The Seamless Web: A Blog on Law, Popular Culture and Related Issues

Nature, Nurture, and Lizzie Borden

From NPR's Morning Edition, this piece on the emerging field of "neurolaw." James Fallon investigates whether you can tell from images of the brain how aggressive--or sociopathic--someone might be. He delved into his own family history to find out just how true this is. Turns out he's related to Lizzie Borden, by the way.

His studies suggest that the nature/nurture debate isn't quite over. But he says, "You start to look at yourself and you say, 'I may be a sociopath.' I don't think I am, but this looks exactly like [the brains of] the psychopaths, the sociopaths, that I've seen before." And his wife isn't too concerned either. Interesting stuff.

Drop Dead Diva DVDs Have Arrived

Got my Drop Dead Diva DVDs from the 1st season...haven't had time to watch them, though. A guilty pleasure which I'm saving for a rainy afternoon. I have put by a store of microwave popcorn and some diet lemonade...

Meanwhile, apparently the old tv series Ellery Queen, starring the late Jim Hutton as Ellery and David Wayne as Inspector Queen is finally due to be released in August of this year. This series was wonderful. It had a great recurring cast, including Tom Reese as loyal Sergeant Velie, John Hillerman as egotistical Simon Brimmer (Hillerman later went on to co-star as Jonathan Higgins in Magnum P.I.), and Ken Swofford as Frank Flanagan. I've been pining for this series to be released, either on tape or DVD, as have many fans, and now it's almost here.

Lifetime TV Tries Out Three Detective Dramas For This Coming Season

Lifetime TV is ordering three pilots featuring law and order for next season, and all feature women detectives. One, unnamed, is set in San Diego and is about two police officers who balance work and personal life. Another, "Exit 19," is about a single mother who's also a homicide detective, also apparently balancing work and her home life. And the third, "Against the Wall," is about a sister who's detailed to Internal Affairs and whose brothers, also cops, don't like the tension that causes within the family (so she has to balance work and home life). Am I detecting a pattern here? At least we'll see some women in starring roles. The question will be: will they have anything new to do or say?

Lawyers From the Future

An interesting article by Alasdair Wilkins on science fiction lawyers here.

USA Will Offer a New Legal Series Featuring a Lawyer/Mediator

USA Network is scheduling a new lawyer drama, Facing Kate, for the fall. It features a lawyer-litigator, Kate Reed (played by Sarah Shahi), once married to another attorney, who prefers to mediate clients' problems. Sounds interesting, but suggests a cliche--that female lawyers don't like the courtroom, and prefer to negotiate, so that everybody walks away with something. We'll see how this show turns out.