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The Good: Nice writing for Carisi this week after some clunkers. Actually just about the entire squad was used well including good use of Barba in an episode with no courtroom scenes. Nice to see they didn't just have him stand around drinking coffee. Hopefully we are done with cupcake girl. ETA: It was nice to see Liv in more of a command role, and even with a good reason to go in the field they did let other characters have most of the action scenes. The Bad: Another Chicago crossover. Yawn. The whole serial killer super villain thing. It just doesn't work. If I want poorly written serial killers in this timeslot other networks have me covered thanks. No Fin to point out the craziness. Overall this was a lousy idea quite competently executed. As ratings grabs go this is at least much better than the last one they tried. Hopefully this is a harbinger of a return to form for the rest of the season.

The Good: Fin telling "New Jersey" to "get out of here!" Barba in court. Solid acting all around. They seem to be getting a handle on Dodds and figuring out how to write him as a human being. The Bad: Their handle on Carisi seems to be slipping a bit. This is the second episode in a row that has had a little too much of the old annoying goofball Carisi that doesn't know what's up (as opposed to charming goofball Carisi who does know what's going on). Speaking of the return of bad SVU writing past - the clunky exposition. Rollins being annoying. Liv and her giant glass of wine. Like everyone else has said I don't care. I don't care about her trauma, I don't care about the aftermath. I don't care about Noah. I don't care about her love life. I don't care what else you come up with to ruin this great character thinking it's Acting. Overall this was another OK episode. Not terrible, not great. Not much to say really.

Same issue. In grading P is usually Pass. I'd personally suggest a switch to a numerical system. Always room to go lower if need be (they very well might hit negative numbers if they keep it up) and no possibility of confusion. :-)

But in the past few years actual profiling has solved, what, two cases maybe? Compared to 60 or more for Garcia and her magic computer while the highly trained and expensive profilers mostly do routine police work? He must be worried that if he crosses her she could point this out to his bosses and they would get rid of all of them and that hugely expensive private plane and replace the whole unit with an 800 number that detectives could call and say they have a killer who drives a green Chevy, used a Craftsman wrench, and wears a size 10 LL Bean boot and she just tells them who it is. Don't want to chance that. And did you did start a post here "reality is" without following it with "clearly of no concern to the writers and producers of CM these days?"

Nope. I see what you're getting at, but in grading systems S almost always means Satisfactory. Too much potential for confusion there. Maybe F--?

He has a LOT of self control. And he knows that her magic computer is the reason his team has such a high closure rate. A boss will put up with a lot of nonsense for good numbers. I'm more surprised Rossi doesn't tell her to cut the crap actually.

I'm not an expert, but I have had some exposure to mental health treatment issues through my work and unfortunately just about anything a writer can come up with would be believable. There are plenty of real life stories that are completely insane and incredible on both sides - lack of supervision and patient abuse. The way recent seasons have portrayed forensic psychology and profiling procedures on the other hand...

Have to disagree. It's funny because we know them and their comedic personas. If it was random civilians it would just be a copy of a YouTube video.

In real life there are a number of civilians in the commissioner's office. And by civilian I mean not coming up from the ranks since all the Deputy Commissioner's are considered civilian administrators. The deputies like IT, legal affairs, etc. are usually experts from outside the department. Not to mention all sorts of other mundane, but important jobs. Of course in Blue Bloods world who knows? I don't know I know a lot of cops who are very good at PR and politics. Even seeing pictures sometimes it's hard to imagine them in a patrol car. The harder part for me to imagine is him carrying a gun. With all the crap he takes...

Boy this was kind of a clunker. It felt like they were shooting from the first draft of a script that really needed some revisions. The opening was find and Henry and Frank's scenes were fine as well as Tom Selleck speechifying, but the Lt.'s actions after the shooting really didn't feel organic and like everyone else I felt that we needed a explanation for HTH he ended up not in jail. The Danny plot was competent for what it was, but could have used some punching up. As far as Jamie goes I sort of zoned out like usual by now. Please writers - give it up.

CM's take on ride sharing is the same as it's take on taxis, public transportation, cars, walking, other internet apps, and just about anything else you can name - it provides an easy opportunity for psychotic serial killers to catch you with your guard down and then torture and kill you.

Agreed on both counts. Of course Mariska's ego won't allow them to really confront her issues but it was nice to see at least a nod to the possibility that she does have free will and choices. I'm a little surprised they would go there since it does point to the elephant in the room of why the NYPD would even consider letting her back to work at this point let alone out in the field, but since we'll never see a real reckoning we have to take what we can get. I don't think he was being a jerk either. It was in character for him and he meant well. As I said before it did come off wrong to have Fin and Olivia piling on without trying to change the tone a bit. As far as leave in the SVUverse I don't know how you can complain since you don't even get close to that amount for being held hostage and viciously beaten...

It was a great impersonation. Really made me how bit shine. Almost made the tiresome and clueless bits about Hillary and the emails before it worth it. I still would have preferred to see something about Bernie and reparations or something else fresh and different, but at least there something funny came out of it.

