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I think if we are sticking with established characterization it is far more likely for Rollins to end up in bed with Maroun. She will probably somehow end up pregnant too...

Have I ever been known to be facetious or sarcastic about this franchise? I treat it with the respect it deserves. I would think the biggest comic book moment in L&O is the scene in the SVU promos where Would you feel any better about the big team up if I told you

I think it's a bad habit Dick Wolf picked up hanging out at CBS with the FBI shows. The quirky goth tech girl who doesn't understand professional boundaries is straight ought of their showrunner's handbook. This is actually defensible and is more a matter of either poor writing or editing. It makes total sense she would have personal relationships with some of the tech folks and that Stabler would want a bit of distance and not make the ask himself. Both for personal reasons (don't want other people officially knowing that dad was dirty) and professional (his cover is a rogue cop in an out of control precinct so many of his old contacts are not likely to do anything off the books and most of those that would have to be suspect as far as not gossiping to the rest of The Brotherhood.) A line or two of dialogue or a bit more focus on the UC part of OC and it wouldn't raise an eyebrow at all. I guess you haven't seen the leaked scene online?

The Good: The COTW. An interesting investigation of a sexually based offense by elite detectives while exploring the broader issues at play in the particular case and how it impacts the regular characters as well as the guest cast. I mean I could see that as the basis for a long running spinoff of the franchise. Carisi. PS rose to the occasion as usual when they give him some solid material. They did a nice job here of doing just that while also avoiding all of the usual pitfalls of stories based on Carisi's faith and background - archetypes not stereotypes and they never seemed on the verge of self parody. The Benson subplot. Not that it was anything great or even particularly good, but if featured some great acting by the guest cast and gace Mariska something to do without an OC crossover or taking over the investiagation. It was like an episode of Paw Patrol we put on for my nephews - not great procedural drama and I don't think it would stand up to much scrutiny, but it keeps them from making a mess and lets the grownups get real work done. I'd rather have her off doing this than showing up at the church to cleanse the temple. Fin and Velasco. The new Fin and Carisi in that when they are on screen together, whether alone or with guest cast it means we are seeing either real police work or actual character development. No nonsense. Rollins. Addition by subtraction. No Rollisi family drama or stupid comments. Although given the general quality of the writing throughout they probably would have used her well. The Bad: Mariska's overacting and insistence of showing us that Benson changes the life of everyone she meets for the better and even when they suffer it's redemptive. Blech. No Rollins. She wasn't really needed, but it's beyond ridiculous that even after dropping 2 new cast members for budgetary reasons we still have to play musical chairs even during sweeps. The show it starting to feel really claustrophobic again and it's time to either end it or for Dick Wolf to suck it up and wait a few years to make a profit on new episodes. Overall this was a very good episode that reminded me of Season 17 - it had a distinct POV, but it still dealt with social and moral issues with nuance and a sense that nobody but the perp was evil even if they weren't actively helping our heroes at the moment. Also in that it was dragged down by an excessive focus on how great Benson was even when she would have looked better by stepping back a bit. They can be proud of this one and if they keep up this level of quality Warren Leight can say he left the show in better condition than he found it. Again.

She really only has two looks, constipated and smirking, so it's hard to tell... Dick Wolf doesn't read the scripts much less this board. If he read anything that had anything to do with the creative decisions involved in this crossover it was the audience research and ratings data regarding crossovers and Marisa's contract. Benson isn't the greatest cop in NYPD history no matter what she might think. Stabler is. He went into a potential hostage/barricaded suspect situation with Oliva Benson and came out alive with no tactical disasters. HE deserves the Combat Cross, no matter what he or his dad did in the past! Yeah that kinda bugged me. That would be an all hands on deck situation, even if she wasn't the daughter of a cop. The whole franchise seems to have forgotten how to cover plot holes with offhanded exposition. I mean all it would take is a line or two about how the whole 37 is canvassing and there is a task force while OC and SVU are working this particular angle that they need to keep quiet. And maybe a scene with The Brotherhood shaking down someone and not getting anywhere. No this was actually competently done and professionally excecuted. Other than the SVU intro including some unnecessary stuff with Benson's family and Stabler just happening to run into her it never felt clumsy or forced like so many of the previous crossovers.

