JyDanzig

I feel like the answer is in your own post. It was a forceful kick to the face. It doesn't have to be intentional to be violent. I just recalled that during the end of the episode, I was wondering if Rogelio would ultimately kill River (accidentally of course), and if her death would also be treated as a laugh riot. That shouldn't seem like the possible next beat to the story for one of the hero characters. Yes, I was including that as an example of a story that failed because it treated trauma with inappropriate lightness, not as an example of physical violence against women.

So, anyone else disgusted by the way violence against women was used as the comic relief in a story about gender pay parity? The misfires on this show are rare, but when they happen, they're huge. In my view, they've only ever done three truly terrible stories: Petra's paralysis, Rogelio's captivity by his obsessed stalker, and now the recurring subjection of River to violence and mutilation. And they all failed in the exact same way, by asking us to laugh at the characters as they suffered an ongoing and severe trauma, at the point of the story when it wasn't clear that the trauma was ever going to end. The way JtV is usually successful at finding the humor in trauma is by having the victims find it themselves. But I don't want to be invited to laugh mockingly at characters who are coping with the fear that they will be imprisoned for the rest of their lives and never get to be with their loved ones again, or who have been physically brutalized in a way that could end their career, at the very moment they reach the peak after a lifetime of working for it. Ask us to laugh at them then, and it's punching down, there's such a mean maliciousness to it that so deeply betrays the spirit of everything else happening on this show. And holy hell, the sheer violence of that kick to her face. Brutal. My full expectation for the end of the episode was that Rogelio's career was going to end because of the scandal, and the show would go on to be a huge hit as "The Passions Of Brenda", with his character cut after the pilot. I though this was bringing us to a final season story for Rogelio of: who is he without his career, now that he's ruined it because of his own inexcusable pettiness and tantrums? And then to handwave it away as a cutesy, fun thing after the commercials. God, that edit of the three times Rogelio injured her truly made me sick. Grotesque. Love the show otherwise! JtV is so often trying to do a very large number of extremely difficult things, so to expect no failures is unrealistic, but eesh. They could at least stop making this mistake, it's clear how this route has been going wrong at this point!

I stopped watching FG a year ago, after literally never missing an episode until then. Came back to check in with this premiere and YIKES. I'll think twice before trying that again. It really reminded me why I stopped, and is a great example of why shows should not run too long. The cultural context has changed completely around FG, in a way that truly makes it no longer funny. Their humor used to play as edgy and transgressive, now it's just toxic and ugly. That being said, I did love the callback bit with the super and the studio audience reactions.

Julianne Nicholson also had a pregnancy written into CI. I think the father was a fiancee she had just broken up with when it was discovered he was some kind of criminal? Alicia Witt was her maternity leave replacement? I remember two Benson pregnancy workarounds. A transfer to computer crimes where she sat behind a comically huge monitor to conceal the pregnancy bump, and a stint going undercover to bust a ring of eco-terrorists. Maybe those were strung together consecutively to make one long maternity leave? Agreed, and apparently not.

"Russian Love Poem," for the locations. It'll pull me in at any point because I always want to see that last shot on the boardwalk with the Coney Island parachute jump in the distance. "Guilt," for being my actual favorite Good SVU. "Wildlife," for being my actual favorite Bad SVU. "Missing Pieces" or "Presumed Guilty," if we're in the 6 weeks leading up to Halloween or Christmas.

http://www.scoutingny.com/why-you-should-never-ever-go-to-new-york-citys-hudson-university/ I love this, about Hudson. Let's bring back the Hudson University nuclear reactor! Could cause some trouble with that...

God, it could have been so good! They could really have located an exceptional emotional climax of the story in her testimony, not his. You would probably want to set it up that there was a ton of physical evidence with the real rape -- you would need that, to justify taking the case to trial at all, because only with a ton of physical evidence would there seem to be any chance of conviction. (Let's say this is also taking place in the Mirror SVUniverse, in which the purpose of prosecutions is to convict the guilty, as opposed to the Actual SVUniverse, where the purpose is to obtain useless indictments for theft of dignity, and/or to allow people to Speak Their Truth, the less credible the better!) But anyway, imagine what an incredible episode climax her testimony could have been, if they weren't afraid to actually deal with moral complexity in the victims! She would be simultaneously reckoning with her extreme remorse for the first allegation, and getting racked over the coals for it, while also dealing with the trauma, and wondering how guilty she is for what happened... that's an incredible guest spot for some actress! This idea they're pushing lately on this show, that by being raped everything you've ever done and every action you've ever taken is rendered benevolent and benign, once the mantle of victimhood descends it makes you forever noble and saintly... I think it's a corrosive, unhealthy worldview. It does no favors to society or to rape victims, and I wish they'd stop deluding themselves that it does.

