When Casting is Not Enough

Last night’s Law and Order: SVU was weak. Normally that would be disappointing, but the fact that it was packed with high profile guest stars makes it somewhat baffling. Kal Penn and Adam Beach may not be household names, but they’re certainly well-known. Beach has recently earned great reviews for his performance in Flags of Our Fathers and Penn is the likeable star of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Van Wilder 2. So why did last night suck?

1. Casting Penn as the fame seeking serial rapist was a mistake. Sure, he wasn't shown in the previews, but the minute you see him standing behind the suspect, you think "Hey! It's Kal Penn!" The role was fairly thankless, so why not just give it to a lesser-known actor the role, who wouldn't be a dead give away? It's not like Penn brough anything to the table beyond a thoroughly inscrutable performance. Was he retarded? Was he just weird? Did this episode even have a director?

2. Manufactured tension between Beach's Brooklyn cop and Ice-T. I still have no idea what their beef was with one another. But because of it, we were subjected to Beach's speech about how he belongs in the city as much as Ice-T because his father was a steel worker. What? Were we supposed to think that T cared about the fact that Beach was Native American or that he was from Brooklyn? I still have no idea and none of this was helped by Beach's stiff channeling of Brando.

3. The story was paper thin and poorly executed. They knew where to find Penn because Beach walks the streets at night and knows all the sounds, including that of a specific recycling plant? Are you kidding?

It's like Chris Meloni had the week off so the writers decided to follow suit. Rather than find a compelling way to work two gifted (though after this and his turn as a Teen Terrorist on 24, I'm beginning to wonder about Penn) actors into what's normally an outstanding show.