No mixed feelings here unless they announce Balcer is going to come in. Leight has been the only one who has been able to effectively manage Mariska's ego for longer than a few episodes. While I preferred Chernuchin's vision to Leight 2.0 he simply didn't have the same pull. Both were superior to Eid who couldn't provide any counterbalance. My fear is that they will promote Julie Martin who seems to have no interest in a vision other than Mariska's. Yeah stars don't showrun network series. That's only for miniseries and streaming where you can do 11 episode seasons 2 years apart. And while she's been the dominant creative influence for half a decade I think there is a difference between that and defacto showrunner. She was during Season 18 and I think NBC and Dick Wolf learned you need someone else in charge of the storytelling. Without Hargitay there is no show. Without someone else there is also no show before too long.

The Good: The COTW. An interesting story that unlike so many in recent years didn't feel either totally played out or stretching to try to find a new angle. It also leaned in to the reality that just about all of the cast has been doing this for years now and has seen it all before. It really felt like this was an elite squad of specialists and trusted the audience to not need everything spoon fed to them. Carisi and Fin. Both could have used a little more material, but they were there usual solid selves. Rollins. Not for anything she did, but for what they didn't do. She wasn't unprofessionally biased either for or against the victim's family as she so often has been in similar cases. The Bad: Benoah. It wasn't overwhelming in amount, but it was pretty much a waste of time and wasn't necessary to set up the crossover. The ending. While I actually liked the crossover and thought is was competently executed for a change, the time wasted on what a great mommy Benson is could have been used to actually wrap up the case and smoothly move into the crossover instead of having to give us an awkward text box. No Velasco. It is ridiculous that even with the slimmed down cast we still have to play games like we did back when Belzer and Florek were basically alternating episodes. Velasco's role in the OC half wasn't big enough so it was obvious that this all about budgeting and NBC stupidly dropping Hate Crimes after casting had already begun. Overall this was a good episode. The writing was good and even the weak parts were tolerable. It was well crafted which was a refreshing change from last week.

"Asshole" was the word you were looking for at the end there...

Yeah always a good idea not to take anything from the NBC promo monkeys at face value. Although there is a good possibility that they are going to give us some Benoah drama is some form or another. You just know Marska thinks the fans need it and Warren Leight has to be getting uncomfortable going so long without some major family dysfunction. I'm just glad it's NOT Rollins. Because there are only a few ways that can go ranging from bad (her mom is back) to worse (she's pregnant again) to worst (Kim is pregnant again after being victimized again and Carisi is going to be stuck taking care of her new kid) to beyond the worst (she's pregnant again and it's Stabler's) to unimaginably bad (she's pregnant again and Fin's the baby daddy!)

In the name of the Mariska, and the Benson and of the Holy Spirit I forgive you. To be fair she's not the first detective they've had who lacks some social graces and has a rather casual attitude towards the chain of command. Although the rest of them would have been able to solve this without sleeping with ME staff and trawling through victim DNA!

The delivery was better, but so was the material. The actors, writers, and directors all understood nuance. You can't say that about this show.

Detective Drama Queen is actually Major Case, which I'm surprised @WendyCR72 hasn't yet reminded us all is located in Manhattan (1PP) She probably will be banished forever as she is an apostate who has blasphemed against our Lord and Savior Benson so it probably doesn't matter, Unless they are setting her up for some sort of return where she faces the wrath of Liv and is drummed out of the force in disgrace after the chief finally sees the error of his ways and reforms, devoting himself to the one true path of just doing whatever Benson tells him to do.. She looked confused, but it is probably just her usual Resting Liv Face. I do really wish they had taken a moment in that scene to finally get on board with the Mothership Return by having her comment ruefully to Benson about this sort of thing being the one downside to having a boss who is much more of a prosecutor than a politician or something similar. But I guess that would be a bridge too far given that they were already showing someone considerably higher up the food chain than Carisi acting out of morality instead of base political considerations...