You might be thinking of Stuyvesant, which is a real high school that has gotten mentioned on L&O fairly regularly. I think it's all geniuses there? High achievers of some sort, it's a coveted school. Maybe that's why they allow their real name to be used in this murder franchise -- they could actually do with less people hassling them for a spot. I also have to reminisce on my favorite detail of Hudson, which is that it is so elite and competitive that large numbers of wealthy mothers are sleeping with the staff to get their kids in (as we learned last season). Imagine with the rape & murder rates are at all the other universities, if Hudson is the prize!

I would say you've crossed over and become a bad person once you start making concrete accusations and filing legal complaints off of something that is only an emotional truth, especially when you know that the nature of the accusations have a high likelihood of ruining the life of the accused. But, of course, the episode is so poorly written that it makes it hard for any judgment of the characters to be "wrong." Every character is so compromised by making unrealistic decisions to further the plot, thus none of them is plausible as a real human being, so as viewers we have to fill in the gaps ourselves, and we all make different filler assumptions and then render different verdicts accordingly. I just wish this show would exhibit some awareness that a false accusation of rape can be as traumatizing and life-shattering as actually being raped. There's a reason slander and libel and filing false reports and lying to the police are also crimes. It really is depressing to contemplate the incredible episode this could have been. Imagine they dropped the whole "and then he REALLY raped her!" twist and just did a story about Carisi being devastated when his niece is raped, getting overinvolved in the investigation, determined to get justice for her -- and then discovering she lied about it, and what that experience is for Carisi, and having to now choose between justice and family, now that his niece is the criminal, and at the end he comes around to believing what she has done is just too awful and she deserves punishment. Or you keep the twist about her ultimately really being raped, just put some more time in between those story beats! She realizes she has made a terrible mistake, she confesses publicly, she goes about the work of actually trying to make amends. Then she might become some variety of likeable, sympathetic, relatable -- like the show clearly wants her to be, instead of this Reprehensible Garbage Human they actually presented us. And THEN he rapes her, with the same justification: "my life is ruined anyway, even with you trying to make amends I'll still always be tainted by the accusation, so might as well take what everyone believes I took anyway..." Then fighting that out in court actually holds some drama!

The morality of this show has become so grotesque. This last scene, where Carisi and his niece are doing their cutesy banter, she's had the line where she blames herself, a sentiment which gets immediately and emphatically dismissed... it's absolutely sickening that they think this adorable ending is appropriate for this character! Everything that has happened is her fault! Morally, she comes off worse than the rapist! To make an intentionally false rape report like that, then keep it going for months, then when she gets him punished because of these lies, to respond to his justifiable distress with such pure selfishness, and to escalate it to the police... the satisfying ending would have been her getting convicted of something, not him! I really don't understand the purpose of these stories, where they go out of their way to make the victim as vile and loathesome as possible, but then attach it to a narrative structure where we have to view the victim as pure, saintly, and uncomplicated for the story to work. This should not be so hard. Just pick a lane! If the show wants these simplistic climaxes, then stop presenting the victims as Evil Human Garbage, like this week's girl. Or -- the better option, though one I don't think they are capable of implementing -- if they want the morally gray victims, carry the implications of that through to the rest of the show! Within the basic contours of this arc, they could have done something very powerful. But a story as morally complicated as "a girl who destroyed a man's life with a false rape allegation is raped for real" should not end with this kind of simplistic "white hat/black hat" conclusion.

Yep. Also, THIS show wrote out McCoy! After L&O Classic ended, there were a ton of SVU episodes in which they referenced a "new DA" we know nothing about, but whatever "new" concerns they had would conveniently be at odds with whatever our heroes wanted, thus providing an extremely lazy plot device to pad out episodes that needed a few more story beats. This is starting to feel a bit like a "Black Mirror" episode. Ben Stone resigned, yet apparently hung out in his office for decades thereafter following his son's career. McCoy was replaced, yet still wanders the halls telling people not to beat themselves up about that baby they killed. Cabot is sent away to witness protection forever, until she's inexplicably managing an unruly brood of sexy junior ADA's. Obviously, the DA's office itself is somehow cloning/copying the people that work there. The original person may move on, but their ghostly double will always remain...

