the chutry experiment

I also wonder if this is a sign the show has jumped the shark. Remember Rock Live? E.R. Live? "On a very special Blossom?"

I forgot to mention it earlier, but yeah, it's certainly a ratings ploy/"shark jump" stunt. The show is getting killed by "Desperate Housewives," and combine we've probably had nearly twenty total seasons of Law & Order shows, counting all of the spin-offs.

It's not a choice between endings. Both have been taped and both can be released in the DVD package sure to be marketed.

And even if the character dies at such and such a date in the narrative universe, the producers of the series can limit creation of future episodes to a dateline preceding the demise.

Killing characters in fictional worlds doesn't halt the story telling possibilities.

Killing characters doesn't kill stories.

I saw Vincent D'Onofrio give an interview about the episode early this morning.. I had stopped watching L&O, besides the Wednesday show, but I'll tune in for this.

I certainly don't believe that allowing viewers a choice in the matter violates the premise of the show. The show is not about the order in society. If anything, Criminal Intent, which deals with the more heinous and interesting crimes, showcases the lack of order in our society. It is the police who attempts to place order back into our society. And who knows how the episode will play out, perhaps Olivia's characters death will lead to more order.. After all, Olivia's character is a murderer herself and her death may insure less innocent lives taken.

I certainly don't think Ms. Murray should so harshly condemn an episode before viewing it. As for the live execution comment, I don't believe we know how the character dies. Olivia's character may very well die from a brain aneurysm and not from the death penalty. I'll take a wait and see approach on this one.

God, I must be tired.. I don't think I've ever used the word 'certainly' so much in my life.

To be fair, I placed the "live execution" comment out of context. The argument there was that TV audiences have become so hungry for more and more extreme reality programming that the logical extension will be a live execution on a reality show--I'd imagine that audiences are still a little more sensitive than that.

I think that Murray's arguments are that the show ultimately promotes the social order because the police fulfill their obligation to uphold the law whereas an audience voting on the survival of D'Abo's character might function more along the lines of vigilante or mob justice (I'd imagine there is an implied distatse for the death penalty in Murray's comments, a position I share).

And, you're right, Francois, that both endings exist, with one ending being broadcast to half the country and another being broadcast to the rest of the country. Of course, with online bulletin boards, file sharing, and discussion groups, I'd imagine the endings will be "shared" fairly easily, anyway.

I'm generally intrigued by the narrative possibilities. If the character is killed off, I can certainly imagine flashbacks, dream sequences, memory episodes, and other techniques for keeping the character in the story. Far from killing stories, I think this plot device could multiply them.

"Certainly" is one of my favorite filler words, too.

I really believe that we are 10 years away from a reality show called "Death" where they put 10 people in a pit with a mad race to get their hands on various weapons and see who survives.

I know this sounds extreme, but I think it is only a matter of time until the culture's desire for something more explicit and new will overcome our ethics and morality.

Chuck,
interesting that you seem to consider the television series as one story... i tend to think of episodes as self-contained stories and hence think of the diegetic track between episodes as a metanarrative. in the case of character kill off a writing team and producers can opt to offer episodes that don't necessarily involve flash backs but are episodes set in the diegesis at a point before said character died. a possibility very much at hand in the case of a series that time stamps not only episodes but segments.

On another note, I think the existence of alternative narratives is like a game and so I believe problematizes the confrontation between narratologists and ludologists as depicted by Espen Aarseth as reported by Jason Rhody at Miscellany is the Largest Category http://misc.wordherders.net/archives/002578.html

The analogy is of course between playing a game, viewing a film, reading a text (verbal or otherwise); not between, game, text and film. Intriguing.

Good points, Francois, I've thought about some versions of alternate-reality narratives in terms of "games." You're right, of course, that TV shows that offer serialized narratives don't have to offer them in chronological order. Interesting that I imposed a chronological bias onto the show.

Dylan, I'm still trying to believe that there would be enough moral outrage that a show like that couldn't exist. Then again, I'm not entirley capabale of dismissing the possibility. Scary thought.