You'e got to give it to the Americans for getting stuff done quickly. Or at least turning big cultural talking points into money-spinners very quickly. This time, it's the makers of Law & Order: SVU. They've managed to intertwine a story based on both the lift incident between Jay-Z and Solange, where Beyoncé watched on as her younger sister tried to hit and kick her rapper husband, and the Ray Rice scandal, where the football player knocked his wife out in a lift.
You can watch the trailer for the episode below:
If you can't right now, here's a rundown. The episode follows Shakir 'The Shark' Wilkins, a black basketball player (there's the sports reference, undeniably a nod to the Ray Rice incident) who is accused of rape by a woman who works as a PR for his clothing line. She begins fighting him in a lift and has to be restrained by a bouncer (there's the Solange/Jay-Z reference).
As the bouncer pulls the woman from the lift through a paparazzi-filled lobby (and there's the Solange/Jay-Z reference again, as in real life, paparazzi were waiting outside the lift at the Met Ball after party, filming a shell-shocked Jay refusing to travel in the same car as Solange), she accuses Shakir of raping her.
Then there's the court case. The inevitability of Shakir's team's reaction to the accusations will be telling. Basically, if they're really shitty about it, it'll be a reference to the Ray Rice incident. The NFL only gave him a two-game suspension after footage leaked of him dragging his unconscious wife out of a lift after an argument (also way back in February, on Valentine's Day). It was then, only after footage of him knocking his wife out inside the lift went public that he was sacked from the team.
According to MadameNoire, the episode will also contain references to the Donald Sterling scandal, where the owner of a basketball team who employed many black men made incredibly racist comments about not wanting his girlfriend to hang out with any of them.
The episode, called American Disgrace, does look very interesting, and will hopefully provoke more discussions about all of the issues raised: racism, sexism, domestic abuse, rape, in a bit of a Hollyoaks-gone-serious way. What's more interesting is that* Law & Order: SVU* is a whole TV show dedicated to stories of sexually-based offences. It's in its 16th season, too! And as tacky as it is to draw from these real incidences, which were so sensational and ridiculous we thought they were made up in the first place, if it can properly address the issues, then why not?
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
This Baroness Just Called Herself The Beyonce Of The House Of Lords
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Splash
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.