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All the love for Kelvin and none for BJ's cute little gun and the nose honk? Come on! Yeah I wonder if it was a set up from the get go? And is May-May actually part of it too? I hope not because I wouldn't mind her sticking around if there's another season. I really have no idea where this all going although based upon how tightly plotted and written the previous seasons have been my prediction is that the climax will involve Gideon showing off his stunt driving skills in The Redeemer...

And I would add that's it also particularly annoying in that Bill picks and chooses when "open debate" and listening to "all sides" are his Prime Directive. When one of his hot take right wingers starts claiming climate change isn't serious and we should do our own research he will rip them a new one. Same thing for other topics he really cares about. If he was guilty simply of prizing open debate over facts it would be one thing, but the shifting goal posts of when facts and responsibility matter and when they don't make it much worse.

I am just catching up here, after being laid out with a GI bug for most of the past few days, but yes I would agree both on the theory and the results. The cases were very similar, the style was pretty much identical, and what was supposed to be the big difference basically was just a reduction in the narrative possibilities - they weren't going to get end up with a plea bargain or a confession in the DAs office or interrogation room because this was all about jury verdicts. So it didn't really pop as something new or different - at times it felt like just another episode of the original only oddly structured. A distinction without a difference you might say.

One tenet of my Grand Unified Theory of Law & Order is that the spinoffs are only successful when they actually do something different from the original. When they aren't like LA or Trial By Jury you have some very talented actors spinning their wheels for an audience that doesn't care and would rather see more of the other series. When you do something different people will tune in even if the show is a bit of an aimless mess with only a few talented actors to make it worth watching (not to name any names!).

I don't know. The old white guy with connections up the ying yang not suffering consequences sounds pretty normal to me...

It makes sense as the culture and legal system are more similar than the other international versions. Although I would love to watch Detective Bobby Horton delivering dialogue like "Bad guys do what good guys dream aboot, eh?" or "Love On Ice" actually on ice with a hockey player killed by a hockey stick.

The real question is why does Peacock hate its viewers? It's like they saw (HBO) Max's UI and thought "we can make our shows even harder to find with a little effort..."

Not just SVU writers, but most of the current franchise writing staff. And the executives too (since the show suffered a lot from the suits tinkering with it even in the "good old days"). If it was brought back I would love to see it as a "prestige" project for Peacock with Rene Balcer and a small group of handpicked writers doing a shorter season a la Poker Face. Beyond being able to maintain the writing it would also be easier to change things up a bit and have Goren and Eames as the lead characters in new positions working with Major Case instead of as detectives. Not trying to ignore all continuity and the passage of time or making Eames Captain, but having her in the field all the time like some other franchise installments we could mention. You could still air the new shows in at least some of the various cable/syndication packages eventually to make it financially viable, since you know Dick Wolf isn't going to wait to get paid, but you wouldn't need it to try to be anything other than what it was intended to be or try to make it more "modern" or whatever. The only concession they would need to make is to make sure there is a broadcast length edit possible, but given what we talked about with just a small group of top notch experienced writers I don't see it being an issue.

I have seen distinction between "surgical" or "Covid" masks and other types of masks in a security context. Perhaps the detectives and writers were just trying to make clear it was a relatively inconspicuous medical mask and not a ski mask or bandanna style mask? Actually I think it might stay pretty red since it was put into the sealed evidence bag pretty quickly? Not sure how air tight the bags are and how long it would slow the oxidation process, but it's something to think about. No. I'm not sure we've ever seen the PC before in a speaking role at least. Maybe if you count the collar stars on the extras in one of the press conference or briefing scenes we might have seen them on screen. In the old days everyone over the Chief of D's was usually only referenced - they probably would have shown the SUV pulling up and then relayed the conversation later. I really don't think it added anything TBH unless you count that we didn't get a McGrath cameo on the mothership.

Come on! You really think the 8th floor is going to give Carisi help investigating cases?

Russia Bans Late Night Hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers From Entering the Country

Yes you did need to watch Part 1 of the SVU finale to understand Part 2 of the SVU finale. Isn't that obvious? Nope. He's been killed because they need to cut costs so one of the generic young male detectives had to go. Plus they are tinkering yet again so when and if they ever find a new showrunner they can use this as the explanation for whatever direction they end up going in.

