skittl3862

Right? Especially with programs like the Innocence Project in real life, or Tucker going to the Conviction Integrity Unit in universe, it suggests that no one comes out of prison undamaged, so why even bother, even if they're innocent? They may have been innocent going in, but prison changes them. They already did this story in the episode Solitary- where the prisoner was put in solitary confinement for years, then got out of prison and murdered someone because he went crazy. Also, not to be all Team Tuckson, but wouldn't it have made sense for him to appear in a press conference scene where new evidence overturned a conviction? Isn't that kind of his department now? Soapbox: I'm sick of the show trivializing prison rape against men. For years, they used to openly mock suspects about how much they would be raped in prison. Then it started being used as a throwaway reference from former convicts (Perverted comes to mind, though I know there are others). In this episode, they took it a step further by actively blaming his prison rape for causing him to become a rapist himself. But, you know, no trial for Sean's rapists. The two-part season finale last year brought a correctional officer to trial because he raped female inmates. For all the championing of crimes against women on this show, I wish SVU would use their platform to highlight the fact that men are victims too and they are also worthy of justice. I wanted Sean to be ultimately innocent, and have it be a story of the bias against him as an ex-convict.

I like New Noah. I normally don't like young children on shows, because they're too young to actually act and are basically crying, drooling props who stare vacantly off camera at their real mother behind the scenes while the scene goes on around them until they're old enough to monotonously parrot lines (looking at you, Lily on Modern Family). This kid actually interacts with Mariska in a believable way, and vice versa. It's cute. I don't want this much Noah screen time every week, but still, cute. I prefer him to Kathleen Stabler or Zara Amaro.

"I should be in the hospital getting checked for rabies!" Benson: "I seriously doubt you gave the dog rabies."

"Name"- A long-buried child's body is discovered at a playground with his lunchbox. Fin: Ok, I always wanted to know this. Munch: What? Fin: Do twinkies last forever? Give you 20 bucks, take a bite.

If Carisi is a Mary Sue, what does that make Olivia Benson? There are multiple episodes where she is literally the only one who is right all along. I don't think she was shown to make a single mistake until season 14. Carisi's role is the rookie detective. He's still learning. He still makes mistakes (definitely not perfect). He's eager to please- personally and professionally- and wants to succeed at SVU. He's a bit of a Season 1 Cassidy, but without the fromage. I prefer his empathy to Amaro's hot-headed reactions. I certainly don't think Peter Scanavino is hot enough to have been cast solely to titillate viewers, and if that is the role they were attempting to fill, they could have done a lot better. No offense to Peter, but... I'm just glad we finally have a male SVU detective who doesn't fall into the 2 long-established tropes of Comic Relief and Dad Who Takes It Personally.

There are a few episodes that are really problematic in retrospect. I watched Fallacy recently and it's literally cringe-worthy now. Everyone calls the trans woman a he-she and a t*****, even when they still think she's the innocent victim who acted in self-defense. Stabler outs her to her boyfriend to get a confession. The defense attorney proposes in trial that she killed the guy because he was going to out her to everyone and she feared for her life, and they're all "Psh- crazy talk!" And when she's found guilty, Alex Cabot sends her away to the men's prison where she's raped to near-death on literally her first night. I know transgender rights are still relatively new, but "he-she" was always offensive, and SVU detectives of all people should know how at risk transgender people are.

I think because in the cases of Munch and Stabler, the show wanted to leave the door open for the future. Dodds was expendable. Andy Karl hasn't been around long enough for anyone to care if he never comes back. Richard Belzer has come back twice now. Even Chris Meloni has said he'd want to come back before the series finale. A big goodbye episode seems too final for a universe where they're technically still around, just off-screen. Is this the first time one of the squad has died during the whole L&O franchise? I can't remember the other shows. It's not really a L&O thing; their main characters all get graceful (living) exits. I didn't care about Dodds Jr, and knew Andy had to leave for Groundhog's Day, but I think it was moving to realize this has never happened before on SVU. I liked how Dodds Sr was all over the place in this episode. He truly believed there was no way that his golden child would die like this. Glad to be wrong about my Olivia speculation. Also- I never ship characters. Joss Whedon killed my little fangirl shipping heart when Angel left Buffy. I don't get invested in character ships- real or imagined- and let the writers take me on their ride. whatever the end may be. But damn, I wanna see hiatus webisodes of Olivia and Tucker in Paris, and adopting a dog for Noah. I really like how the show has handled Benson and Tucker. The slow progression of their relationship over the past 2 seasons was (surprisingly) subtle and realistic, without sucking up screen time (e.g. Noah) or coming out of literally nowhere (e.g. "Is this because I'm a lesbian?"). I know the L&O franchise has never been about their personal lives, but Benson always got the short end of the stick on SVU. For 12 seasons, all we got was "Oh, Benson's dating this guy off-screen who we're clearly never going to meet because the writers didn't even give him a name when she called to cancel their date" all while Stabler's kids were popping up in every other episode. It's about time she gets a stable LTR with someone worthy of her. Not surprised Barba's plot is left hanging.