The Good: Good acting from most of the guest stars. Barba. With lines and stuff too! The trial scenes. "Are you asking me if your client is a liar?" The preview for next week looks promising. The Bad: Starting off with the martyrdom of St. Olivia and a reminder of last week's crapfest. The scene with Rollins and her baby. Couldn't we have done this without making Fin and Olivia look oblivious and/or insensitive? (I'm perfectly willing to believe it from Carisi and Dodds.) Fin was sadly underused, especially since his scene on the football field is a great reminder of how good he is cutting entitled rich pricks down to size. Overall this was much better than the last couple episodes. It was another visit to we'll trod SVU territory with horrible privileged rich people and a he said, she said date rape case, but at least a well executed one with a decent script. Hopefully we're back on track at least until the next pointless Chicago Crossover or Benson in jeopardy episode.

The shooting at the end does kinda make me wonder about the process afterwards and all the details. Does the IAB team already have forms preprinted with Danny's name and shield number and they just fill in the blanks? Does he do training sessions for union delegates since he's been through more investigations than any of them? Since he's shooting someone at least a couple times a season and never seems to miss is he exempted from having to qualify on the range? How does he explain doing something so stupid and reckless to his wife or are we supposed to forget about her issues? So many questions...

And some serve food too. I'm not in NYC, but NYS and we have a cigar bar client that serves bar snacks etc. And a little Googling brings up Merchants NY Cigar Bar with a full menu. My understanding is that NYC was considering or already had rolled back the regs/enforcement for private clubs too. I'm pretty sure that the producers didn't consider much beyond "Tom Selleck likes cigars and thinks they look cool" though. Then again the viewers have always spent much more time than the writers and producers thinking about realism and consistency and if things make sense.

Everyone did, so I do think you need to feel bad. There is a tendency in the L&Overse when introducing new characters to play up the conflict with the established cast and exaggerate one or two traits to the detriment of creating a well rounded individual. In the beginning he was simply an overeager goofball who was barely tolerated by our heroes, always asking stupid questions or saying stupid things. Over time they've sanded down the rough edges and now he's one of my favorite parts of the show. It's why I tell everyone who is so gung ho to dump Dodds to give him a chance.

One really good story reason for SkypeAmy this episode is that it avoids the issue of her coming on the trip or not, which would either lead to a much bigger conflict than the writers want, take away some of the urgency for Sheldon since Amy is ther to keep him company, or create a pretty big plot hole. And since they seem to want to focus on other characters as okerry just mentioned having her out of town takes care of everything.

This was another really enjoyable episode. I didn't even FF through the family dinner. If we excuse the usual Blue Bloods issues, like the ridiculous scene where Danny tricks the mob shooter, the only problem was Eddie. Her reactions just felt out of character (not that her usual portrayal isn't annoying) and OTT. The story also was a painful reminder that that Jamie and Renzulli had much better chemistry than Jamie and Eddie. And I'd really prefer to see a Jamie/Renzulli romance too.

For a show that's supposed to be providing an alternative point of view their Hillary bits are disappointingly tired and cliche. It's not like there isn't plenty of material out there to do something different. They more than made up for it with the dildo bit though. And with Rory on the panel. He was the MVP of this show.

The Good: The part with the squad investigating the rape. A glimmer of humanity from Dodds, good acting by the guest stars, Barba!, everybody working together to solve sex crimes - you know they might want to try a whole episode of that. "I don't wanna hurt you." It wasn't a two-parter. The Bad: As everyone except Mariska, Warren Leight, and those on NBC's payroll has already pointed this is a plot that has been done too often AND too recently. We now have proof that Benoah can drag down ANY plot. The acting from the hostage takers. Not that they had much to work with, but it was neither believably naturalistic or gloriously over the top scenery chewing. They used one of the limited quota of Barba episodes for him to do not much of anything? They couldn't do ANYTHING new? If you're going to repeat a plot at least change one or two elements. The general pointlessness of the whole thing. You know show you keep talking about doing something new and growth for Benson. And you want to be progressive and advocate for feminism and women's issues. Here's an idea - do the hostage plotline if you must, but change it up. Have Fin be the one taken hostage and let Benson kick ass and save him. Maybe give her a tough command decision to make. You know actual growth and really subverting the damsel in distress trope. Especially since we still have Chekhov's Cupcake out there so we know there's at least one more Liv in danger story coming up. This was just a waste of time for everyone involved.

Watching right now. Can't believe I totally forgot William H Macy was in this episode.

I was just thinking the same thing last night. He doesn't seem to have done many bits lately, but he is like a million times better on panel. He's actually participating now and adding something of value instead of just trying to score laughs by being an idiot who doesn't care about anything. Definitely not the worst part of the show anymore (sorry Grace Parra).

Yeah the move was just another example of how clueless the producers are. Bringing over Ted Danson might have made sense if the problem with the show was casting, or if they had fixed all the problems from the first season and wanted to bring in viewers who had tuned out and CSI fans who hadn't checked it out. I'll never understand how anyone who has ever watched television, much less worked on it, could watch an episode and think that what needed to be fixed was Peter MacNicol's character, Bow Wow's suits, and just getting viewers to give it try. Not the scripts, no sir...

There's a couple of possibilities. One is that it wasn't intended to be a restaurant, but a club with an exemption (there are a few around IIRC). More likely this is Blue Bloods world where Frank Reagan is allowed to disregard pesky rules and laws he doesn't like as long as he is morally correct (which is always).