I love that this is the exact explanation that brought Rubirosa onto Law & Order: LA. Had to move to take care of her sick mother! Since Andy Karl was killed off, this show has really suffered from the absence of a character in that Meloni/Pino/Karl leading-man mode, so that makes me glad we're getting Philip Winchester -- but really I want him as one of the cops! If Barba is out and they wanted to keep working with Winchester post-Chicago Justice, the genius move would have been sliding lawyer Carisi into the prosecutor slot, and putting Winchester as some new detective in the squadroom. That gives you so many fresh avenues to explore in the writing. (Or, speaking of LOLA, they could have repeated the same ridiculous move they pulled over there, where Alfred Molina switched from prosecutor to cop halfway through the season, with essentially one line of explanation. But it was such an obvious improvement from the prior configuration, so why complain?) I like Barba, but I'll also be OK if he's out. Some cast turnover is generally a plus on an L&O show, helps keep things fresh.

"I know I won't be the first or last woman who doesn't get justice after being raped at Hudson University." She has Hudson's number! Pro tip for next time: don't accept public speaking engagements at the rape & murder hellmouth. There were all sorts of things wrong with this episode, but I also thought it was the best of the year so far. This is always my thought as well -- this was not a good episode, but it was SO CLOSE to being a good episode. And all they have to do to make it much better is just restrain themselves a little. That insane scene of the alt-righter specifically pointing out all the non-white jurors is a good example. As actually staged, it's completely over-the-top nonsense, and it's impossible to believe the trial would have continued after. But there was no need to go that far. You have Barba draw out the same sentiment, get the witness talking about his plan to create a white ethno-state, and that does it! All you need is the witness being openly racist with that air of cold calculation, insert reaction shots of the jurors, done, point made. The theatrics are so undermining, the drama would be more effective if they didn't try to dial every moment up to a million. And was the challenge to the writers that the dialogue could be constructed EXCLUSIVELY from hot controversial buzzwords? Just pull that back! Not every word has to be "cuck" or "libtard" for us to get it. I'm of two minds about the more professional, skeptical Benson we got this week. On the one hand, I wish she acted like this all the time! On the other hand, it is a bit ridiculous that she's usually so endlessly soft and forgiving to victims that she KNOWS has lied to her repeatedly, and yet here, the mere suspicion of dishonesty has her adopting this much harder approach. And there was something incredibly gross about how cavalier Benson was at the end over the fact that they had no idea if the man they were prosecuting was guilty or not. But she still wants to go to verdict, because the victim getting a verdict, any verdict, is more important than an innocent man being convicted for a crime he did not commit? I know there is realism to this, but it's just not what I want to see from a procedural where our characters are supposed to be admirable. The one thing I thought was unambiguously great about this week was Rhea Seehorn. That was a fantastic performance, she really elevated this material. She was just as irredeemably despicable as the real Ann Coulter, but she was not only a hateful cartoon, she also registered as an actual human being (unlike the real Ann Coulter). Impressive work.

I thought this one was a bit of a mess, honestly. First, the setup was a huge problem -- the co-pilots actions were just so extreme! She could have easily killed 135 innocent people! I had zero sympathy for her after that. I wish they had done a less amped-up version, something without so many people so seriously imperiled. And once you're doing "their crime is excused because they were earlier victim of another crime", where does that end? You could trace that back endlessly. Her rapist was just acting out his own trauma from a time he was violently assaulted 10 years ago. But that guy only became a criminal because he was molested. etc etc etc. Also, this is another story they've so recently done badly! Wasn't this last years premiere, a female terrorist helps with a mass shooting and all Benson cares about is that she was abused? Like, yes, we get it, sexual abuse is a very serious issue, but it's a little weird how pushy this show is becoming with the idea that sexual abuse is ALWAYS THE MOST SERIOUS ISSUE. It doesn't demean rape to hear "a rape victim committed a mass shooting in Central Park" and first be concerned about the mass shooting part. Benson also comes off kind of dumb in these eps, in that she can't even seem to grasp why everyone else doesn't care about the rape and only the rape. It also felt like they didn't treat the fact that he was A NATIONAL HERO as a serious enough problem for our characters building a case against him. Any obstacles they encounter are so easily overcome. I just want this show to pick a lane: you can have these hyper-dramatic and exaggerated setups, OR you can have these easy beat-to-beat plots. Either one can be a satisfying procedural. BUT YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. They work against each other! Pick a lane! And, somehow this is building towards indicting a company for grand larceny for stealing their employees dignity? That's a story that should be on 30 Rock, not Law & Order.