That's just my guess after I read that article. I have no inside scoop. I thought rehab too when they first started talking about something impacting Benson in the finale, but I don't think that scenario is scary or upsetting enough to warrant the later comments in the press about people crying when they read the script.

http://www.examiner.com/article/svu-exec-producers-explain-the-motivation-behind-emotional-season-finale "Several weeks ago, 'SVU' Executive Producer Warren Leight uttered one word to me about the season 17 finale. It sent chills down my spine. It's a word that has no alternate meaning. It can only mean one thing. And it's not good." Calling it now- that one word is cancer. Warren's final parting gift to torture Benson from beyond the grave is cancer.

I meant more that Ken didn't tell Fin that he and Alejandro were going to start a family, versus not telling him until the surrogate was 3 months pregnant. That's a pretty big decision, and Fin and Ken seem close enough for him to have tried to set him up a few weeks ago. Having a baby using a surrogate takes months of planning before they even get to the implantation. It was awkward that the show introduced it as Fin not knowing Ken and Alejandro were planning to have children at all until the surrogate was 3 months pregnant. They could have framed it as "Hey, remember how we told you about the surrogate? Well it worked! You're going to be a grandpa!" The show has never had an issue before with ignoring the detectives' personal lives and presenting it in medias res before- Rollins's pregnancy and the mystery baby daddy, Cathy leaving Elliot, Cragen's escort habit, Tuckson- basically all of Olivia's relationships really.

This is why I never liked L&O: CI. I can't believe they used the "It's his last day on the job" trope for Dodds Jr so blatantly. Do procedural writers even try anymore, or is there some cop show plot line generator they all use? Are corrections officers actually called "NY's Boldest"? Ew. I don't think I've ever heard a positive story about a corrections officer. The Barba confrontation at the end was clunky, but not that out of character. It's more accurate for a guy who grew up in the barrio than him shrinking and hiding behind Benson because the mean man threatened him. I mean, what's the guy going to do? Show up at Barba's high-rise and try to get past the doorman? He can't exactly pounce on the ADA the same way they did on the poor black woman with the criminal record. It's funny- I just watched Lowdown the other day, when Casey warned a wife of a cheating (closeted) husband to get tested for HIV and Benson has her own "OMG I slept with a gay!" crisis which is like, vaguely offensive in retrospect, and it reminded me of her moment with the wife. I thought it was a little cruel that they had the wife in the grand jury to confront her with all the evidence of her husband raping women for years. I know it's a set-up for next week's episode, but man. Grandpa Fin! Adorable! It's slightly weird that Ken didn't tell him they were even trying until the surrogate was 3 months pregnant, especially since they just had dinner a few weeks ago.

Carisi is totally growing on me. I thought he was kind of a boring cop cliche and suck-up at first, but his role has developed a lot more layers this season. He's one of the good guys, but without the Taking It Personally testosterone drama of Stabler and Amaro. Also, he looks really good in vests.

I THINK that in NY state, as long as 1 of the 2 parties knows they're being filmed it's ok. So the video of her hotel room- illegal, which they charged them with- but their video of the squad room was technically legal because the producers knew. This episode made me excited for UnREAL Season 2. That may be why I liked it, even though UnREAL did better. The Bachelor is the devil. I totally thought the tech guy behind the scenes would be the rapist. He seemed sketch and would have access to turning cameras off and making videos disappear. Also he had some pretty clear close-ups for a non-speaking role. During the scene where Tucker was standing in the background as they watched the TV episode, it made me think about how a season ago, Tucker would have been called in to ream SVU out for what happened. How come Rollisi is getting more development and screentime than Tuckson? They're not even for real. But based on Benson's side eye reaction, the show is going to stretch out the official yea or nay confirmation in-world. I'm fine with the babies, because neither of them are talking enough yet to rival Amaro's obnoxious, overacting daughter. Someone give Larisa Oleynik a show.

