Law & Order found its way north of the border to Toronto earlier this year, and the show has already been tipping its toque to the city's culture, with visits to Centre Island, plenty of apologizing and hammed-up Ontarian accents to boot.
In the latest episode, though, the showrunners prove that they really did do their research. The episode that aired last night titled "Crack Reporter" indirectly references one of Canada's most infamous cultural moments of this century.
During what everyone has already gathered is a thinly veiled dramatization of Rob Ford's viral 2013 rant while under the influence of a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, "Crack Reporter" escalates the story it's based on from political scandal to murder.
Initially, Detective Sergeants Henry Graff (Aden Young) and Frankie Bateman (Kathleen Munroe) suspect a journalist's murder is tied to another reflection of real Toronto — violent crime on public transit — before realizing that it was actually connected to the ongoing municipal election and a damaging video of one of the candidates.
It's not the first time Ford's scandal has been parodied on screen. Back in 2020, Ford's older brother and current Ontario Premier Doug Ford sued the Ricky Tollman-directed film Run This Town for "misappropriation of personality." Thus far, the elder Ford has yet to comment on this slightly more subtle dramatization of his brother's career-defining moment.
A clip of Law & Order Toronto's "Crack Reporter" episode can be seen at the 19-second mark of the show's official trailer, which you can check out below.