that instance.

Really speaks volumes when a pro cop show says “we need to be nice to cops or they might decide to retaliate against us”

When the original LAW & ORDER was brought back - Wolf had also been working on a new L&O called FOR THE DEFENCE, which would have looked at cases from the side of defence attorneys, which I’d love to see done someday.

"There was no probable cause for an arrest." "You CREATE probable cause!! You push em' around, you provoke em'!" Holy shit, how did 'Law & Order' get away with not portraying the guy shouting back there to his subordinate such a ridiculously evil pair of sentences as an archvillain? And, regardless of how the show itself frames that dude's role, how the HELL did so many viewers not see anything wrong with that behavior?

The part where cops are watching L&O to get a rudimentary clue what to do in certain situations perfectly demonstrates that 21 weeks of training just does not cut it in a modern society.

John Oliver is certainly the most intelligent bird in human history.

It's not even just Law & Order. It makes you wonder the collective effect of all other crime and police shows on TV and how they make people afraid of things that don't happen nearly as often as they think

Bananaphylactic shock...one of your all-time best lines...on so many levels. Bravo!

Both my parents were cops and they hated the Law in Order franchise. My dad had a particular loathing for Stabler's violent interrogation techniques. A man will say anything under torture AND suspects will lawyer up and not say anything if you get hostile like that. Also, it wasn't until years after I stopped watching SVU that I realized how the show really vilified Internal Affairs when (in theory) I.A. is suppose to police the police and hold them accountable.

Just a side note: Ice-T happens to have a metal band that, in spite of his affiliation with Law and Order, is heavily critical of the police, the government perpetuating racism, and (through lyrics that he himself describes as ultra-violence) the use of force by those in power. I can't seem to find the interview, but at one point he mentioned that he enjoyed Law and Order because it portrayed the kind of cops he wished we had.

All my life, my dad has loved Law and Order. When I was beginning to think about college and wanted to go into law, I began watching the show so I would know what things they were doing wrong so I would never ever do them.

Imagine how hard it was for Mariska Hargitay to say that line without laughing.

"A**less corpse found at bottomless brunch" is a hugely underrated headline. That's dad pun power to the max! The crowd barely acknowledged it!

As a SA survivor, I can fully attest how cathartic Law & Order SVU has been to watch. To see the fantasy of people like me getting justice from people who genuinely cared. But even as I watched it as a scared 15 year old, I knew it was all a fantasy. That cops and the system of getting said justice is a difficult climb that I'll never get on because I know the odds are against me. As much as I love SVU, I want an Innocence Project type show, where victims, both convicted in jail and silenced to never have a case, can get real justice. And people should know that the police really is against you as an SA survivor.

I died when he talked about Stabler being UNSTABLE AF!

When i was hired as a parole/probation agent for the state of Michigan, the training required us to watch Law and Order to hone our interview skills. 🙄

The Exonerated 5 where just briefly mentioned but they deserve a whole episode to themselves.

"If medical professionals were routinely claiming..." Time to do that show, Last Week team, cause these things happen. *A lot*. My wife recently completed clinicals at a major Phx area hospital, & well over half the staff she worked around were conspiracy nuts who said things you'd never expect from a highly trained & experienced healthcare professional. It's terrifying.

Honestly I find this show incredibly funny and thats enough for me.

Props for the musicians who made the arrangement of the song in the credits at the end. It was perfect.

I was on a grand jury, and quickly learned the District Attorney office hated Law and Order because, L&O apparently had an endless budget, and the DA did not

Fun fact: The most medically accurate show on television for years was Scrubs.

“Bananaphylactic shock” is pure perfection. 0:43

I would never hire an attorney that learned how to be an attorney from Law and Order. in fact the first question I would ask an attorney? is have you ever watched Law and Order? John Oliver doing a report one this subject. and his sense of humor about it. is the sole reason I watch Last week tonight with John Oliver.

Shades of when the DOD had to ask the producers of “24” to stop glamorizing torture because troops were waaaaay too enthusiastic about mimicking their hero Jack Bauer in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Is it hot? Reasonable people can disagree." Just priceless.

The generic theme song at the end so y’all didn’t have to pay royalties killlled me 😂😂😂

My gosh, who composes of Oliver’s staff??? They do the lords work

I was so upset when they announced they were no longer moving forward with the previously revealed "Law & Order: For the Defense". Would've been so nice to finally see the other perspective in the world's biggest crime show brand.