Well, I was expecting a total trainwreck, but I actually thought this episode was OK. Not good, but OK. It still easily outperformed nearly every ep last season. Maybe I was just relieved to have a female perp in what was ultimately a murder case! Anything to get a break from the rich white man raping the young white woman. Honestly, my favorite thing was the rain out the squadroom windows. Yes, yes, I know, but the dark-and-stormy-night thing is a cliche because it's effective. Use that rain machine more, show! And... I think that's all I got. It's weird that the most heavily promoted ep in forever is the one about which I have the least to say.

Well, the big surprise was that I really loved the Benson/Sheila stuff! I could not have been less enthused by the prospect of this story, but Brooke Shields is really transforming it into something great, essentially single-handedly. She acts the hell out of her scenes and I'm finding her character very affecting. They're doing a good job of making this work by keeping it grounded -- I sincerely hope they can resist the temptation to reveal that Sheila is actually the world's most prolific sex trafficker, and Ellie was just one of her many thousands of victims. The crime story I thought was fine. They've done the evil rehab/hospital/whatever before, but not in awhile, so we were good for another run at that, but I thought they didn't execute properly. They spent too much time at the beginning chasing red herrings, and then the more interesting developments in the second half were rushed. There was also a disconnect in the portrayal of Lux -- the location was so gorgeous and lavish (I was seeing it and thinking, I want to go there!), yet the social worker and her office were portrayed in that overwhelmed-public-servant way. It's so torturous to work at this gorgeous high-end rehab facility for pretty young white girls that job positions there are unfillable for months on end? And some of Peter Scolari's scheme was just sloppily plotted. It seemed like a scam succeeding on such a large scale would have a better eye on the details. Overall, an OK episode. I'd hope for better but it's still such an enormous, titanic improvement over last season that I'm coming away basically happy And yes, this was an outrage! If there's one person who shouldn't complain about their help, it's Benson.

Plus they're not actually interested in using the boys during the dinner scenes. They throw to them as little as they can get away with, and it's everyone else there who's playing the meat of the scene. So the boys have to be split up, if they kept them on the same side of the table, it's too much concentrated dead air. What they should have done is have the empty place setting with no one in Linda's spot for awhile, then eventually have the poignant episode resolution be when Danny lets that go and they reorganize the seating arrangements How weird was Len Cariou's line this week to the boys that they were "too young for a tragedy like that" -- the tragedy being acquaintances from school ODing. What about the tragedy of your mother just dying in a helicopter accident?!?

Thank you! I came here thinking this was the first year with no Kang & Kodos. Which was disappointing! But I will take the blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. That makes it a still unbroken run for Kang or Kodos in every TOH, right? Though, like this year, sometimes only on a technicality -- I'd like to both see AND hear them each Halloween! Doesn't have to be a lot! I'd take one line! I was also annoyed that one TOH where we only heard one of them as an announcer for a second. I though this year was a strong outing. My only real issues were with the last segment, which I found upsetting in this weird, visceral way. In 28 years I'd say this is the first time I would describe any TOH segment as "upsetting." None of the other gruesomeness has bothered me, but this one got under my skin... which is not entirely a bad thing. I like that it pushed the boundaries, though I didn't actually like watching it!

So, I liked this one! Yes, it was extremely predictable, and yes, they have done the exact same story already, and yes, most of the ridiculous things people have pointed out are in fact totally ridiculous. But by the end, it just worked for me. I found it moving. It was really all in the performances -- the actress playing the Emma Con Artist was exceptional, the mom really brought it in her last scene, and Brooke Shields was fantastic. I also thought this episode did something well that SVU never does well -- the themes in the case offered a compelling counterpoint to Benson's personal arc, without being too on the nose. Usually when they attempt "the issues in the case resonate with the issues in the personal story", the paralleling is waaaaaay too literal and it just feels stupid. Here, you see how it was making Benson think of her own situation, without being a conveniently exact copy of her present dilemma. I'd say it's the first episode this season where I've decisively liked all the plotlines in the episode. A tried-and-true story, but well executed. Nice job, show.

