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Emmy-winning TV host John Oliver hates the long-running TV showLaw & Orderfor its one aspect. The NBC show and its spin-offLaw & Order: Special Victims Unitclaim that they depict the lives of the cops of NYPD. Oliver presented a critical analysis of the show, created by Dick Wolf, where he noted that it distorted the big picture of the police.
Oliver pointed out several issues with depicting“exceptionally competent”police officers in the show. TheLast Week Tonighthost blames it all on Dick Wolf who wants to portray a positive outlook of the cops. Wolf himself admitted once that his show was a good recruiting tool for the police department.
John Oliver Blames Dick Wolf ForLaw & Order‘s Unrealistic Portrayal Of Cops
John Olivertook on the subject of howLaw & Orderwas a poor representation of the police force in one of the episodes of his show,Last Week Tonight. Oliver presented his case with many alarming details and revelations, sharing that the show portrays the cops in a very unrealistic manner.
Oliver blamed it all onDick Wolf, the creator ofLaw & Orderand similar uniform-based shows. Oliver claimed that Wolf was a huge fan of theDragnetfranchise, the 1960s police procedural crime drama. The host shared that Wolf had a“close, behind-the-scenes relationship”with the NYPD, adding that he used consultants from the force for his shows.
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These consultants improved the show in some aspects, as Oliver recalled the accuracy in things like“specific laws, jargon and crime scene procedures.”However, he shared that they also“significantly distort the big picture of police.”Oliver pointed out one of the issues as the high crime-solving rate in the show, which was far from reality. Oliver shared on the show:
Obviously, Law & Order cannot reflect that reality. It would be unwatchable. Nobody wants to watch a show where 97 percent of episodes end with two lawyers striking a deal in a windowless room and then you get to watch the defendant serve six months and struggle to get a job at their local Jiffy Lube.
Oliver also noted how the series portrayed most of its defendants as“white, male, older and from the middle or upper classes.”Oliver claimed that Wolf defended these numbers by sharing that there was“no rich-white-guy pressure group.”However, the host made the point that the show didn’t want to target people of color because Wolf wanted his cops to be the good guys. He shared:
Instead of depicting a flawed system riddled with structural racism, the show presents exceptionally competent cops working within a largely fair framework that mostly convicts white people.
Oliver further shared thatLaw & Orderwould never portray policing as it happens in real life. He claimed that Dick Wolf didn’t want that in his show, sharing thatWolf knew what to doand what not to do.
John Oliver SaysLaw & OrderIs An Ad For a Defective Product
John Oliver directed his viewers’ attention to aTHRinterview withLaw & Order: SVU‘s former showrunner Warren Leight, who admitted that the show is portraying cops too positively and“mis-contributing to society”. Leight shared that the show wouldn’t likely do an episode of“cops behaving illegally”since it was not part of“Dick Wolf’s brand.”
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Oliver also shared that Wolf has defined his brand in an old interview. In the interview, he shared that he wouldn’t do an episode about Abner Louima, the Black man who fell victim to harassment at the hands of NYPD. Wolf shared,“That’s a terrible thing that happened, but that represents one or two bad apples in a police force of 35,000 people.”
John Oliver claimed that Wolf was pushing“a propagandized, hero-washed version of the truth.”He concluded that the show as a commercial for police recruitment, before quipping that“it’s an ad for a defective product.”
Law & Orderand its spin-offs are now available for streaming on Peacock.
Hashim Asraff
Senior Writer
Articles Published :3017
Hashim Asraff is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,800 articles published on celebrity culture, comic book movies, and major TV franchises. With a background in Sociology and a keen interest in pop culture, Hashim brings a unique lens to breaking news stories, character deep-dives, film rankings, and fan-driven perspectives.His coverage often includes the MCU, DCU, hit network shows, and celebrity profiles, giving readers a rich blend of entertainment and analysis. A longtime fan of crime and investigative series, Hashim has watched thousands of episodes of NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Bones, Blue Bloods, and The RookieA passionate storyteller and wordsmith, Hashim has also worked as a ghostwriter and managed multiple social media handles. He brought his writing expertise to FandomWire to also pursue his lifelong love for cinema and television.
