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Yeah not quite sure why they decided to dispense with all realism. Why not just make her a Lieutenant? Or have her be offered a Deputy Commissioner's position or something with the mayor or DA's office since there aren't fixed requirements for those?

Good episode. I was a little surprised they went with burn pits and not polluted water given how much the Camp Lejeune settlement attorneys have spent sponsoring the syndicated reruns...

Agreed on both counts. I actually thought about McGrath and mentioning it in my post, but I only had so much time and I thought saying an episode could use MORE McGrath might get my account suspended for suspicious activity. On a more serious note this one of the points where there was a lot a wasted potential. They could have shown the politics involved and really explored the ethical and cultural dilemmas with the brass going from full court press to wanting to make it go away and showing different perspectives from different squad members. Cut all of the "Professor Rollins: cuteness and focus on the interesting parts. I for one would love to have seen Fin really struggling with this - he is the one who both knows about the problems of overcoming your upbringing to find acceptance, but also the biggest supporter of loyalty to the shield above all. Hmmmm. Maybe a spinoff where Rollins dies and leaves Carisi the kids and he marries a widow who also has kids? "It's the story of DA Carisi..."

The Good Carisi. Strong legal material and some good courtroom scenes. Even the Rollisi stuff was decent. Fin. We could have used more of him. I would have especially like to have seen more of him with the father and some more snark. But what we got was still pretty good. Especially the scenes with Muncy. The victim's family was pretty good and the actor's deserve a ton of credit for making that after school special/Hallmark movie level writing almost work and making the characters feel somewhat real and sympathetic. The COTW. Simply for not showing us everything from the beginning and actually having a real beginning, middle, and end without feeling the need for a "shocking" twist. The Bad: Rollins is an expert in forensic psychology? Rollins?? Rollins??? We are supposed to believe that the Rollins we have watched all these years is such an expert that she is getting sweet job offers to leave NYPD? FFS I know they want to write her off in a way that doesn't drag down Carisi and trash the charactrer yet again, but there has to be a way to do it believably and not try to make us believe that Rollins is seen as someone who can be a dispassionate expert. No Velasco. Again it stretches belief that they are working a case involving a family member of an NYPD detective and it's not all hands on deck. Again I know that this is all about practicality and saving him for the upcoming episodes without Giddish, but we end up with an episode that should be about the contrast of perspectives among squad members in part, and we end up with no Velasco and minimum Fin. I guess giving them material would have taken away from showing us how awesome Rollins and Benson are, Benson. Holy crap the amount of Benson worship was OTT this week. Full blown victim whisperer and genius who can get everyone to see the light and overcome 4 decades plus of culture and experience. The promo for Rollins' grand finale makes this week's episode look like a model of restraint and subtlety. Overall this was a pretty good, but disappointing episode. They had a really solid idea, but they never bothered to actually pursue it and ended up pulling their punches in order to worship at the Altar of Our Lady of Manhattan. At least when they weren't bowing before the altar of the almighty dollar and leaving out characters or sideplots so Dick Wolf can buy another yacht now instead of when this episode hits foreign markets and syndication. This was yet another example of A+ ideas with C- execution. And while a B is better than most episodes so far settling for mediocrity is just sad.

Except Zazu...

I have to agree with the posters saying the show is losing something. I watched this week at my friend Chuck's house in London (lovely place, but a bit too big and the neighborhood is full of tourists) and most of it was just some fat guy going down a water slide! I mean I loved Conan and Letterman and their absurdist humor, but this is supposed to be topical humor!

