Warning: mild spoilers

The episode description of Season 20's premiere is as follows: "A young war veteran is found murdered in a university parking garage, and Lupo and Bernard connect the crime to a law professor, but the victim's psychological state is called into."

Well, that accurately describes the first half, at least. By the end of the episode, though, that deceased veteran is practically an afterthought. A seemingly cookie-cutter show by L&O's standards flies off the rails and into a federal frenzy. And of course Jack McCoy is behind it.

This episode, like many of their previous installments, addressed a hot button issue. The three main problems plaguing our nation today are the economy, health care, and Kanye West interrupting petite blondes. L&O goes off the table and goes back about, oh, two years, and digs up the controversial topic of torture. ...Yay?

For me, talking about torture is just that — torture. It involves pitting the hypothetical against the practical. It's a military tactic that doesn't concern me, yet it's a military tactic that concerns me. It's being inundated with extreme examples, ideals, and forgetting that waterboarding sounds like a recreational activity you do at the lake with your parents on the boat. (Unless your uncle doesn't tell you where he left your Washington Redskins beer koozie autographed by Joe Theismann.)

I wonder if the show's decline in ratings has to do with the Simpsons Factor, e.g. it's all been done, it's a different cast, and other shows are doing crime dramas in new and exciting ways. Or maybe it's because L&O episodes use galvanizing topics that can deter a crowd. It went from No. 7 in 2002 to No. 62 last year. Sometimes you just want to watch the good guys catch the drug dealers with the villainous facial hair and save the princess. But that princess is in another castle. I understand that. But this is Jack McCoy's Fortress Of Justice, and by Jove, he's gonna try and break some eggs by indicting torture proponents.

Article Author: Matthew T. Sussman

Sussman is the sports editor of BC Magazine and the executive editor of Technorati. He also writes for Deadspin and Toledo Free Press. He and Tuffy can be heard hosting the Treehouse Fort, Sundays at 7 p.m. ET. Plus, he Twitters. …

Visit Matthew T. Sussman's author page — Matthew T. Sussman's Blog