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Boy this was a clunker. I can't believe they switiched this with the serial killer ep as the season finale (as previous posts here have indicated). At least that was half a good episode and ended on an inspiring note. This was just a steaming turd like most attempts BB makes at addressing social issues. The case did a great job with what they had, and the technical aspects were excellent as always, but it just couldn't be polished. I mean seriously they just came right out and said that if you question the use of force by police you get cops killed. And that politicians that attempt to address the issue are putting politics over people. Meanwhile St. Frank can let loose with a Trumpian blast of outrage and he's not wrong at all. Gregory Jbara did do a great job with the facial expressions of conveying what anyone with a remote grasp of reality would recognize, but we all know Garrett is a liberal sellout anyways. And we have to beware of body cameras because no matter what they show the media will bash cops and "those people" are such savages they will seek violent revenge. I felt sorry for the poor actress playing the jr. ADA had to spend the whole episode dragging around the giant sign around her neck "I am the leak". I was so hoping that maybe, just maybe it was a red herring and it would be a cop trying to prove the officer's innocence or some other twist, but no they really did mean to drop an anvil on our heads. And I was so rooting for Erin to just start punching people when they were giving her crap for not dispensing summary judgement based on the whims of her family. You know it's bad when I'm actually rooting for Nikki. Erin should just come out and tell Frank that she is arrogant asshole who thinks she knows everything because she is half Reagan afterall. Ugh.

The Good: Another episode that was centered on an actual sexually based offense being investigated by the whole squad. It's been a welcome trend this season. Great acting from the guest stars. Barba! Fin and Munch. The acting in the last scene. Heck the writing too. Anytime you have a Noah scene I actually like you have to be doing something right. The Bad: Once again Benson does everything. She catches cases. She interviews suspects. She consults with the DA over trial strategy. I'm halfway surprised she's not the one in law school so next season she can prosecute cases too when Barba has the episode off. I know I'm a broken record here, but why promote her if you're not going to change her role? Especially when it would be so much easier to keep the Lt. as the recurring/guest star role and doing what the CO has always done. Plus if you're going to have Liv in the field for the whole case why not in the one place where it actually makes sense - looking for a suspect in the middle of a crowded high profile event? The carousel scene was a bit too much. Not nearly enough Munch. No Carisi-Munch extended comic relief. And no matter how well done it was they still skimped on Munch with the squad to give us a big scene with Munch telling Benson what a special snowflake she is. Overall this was a solid episode that could have been a great one with just a little tweaking.

I think the WHCD was a mixed bag. I think most of the criticism is undeserved, but he wasn't as good as Seth Myers or Stephen Colbert. The biggest problem is following the President. Not only did POTUS have better writers, but the press can't slam him the same way they can slam the comedian who follows him. And of course it's a bit of a perpetial motion machine. The political press focuses on personality, insider BS, faux scandals, and phony outrage instead of issues. The comedian at the WHCD skewers them for that. The next few days are taken up with stories about the personalities involved, the insider BS and faux scandals of decorum breeched, and ginning up phony outrage and debating it ad nauseum...

"Self Defense" Cragen: "Well what about his story, does it walk and talk?" Cerreta: "With a limp and an accent"

Agree on both. Hash It Out is a strong addition to the recurring segments. And Ricky was great, but I thought his Eminem response was a better line. I wish he had stuck to his guns more as he actually had a really good point.

I don't think Ricky is a moron and he's actually greatly improved on the panel. He is young and still learning and a talented standup does not necessarily make a good panelist right off the bat. The biggest issues were that he always was looking for a punchline and he had an attitude that everything was bullshit and he saw how fake it was. And the stupid hat. Basically like a million college students. He's lost the hat, and is willing to take things seriously and let the discussion flow. If there is anyone I would like to see Holly replace on panel it's Mike Yard. I love love love Mike Yard's bits, but he has a complete inability to see beyond his own experiences and he also is always looking for a line.

Totally agree. It's amazing. And it's something that a show like this should be pointing out more instead of implicitly siding with those criticizing him for not somehow doing more. I have a feeling they will once we approach the end of his term regardless of how the election turns out, but there's a lot of material out there now that would be a lot more interesting than another Nightly Nightly.