The Good: The whole squad was involved. It makes even beating a dead horse more interesting when you have more than just Liv and a couple sidekicks. The guest cast was pretty good given what they had to work with. Hopefully TPTB will realize there are a lot of great Latinx actors that could be considered for other roles that aren't specifically written for them? No Benson or Rollins family drams.imvesti The promo for next week looks interesting. The Bad: What a boring retread of something we have seen a 100 times the last half decade or so of this show. No suspense, a retread of every ridiculous trope possible, Benson at her most sanctimonious, and not a single new element or idea. Benson. Full St. Benson mode this week. I mean even Inspector Javert thought she was being a little overzealous and disregarding the rights of the accused. And holy crap when she started negotiating plea bargains at the end??? It would have redeemed everything if the last 5 minutes was just Jack McCoy tearing her a new one No Carisi. I guess it was good we didn't see him actually abandoning the law for the word of Liv, but it was ridiculous that he wasn't there given the amount of discussion about laws, civil actions, etc. And it would have been nice to see a sympathetic portrait of someone suggesting that maybe we shouldn't be devoting the full resources of NYPD to pursuing someone based on gut instinct? Speaking of things we have seen too much - was there anyone out there who thought we needed the "sting that goes sideways because we didn't bother patting down the highly emotional witness/victim before sending them to meet with the perp" thing back? I mean we've just been getting some indication that Benson had learned something about tactics and procedure finally! Overall this was a dud. The horse they were beating is pretty much fossilized and there was no reason to go back to this well. I was pretty much bored start to finish. The only redeeming feature is that it didn't really trash the better material that came before it and shouldn't affect the future. A dead ball foul if you will.

Please no. This series does not have a good record with multi-episode villains. Although I can totally see Julie Martin off pitching a big sweeps SVU/OC crossover where Richard Wheatley returns and teams up with Elena to try to take down Benson and Stabler...

The Good: Fin. Once again he was actually there. I would have liked to have seen more snark about the rich pervs, but he was present and engaged throughout. Carisi. Some solid legal and personal material. Plus he was really rocking that 3 piece suit in the conference room. Rollins? If we had gotten more episodes of her written like this I might be sad instead of relieved to see her go. It was so refreshing I won't even complain that the portrayal isn't necessarily consistent. After all she's been so all over the map that you can't really say anything is OOC. Even calm competence. The COTW. It was interesting and different and while the ending wasn't as clever as it thought it was it didn't stray too far into OTT WTF territory. And it was great to see a victim tell Benson she was going to handle things her own way while being presented sympathetically. Plus the rich supervillain was actually a woman! And they actually came out and said girl power is not a trump card that excuses any behavior???!!! The Bad: The CI/CSI style opener. It was competently edited and sound mixed, but the time spent showing Professor Rollins and setting up the perp and the red herring suspect and depicting the crimme would have been better spent fleshing out the interesting ideas and getting into the investigation. It would have been far more intriguing if we opened on the homeless guy finding her and pulling the thong out of her throat and jumping straight to the hospital. Benson. While she wasn't saving the world single handedly and they did actually call out some of her BS (Benson Stuff) she was still annoying and Mariska doesn't seem how to remember to play anything but a cardboard saint. Once again they seem to be lacking polish and finish. This was a soiid idea and competently executed with strong performances, but it just felt like they could have used another polish on the script and the ending kind of trailed off. Some of that could be because they were kind of going against the grain of the last decade and pointing out how things can go too far, but some of it felt like once again they lacked the budget or drive to handle the little details to go from pretty good to truly excellent. Overall this was pretty good. A solid story with some interesting twists and as mentioned saying something that was actually refreshing. It was actually creepy without going campy or overly icky and kept the whole ensemble and guest cast involved. After a string of meh episodes this was a nice change of pace. But it still had enough flaws to keep it from greatness. At least it left me with some hope that the show can be good again!