I would bet that it has less to do with Sam's workload and family life and more to do with TBS being a bit aimless at the moment. Conan was cut down and then ended. Just about all of the original scripted content is gone. The show is critically and commercial successful and seems to do well online, but it's not a monster hit that prints money. So they seem to be content to keep making new episodes, but not too many while they try to figure out what the heck they're doing.

The Good: Garland, It was nice to see him back and that he's landed on his feet. And that whatever went down everyone seems to be OK and there is another good actor in the Dick Wolf Rep Company. Velasco. They seem to have completely dropped his connection to the Chief of D-Bags and made him the new Fin - when he's on screen it means there's actual investigation of sexually based offenses going on. The guest cast. Solid up and down. They delivered the good material and elevated the bad. The cold case plot. It was solid and interesting and only brought down by the fact that the perp was obvious just by the casting - you don't bring in Ron Canada for a bit part. I kinda wish they had expanded this and completely focused on the case. Minimal Rollins and no personal drama. The Queen B detective calling out Benson. Yes it was ridiculous and OTT, but it was still nice to see. The Bad: No Fin. The rape victim DNA plot. It was a great idea, but the execution was terrible. Benson was an advocate from the jump instead of an inestigator and CO properly concetrned about the being able to do her job. And the writing for Carisi was terrible at the beginning as well. They needed to go back and re-write this so that they weren't defending a perp who happened to be a victim before, but investigating a violation of the rape kit DNA database. It would not have been hard at all to fix the issues. Have Carisi looped in because one of his witnesses/victims now had credibility issues and investigating what seems to be an obvious violation of procedures and then bringing in Benson to assist with the investigation, drop them acting like defense attorneys and then basically proceed with everything else. Unfortunately it seems like Julie Martin has forgotten all of the basics of screenwriting and sees her job as taking dictation from Mariska. Speaking of writing problems and elevating their game, they really need to start deliberately subverting out expectations based on casting or cast against type occasionally. Given the way the show has been stripped down (we almost never get a comic diversion, or a dead end lead) when they bring in a big name or an actor who always plays a type you can always tell what is coming in the last act 10 minutes in. And if you aren't going to do that you need to fake us out another way like giving Ron Canada's character the showy grief and making the mother the stoic one so that the twist is a little less obvious. Mariska. All of her worst tendencies were on display in spades. The constipated faces, the overacting, all of it. Overall this was OK, mostly because of the great guest cast and the cold case plot being interesting. But it could have been good or great if they managed to tone down the St. Benson worship a tad and fixed the script problems while telling Mariska to dial things back to 11. In some ways squandered potential is worse than another rehash of he said she said with rich white people I have no interest in. Don't waste a good idea if you have an episode that's going to be devoted to massaging Mariska's ego. Just give us a stinker and save the good ideas for a week you're going to actually try your best.

Experienced some technical issues, but better late than never right? The Good: A nice old fashioned violent serial rapist is a refreshing change of pace. How often can you say that? Seriously though it was nice to have a clear bad guy (2 actually) with the issues raised being in the background. Fin. Ice-T was engaged this week. I could have used a little more cynical snark, but he got some solid material. Carisi. He was solidly in charge of the legal side and no Rollisi soapy nonsense. The script. Very little excess or sloppiness and everything flowed well. Most of the flaws seemed to be either in the DNA of the show or a result of Dick Wolf's penny pinching short sightedness. This felt like a season 7 episode with the budget cut by 1/3 for both good and ill. The ending. It was nice to see Benson sharing some credit. The Bad: So I guess they aren't really doing an arc with the chief, but more of a "he's whatever we need for the lot this week" thing? No Velasco. It would have been nice to have gotten a least an explanation for him not being there for an all hands on deck situation. And I would have liked to have seen him doing some of the investigating instead of Carisi and Benson who should have been doing their own jobs instead of his. Benson's outfit in the casino. Seemed to be going for some sort of symbolism. Mariska is a star? Benson encompasses the universe? Liv is America? In any case it just didn't work for me in a distracting way. Could have used some moments of comic relief. This was where the episode really pales in comparison with classic SVU. Overall this was really good. An A- that is probably a solid A if we are grading on a curve. As I've already said it was a solid effort all the way around and most of the flaws or moments that fell a little flat are a matter of either budget cuts or the show simply being on the air too long (and at this point I'd rather see them retreading old ground rather than trying to shock us with twists that don't make sense. More of this please.