We had some image quality issues going on, so I actually didn't realize she was leaving when she talked about the job offer. And I really like Bruno, but I don't think she's being replaced full time. If Kevin Kane doesn't find another gig that leaves him unavailable he will most likely be there a little bit more. Some viewers want Rollins back. At least an equal number were tired of her. Probably more don't really care. In any case she's not coming back unless Mariska takes a sizeable pay cut. Yep. A combination of budget issues and the fact that any young female detective that has been brought in in the past decade or so, must be portrayed as s clueless newbie and stereotype of the kids today for some reason or other (Stares in Mariska's direction...) and then get dropped when they shockingly don't catch on. It seems clear that they realize having Benson and a regular cast of 3/4 co-leads with 1 or 2 of them off most weeks is not workable so they have come up with the solution of filling out the squad with recurring cast members to save even more while having enough bodies to do an investigation without us wondering where everyone is. So Velasco or Muncy had to go and despite their best efforts in the second half of this season they hadn't trashed that character as badlly.

The Good: It's nice to see they are keeping going with the trend of having cases worked by the entire squad and giving them all a role to play. Also with having everyone as a competent professional and keeping the UST in the background. Bruno. The best addition to the show in quite some time, mostly because they didn't feel the need to give him any soapy sub-plots or make him into a complete idiot to make Benson look better or try to make things more "interesting". It's nice to see someone other than Fin can be both empathetic and an investigator. The guest cast. The victims were all well played and nuanced. Carisi. I wish we had gotten more of him, but I ilked what we got. The Bad: A crossover as a season finale? As if we needed more evidence that TPTB care more about trying to keep OC going than the viewers of the original show. Of course it's not like there was much in character arcs for the season to wrap up so maybe it doesn't really matter much. While the B plot case was solid old school SVU the main case and big crossover dragged. Like seriously ground to a crawl. Maybe Jet's virus got into the writers' room laptops? McGrath. He's back to being a jerk without enough depth to even rise to one dimensional and there were a lot of times where they wasted opportunities to have him make good points. Overall this was a solid episode. Not as good as last week since the A plot was almost entirely marking time, but decent enough. At least they ended demonstrating some amount of competence in writing and they seem to have a plan for the future.

Don't. They've done more than enough when it comes to foisting scientific arrogance upon the rest of world to complain about a little turnabout...

There is also the element at play here that this a news network that caters to the base of the right wing populist candidate and their calling a result one way or the other in an extremely polarized atmosphere has a lot of impact on that base and the ability to mobilize them to take drastic action, which does influence the decisions of various functionaries and judges, which in turn can make it harder for elected officials to take actions that they might otherwise which would go against the desired result. If the election is already announced as decided after all, than any recount or re-vote must be an attempt to steal it and if this is a gray area do you want to be the one to kick off riots when you might end up getting overturned anyways? That is why the state calls were such a big deal in the events that inspired the plot. And thinking about that - if Logan was still around he would have let his nerd do his job and told cosplay Hitler to go fuck himself...

I have to agree with most of what's been said here. Without the arcs you end up with something that is not particularly unique in any way and often feels like a low budget version of a CBS procedural and is only watchable because of some great actors in the lead roles. And I think that our complaints about the arcs were mostly about Wheatley as supervillain and bringing him back and dropping more interesting stories to do so. To a lesser extent the complaints about the other arcs were about execution and the constant tinkering with tone and format. I would prefer them doing longer arcs with each episode being a story of it's own as well. With occasional one offs to transition and take part in crossovers. As mentioned before I would also love to see them working with the DAs office to build a case and debate when to move, but it seems like that ship had sailed.

You are both correct. At least at the time this was set - in today's regulatory environment laundromats get extra scrutiny from most banks because it is so easy to bring in cash and report that you are simply emptying the washers and driers and putting the quarters back in the change machines and it's not like there is a record of inventory or cycles run (on older machines at least). Actually the video store would be pretty easy too - you just have to add some extra rentals to the records. It is pretty easy to explain in universe why they didn't go this way - both Georgie and Meemaw are shrewd, not sophisticated, and would rather hide the cash to avoid any taxes. Plus they wouldn't want it getting around town how much money they are making - this is a small town where everyone gossips about everyone else including the bank tellers. And while money laundering regulations were much laxer so where the customer information confidentiality rules.

Not NYC, but NYS and familiar with the system. Each NYC borough is a state county, some with different names just to make it extra confusing. Most of the usual functions of county administration are handled by the city although there are Borough Presidents and other officials. One of the few major distinctions is that each of the boroughs/counties has its own elected DA. So Jack McCoy is the New York County District Attorney and all of the ADA's work for his office. The offices do not share staff. Heck they don't even like to share information or cases they are supposed to in my limited experience dealing with the system.

I like the idea of a recurring psych consultant, but I would go in a different direction. Maybe someone without the personal drama and a little bit more realistic background as an expert. Perhaps go for some more diversity with an Asian character? Or maybe an LBGT character (but again with their personal life much more in the background)? Just spit balling here...