I question the famousness of most of these dances. Footloose, Bad, Nasty- ok sure. Hairspray- I guess, since someone performs to that song literally every single year. But Try? I don't even remember the song, let alone the video. If they wanted to do a contemporary music video, Chandelier is way more famous. And I love 'N Sync, but choosing the VMA performance versus the music video performance was odd. I think everyone aged 27-34 still has the Bye Bye Bye video choreography permanently implanted in their brain. If the judges wanted a clean, traditional quickstep from Nyle, they shouldn't have told them to copy Jim Carrey's hammy performance from The Mask. The original is frantic and crazy for comedic purposes. Almost everyone else got "jazz" or "contemporary" this week to match their original dance's, but Nyle alone is punished for not upholding strict ballroom rules? I bet if he threw Peta in the air for 10 seconds like in the movie, he would have been dinged for a lift as well. Why couldn't Karina wear a normal shirt like Freido Pinto does in the movie? Nyle has to get a lime green prosthetic face mask and teeth for the sake of authenticity, but she can't be fully clothed for once?

Or maybe the 4 contestants associated with his brother and fiancee just happened to be better this week and there is no conspiracy. Nyle is probably going to win. Ginger has been pimped by ABC all along, so nothing new here. And Jodie and Doug did show marked improvements from their performances last week, especially Jodie. By comparison, Wanya wasn't as good as he has been. All of the judges commented on it, not just Maks. I blame Witney, who I've always felt is really immature and just got insanely lucky with Alfonso. Antonio and Von stomped their way through their performances and deserved their scores. Kim will never be good and Keo only hurt that, but we all called that as soon as the partners were announced. Maks was a dick, but I don't see what purpose it serves "his people" to put down Kim, who is consistently bottom of the board. As for Paige, she and Ginger have been back and forth every week, with usually a 1 or 2 point difference. Len gave her a 7 two weeks ago. It's not like Paige was consistently getting 9s to Ginger's 6s and Maks shook things up. I doubt Maks was back there twirling his mustache and thinking "Aha- this one point will be the deciding factor between Ginger getting third or fourth place over Paige!" Neither of them are going to win. Wanya and Nyle have 1 and 2 in the bag. I don't think either Paige or Ginger have shown themselves to great thus far, and are riding on the coattails of their popular pros. In a more competitive season (18, 19, 20), they would be solidly middle of the pack.

I liked Maks and Len balancing out CAI and Bruno. This is supposed to be a ballroom dance show. If how it makes you feel is more important than the technique, they should do away with the ballroom styles and have every week be a freestyle or contemporary. If you're going to call something a Viennese Waltz, choreograph a Viennese Waltz. And Len's hate of American Smooth is nothing new- I don't know why pros choreograph American Smooth routines year after year and act surprised when he shits all over it. If you're going to play the game, play the game. That scoring snafu for Nyle was so awkward and should have been handled smoother from a producing perspective. I can't believe that after 22 seasons, Bruno accidentally forgot. I don't get the people saying Maks "favored" Val and Peta or is somehow too biased to judge. His scores for Ginger and Nyle were in line with the other judges. I'd love for someone to provide an example where Maks's votes and/or critique was the outlier amongst the judges, for the sake of elevating "his people" or putting down "the competition". Every critique he had was matched by Len. It's also a little silly that we had Julianne judging Derek for multiple seasons- one of which he won- not to mention her cousin the second-place finalist, but somehow Maks's 8 for Ginger is the biggest bias in the history of DWTS and he should never return. Lindsay carried Von in the worst way. Not sure why he's getting a free pass 2 weeks in a row and Antonio is getting the bitch edit.

