American Justice

This was originally going to be a post about the American soap operas of which (fortunately) i haven't caught a lot of. Instead, I decided to ruminate on a particular type of show that seems both common and popular over here - namely, the courtroom show. Now i'm not talking about the dramas like Law and Order, or Boston Legal (have either of those made it over the Atlantic? I'm not sure). No, i mean the daytime shows - like "Judge Judy" (I say daytime, this is on from 6-7pm Monday to Friday) - which i know some of you may be familiar with as it did make it on to daytime British TV as i recall (somewhere in the ITV schedules if anyone is interested). But this isn't the only one - before Judy, we have a Judge Joe Brown and before him, another Judge (whose name escapes me - i've only caught his show when at the gym). Anyway, these are shows with 'REAL people, REAL cases, REAL verdicts' (as the voiceover man tells us). Basically, it's a civil courtroom - usually dealing with money matters or matters of property.

Anyway, the victi....er, plaintiff and defendant are bought in, the case is explained, the judge usually rants, laughs at, or looks bemused by the conflicting arguments and then makes the judgement. Now this is all well and good - but the cynic in me wonders whether the Judge in question would be like this if the camera's weren't there (I think in the case of Judy, she probably would be - she strikes me as a fearsome character). What i object to is the cheapening of the process by putting it on TV in the first place - it kind of makes a mockery of justice when it seems to boil down to how much of a dressing down the people can get. It also seems to me that the cases on show are nearly always polarised such that one person is obviously lying or, at least, bending the truth. Is this intentional? I think it probably is. One could argue that by putting such show on, it may persuade people to think a bit more before they try and get away with something. But then i doubt it very much. After all, this is the country where the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson trials were broadcast far and wide for all to see - so what is justice if not cheap and ready entertainment for some.