To me it was yet another illustration of Mike Yard's biggest weakness - his inability to see beyond his own experiences and preferences/desires. I think it was obvious that Larry and Rory both grasped the complexities and the potential consequences, but Larry didn't really want to push it since it might be seen as supporting Hillary. I didn't get that vibe at all from Mike. On the larger issue it's too bad that Larry doesn't seem to want to criticize Bernie as there are some real opportunities for TNS to be presenting some alternate POVs largely ignored by the mainstream. I'd love to see Larry pointing out that not only was Obama more progressive than Hillary, he was a better politician too and it was largely ignored by both the mainstream media and the alternative media for different reasons. Or how progressive change has always required both an inside game and an outside game (good chance for a Lakers joke!) and how this isn't really anything new and that if you are effective you will always end up being dismissed as a sellout unless you get yourself killed.

Baez not being there was almost certainly more about Marisa Ramirez being quite pregnant. Steve Schirripa, Jamie, the rest of the NYPD, etc. not being around was about plot contrivances. And I don't think this was intentionally about Danny being worse than normal. That was a combination of bad writing and us no longer being used to Danny focused action heavy episodes.

Yeah it's probably best to think of this as kind of a glimpse of a L&O alternative universe. If it wasn't Dick Wolf it probably would never have aired since it's so obviously not in continuity. Today it would probably be a DVD bonus feature but back then the only way to make money from it was to put it on the air.

This episode was really Jekyll and Hyde. I loved just about every scene without Danny and hated just about every scene with him. About the only good thing I can say about the serial killer plot is that I liked the actor playing the profiler and it made me appreciate the lack of Danny centric episodes this season.

The Allstate guy?! Show some respect. That's President Palmer you're talking about. Seriously though it was perfect casting as is almost always the case with this show. The two best cast cop shows on TV today IMHO are B99 and Blue Bloods. Great casting is probably the only thing those two series have in common.

I don't think this is all that hard to believe or at least explain. I have a lot of clients who have substantial student loan debt but now make decent money. It doesn't stop them from spending more than they should on meals, hobbies, etc. But it does come up occasionally, sometimes as an excuse, sometimes as frustration that they can't do everything they think they should given their salary. And as has already been mentioned your past can definitely color your perception of the present regardless of what an outside observer might think. And when we see money as a plot on the show it's almost always filtered through the character's POV. And people's view of their financial situation can be just as inconsistent and illogical as portrayed here.

The shocking SVU twist - Carisi is the Oscar in this pairing.

Regarding the realism or lack of same in the Penny and Leonard plot. I work in banking. I can say that everything that previous comments are saying is illogical or unrealistic I have seen in real life. Multiple times. Lack of communication over money? Debt despite high incomes and relatively low fixed obligations? Not paying debts and putting money into savings or investments? It may not make sense, but it happens in real life all the time.

I also hope they don't go all the way with the whole Rollisi thing. I want to see less of Rollins' love life and I want TPTB to look at the past and realize that their characters have always been more successful with the audience when we're not seeing their personal life all the time. There are plenty of other stories to tell with these characters. I don't want to see a squad room romance. Unless it's Fin and Carisi. I'd be OK with that. Hell I'd even be interested in seeing them adopt a special needs child...

I really liked this episode. They gave the whole cast something to do, didn't try to do politics or social issues in any depth, and generally let the extremely talented cast and crew execute the hell out of a decent, but far from spectacular script and elevate it. They even managed to make Eddie tolerable. If they had bothered to do another draft of the Erin plot to fix some of the glaring logic holes I might have even praised the writing overall which I think might be a first for this show.

The Good: Good acting from the guess stars. Nice continuity. No Noah and no giant wine glass. Fin. Maybe getting some happiness? The Bad: No Barba. No Dodds. Way too many overused SVU tropes - Liv does everything, exposition info dump, a plot that could be predicted by the casting but thinks it's full of shocking twists, the overblown promos... Overall this was yet another competently executed (about the only major flaw was too much telling instead of showing) but boring episode that wasted a lot of potential. This should have been great and I'm not sure why it wasn't.

