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I'm starting to think that this show doesn't know what it does and doesn't do well. The casting was great as always. Loved Baker, the Erin plot, Alex Kingston, and more. Then they undermined it with the lines about Edward Snowden and how the terrorists were winning because they couldn't do everything they wanted with no restrictions or warrants and glorifying illegal and unauthorized policing tactics. And the Jamie-Danny plot had the issues that have already been pointed out and then some. It felt like they were shooting from a first draft. And it really reminded us that they have been spinning their wheels with Jamie for awhile now. Have him take the Sgts exam and do something with Eddie. Perhaps killing her off would make for a big exciting season finale?

The detective played by Paul Guilfoyle who played Captain Brass on CSI. I really don't care about the movie except for ruining Profacci so I can't be bothered to look up his name.

Haven't seen the Howard Stern bit referenced, but it sounds like it's making the same reference Larry is to the character Flat Stanley and the popular grade school project - https://www.flatstanley.com/about?subpage=how_it_works Unfortunately lead paint is still is a significant problem. In older homes that aren't kept up the newer paint can chip away and eventually lead paint chips do flake off. There is also an issue where windows being regularly opened and shut can generate lead paint dust that is then inhaled by kids. It is a very common trope among certain segments of the population that this means that any efforts to remove lead from other sources are just "big government libtards" wasting their tax dollars. And that all the problem is just the poors being lazy and not watching their kids (since we all know that their kids never put random things in their mouths) or caring about their homes (since we all know that nobody is ever at the mercy of a bad landlord or forced to chose between a fresh coat of paint and paying the electric bill). I'm not too surprised to find people who should know better embracing this stupidity, just disappointed.

I don't feel as strongly as you do but in my personal L&O canon Captain Brass was the dirty cop and the whole mess motivated Profacci to leave seeking a fresh start and more interesting assignments than running people's sheets and donut runs.

Can't believe it? This is SVU. Liv will be in scenes even if there is no logical or story reason for her to be there. Everybody else will miss episodes and scenes that cry out for their presence. At this point I wouldn't be surprised to see Kristin Chenowith guest star on an episode with no Barba or have Fin missing when Munch finally makes a return appearance.

I have no problem with the way Mike or Jack were written. What they did to Profacci on the other hand...

I don't think it's that unpopular. I think they had run out of ideas and Meloni made the right choice but I miss the Stabler of earlier seasons. And having a co-lead to share focus.

This episode is a perfect example of what this show has become. Some great performances, superb execution on just about all the technical aspects, and all of it undermined by writing that replaces profiling with torture porn and over the top action and misses opportunity after opportunity. I was really hoping that ridiculous fight scene followed by the rescue was setting up a cliffhanger where it turned out to be another fantasy, but no it's the actual plot. Sigh. And of course it there was just about no profiling or even acknowledging the lack thereof. It was an enjoyable episode that could have been so much more.

I'm really hoping Dodds Sr. is not the one behind Liv's suspension. Having a high level boss who is not just a servant of the powerful or an evil SOB is something new and different for SVU. Hopefully he's following orders from even higher up or giving Liv the opportunity to work outside the system since it's been so thoroughly corrupted. If they can avoid trashing his character and give the squad a big role rather than having Liv literally solve the case on her own I'll probably be happy.

The Good: Snarky Barba! And righteous Barba too! They're keeping up the good work with Dodds. The Tucker/Liv pairing means no more evil IAB. A few years ago I guarantee they'd be shown as trying to bury this. The Bad: Another undercover operation gone awry? You would think that they would learn, but then again this is SVU... Speaking of overdone SVU tropes again SVU is the only unit in the NYPD that cares about young women. No Fin. I guess he's not really needed since Liv does all the police work now, but until she learns humor he's sorely missed. Like last week this repeats a lot of previously done plots and makes some questionable writing choices in it's portrayal of a traumatized woman. It's definitely more successful and interesting than last week though.

It was the writing. I think the actress did a great job, but this show has always had a problem writing journalists and has never been able to handle new media, no matter what the quality of the writing otherwise. So you get characters that don't come across as humans, but as some sort of obsessive manipulative robots.

I totally agree. I just think we have to balance our hope with cold hard realism. And I think that it's quite possible that any bold new creative directions would keep all the things that annoy me (L&O: Mariska Hargitay featuring SVU) while dumping all the good stuff that's emerged the last couple of years.

True. I know many PhDs. There's a few of them that aren't comfortable announcing it since they don't want to be seen as the stereotypical pompous academic, but any of them if you ask them what subject their doctorate is in will tell you then go on in great length to tell you what they specialize in if you show the slightest interest. OMG I so totally agree with this! I love Mike Yard. I think he is hilarious and the breakout star of the show (with Holly Walker). But he can be really shallow when it comes to serious political discussions. He's way too quick to assume that his experiences are universal and too dismissive of other opinions. And it really seemed that the 2 loudmouths hadn't even read what they were talking about. That whole "I lived in Brooklyn" biit. She lives 30 miles away from work in the cheapest apartment she could find near the train. Forget about Brooklyn Mike she's already in Newark or Staten Island. I might be able to forgive Tom Papa since he's just a comedian and not a particularly political one from the little I've ever seen of him. But when you're a writer and performer on a current events focused show I expect more. Especially when you were loudly demanding instant results when it came to economic justice for you and yours and that same show not too long ago.

Yeah with their vlogging and their social media and their streaming video series which are all high concept nonsense running around in bad 19th Century costumes...

That was a combination of technical difficulties and clumsiness not an intentional thing! I thought it was OK but nothing special. There certainly was some good stuff!

