Re: OT: Law and Order -- Criminal Intent

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Missed that episode.  First Goren I've ever encounted who wasn't Jewish.  The 
really famous one was
the bridge (the card game) expert Charles Goren.  I've always felt that his 
zeal was connected to
his hubris as in the recent episode where the murder (for the first time I've 
seen) eluded him.
Unless I've missed some episodes, they haven't revealed a past with wounds that 
require a certain
vengeance, like Olivia on SVU, eg, or Jordan on Crossing Jordan (another NBC 
crime drama I watch
fairly often).  Lest you think I spend all my time watching tv, these shows are 
all on about the
same time I do my workout and we have a tv in front of our treadmill.

Actually, I'm relieved he's not Jewish.  I don't he's all that likeable.  
Actually, my favorite show
was CBS's The Education of Max Bickford, where Richard Dreyfuss (Jewish in real 
life) portrayed a
short, left-handed Jewish American Studies professor whose wife had converted 
to the faith and who
have a girl and a boy in that order.  If one were to survey the adult males in 
my house, one would
discover that 100% of them match this demographic perfectly.  Can't figure out 
why it went off the
air.

I relate pretty strongly to Bob Dylan, too:  Jewish Minnesotan associated with 
the U of M, leftie,
plays guitar right-handed, says lots of stuff no one else understands.  Reminds 
me of someone I
know, but can't place who.

Thanks,





grcomm (at) despammed(dot)com wrote:

> Alex Lubet wrote:
>
> For purely accidental reasons of name-sharing (and I hope this is not
> too far off-topic since it deals with pop culture if not exactly music),
> I wonder if anyone else watches Law & Order:  Criminal Intent.  Of all
> the L & W's, it's the one by far most focused on a single character, a
> detective named Bobby Goren, whom I've always assumed (though it's never
> stated) is Jewish.  He's portrayed as unbelievably brilliant but also
> bordering on obnoxious and maybe even a touch evil.  One rarely gets the
> sense he's a moral crusader, more a gamer, unlike a lot of other tv
> cops.
>
> Well, Alex, I have to take issue with you on a couple of things. First, I 
> think
> Goren is depicted as having rather more zeal than the average cop -- he
> really seems to have a thing about right and wrong.  Vincent D'onofrio's line
> readings are frequently eccentric, and that may be what you are reacting to.
> Second, if he's a Jew he's the first one to ever serve as an altar boy, which 
> was established in
> passing in an episode last season.
>
> George (No Altar Boy) Robinson
>

--
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
Head, Division Of Composition and Music Theory
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+