'Law & Order' Season 21 Episode 1: Was premiere inspired by Bill Cosby case?
After a long wait of 12 years, the original ‘Law & Order’ has returned to NBC and fans are really excited to see what new things the show is going to offer this time around. In 2010, the series was canceled by the network due to a steep decline in ratings and it went on to pick up a new show in the ‘Law & Order’ universe. However, relentless pressure from fans made NBC realize how much they love the show and they finally announced the renewal.
The first episode of Season 21 is titled ‘The Right Thing’ and starts with a man named Henry King giving an interview about wrongful conviction. The entire gist of the story is that King was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a girl named Nicole Atkins when she was in her early 20s. As soon as the case picked up steam, more than 30 women came forward and claimed that King did the same thing with them as well.
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Even with most of the shreds of evidence showing that he was guilty, the judge and jury found him “not guilty”. He was out of prison and threatened all the accusers by saying that they will be facing consequences for what they did. If you feel that this is something that you have heard before, we must tell you that case is really similar to the Bill Cosby case.
Want to know how? Let’s take a look at some similarities.
‘Law & Order’ Season 21 Episode 1: Did the show take inspiration from the Bill Cosby case?
In the first episode, we see a once-hugely popular Black singer, who has been convicted of at least one of the 30-plus rapes of which he was accused, has been freed from prison on a technicality. A similar kind of thing happened in the Bill Cosby case as well where more than 60 women came forward and accused him of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and more.
Just like Cosby, the man in the show also believes that he is not guilty and he is being framed. In the opening scene, while giving the interview, Henry King says that he has been in this business for many years and he is upset that someone would go on to make these kinds of accusations on him.
King’s statement was similar to what Cosby said in an interview in 2015. During the interview, he said, “I have been in this business 52 years and I've never seen anything like this. Reality is a situation and I can't speak.”
King and Cosby never served the full sentence after Supreme Court overturned a sex assault conviction. All the women were in agony after the decision was announced, but no one took some drastic decision to have revenge.
Meanwhile, in ‘Law & Order’, one of the survivors, Nicole, did take her revenge and killed her rapist by shooting him five times. That seemed to be the only difference between the two cases. However, the episode also gave us an idea even though the judiciary has failed a victim they can’t take the law in their hands and kill someone, even if they deserve it.
‘Law & Order’ Season 21 returns to NBC with a new episode every Thursday at 8 pm EST.