The Good: Fin is back! The opening scene with the squad. Lots of team scenes. It's nice to see them working together but with individual character moments. Really liking the way they're writing Dodds Jr. Carisi's scenes. Some old school L&O crisis of faith going on. Righteous crusading Barba. The Bad: The rest of the opening. All of a sudden we remember the Monsignor exists, we go crazy with conspiracies and black ops, and we lay on the Benson the martyr act really thick. Really hating the way they ruined Dodds Sr. I was so hoping we would get a twist but it's just another political boss throwing our heroes under the bus. They give us a two parter and can't be bothered to come up with something at least slightly surprising? Overall I was unimpressed by the story but I loved the focus on the squad instead of the Benson Hour and that made up for a lot. Lots of good scenes and some good acting, but I just can't help but think that there was a lot of wasted potential.

I'm happy that it sounds like Fin will be heavily involved in this episode. I just hope we get a lot of Munch and Fin, at least one great Carisi-Munch scene, something good with Barba, no Liv solving the case that Munch and Fin couldn't solve for years by herself and a minimal amount of Munch reassuring Benson that she is the bestest most awesomest CO ever and is an incredibly noble martyr sacrificing herself for the special victims (since I know we won't be able to avoid it entirely).

I've said before that Mike is very hit and miss on panel. I always thought it was mostly not being willing to take it seriously and always looking for the laugh. The same problem Ricky used to have although Mike is a lot more entertaining. I'm really wondering if the bigger issue is that he just doesn't instinctively grasp points of view and perspectives other than his own and doesn't make an effort to do so. It's too bad as unless he can learn how he will probably never get as far in comedy as Larry or Rory even though he's funnier.

Yeah, I'm not suggesting that any of his behaviour is not obviously OCD. I'm saying, to date, the writers have made a big hullaballoo whenever asked of explicitly avoiding referring to Sheldon as having any particular conditions. They always just say "No, he's Sheldon-ey" so they wouldn't end up hamstrung by having to try to be true to any diagnosis. That's why it was notable that they had the character say "OCD" in this one. They've broken they're own rule about wanting to leave it up to interpretation and not put any labels on any of it. I know that the whole issue of bringing in what writer's say about their own work vs what we can actually see in the show is its own whole kettle of fish, but that still brings us back round to the point that this was the first time they put the words in any of the characters' mouths, instead of just leaving it up to us to see it and decide "well obviously that's OCD" vs "this is a fictional world and they can claim all the characters are exaggerations for comedic purposes and not beholden to real behavioral standards". I think the big concern among the writers and producers isn't about being hamstrung by a particular diagnosis even if that's what they say. Their concerns are about the massive PR headache saying that he's on the spectrum or has one of the other possible conditions would create, the audience not wanting to laugh at someone with a diagnosis or the frustration it causes his friends, and most importantly that it closes off the possibility of character growth that exists when it's just Sheldon being Sheldon. We've occasionally had Sheldon realize the effect of his actions on others and express empathy. It makes for big "awww" moments and they don't want to give that up. OCD isn't as sensitive (regardless of whether it should be or not), and they know that they will never want to give up his OCD "quirks". So as long as they don't say it too often or spend too much time focusing on the non-funny aspects they are fine with occasionally saying OCD.

According to The Nightly Show Twitter account his name is Bob DiBuono. He's a comedian and actor from NYC. Here's his website - http://t.co/aIyWPAs9Ui

I have to agree with everyone who said it felt like this was a retread. Both the Brian gets involved with his friend's wife plot and the kids volunteer with old folks and hijinks ensue plot. I know at this point they've done about everything and I'm glad that they are actually bothering to come up with plots again since for awhile they were just throwing out a barely connected collection of lines and cutaways, but it was really disconcerting to spend so much time trying to remember if they had done the exact same thing or if it was just the other variations I was thinking of.

I could live with it. I really don't think this show is going to try the unresolved sexual tension thing with Jamie and Marcus. My real fear is that they would use Jamie getting killed as a reason for Jamie to stay where he is and not do anything about his future but occasionally talk about it wistfully and whine about not being a detective (which he can never be for both in-story and meta reasons). Yes he would, although as Detective First Grade Danny would still make more money.