The Good: Fin is back! After a string of episodes where he was technically there, but either in a glorified cameo or badly misused or both, he actually got something worthwhile to do. We still could have used a little more, but this was at least not a total waste. Velasco. He has developed nicely into the Carisi role of being a skilled and empathetic professional who shows that the writers CAN actually still write classic SVU characters and focus on inner turmoil and emotions without forgetting that they are supposed to be elite detectives. Carisi. Some decent legal material this week. Including some good courtroom material. Plus one nice thing about Carisi as ADA is that the show doesn't try to depict him as the bad guy for seeing that they need to make an actual case beyond a reasonable doubt. Muncy, and Rollins. Ordinarily I don't think they would merit a mention here, positive or negative, but after the rest of the season it was a blessed relief that we were not beaten over the head with clumsy scenes of new girl cluelessness or poorly realized PTSD. The guest cast. As usual they keep finding much better actors than the scripts deserve. They mostly managed to sell it without going over the top wtih the possible exception of the chief testifying that he ordered the code red, although re-watching it seems that might be a matter of editing and sound mixing more than performance. The Bad: The script could have used another pass. There were a lot of points where things were a bit hard to follow and it felt lth ike something was cut out or they had never bothered to try to make their intentions reality. It was a good concept and I liked that they didn't jump right into murder or having the squad win through Benson persuading the original victim to testify or the perp to confess, but it just fell flat due to not wanting to take the time to actually do things right. Overall this was inoffensive. B+ idea, C- script, A- performances and at least it was different from the previous episodes. It does feel like they are mostly marking time until either Mariska or NBC decides to put us our of misery. It's hard to muster much of a reaction to this, good or bad.

Why not compromise and do a day with all the Christmas episodes?

Yes it's just your imagination. With Mariska's various cosmetic procedures leaving her unable to move the top half of her face, Benson only has two expressions - smug and constipated.

The Good: The guest cast. Almost all of them did a really nice job and pulled off some challenging roles that could have easily lapsed into total caricature. And it was nice seeing Betty Buckley and ME Truman. Fin. At least the Fin at the end. At the beginning there was a little too much of the grumpy old man schtick, but he actually got something to work with in the rest of the episode. It was nice seeing a good old fashioned psycho pervert case. There was a real classic SVU vibe especially with the debate at the beginning about if was really their case before it turned out to be totally sexually based after all. It was good to see the whole squad involved and mostly in appropriate roles. The episode had both Noah and Rollins without making me wish that they were kidnapped by this week's perp so creidt where it is due, The Bad: They're still doing the clueless newbie bit??? Who thought this was a good idea? She is an experienced cop and this isn't her fist investigative unit. There is plenty of good material there about the difference between street crimes and special victims without trying to have us believe that any experienced member of the NYPD doesn't know the basics, even if they are under 30. The wardrobe plot. It's not just the "get off my lawn" aspect. It's talking about how they need to dress professionally dealing with victims while Velasco and Fin spend the whole episode looking like they are going to grab a beer and watch the game. Also we have the forced attempt at UST with her and Velasco and the whole color blindness stupidity. Good thing she didn't need to distinguish between colors in the GANG UNIT. No Carisi. Benson as judge, jury, and Governor. She can issue pardons now? I was pretty close to throwing up in my mouth at the end when she was in full Whispering Angel mode delivering inner peace and understanding to the victim and showing us all the path to enlightenment, Overall this was a resounding meh for me. The COTW was interesting at times, the investigation flowed well enough and everyone was involved, and as mentioned the guest cast did a great job, all of which helped balance out the St. Benson of Manhattan wretchedness and Muncy's wardrobe plot stupidity enough to just clear the bar of actively bad. If they had actually bothered to explore the subtleties of dealing with victims who are also perps and the differences between this squad and your average street cops, and have Benson act like a professional investigator and not an advocate it would have actually been pretty good. But I guess those are the steps they cannot take...

Hmmmmm. Maybe all this time we were wrong. The refs aren't in the tank for Brady. They actually SEE him getting hit differently from the rest of us...

If she's not independently wealthy how does she pay for 60 hours a week of childcare not to mention the rest of her lifestyle living in Manhattan on an NYPD salary? Plus she single handedly solves crimes with a small band of sidekicks and the reluctant cooperation of the police brass while whispering and wearing a lot of black which as we all know is something only billionaires do...

