Abstract
Law and Justice on the Small Screen is an edited volume that focuses on the role of television programming within the study of law and culture. While the intersection of law and culture has been analyzed extensively in regards to the representation of law and the legal system on film, the representation of law and the legal system on television has been lacking. Within the introduction, the book’s editors, Peter Robson and Jessica Silbey, ponder this lack of scholarship considering the wide availability of television (furthered even since the advent of DVD and other digital technology) and the extensive types of programming available. The objective of the editors in compiling this text is to present an overview of the range of approaches to studying the nexus of law, the legal system, and television as well as a survey of contemporary issues in the field. This is accomplished through a collection of essays by a variety of authors exploring how law and the legal system is represented on television, as well as how these representations may have affected our culture.
The text is organized into three parts (with Part II being divided into two sections) that are spread across 21 chapters. Part I serves as a primer for those interested in law and television scholarship by focusing on the method and context of this type of research. All of the chapters in Part I emphasize the multitude of approaches to tackling law and television scholarship with each author pursuing a different methodological avenue. Chapters 1 through 3 make use of specific television programs as a means to illustrate different paths in undertaking law and television scholarship. For example in Chapter 3, the author, Anita Lam, was granted access to the writer’s room of the short-lived Canadian program The Bridge in order to examine the production of a law-related television program and how various actors shape the representation of the legal system presented on television. Chapters 4 (Kimberlianne Podlas) and 5 (Cassandra Sharp) take a broader approach by not looking at any one specific television program, but instead the authors center their attention on the audience of law-related television programs, namely how they are influenced by law-related television (Chapter 4) and how they interpret what they see (Chapter 5).
The first section of Part II explores several ways that the television law genre has evolved. In Chapter 6, Taunya Banks evaluates the three main characters of the female-led televisions shows The Closer, Saving Grace, and Damages. This chapter seeks to determine whether the way these female characters are portrayed on their respective shows represents a divergence in the manner that female characters in the law television genre are represented. Chapter 7 compares the presentation of rape evidence rules in several television shows (such as L. A. Law and The Practice) both prior to and following what the chapter’s author, Paul Bergman, refers to as the “Get Tough on Rapists Era” when rape shield laws were enacted. In Chapter 8, Christine Corcos investigates a newer genre within the law genre, that of the psychic detective drama. By examining several of these shows, particularly the program Medium, Corcos offers a number of theories to explain the growing popularity of the genre. Tung Yin, in Chapter 9, also looks at a newer genre of law program that has drastically increased in number and popularity since the events of September 11, 2001: Terrorism thrillers. Within this chapter, Yin reports on the portrayal of criminal defense lawyers within this genre, finding the majority to be negative and contrasts these with real-life examples of lawyers involved in terrorism cases.
The second section of Part II revolves around “reality programming” or programming that predominantly features those not in the entertainment business. Chapter 10 centers on Till Debt Do Us Part, a program in which each episode follows a couple battling debt with the assistance of an advisor provided by the program. Within the chapter, Freya Kodar analyzes the program in terms of well the show informs and educates the public about fiscal responsibility. Chapters 11 through 13 focus on topics related to courtroom and judge-centered reality shows. In Chapter 11, Nancy Marder provides a content analysis of several of these courtroom reality shows with particular emphasis on characteristics of the reality television judges. Chapter 12 (Stefan Machura) places courtroom reality television in an international context by examining the genre in Germany. Chapter 13 (Marilyn Terzic) analyzes, arguably the show that popularized the reality courtroom genre, Judge Judy and considers how the messages presented within the program affects viewers. Moving away from the courtroom genre, Mark Tunick closes this section of the book with a critical analysis of the controversial program To Catch a Predator in Chapter 14.
Every chapter in Part III focuses on a specific show (or shows) to enable discourse on current criminal justice issues. In Chapter 15, Ummni Khan contrasts American and Canadian styles of justice through an analysis of two English Canadian shows (Due South and The Border). Anja Louis utilizes the program Anillos do oro (Wedding Rings) in Chapter 16 as a means to discuss the change in divorce laws in Spain. In Chapter 17, Sara Ramshaw uses the main character of the highly acclaimed series The Wire as a backdrop for a discussion of improvization and realism on television. Ryan Thomas and Susan Ross revisit the subject of terrorism in Chapter 18, as the authors examine how torture is presented following the events of 9/11 on the show 24. The translation from literature to the Small Screen is the subject of Chapter 19 as Angus Nurse assesses the differences between the program Dexter and its literary source material. The Canadian legal system returns as the focus of Chapter 20 as the author, Jennifer Schulz, analyzes the program The Associates and whether the show features any aspects unique to the Canadian legal system. In Chapter 21 (Annette Houlihan), the final chapter of the book, the shows Criminal Minds, Dexter, and Law & Order: SVU are featured in order to survey the portrayal of sadistic serial killers on television.
Law and Justice on the Small Screen excels in several ways. A major strength of the book is the diversity of voices represented in the book. Due to the variety of authors contributing, a number of topics within the field of law and television are covered. Along with the book’s topical variety, is a strong multinational representation with several chapters focusing on law and television in other countries such as Canada (Chapters 3, 10, 15, and 20), Germany (Chapter 12), and Spain (Chapter 16). Additionally, a variety of methodological approaches are used throughout the book, although the majority is qualitative in nature. The writing, itself, is clear and concise throughout the book, making Law and Justice on the Small Screen an easy read for those in the criminal justice field as well as media and mass communications. Even without having prior knowledge of any of the television programs discussed within the book, the reader should have no problems understanding the themes the programs are used to discuss.