After I was assaulted when I was 13-15, SVU gave me a lot of comfort, giving me the dream that someone out there would listen to me and want to help me, even if I had no proof and that it was a woman on woman assault. She groped me in front of my mom, forcefully kissed me, and kept trying to fondle me, most of the time she did it she had a boyfriend that was my sister's close friend, and I was afraid of speaking up and ruining my relationship with my sister. I would have given my whole world if there was someone like Olivia Benson to help me get through that time, especially after it happened again and again because of my fear of pushing back or speaking up. Then, I had a real life SVU lieutenant come and give a talk at my school freshman year, she degraded us and compared us to chewed up pieces of gum, and I realized that dream was just that, a dream, a dumb, untrue dream. Dick needs to suck it up and show a real version of cops if he's going to say "these are their stories." or more young girls like I was are going to continue to get destroyed when they realize the system is made to fail them, cops don't really care, and the system lets their abusers walk away. No young girl deserves to go through the mental minefield I had to go through and the lasting effects it has had on my current relationships. I know it's not the actors faults, and I think Mariska Hargitay really cares about victims, I just wish she would say something, even if it would have no effect. Fuck you Dick Wolf, ACAB.

I grew up on Law & Order, especially SVU. This was back in the early 2000's, so I often watched with my mom, and it often started conversations that were important to have. Sometimes after episodes, my mom would turn to me and say something like "you know if [event from episode] ever happens to you, you should [appropriate response to the event], right?" Or she would check in and make sure I understood what a character did was the wrong thing to do. You know, we'd talk about what to do if assaulted or if a stranger wants to meet you in a secluded place or a guy is abusive. Important things that young girls need to know. I can't even fathom thinking I should learn my profession from a tv show, though. Idk.. I was taught young that a tv show is not reality. The characters are made up for the purpose of telling a story that communicates a particular message or feeling. It's to entertain, not necessarily to portray the real world. And that's what I loved about them. Anything could happen. Giant man-eating snakes, zombies, rich white people going to jail when they commit a crime... I knew what happened on the show wasn't representative of reality. Hec, the trial procedures were complete fiction! But after spending all day in the real world, it was nice to watch a universe where there was some justice in the justice system, where the bad guys don't always go free, where someone in the legal system genuinely fought and cared for the victims, where woman got justice against abusers and r*p***. It's a nice fantasy world to escape to when reality is overwhelming, and that's all it should be. People shouldn't be learning to do their jobs from fiction. Fiction is great for aiding the teacher, but it shouldn't BE the teacher.

On a lighter note that "Holla Back Girl" clip had me dying!

Well, he's done it again. The British Funny man made me laugh and still feel sad

I still think one of the best lines in Law & Order is: "Im not gay, I have relationships with women. And sex with Men"

I hate how I now know what Dick Wolf looks like and he will no longer be this mysterious ethereal figure in my head

Man why do I binge his shows at work....

Even as a kid, the one thing Law & Order taught me was that prosecutors were shady as hell. Seriously...Sam Waterston's character always did things that even as a kid I knew weren't okay but the show would justify it as "justice" and "to get the bad guy"...even with his character consistently getting angry at the judge when he was told he couldn't partake in illegal practices.

Me and my criminal law class in college had the same discussion after a professor brought up how annoying shows like CSI and law & order were in regards to actual criminal justice. Our professor was a defense lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainees, Buzz was one of the best teachers ive ever had.

I remember the Law and Order episode inspired by the Exonerated 5. A woman was murdered and the cops first target some boys of color, then veered to someone connected to the woman, before going back to "We were right all along. It was the brown boys."

John Oliver one of your best shows and issues that cannot be discussed enough.

I also remember the CSI Effect when that was at it's peak. Which had two effects. 1. People invading crime scenes trying to CSI themselves. 2. People having way way too high expectations of what CSI can actually do.

The Greys Anatomy comparison is really good, as it highlights a blindspot many people have towards media. Sure, a lot of things can be excused/explained/ignored because "it's a show for entertainment" but there is a line between making Doctors more attractive for the small screen and instilling blind trust in a broken system. Also pointing out flaws and dangers to society in shows is not the same as "hating on it".

Why do I have the feeling John heard that line from Mariska Hargitay, and built this article from it? 🤣🤣

Ok but "Bananaphylactic Shock" *Chef's kiss*

Public defenders get the worst representation but here’s some food for thought: they’re the only Constitutionally-afforded occupation. Each and every person has a fundamental RIGHT to a criminal defense. Why are PD’s the bad guy for facilitating the proper checks & balances in the justice system? Do they want to see bad guys go to jail? Yes - AND they want them to be prosecuted, tried & sentenced fairly. Because everyone deserves that right, even the bad guys.

John, you forgot to mention how the show also villainizes Internal affairs officers, especially when (Un)Stabler definitely broke the law. That's why that show "Happy!" was perfect for Meloni since he was basically how you would've expected Stabler to turn out after being fired.

Criminal Intent is my favorite spin off. I truly believe Goren, Eames, Deakins, and Carver are one of the best teams to have ever been on television. And the show would have been on longer if not for the constantly changing cast and production team after season 5.

Amazing exploration of real events and the complex discipline needed for effective conversations about...