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Law and Order on NBC

Rating: TV-14 DL

By Caroline Schulenburg

Once again, NBC and the Law and Order franchise have failed to live up to their obligation to protect families from content that parents might deem unsuitable for their children. The episode that aired on February 27^th at 10:00 p.m. ET was rated TV-14 DL despite containing several graphic depictions of a murder victim and detailed discussions of her horrifying death.

The episode follows detectives Lupo and Green as they investigate the brutal rape and murder of a teenaged girl. Their investigation leads them to a prostitute named ‘Sugar,’ whose boyfriend was the last person seen with the murdered teenaged girl Anne-Marie. The police find Anne-Marie’s body lying in a dumpster outside a motel. Her skirt is hitched up to reveal her underwear. Her chest is scratched and covered in blood that has been dripping from a very large head wound. In the lab, Green and Lupo listen to the coroner describe the horrific details of Anne-Marie’s death: “There is evidence of both anal and vaginal penetration,” the coroner says while describing the rape that preceded Anne-Marie’s death.

In opting not to flag this episode with a V descriptor indicating violence, NBC demonstrated that until ratings are standardized and enforced, the V-chip will not be a reliable tool in helping parents protect their children.

If you agree that this program was inadequately rated, please write to the TV ratings advisory board at tvomb@usa.net and let them know that the TV ratings once again failed to adequately warn parents about inappropriate content.

For more information about the TV ratings, please visit http://www.tvguidelines.org/contact.asp.