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Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode - League Girl - 08-27-2006 05:12 AM
Has anyone seen the episode Probability? What did you think of it?
I thought it was good and very interesting how an aspie can kill too. But the condition doesn’t get mentioned until like in the last fifteen or ten minutes of the episode. I remember lot of aspies in a yahoo group were upset about it because they were concerned none aspies would get the idea that we are all killers. I even recorded it on TIVO due to me not being able to watch it because it would be on when it be time for my shower. I caught the last half hour of it when I got out of the shower. Right away I knew who the aspie was. He walked funny like a Rain Man (hard to describe how, I’d have to show it but sadly I can’t due to no one wouldn’t be able to see me because this is a forum and we’re at our computer to interact on here) and the voice he had sounded in some certain tone instead of a normal one. I already knew it was the aspie episode so that’s what gave it away.
- Natalia - 08-27-2006 03:10 PM
there is another thread about this episode somewhere in here but i am too lazy to find it at this moment.
i was inbetween fascinated and offended by this episode, because it was the first time ever that I saw AS mentioned on TV and i could tell he was going to be aspie from the stuff he said about eyecontact and the way he was somewhat OCD. Some people say that this character was too stereotypical, but we are all so various in our ways of displaying autism, that a person like that could exist.
[spoilers]
And i guess a person could kill from frustration with the world and especially with the opposite sex, but i think that with the sense of rules that a lot of aspies have, it would take some serious self-deception to convince oneself to kill several people. Also having convinced himself that this was right, why lead the detectives on his own trail, pretending to be helping them find the guy who did it, instead of just confessing? That doesn't make sense. I mean unless he didn't really convince himself that it was OK to murder.
I am sure pretty much most people are capable of murder, although there are some people who are truly gentle in their ways and murder is extremely unlikely for them. So yeah, an aspie could definitely do a murder, but i don't know if it would go down like this story.
Lalala we could go on forever since this is not a real person.
In terms of promoting a negative stereotype of aspies, this is pretty much a terrible horrible episode. I like that AS got some air time, but if the guy could have used his skills to solve the crime and not been the one doing it, or if there were two aspies (don't tell me that's unlikely, in an accounting firm?!?!?!), one helping solve and one being the murderer, that would have been more realistic.(*)
We don't need any more people thinking we tend to be violent for anything other than self-defense ... and that is bad enough, as a lot of people point out that self-defense is not always understood by observers and victims trying to defend themselves are often the only ones punished.
I don't know this by firsthand observation, only from what i have read around here (about situations in schools for example) and in blogs by persons who have been institutionalized.
[/spoilers]
On the other hand, the detective Goren in this series is a character who gives an example of a definitely not NT (although I don't know if he is aspie or bipolar or neurotic or has schizophrenic tendencies or BPD or what...) and is yet the "hero" of the show. The guy is seriously strange, whatever he has going on, he is not NT.
(*) I like that some of the forensics shows seem to have spectrum characters, whether it's geeky or gothy young lab techs with no social life, on CSI and Bones, or the lead character on the original CSI (although i personally find him unlikeable, he is a protagonist). Or [ http://www.fox.com/bones/ ] "Bones" ("Temperance Brennan") herself who seems completely aspie to me, except she dresses way too elegant for most of us spectrum girls to identify with. Although who says that one can't have a special interest in both skull-fragments and smart fashion?! She even picked up spanish working in Central America (I think i remember it was about helping to ID the people who were "disappeared" in El Salvador, or something like that).
I think there must be some real aspies working in the real forensics field, and I would love to find out about their work and their lives. I think there must be autistics in that field, because of the attention to detail that seems to be needed for that kind of work, and the obsession the characters display about their fields of most detailed expertise. Some of this must be realisitic. Although i could see where working in a real lab would need a lot of social skills. a college friend of mine who i still believe is on the spectrum (she would not hear of it, though!) had problems holding lab jobs because of social aspects and perhaps some irregularity of work. people on tv shows get away with this because they are geniuses and the story needs that character next episode. real people, even if they may be a genius at some things (i remember my friend was extremely clever at some scientific things that i understood so little of that i can't even describe them), are often not so lucky in the workplace.
- Natalia - 08-27-2006 03:21 PM
PS: I am not the first to figure this out:
http://forums.fox.com/n/main.asp?ctx=advsearch&webtag=foxbones
Do an "any word" search for "asperger autistic autism" and you get 27 discussion results....
RE: Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode - 7oclock - 12-15-2006 02:05 AM
Best line from that show....
Eames to Goran in reference to Aspie guy: "You never told me you had an older, geekier brother."
I saw it and loved it. I don't think they (producers/writers/actor) have diagnosed Detective Robert Goren's specific social difficulties - but he is supposed to be ridiculously intelligent, which is why they made him weird. So far they seem to indicate comes from a difficult childhood being abandoned by his father (and I believe older brother) with a schizophrenic mother he ended up having to take care of (and still does in the show).
I love the character...
RE: Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode - Pakrat - 01-19-2007 01:13 PM
I think Goren could have a bit of ocd but not as much as Monk.
RE: Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode - MercuryA - 02-23-2007 05:38 AM
I saw part of that episode but it was along time ago but I walked past the TV (my mum was watching) & saw the guy & Im just like Oh yeah hes got Aspergers but then I went to my room. I actually remember my mother being pissed about how it portrayed AS cos she knows thats just not how it is.......... most of the time anway
RE: Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode - Pakrat - 02-24-2007 01:45 PM
I agree, and believe that Aspies in general are less likely to be killers than most other people. The only exceptions would be if they had a co-morbid mental illness or had been incredibly badly treated and were bitter about it.