dun-DUN

[sabotabby]

I have started watching Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Should I blog my thoughts? Is this something you're interested in hearing about?



- What is with those accents? They're very odd. I looked it up and one of the actors is Australian, though it sounds kind of like he's trying to do Newfoundland-meets-hoser, and they pronounce the second T in Toronto, which no one here does.
- The location stuff is cool. I'm well familiar with almost all of the locations, except the rich person's house and the yacht club (I have no idea where there is a yacht club) but I like a show that doesn't disguise Toronto. Special props for a scene in Little India, albeit one that made no sense because how anyone with a shop on Gerrard or (who lives in Moss Park) is sinking significant monies into crypto is beyond me. As a middle class person I know tons of people from Little India and Moss Park and zero people in the kind of demographic that would have yachts and million dollar champagne. There's a lot of class and neighbourhood stratification so I spent the whole time wondering how any of these people knew each other.
- The cops have no personalities. I haven't watched Law & Order since SVU, which I mainly watched for Ice-T and the guy from Oz, so I don't know if that's normal for the show, but I would like some establishing character moments plz.
- There is nothing especially Toronto about it beyond that a bunch of real locations get name-dropped. It could be any city with made-up places.
- Except Filmores. WTF hahah. Like yeah I wouldn't go in there either but it's strange to have a real business described as the Worst. Hotel. Ever. By name. And they definitely filmed it in there so they had to get permission.
- NGL I don't care how bad it is, I'm going to keep watching at least until I see the Rob Ford episode, because that shit is hilarious to me.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. As a black child in nyc I loved the original L&O. It was one of my favorite fantasy shows

[sabotabby]

Hahahah mood.

[radiantfracture]

I mean, of course I want to hear your thoughts on every single aspect of this show. That sounds profoundly amusing and like exactly what I need.

[sabotabby]

It's a good distraction (which is why I'm watching it).

[dewline]

The results of my search for yacht clubs in Toronto.

[sabotabby]

Oh yeah, I know there are tons around the water. I've even been to one for the first time ever this summer (though not on a yacht). But I couldn't name a yacht club the way I can identify that specific store in Little India.

[ioplokon]

Did they actually have a yacht or were they members to access boat rentals? It's not uncommon if you sail or row but can't afford your own boat to have a kind of limited yacht club membership.

[sabotabby]

They owned the yacht.

[selki]

I'm mildly interested since I used to live in Rochester and went to Toronto a few times for the Toronto International Film Festival, and I watched a lot of Law & Order and some L&O:SVU.

[sabotabby]

One day I'll get to go to TIFF. That day will be when I've retired from teaching.

[springheel_jack]

there's a "law and order toronto criminal intent"?

I've seen all the CI episodes several times. I wonder if they've ported over the scripts.

Eames: "A stone baby."

[sabotabby]

I have no way of knowing. I've watched like one Criminal Intent episode.

[springheel_jack]

character development and backstory is not a thing in L and I. it comes out in tiny tiny bits over huge amounts of time. that's the dickwolf house style

[sabotabby]

That's what I thought. I feel like I got a good sense of the SVU detectives' personalities but that was very specific to there being a bunch of good actors in it.

[minoanmiss]

Come to think, SVU did more with character backstories and personalities than is usual for Dick Wolf properties.

[greylock]

Hey now! Aden Young was born in Toronto and lived there until he was 10. He practically as maple syrup for blood!
But, since he moved year at 10 I'm going to speculate he's internalised the hard T.
I pronounce it Tor-On-To.

The cops have no personalities. I haven't watched Law & Order since SVU, which I mainly watched for Ice-T and the guy from Oz, so I don't know if that's normal for the show, but I would like some establishing character moments plz.

Law and Order isn't great at character, ever. They are the jobs. Unless it's something OTT like Goran, what character there is seems to drip out over time.

I can't say I feel compelled to watch this (I know Toronto often plays other cities, so I might recognise a few locations), but I look forward to your thoughts.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, you pronounce it wrong lol. Or rather, it would peg you as not from here.

[greylock]

I am pretty sure my accent would do that anyway.

[sabotabby]

People have all kinds of accents; it's a very multicultural city! Regardless, no one says the second T.

[blogcutter]

Interesting to hear the perspective of someone who lives in Toronto. I do watch a lot of crime dramas and I would echo the other comments about strong character development being the exception rather than the rule, at least with most of the North American ones I've seen. I do enjoy a number pf the international ones: for example, Astrid (set in France), Luna & Sophie (set in Germany) and Ridley (UK).

[sabotabby]

The crime dramas I watch on purpose are mainly British, and the character is the whole point. Like Luther and, more recently, Criminal Record, are less about the crime and more about how fucked up the cops investigating are. Even the Wire is about character more than it is about the investigation.

[dissectionist]

For those curious, it’s pronounced anywhere between “Turonno” to “Tronno” to “Tchronno” by Torontonians. There aren’t distinct syllables; it flows smoothly with no micro-pauses from one syllable to the next. The “To-ron-to” with multiple syllables that outsiders do is very different to how it sounds here.

(I also recently discovered, as I’ve had multiple European visitors this summer, that Niagara is pronounced very differently. We say - with an N sound as in “nigh” - “Nia-grah.” They (one from Norway, two from Italy) said “Knee-uh-gara”, which they said is the normal pronunciation there.)

I am definitely interested in hearing more about this show!

[sabotabby]

Oh that's so weird. I would have a hard time knowing what the person was talking about.

[dissectionist]

They actually didn’t! We told them we were going to Niagara Falls and they didn’t realize at first where we were going. 😂

[rdi]

Totally sounds like the way a European non English speaker would say it, though.

[lynnenne]

I watch the first episode and my thoughts were much the same as yours. I didn't feel compelled to watch the rest of the series - but now that I know there's a Rob Ford episode I kind of want to see it!

[sabotabby]

If it was set anywhere else, I wouldn't bother. It's a very weak start. But it gives clear indications of being the funny kind of bad, which is my jam.

[maeve66]

Of course I want to read your blogging/recaps of it -- but just as much, I want to watch it, which I am guessing is not possible here in these benighted United States?

[sabotabby]

It must be. Anyway this is why God invented torrents.

[bcholmes]

I recently watched through Flashpoint, a 2008-2012 cop show about a SWAT-like team that handles escalated situations. It's both filmed in and set in Toronto (although they rarely refer to the city by name, the CN Tower is on display in almost all episodes). They also have a mostly-Canadian cast. And watching all the locations is definitely part of its charm.

Sometimes a place is the real place: like Nathan Phillips' square and City Hall. Sometimes a place gets a rename, like "Northern Funland", the amusement park north of the city, with a big artificial mountain.

Sometimes things are a bit weird: like, Metro Hall (beside Roy Thompson Hall and across from the CBC building) is used as a hospital in a few episodes.

[sabotabby]

I am struggling to identify a building in episode 3. It's a shame because #1 used all the real buildings.

[rdi]

A friend of mine did the music for that. It was a nice little earner for him until it went from broadcast to streaming and the residuals dried up

[numb3r_5ev3n]

It doesn't matter which spinoff it is. The Law And Order theme will be stuck in my head until the end of time.

[sabotabby]

Same.

[rdi]

Thank you for your service.

[sabotabby]

It's one of the services I offer!