Themes in Law & Order SVU: Your tax dollars at work for you

So, Breitbart alerted us this weekend to a Writers Guild of America-East event in February, at which entertainment writers and other intellectual luminaries – including a communications professional from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – will meet to discuss the topic of “The Affordable Care Act: Comedy, Drama, and Reality – Portraying Obamacare in TV & Film.”

Yes, this workshop is about positioning Obamacare in entertainment narratives – series TV, movies – in order to embed themes about it in people’s minds.  The federal government is involved.  And, of course, money linked to George Soros is paying for at least part of this.  Outrageous, right?

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Another TV show, another man infantilized

I’d like to think the producers of the new TV show Missing (ABC), with Ashley Judd as a retired CIA agent tracking down her abducted son, didn’t realize what they were doing. I’ve watched the first two episodes; the show airs on Thursday at 8:00 PM (EDT/PDT), and since I’m typically writing for deadline then, I keep some TV going in the background.  Ashley Judd, a missing son, international intrigue – how bad could it be, right?

And some aspects of it aren’t bad at all.  Judd runs into an acquaintance from her espionage days in each episode, and so far it’s been foreign guys with charming accents.  French Canadian Lothaire Bluteau (Black Robe, The Tudors) in the most recent episode was a superb choice.  (The Judd character – Rebecca Winstone – is widowed, by the way.  Her husband, Sean Bean, was also in The Business, and was assassinated in an airport years ago.  Too bad.)  The outstanding Portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida (Clear and Present Danger, Desperado) is the director of French intelligence.  And then there’s the scenery.  There’s a lot to enjoy.

But I’m not sure how long I can stick with it.