The Amazing Digital Circus made a surprise cameo in a recent episode of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Unfortunately, the writers behind this iteration of the long-running police-procedural drama don’t seem to think much of the hit indie animated series.
In the episode, titled “The Business of Boys,” the Toronto Major Crimes Unit investigates a video depicting the gruesome murder of a local school teacher. As the detectives interrogate the student they believe filmed the video, they note his interest in cosplaying The Amazing Digital Circus‘ resident rascally rabbit, Jax, and suggest he wore the costume to hide his face during the crime.
In fairness, the detectives’ conclusion rests on sound evidence (the kid accidentally recorded a reflection of his mask while filming the video), but the scene frames the boy’s interest in The Amazing Digital Circus as all the proof they need of his murderous potential. As the detective swipes through the many in-costume selfies the student took, his voice and body language suggest he sees the kid’s interest in the animated series as a big red flag all by itself.
As wild as it is to find out that The Amazing Digital Circus is canon in the Law & Order universe, the fact that the show paints one of its fans as a sadistic assistant to murder takes all the wind out of the reveal’s sails. And this isn’t the first time Law and Order has done something like this.
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Throughout its decades-long run, Law & Order has never been very kind to nerd culture. If a film, book, or video game plays a big role in an episode, it’s usually what caused whatever crime the detectives are solving. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, in particular, really loves to pick on video games, with entire episodes centered on fictionalized versions of Grand Theft Auto and Slender Man that drove their fans to murderous madness.
Even episodes not centered on a piece of pop culture don’t miss a chance to pick on “over-enthusiastic” fans of whatever’s popular right now. Whether they’re the perp behind the week’s crime, a red herring who leads the detectives astray, or a naive victim, Law & Order‘s geeks are always pitifully awkward at best and “How do you function?” incompetent at worst.
In an age when geek culture is more popular and accepted than ever, it’s depressing to see a show as popular as Law & Order so often sink to the classic “Aw, aren’t nerds weird?” mentality. By now, it’s pretty low-hanging fruit, and you’d think a series about the complexity of the human condition would have found a better way to explore our relationship with pop culture by now.
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