Is this because she's a thespian?

I'd imagine that it was some sort of morbid curiosity plus wanting to find out if it was a joke, Russian PsyOps, or if Ted Cruz had set it up himself. NOBODY actually wants to read that, Even the conservatives. To quote former Senator Al Franken - "I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz." Actually given their demographic targeting I'd imagine that at least a few of those clicks had taken some medicine 4 hours ago and didn't want to consult their doctor and saw an easy solution. To me the biggest disappointment was that they didn't have solid evidence that Ted Cruz himself didn't click on the link. Because you know they would have shared that if they did. Especially if it was during the confirmation hearings after Googling himself.

Federal election law also has numerous loopholes. And a lot of loudmouth contributors "overestimate" their contributions. As this isn't The West Wing I don't think we need a need to get into how he donated the money to a nonprofit organization which then wrote a check to another technically independent advocacy effort which just so happens to have a message that coordinates perfectly with the campaign. Or how it was "only" $450,000 in cash which purchased ads worth almost a million according to creative accounting. I am all for nitpicking, but in this case I have seen enough examples of people saying similar things when they are not under oath or on camera that I don't see it as a major flub. Or even a flub at all without knowing the writers' intent.

I know we've talked a lot about which elements of classic Law & Order are back and which are underused, but I have to mention that I loved the winter hats on the detectives in the opening. With Bernards current beard he could totally pull of Ceretta's Cossack hat. I wonder if they still have it in storage? And speaking of classic tropes I also loved the ridiculously public arrest/questioning of a public figure. Between the 27 and SVU Deputy Commissioner of Public Information in the L&Overse must be like being the drummer in Spinal Tap.

The Good: No Rollins. Addition by subtraction. Lots of Fin and Velasco. Whenever they are on screen the show is a lot more like classic SVU than the slog that is all too typical of the last decade. They actually gave us a Velasco episode that wasn't just a Benson episode in disguise. The guest cast. As usual the show does a great job finding actors to fill these guest spots and proves that the issues with main cast acting is not a matter of directing, but the stars themselves. The ADA pinch hitting for Carisi. While I would have loved to have seen Carisi he was really good and could be written as bit more "separate yet equally important" than the regular SVU ADAs. It was nice that the writers remembered how to do that without making him some sort of villain or political hack. The Bad: Is Benson really talking smack about someone getting promoted to Captain despite not having the best track record? Really? Really?? What's next Rollins talking about someone being still on duty despite obviously being mentally and emotionally unstable? It could have worked if they had Fin say something privately, either defending him to Liv and pointing out that the entire squad had done it including her many times, or explaining to Velasco how it was a hazzard of the job that had gotten a lot of SVU detectives in trouble, but as written it was just glaring hypocrisy. It was all a bit predictable. I really wish they would start to occasionally cast against type. Just like with Jim True-Frost it's hard for your shocking twist to be shocking when you cast someone who always turns out to be the perp. Overall this was a solid episode, above average and engaging, It lacked the nuance and polish to be truly great but it was certainly very good. Even Mariska managed to keep the overacting dialed down to about an 8 instead of her usual 11.

I really liked this week. It was a great example of what he does best which is to point out the utter absurdity that makes something deeply depressing completely hilarious. Also it's always nice when some of the old Daily Show is there. Besides Rob Corddry nailing it as the trucker I am 99% sure I heard Rob Riggle as one of the VO guys.

IIRC they DID do a spin off mini series set in LA. A couple actually, albeit only one planned as mini series...

Yes this is an SVU crossover I'm actually looking forward to! Maybe the episode after this will feature Fin stopping by for an hour of calling Elliot a jerk and teaming up with Bell to snark about white privilege?

Something I ran across on the internet today - 42nd Street | 1981 Tony Awards Of course Jerry Orbach is great, but on another L&O note, I couldn't help thinking that JK Simmons would be incredible in the role assuming he could handle the musical aspects. (Yes I know he can sing and has done musical roles, but I'm not sure if some of it isn't a bit above his range.)