The Good: Good acting from the guest stars especially from the victim. Andy Karl's acting and the writing for Sgt. Dodds. Carisi. The courtroom scenes. This is becoming a welcome trend. It's nice to see a case portrayed as high profile without them depicting a media frenzy on the level of OJ or the Lindbergh baby. The Bad: No Fin. Why are a Lt. and a Sgt. interviewing the bar manager? If you really want to have Mariska and Andy Karl together it would make far more sense to have them interview the celebrity and let him handle the routine police work alone. Chief Dodds really crossed the line from political animal but decent guy to stereotypical evil SVU boss beholden to power. Are we really getting another scene of Liv chewing out Rollins for breaking the rules to do what she thinks is right on her own and not respecting the chain of command without Amanda pointing out what a giant hypocrite she's being? Really? Really??? Overall this was a decent effort, and managed to be somewhat interesting even though just about everything in this episode has been done many times before on SVU.

Actually going on the way it is now wouldn't be too bad since things have really improved from a few years ago. Unfortunately the things most of us would like to see changed may be out of the hands of any showrunner. The network, Dick Wolf, and Mariska Hargitay are the driving forces and the truth is from a short term economic perspective they are probably right. Maybe they will find someone who is a gifted enough salesperson to convince them that they can still promote Liv while also putting out a quality product that focuses on the cases. But I doubt it so I just hope they find someone that can keep up the quality of the scripts and avoid disaster. Not sure what the issue is with Munch. It could be Belzer's issues. Or budget. I do agree that Carisi and Munch together would be gold! They should make it happen.

I'm not sure about Garrett enabling him, but I still can't figure out what they were going for with Frank. It was just so ridiculous, so OTT, and he was so self evidently wrong that I thought there was going to be some reveal that this was really about something else, or we were going to see them try something new and have Frank admit he was wrong, or just be wrong from the show's narrative POV and suffer consequences from it. I don't understand how professional writers came up with such a mess. As far as Baker is concerned it's pretty clear from the way the scene was staged that she is very pregnant now, so she might not up to anything as strenuous as chasing people around and beating them up. :-) Foreshadowing a future plot? What series have you been watching expecting that level of writing? If it was any other show I'd know we were in for the Linda becomes addicted story, but I'm not too worried here since continuity and planning ahead has never been their strong suit. Or writing in general. I mean they missed the obvious opportunity here. You have an addiction story. You have cliche Old School Irish Cop stereotype. You are trying to introduce some shades of gray and undermine the moral certainty. And there's no fellow cop with a drinking problem that he's covered for in the past? Maybe even a cousin we've never heard of before? It's Screenwriting 101.

This gets very complicated, but almost always if someone is convicted/pleads guilty on state charges the feds won't prosecute for the same crime. They usually won't prosecute if a defendant is acquitted either, but that's a lot more common. I thought they were saying that if he pleads the feds wouldn't charge him, but if he waited they might take over and hit him with a draconian sentence, which is pretty realistic and makes sense.

There was so much to like in this episode. Steve Schirripa. Continuing to use more of the great actors they've cast. A more tolerable Danny with some actual nuance. Unfortunately I can't say I really liked the episode. Frank was such a huge jackass. Even more self righteous than usual. I hoped they were going for something like what they ended up doing with Danny where they actually were going to present our hero as being wrong and admitting it - at least partially. But no such luck. And I really think they've actually gotten worse at doing politics and the big picture criminal justice issues which I wouldn't have believed possible back in the early seasons.

The Good: "Tell Barba to stop admiring himself" Nice use of guest stars and recurring characters. Great acting pretty much all around. The whole squad had something to do and it was nice to see Liv in a command role and running the show instead of going undercover, sitting on stakeout, etc. Lots of Barba doing what he does best and we even get some courtroom scenes. They avoided the extremes of Abraham molesting his own kids/being some big producer or turning out to be innocent and framed in a "shocking" twist. The Bad: The scenes with Chief Dodds were a bit clunky. Overall this was a great episode. It's almost exactly what I want from this show - a story focused on the dedicated detectives in an elite squad solving sexually based offenses. On a long term basis I'd prefer a little less Mariska Hargitay Emmy bait, but if they can maintain this level of quality I can deal with her ego.

The exact details vary according to what drugs are used, but it's not permanent. It involves the use of antiandrogens to reduce testosterone levels. Without getting bogged down in details is it sometimes possible to overcome the effects given the right stimulus. As far as the plot being in poor taste, you're right of course, but as you said it's nothing new and I was just glad that they seem to be making an effort to have plots again.

I thought there was nothing that could lower my opinion of these Chicago crossovers after this episode, and then TNT scheduled this weekend to run "Charm City"...

What do I hope for? It looks like the same things as everyone else. An ensemble solving sexually based offenses and at least sometimes following them to trial instead of The Benson Hour. I understand that we're not necessarily reflective of the audience as a whole, but surely MH can be the lead without us having to believe that she's doing everything in the field as well as commanding the squad. More of the dark humor that this show used to do so well. A sort of back to basics approach to take us to the end that's not too far away.

I really liked this one. I wonder if it was adapted from an unused script from a previous season since it really felt like the classic formula - Danny and the COTW, Frank being morally righteous, a family dilemma, and everything wrapped up neatly at the end. It has all of the classic flaws of course, as well as the new problem of Eddie, but that comes with the territory. It was probably better executed then the early seasons actually - a major Nikki plot so well done that I didn't FF through it, the DW rooftop scene that actually achieved some nuance and subtlety, and good use of the cast as an ensemble. I hope we get more like this.