[echaos]

I went through more ranges of emotions last night in one hour then I ever have before. Never has a TV show left me feeling like I was going to throw up.

Here's a synopsis:

~ 3 kids are shot in a school yard. The one that dies is black.

~ His parents show up. They are white.

~ They do a good job of talking about adopting kids from foster care and the need for more older children adoption.

~ Killer turns out to be part of an Arian Nation Nazi Skin head group. Shot the kids because 1 was black, 1 was Jewish and the little Italian girl was a mistake.

~ Show progress well... Justice for all.... big courtroom drama, judge gets shot....

~ The the TWIST at the end.... some papers come to light that show that the ADOPTIVE parents are associated with a white supremist group and that they had 2 big life insurance policies on the boy.

THEY ADOPTED THE BOY TO BE ABLE TO KILL HIM FOR THE MONEY

[BrandyHagz]

I sat down to watch the show last night but didn’t realize how tired I was when I started it, so I was only about five minutes into it when I decided to stop it and head to bed. Come to find out, fortunately for me, I have a habit of hitting “Stop” then “Delete” – so before I could watch it, I deleted it.

Glad I missed it – I am usually pretty impressed with the L&O group of shows…

[spaypets]

I'm not surprised. L&O never has a positve adoption story. It's full of crazy birthmothers, grasping aparents, etc.

Glad I watched House instead.

[sinesadopt]

I was also flabbergasted at the way that the show ended. All the woman could say was "We needed the money."

[mattecook]

I was saddened at many many aspects of this show. I was left speechless and still am as to what kinds of effects this is going to have on families adopting minority children. I just pray that people remember this is just a show and that the majority of adoptive parents have so much unconditional love to give to their children no matter color, religion or ethnicity.

Still saddened
Ami

[Sunshine Mom]

I watched this and was really saddened but then also watched "Close to Home".

This family had a biological daughter and adopted a son (around age 7 or so). Now 7 or 8 years later both parents are killed. Turns out the siblings are "in love", having sex and killed their parents. They initially called the relationship incest but then said "Its not really incest because he is adopted".

A real stellar night for older child adoptees on TV yesterday.

[myccg2004]

The show was really not about adoption. It was about racism and the white supremicist group. The adoption part of the story was to purely show us just how far these sick people will go. Sickening, BUT, they're really are still people like that in the world. We just have to remember, it's is a TV SHOW.

[kburch]

Originally Posted by spaypets

I'm not surprised. L&O never has a positve adoption story. It's full of crazy birthmothers, grasping aparents, etc.

Glad I watched House instead.

As horrible as the story is, isn't that kind of the point of this particular show? I mean, it's all about seriously screwed-up people doing reprehensible, almost unimaginable things to other people... How can that possibly be positive? I guess I'm not sure what people expected...?

[juliehf]

Why do all of you take one aspect of the show and get on a huge soap box. What about the father that taught his son such hate??? I was pretty angry at that??? What about the race issue period???

What about the L&O last night. A young black girl was sterilized against her will & then killed. That was pretty bad.

It was just a show... I am the mother of a child that is a diff. race. I was annoyed by it, I was troubled at the message it sends but, gee... turn on CNN...

What about the foster families that keep their children in cages, or the mother that drowned her children b/c vioces told her to? What about the daycare operator that killed the baby w/ benedryl?

Life is full of horrible stories against children....

It is a show that set out for the shock value... sounds like they got it.

Julie

[AwaitingBeloved]

OMG. Your post gave me chills. I'm speechless.

[SchmennaLeigh]

Here's the newsflash: television networks (NBC, my employer, included) are simply going for ratings. This includes their news shows and is definitely more evident in their usage of shocking plot lines in their sitcoms and dramas. If they can draw you in for fifteen minutes, they get your share... that's all they want, folks.

More of a newsflash: November is sweeps month. Look for even MORE off-the-wall and shock-inducing story lines throughout the month. This is the time that if they get your share, it goes in the books and they can therefore charge more for their advertising spots, which, of course, makes them more money.

Beyond that, even before it got to the end of the episode on SVU (not SUV), my Husband and I were shocked AND appalled. While I know that these mental sentiments exist (racism, white pride, etc), hearing them with my own ears was just flabbergasting. My Husband asked me if they were "allowed" to say some of that stuff on television. While they are, and while I usually like SVU for entertainment purposes (not as an educational resource, since that's not why it exists), I was simply nauseated.

Here's the point: if you don't like it, please turn it off. While that's usually a piece of rhetoric thrown at you by the networks as an excuse to be able to air whatever they want, it's the only way YOU can be proactive (short of standing outside the doors with protest signs). If they're not getting your share, their numbers/ratings are not going up which means they're going to lose money with advertisers. And as always, email email email. You may think it doesn't get anywhere. It does. A grouping of angry emails coupled with a dropped rating is a huge red flag that something is not working.

And, of course, keep venting. My Husband and I had a LONG talk about that episode afterwards in which he allowed me to vent my head off. Sure felt good.

[qs mom]

I found almost every aspect of both episodes (L&O/SVU) disturbing.

I think for me, the very last line of the show really got to me - "we're not racists, we needed the money"

It just made me think, there are people out there that think human beings are disposable.

All the hate, racism, greed boiled down to disposable human beings. As if people are worthless pieces of flesh. Makes me shudder,

[LisaCA]

I guess I'm jaded because this episode just made me laugh. not that the topic was funny, but it was such an obvious ploy at getting ratings (Law and order shows have had a severe drop in ratings across the board). anyway, made me giggle at its lameness.

and wasn't this a foster/adoption? wouldn't they have gotten more money over time just being his foster parents than going for the adoption and then the insurance? maybe not, must do the math. must have been a great homestudy, since they managed to miss the racists part. I don't really like SVU like the original, but I watched because it did touch on adoption and nazis, two interests of mine.

[LisaCA]

as jenna and others mentioned, it's ratings time and things are getting ugly. if you're involved in adoption, ttc, infertility issues, it's going to be a rough month .

just watched CSI and they had a case where the bio grandma killed the woman who gave birth to her biograndkid so biomom could raise the son. According to the lovely script, the woman "adopted" the embryo and was raising the child. biodad died and biomom was sad that they'd had no luck with ivf treatments. Biograndma took it upon herself to kill the mom so biomom, who had been visiting mom and biochild and was listed as the guardian in case of anything, could raise the child and be happy . Gotta love hollywood .

[chanibelle]

Law and Order is crazy. I hated hated hated this story line. Was it based on a true story? I know those shows take a twist,but I was really upset about this. I'm also still upset about the show My Wife and Kids and the teenage pregnancy storyline. Do we really need to fuel that myth in the AA community?