July 09, 2008

Elisabeth Rohm Is Awful

So it's been a very rainy day, and because of that I've been watching some Law & Order reruns. I really should try to check out some of its new episodes given that it now stars Linus Roache and Jeremy Sisto. But checking out this era of the show (from probably around 2004-2005 I think) I remember why I gave up on it. Rohm is just a terrible actress. She almost did in the first season of Angel, and on this - ugh. She's no Angie Harman, to say the least. She's worse than all the ADAs who came before her.

Posted by armand at July 9, 2008 03:47 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Culture


Comments

While I don't see Elisabeth Rohm on any short lists for an Oscar in the future I wouldn't go to Vegas and put any cake down on your girl Angie Harmon either. The writing on that show is what stars on that show. Dick Wolf makes the actors walk a very narrow path with not much leeway in terms of developing a personality. Sam Waterson may be the one exception and even that is constrained. Rohm was made into a stiff robot and Harmon a blood thirsty conservative that repeatedly barked the phrase "He should fry!" I don't see Harmon as all that if any better than Rohm and it was neither's fault. They were acting in a very controlled enviroment. By the way I just read that Rohm has earned some credit for a very good job in an independent film called Kruetzer's (not sure if that is spelled right) Sonata.

Posted by: Barno at July 10, 2008 09:37 AM | PERMALINK

I agree with Barno. Angie Harmon is an awful actress-she got even worse, in Women's Murder Club, that thankfully got canceled. She went from funning the gamut of emotion from smirk to snarl (to paraphrase, I beleive it is, Dorothy Parker), to the "look Ma, I'm on the TEE-vee!" school of acting. She always seemed to have one eye on the camera-was she reading lines off a cue card in WMC?
Anyway, the only ADA worse than her, was Annie Parisse, who made her character into a wimp. Now, come on, is someone that unsure going to be working with the #2 guy in the DA's office? She didn't even seem to have the confidence to work in traffic court! And whats worse, in every role I've seen Ms Parisse in, she's the same.
I agree also with Barno, about the tone of the show. Its the crime of the week, and its investigation and prosecution that takes center light, not the regular characters. Most of the time, we end up knowing more about the villian of the week, even the victem, than McCoy, the DA, the cops, or the ADA's. No soap opera sideplots, we didn't see Jack and Claire off househunting, or taking a long weekend in some New England inn. We never saw Lennie and Rogers dating, even though it wasn't until after Jerry Orbach passed away, that we had confirmation of that, on CI. We don't know why exactly Arthur Branch left the DA's office...to run for another office? To take an appointed position with the Federal government? To take a very cushy job with a private law firm?
As for Ms Rohm, she and Carey Lowell got it right. This is how you behave when you work with older men in a profession. You walk a fine line between showing them you may lack their experiance, but that you have a brain in your head, and can use it, and hitting happy hour every night with them, and being over familiar with them. I felt that both Jamie and Serena ended up being very good friends with McCoy-with both women, McCoy argued, made amends, shared opinions and family tales that were often not quite pleasant, I suspect got drunk with on occasion, laughed and teased. Sometimes, I felt like both women were so mad at McCoy, they couldn't spend another minute in his presecence, but that the next day, if all wasn't quite forgotten, they remembered friendship.

Posted by: Karen at July 10, 2008 01:28 PM | PERMALINK

Well I was just picking out Harmon since that's who Rohm replaced. But my response is that though Wolf has very specific ideas about the characters, at least the caricatures the others play are a lot more believable. Sure Harmon was repetitive, but I got that she was that person - even if that person was simplistic and sometimes over the top. With Rohm ... maybe it was the character that was lousy - but maybe it was that she just couldn't play it effectively.

Posted by: Armand at July 10, 2008 03:38 PM | PERMALINK

i'll probably get bludgeoned for this, since, unaccountably in my view, harmon has become a nivea model, or whatever products she's shilled since the world figured out how mediocre an actress she was. i've watched less of rohm than i did of harmon, but i think of them both as pretty shoddy actresses relative to the quality of other primetime procedurals and dramas. that said, rohm has a more interesting character, mostly for the reasons identified by karen, and, at least in my view, is far easier on the eyes than harmon. while archly well put together, harmon has always struck me, somehow, as cold and unattractive (again, relative to the standard primetime fare; i'm sure on the street in real life i'd probably fall over in my tracks confronted with someone so striking). and that's not a product of her character: she comes off as cold and unappealing every time i see her anywhere, in character, out of character, whatever. always the same.

Posted by: moon at July 10, 2008 05:49 PM | PERMALINK
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