Straws

Maybe it's the lingering frigid temperatures, maybe it's tundra fever but this week was the week of superficial annoyances bubbling to the surface, bordering on outrage. I think sometimes it's the order of things---people can only internalize so much and then it's the simplest things, paltry injustices that are the last straw.
Last night while reviewing the TV headlines, I came across an article stating that NBC released a statement saying that they were putting LOLA (Law & Order Los Angeles) on indefinite hiatus because of  restructuring. Further into the article ,which detailed why LOLA's expected return to prime time the first week of February, it was explained that half the cast including Skeet Ulrich whose detective main character has been an anchor in the burgeoning show had been let go. The LOLA Powers That Be were retooling the remaining characters and casting new ones. Alfred Molina's character who was a head honcho at the DA's office was being 'reassigned' to the detective beat (cause you know, that happens all the time in real life). All of this drama and the show's barely 6 months green.
After reading this, a lot of irritation started percolating in me. I have quite the history with L & O, being a loyal viewer since the early days (for both of us). Tried and true fan of the original series with occasional road trips into Criminal Intent country. So I was devastated when NBC went against its original promise of keeping L & O on for a record breaking 21st season, edging out Gunsmoke as the longest running TV series. Instead they bent over for the umpteenth time for whiny, insecure, only funny to look at Jay Leno in giving him the 10 o'clock spot on every week night. They also threw Southland, a phenomenal newbie cop drama to the wolves in their declaration of love to Leno. And I don't need to retell the gripping drama/soap opera that played out in real life because of that move. All I can say is that without it, Team Coco would have no meaning. And when Jay Leno's latest ego massage crashed and burned (like we all knew it would), NBC in all of its severe trangressions' humiliating glory had a lot of time slots to fill.
And that is where LOLA enters and from whence it was conceived. I had planned on hating it. L & O was always New York to me. NYC was as integral to the franchise as the haunting sound echoed between scenes or the comforting specter of Jerry Orbach. While NYC is edged by an ocean, its gritty streets were the forefront of the show, not coastline which made LOLA's ever present beaches extremely out of place. Or one would think. To this viewer, during the first 6 months, California's beaches gave the franchise another aspect and gave it a different edge. And Ulrich's no nonsense, by the book detective echoed the sensibility and rugged good looks of Benjamin Bratt while his wise cracking partner, a younger incarnation of the ornery yet lovable Lenny Briscoe. So what does reinventing LOLA halfway through a rocky first year mean for the latest L & O offspring? To me, nothing good. New series don't usually do retooling until after the first season wraps as it wants to create good buzz and reliable viewing ASAP. Viewers can't connect with a constant revolving door of characters and core premises. This speaks of frantic water treading or grasping at straws. And to more than impatient NBC, I doubt they will grant LOLA a mulligan. And NBC could have saved itself all of this time, trouble and money if it had just told Leno to shove off after his original 'retirement' and kept Jack McCoy and Company in operation.
My second grievance this week is a little more cerebral, having to do with the ongoing strike between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's musicians and the DSO Powers That Be. The DSO announced wage cuts of 30% last fall at which time the musicians began their strike. And so the strike carried on through the holidays, crippling surrounding businesses like restaurants and killing one of their most important seasons. All this while the new curator at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) announced that he discovered and verified that more than a few paintings thought to be originals are fakes. What the hell is going on with the last gasps of culture in Detroit?