I’m fairly confidend that the US Government is using prime time law dramas to keep the general American public in line. Just your typical brainwashing. Nothing to see here. Move along folks and pay no heed to the man behind the curtain.

I’m being serious here, folks. Well, sorta. I mean if you think about it for a second…let’s review what we know:

1. Shows like CSI, Law and Order and all their respective derivatives are plainly addicting. No respectable adult can help but be intruiged by their plot twists and healthy does of mystery. This means that the Government *must* be capitalizing on the common man’s love of a good hearty riddle. That’s the hook.

But that’s not all.

2. These shows often allow Joe Q. Suburbia to peer into the seedy and often alluring lives of thugs, criminals and general badasses. Again, The Man is using our desire for transference, our innate longing to live vicariously through other people by means of a safe method. What better way that TV? Eh?

Combine these two facts, and multiply it by the third and surely most damning piece of evidence:

3. Repitition. What better way to drill into the collective American psyche what you want them to believe than to do it by making one show with 16 spinoffs and run them at the same time? Law and Order, SVU, CSI New York, CSI Miami, CSI Toepeka! That’s like having the Cosby show, and then giving each character their own sitcom and running it at the same time. And in syndication! TBS and USA (as well as others) run non-stop reruns from previous seasons! Entire day-long marathons! Try as you might, there’s no way to escape these shows. Any time of day, you’re guaranteed to find at least one episode that you’ve never seen, on some channel.

Therefore, I cannot help but come to the conclusion that the American government is using these popular shows to brainwash the public, you and I brothers and sisters! We’re being brainwashed into submission, into civility and passivity. We’re being shown how the “other half” live and act, only to be eventually caught and beaten down by the system. The long arm of the proverbial law never fails, and Big Brother wants us to remember that.

All that being said, I’ve become hopelessly addicted. Vincent D’Onofrio mesmerizes me with his tilting head.