18-49 is the "key demo" for Nielsen ratings for most network television and the series has stayed on the air well past its expiration date based largely on beating the competition amongst female viewers in that age range. Even if that viewership is shrinking for network television across the board. So Millennials are indeed a large part of the viewership the show desperately needs no matter how they watch it.

The Good: Carisi. Lots of good legal material and courtroom scenes this week, and he was lovable in the surprisingly tolerable family drama scenes. It was nice to see no crapping over the DAs office and Benson taking his legal advice like they are both professionals. Benson(!) She was actually acting like a cop and CO throughout most of the episode. It's a nice change of pace. Rollins(!!!) Now that they are writing her off they are actually writing her decently. And this is actually a halfway decent depiction of trauma. The Bad: Fin is wasted yet again in a glorified cameo as cranky old man telling the new girl to get off his lawn. I mean just give him the week off if you don't have anything decent for him. The new girl. I hope the writers get over the whole schtick about these whiny entitled millennials. You know what they've also called? Your target demo! And it's ridiculous to try to have us believe that she doesn't understand basic professionalism. Velasco was also underused this week. Odd as he should be the neutral sounding board and the investigator with some experience and someone who could relate to the perp and victim. The COTW. I was bored and hated the real life case which I am not going to mention by name so the trolls don't find us in the search engines. And I felt the same way this week especially as they didn't have the guts to say that everyone involved was terrible, but a crime is still a crime. They had to make the victim sympathetic in the end and the squad compassionate and understanding when it would have been far more interesting to have them as detached professionals with varied points of view who agreed that they didn't really like anyone involved. The opening. We are back to the same amateurish editing and sound mixing to try to cover up that they are trying to shoot this on an 80s basic cable budget. Overall this was a dud. I hope that once Rollins departs they will take what worked from this episode like Benson as leader instead of superhero and ditch the rest. Muncy's cluelessness can go off to the land of SVU failed ideas with Carisi's mustache and Chester Lake, Fin can actually get something interesting, and we can have an episode that is something other than blandly competent.

I think Life Choice was very good to great. Progeny not so much and Dignity is terrible. Just awful character writing in the desperate attempt for "balance" and it probably skews my perception of how the series handled the issue overall even when it wasn't central to the storyline.

I actually like that episode, but unfortunately the rest of them don't live up to that standard at least in my opinion.

Agreed with basically all of this. I think they did pretty well compared to the past episodes, but that ending was a "shocking" twist only in the sense it was "shocking" that apparently multiple experienced television professionals thought that was a good idea, And yes this episode had a clear point of view, but I don't think it was didactic or preachy like modern day SVU so often is. In fact I think one of the reasons the episode was better than most of the original iteration's stories on the topic is that they didn't feel the need to try to create a false balance. Probably has more to do with the headlines they are ripping from changing than any sort of bravery, but still it was refreshing. We never really found out anything definitive about the circumstances of her departure. It seems that it was mostly a matter of the character never really working out due to the producers and writers resenting what seemed to be casting imposed from above (trying to go younger and sexier). And as I've mentioned here before I think that every actor in the business knows what working for Dick Wolf is and that if you can avoid doing anything too crazy like attacking him and the US Justice Department or demanding top dollar without having the network by the balls they can keep getting steady work with many people they know and like and a nice stream of residuals. I'm pretty sure if everyone who ever called him a SOB and resented the way their time on one of his series ended stopped working for him they would have to get another printer for SAG cards.

I think a character can be "edgy" without being a CBS procedural Hot Topic super hacker girl cliche. They can keep the personality and attitude and lose some of the trappings and we end up with a more realistic and interesting character that fits into the L&O world. It seems that they are trying to adjust things a bit so they aren't so reliant on guest stars and trying to have us believe Stabler can keep going undercover AND making high profile arrests. It seems like the show has kept making the right adjustments except for bringing Wheatley back. I do wish we actually had some lawyers involved but otherwise they seem to be moving beyond just hiring some good actors, slapping on a L&O title card and hoping for the best.

