Polemics aren't always effective as art (or as persuasion either) but there are a lot of injustices that need to be corrected, and polemics are at least a first step. A second step is dramatizing the horror of the reality, and having Justin Tensen get beaten up on TV becomes something that actually resonates with reality after Matthew Shepard. Yes, the whole thing is going to get silly if it is worse than real life (in real life, you don't have to rip out anybody's spinal cord; you can just punch them in the face 1 time when they're not expecting it and let them fall and hit their head on the curb and die THAT way, like Sean Kennedy). The pilot was trying to do something constructive and if it failed, that is much more likely to be simply because people can't bear to confront their own complicity in having not deterred this stuff ALREADY. The only reason why hate crimes laws are needed is that there really still are a lot of haters out there, passing for NORMAL.
The real question is whether something already mainstream like Law&Order:Special Victims would ever treat these victims as "special", as worthy of its attention or of being portrayed in a positive light. As long as it won't, it is easy to see where the need for this came from (even if the execution wasn't adequate).
The real question is whether something already mainstream like Law&Order:Special Victims would ever treat these victims as "special", as worthy of its attention or of being portrayed in a positive light. As long as it won't, it is easy to see where the need for this came from (even if the execution wasn't adequate).