IRL of course. In Night Court world?

I think at this point we can pretty much assume that both the audience and the writers have forgotten farther back than last month. And even if we didn't they've pretty much done every plot twice other than a few crazy monkey in a basketball type stories that they no longer have the personnel or budget to do these days. My theory is that it was all a comedy of errors situation. McGrath was in Benson;s office while Rollins was escorting a Fordham admin. He was telling Benson that Rollins was a "complete psycho" when they arrived at the door. McGrath thought she was bringing in the union lawyer and quickly added "logical profiling expert" and it all snowballed from there. My other theory is that it's all a plot by Nicole Wallace to torture Goren by having her paraded in the local media as a NYPD detective who is a leading expert in criminal psychology, Nope. Unless Mariska takes a massive pay cut they can't make the numbers work. And even if they could make the budget they would still have the creative issue of too few characters and no new dynamics to work with.

The Good: TWO cases? You can actually have an A and B plot without one of them being soapy nonsense? With witnesses and CSU techs and ME visits and NYC color and everything? Be still my heart. They seem to be really running with the new direction of having the squad acting like professional investigators instead of middle school kids. I'm not sure if it's the writers and producers coming to a long overdue realization or Mariska being worrited they are stealing her thunder, but it's welcome regardless. Carisi. They actually did a nice job of having him in the field without making it feel like he was a detective again. Fin and Velasco - they both got solid material with some nice dialogue and seem to be back to the old Fin and Carisi dynamic of calm professionalism and crisp dialogue. A nice ensemble feel. Everyone got something to do. You can actually have a clear lead without having everyone else as glorified extras! Heck the elite detectives of the Special Victims Unit can actually solve cases without being supervised every step of the way! Maybe this can be a regular thing? The Bad: More Benson hypocrisy. How do they expect us to buy Benson as the voice of reason without even a passing mention of learning from her mistakes? Mariska's acting was particularly wooden this week.I feel sorry for Scanavino having to play off someone alternating between broad and nothing.She even seemed kind of flat with Chris Meloni, who usually brings out the best in her even when they are doing shippy soapy crap I hate. The staging and editing of the final scene. The viewers that are excited are already excited and the rest already know it's a big deal. Stop trying so hard show - we get it without the muscial cues and everything. Maybe don't try so hard to cater to the shippers and try to convince us that you didn't make a toral hash out of the last time we had them together and focus on actually giving us a cliffhanger for the case? Overall this was a solid episode with an old school SVU feel, albeit from the later Neal Baer years before it went gloriously over the top - a bit overly gothic and overstuffed at times, but still enjoyable and an actual procedural instead of a soap. And lots of the classic formula that has gone missing in the past half decade plus of constantly shrinking budgets and expanding diva ego. Possibly the best episode of the season - let's hope the crossover doesn't ruin it in retrospect. It actually felt like it was doing something other than filling an episode order and was worth watching. I was actually pleasantly surprised.

You're so right. That's completely OTT and unrealistic! I mean could anyone be so successful and not at least have people to stop him from acting like that in public? The writers should be ashamed for expecting us to believe that! Never mind...

The Good: Fin is back! And actually played a big role, even if he should have gotten more to do in the beginning. At least they let him have the end and show us and Benson how these conversations can be handled without losing sight of what your actual job is or thinking you are some sort of guru. It was old school SVU in a good way. It is nice to see that they seem to be committed to having all the squad acting like actual professional investigators. Or at least everyone except the CO. An interesting idea. Nothing really new of course, but that's a function of being on air since the Nixon administration. Still a strong concept to build an episode around if you can execute it competently. Carisi. The courtroom scenes are a real strength and the legal side has been very strong - in part because they can't have Carisi falling in love with Benson or go too far in making him the enemy for wanting actual evidence that can get a guilty verdict as both the viewers and the squad know whose side he is on. The Bad: The opener. It was excruciatingly long and did not hold my interest at all. It just felt like we could have lost most of it and then left the exposition to the investigation. We really don't need you to beat us over the head with who we're supposed to sympathize with us show. It would have been much more interesting if we opened on the squadroom and the cut to the bus being set on fire as it would have been an actual dramatic moment to catch and hold our interest. Holy cow was the Benson Stuff piling up deep this week. "Let's take back your power"? Seriously??? Did the SVU writers go on strike early? Or is Dick Wolf leading the charge on ChatGPT scripting? Overall this was another meh episode in a string of meh episodes. Strong moments and some great acting, but mostly another strong idea with weak execution and Mariska's dollar store therapy sessions with the victim. Resolved: NBC should announce that the next season will be the last and give the fans what they want and deserve.