Including from time to time about social issues. Regardless of our feelings about the issue at hand, which are not relevant here, Fin has made snarky remarks about rich people, white privilege, etc. He is a realist and his sociopolitical views tend to be more small p populist rather than falling along any particular ideological lines, but it's not out of character for him to express a view about an issue. If he was to start doing info dumps and statistics before expressing ideological opinions, or defying orders because they conflict with an agenda I'd be worried. But trying to convince a good cop to stay by expressing an opinion that is critical of certain policing strategies isn't that. It is in character whether we personally agree or not.

I didn't mention it in my thoughts on the episode because I think I have it on the (broken) record how much I dislike this style of opener, and because it didn't bother me too much this time as it seemed competently done as far as editing and sound mixing, so it struck me as meh rather than good or bad. However reading this now it occurs to me that we would have been much better served opening with the squad responding to the subway and the viewers only seeing the attack on video clips. It would have been no less horrifying and there would be more time later on to actually flesh out some of the plot points or character arcs that just kind of petered out. Plus they could have saved money by dropping a location shoot and not giving the dad a speaking role. Maybe then we could have a tech or an ME or something later in the season? I actually liked it and thought it was the only scene Ice-T didn't phone in. And it is quite possible for someone, even a cop, to believe that drugs are a problem AND that many of the people we arrest for drug crimes aren't hurting anyone but themselves.

The Good: Rollins' replacement is potentially interesting. Let's hope the writers and producers do a decent job instead of giving her nothing to work with.. Carisi. He got some decent material this week. I was afraid it was going to be all Rollisi, but there was some solid legal material. The guest cast was pretty solid and elevated a mostly pedestrian script. Some interesting ideas and they actually had a sexually based offense that flowed naturally into the ripped from the headlines material. Velasco. I wish we got more of him and Fin since I'd like to have seen more of the contrast between the veteran and the new guy and the little interaction we got was actually fairly interesting and showed some nuance and interesting perspective on the issues at hand. The Bad: Fin was there, but not really for the second week. I'm wondering if they came to some agreement to spread out his screen time this season to cover the gap with KG leaving? In any case Ice-T didn't get much to do and seemed bored throughout. They really dropped the ball by not having anyone point out the similarities between Duarte and a bunch of elite detectives who also identify a little too much with their cases and victims and don't always play well with others. I mean come on - can't they at least have one of the antagonists do it so that the viewers aren't left wondering if it's intentional or nobody noticed or was allowed to? There seemed to be a lot of plot points that didn't go anywhere. They would touch on something and then just move on. Overall this was an interesting idea that they didn't seem willing to fully explore as it would mean blaspheming against the gospel of St. Mariska and taking away time from selling us on the new character. It's a shame that they could have built on the crossover and gotten off to strong start with a few changes,

I have no problem with overanalyzing L&O shows (looking around at the glass walls and roof...) I just wish that more of these pieces got more of their facts right given that they spend so much of their time criticizing viewers for not thinking more deeply and the writers and producers for not being more accurate. I mean even if we ignore the differences between the L&Overse and other Dick Wolf shows, SVU itself has gone through at least four different eras of storytelling and messaging. Except for perhaps the idea that sexually based offenses are especially heinous and therefore suspected sex offenders should not be fully entitled to civil rights I don't think there is really any consistent throughline on the issues being explored in these articles if you look at the highly realistic if idealistic early years of the show, the campy later Baer years, the grimdark immediate post-Stabler era, or the "woke" advocacy of the past half dozen seasons. And taking Dick Wolf promo interviews as reflecting the views that actually make it to the screen shows you haven't done even minimal homework as we all know he barely reads the scripts much less writes anything these days. I don't have any problem with savaging SVU's writing or the disconnect between intent and execution as a quick look at my posting history will demonstrate, but I do expect that criticism to be grounded in an actual understanding of both the shows and the broader issues and too many of these pieces lack that.