All the SVU paperwork is now handled by Lucy.

Well... this episode had it's heart in the right place, but once again they tripped themselves up in many of the usual ways. Will anything break them of this addiction to pretty young white victims? I suppose I should just be relieved that this week's white male rapist was not also a powerful older man, they could have done a veer into some "it was all the school principal!" twist. My main comment to add is: I find it completely insane that in this Benoah story, the scene we have skipped is the first meeting of Benson and Brooke Shields. That first meeting is a scene I actually want to see! It's possibly the ONLY scene this story suggests that I want to see! And THAT'S what they skip over? If you're going to end last week with a cliffhanger of opening the door to Brooke Shields, this week should start with Benson talking to Brooke Shields. Having her just recap it to Rollins later is so unsatisfying. (Though I do like the developing of the bond between Benson and Rollins) This was also one of those episodes where they got too trapped on the sets and similar internal spaces, and it became so visually boring. I always like the episodes more when you can definitely feel that they are in NYC, which you did not this week. This! That was a horrible opening. And needlessly belabored, we needed about 25% of what we actually saw to get the point. This is exactly what I was thinking. During the arrest scene I was like "OK, here we go, this could be interesting!" Then the very next scene we're told "two of those guys have already made deals against the other one" -- and not a moment too soon, because if they hadn't we might have to do a different story than the same story we do every week! This was one thing I did like, I thought that was an effective turn he made at the end. He didn't understand until then that he had committed a rape, and once he realized, he and his mom recognized the necessity of owning up to it -- it felt truthful to me, the way they executed it. If it became the new standard SVU plot that every episode ended with the rapist tearful and remorseful, that would feel problematic, but as an occasional resolution I think it's good -- we do need some variety here. They tried something similar last year in the Anthony Edwards episode, but it was written so terribly in that one, with the kid randomly jumping up in the middle of the trial and confessing to the rape and begging forgiveness.

Though... don't you really want to hear Luisa's narrator? Because I suddenly do.

I'm surprised to say this, but... I didn't really like this episode. And with rare exception (Petrafied, Rogelio Stalker), I'm pretty much always on board with what this show has to offer. But nothing in this episode did it for me. I didn't care for Tyler Posey, I haaaaaaaaaaaaate the thought of more Petra torture at the hands of Aneszka, I wasn't wowed by the new Mateo (and I thought the last one was an incredible find... I wonder what went amiss), I didn't like the way either the Ro/Xo/Darci or Jane/Raf/Petra relationship threads unfolded. I am even perpetually pro-Rose & Luisa, but I didn't like their bits last night either! Intellectually I like the female narrator concept, in execution I was annoyed by it. Maybe I'm just in a mood this week or something. Disliking a Jane The Virgin episode this much was a strange feeling! I'm wondering if the problem was just me and if I should rewatch...

When the showrunner changed at the start of season 18, this relationship was quickly disposed of in an awkwardly written breakup. I don't even remember what the issue was, I just remember the bad writing. As setup, there were episodes where some other character would ask Benson, apropos of nothing and totally inappropriately, "you seem to be in a bad mood, things OK with you and Tucker?", and then Benson would say some dark, vague thing and gaze off into the distance for a moment. Whatever the show-logic reason was, it felt like they might as well have just put up a title card that said "new showrunner bored by people in relationships" and then never shown Tucker again, and it would have been about equally as satisfying as what they did.

In the "Top 10 Tim Gunn Moments" they showed before the episode, one of them was him handling Ivy's allegation of cheating against Michael C, and Tim really smacked her down for the delayed reporting and she came off looking pathetic, desperate, and deceitful (I mean, Ivy did seem like human garbage every minute she was on screen, so not the hugest change, but it did seem even worse here). I also have some recall of that finale accusation of cheating (a female designer whose name I've forgotten, accusing... Santino?), and in that case it was also the accuser who came off looking bitter, petty, and jealous. Margarita had that line about how she didn't want to be the person harping about cheating on PR, and I believe that really was her concern... reporting suspected cheating has blown back on the accuser before. I look more favorably on Margarita, she seemed very self-aware about the mistakes she made in handling this. She gossiped inadvisably to blow off steam when the pressure was really getting to her, and then it blew up in her face. She Michael, though... ugh. He behaved like such an immature brat. Talk about squandering a winning hand! I came out of this with less respect for him than I have for the obnoxious cheater!