Should the switch-up week discussion move into Week 5's thread? Or The Speculation thread? I think the switch pairings will help Jodie and Ginger, and hurt Kim. Jodie needs help, because I don't think Keo really knows how to sell her like the longtime pros have learned. Next week could be a huge confidence boost for her. Can't wait for all the "It's a copy of Maks and Meryl's tango!" "It's a copy of Val and Janel's paso!" comments because they're dancing to Calvin Harris and like, wear black, or have lights. Ginger is kind of coasting and Mark could push her to take it to another level- and ramp up Val's competition with Mark when he gets her back. Kind of like Maks with Meryl. Kim is already middling, and being paired with Keo instead of a "popular" pro- especially at this point in the competition- will do her no favors. I feel like Sharna and Nyle will struggle, since communication is such a huge part of the rapport in their dances. Will be curious to see Paige do a rumba with Sasha, since I feel like I've never been a fan of Mark's "slow" dances.

As anyone who has used that Halloween store spray will attest, it flakes out if you look at it too hard. So while it may have looked nice in those pics before the show, the second she started moving around, 90% of it probably came out and she was left with just the awkward smudges in her part that we saw on TV.

Those were some awful, awful covers of those songs. Belle, Circle of Life, even Part of Your World. It was distracting to the point where I couldn't even enjoy the actual performance. Like "Belle" was so awkward and choppy. I love that song. It's my favorite underrated Disney song, so maybe the issue is that I know it so well so I caught all the awkward jumps in the 5-minute song. I guess they really wanted to get the Val as Gaston moment, but there had to be a better way. I understand the criticism of their "messing about"- but after the set up, they did spend the rest of the dance in hold. It's not sitting on a bench for the first 30 seconds of the song, hold for 10 seconds, running around the floor, spin, messing with the animation, etc. I don't think it's necessarily fair that Len called out Nyle for the bongo solo when it clearly worked with the song, and not Ginger's intro, but I think he tends to overlook it more when they give him enough traditional ballroom content in the rest of the dance. I feel like Witney was the star of Von's dance, not him. Even all the judges' commentary was about how good she looked. The point is to showcase the star, not the pro, and obviously whoever is Cinderella is going to be the standout. Prince Charming is already the most useless Disney prince ever and Von basically stood there and let Witney twirl circles around him in her light-up dress. Why didn't they have one of the female stars (Marla, Kim, Jodie, Paige, anyone) as Cinderella instead of giving a male star the Disney princess dance? What was with Paige's spray can red hair? It looked like Halloween in middle school. Why didn't they just give her a real red wig? Of leave her blonde hair alone? All the money and production that went into tonight and it looked like a cheap afterthought, especially ironic as Mark was praising the wardrobe, hair and make-up.

I think she meant that she left the show in its prime and her favorite year was the year she went back to England.

To be fair, babies don't need to be soothed literally every time they cry. We as viewers may find a crying baby annoying, but her not soothing him isn't necessarily awkward to me. Especially since soothing him would have probably involve whipping out the boob, which would have been way more awkward.

I hate "Home". I thought we were rid of it- it was literally everywhere for awhile, like in dog food commercials. Also Phillip Phillips is a stupid name. Re Ginger's dance: eh. I thought ABT or something might be part of the contemporary routine since they met up at Lincoln Center, but I guess it's too early to have that kind of filler. Kind of into Val's man bun. "I'm 4 foot 7, but I'm still above ground!" Love you Mrs. Garrett. I'm glad Tony has a decent partner this season. It's about time. She's the oldest woman, but unlike past seasons, she's not too old to function. I love that Marla danced in honor of Tiffany since Trump forgot about her completely last week during his speech. Not sure what the song had to do with her favorite year of 1993, which makes the whole theme week pretty pointless. I think UFC is stupid and I think I can't get past that and like Paige. Mark's (hopefully fake) neck tattoo was grotesque. Of the 3 football players, I'd like Antonio to be the last one standing. I can see Doug going home next week. I spent Wanya's whole dance trying to figure out Lindsay's dress. It had upside down cleavage with underboob on one side. And a string holding it together? So weird. It doesn't even look sexy or alluring, just weird. Glad Peta called out CAI's comments about Nyle musicality. That's like complaining about Amy Purdee's leg extension or that Noah's arm wasn't in the correct position for the waltz. I know the deaf community doesn't view hearing impairment as a disability, but with dancing, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to interpreting the tone music they can't hear- on top of learning to dance, on top of learning to dance through an interpreter. Give the man some time to progress. CAI practically creamed herself every week over Noah and Amy overcoming obstacles, but because Nyle has all his limbs, it suddenly doesn't count? I wish the judges would prepare their comments for Nyle a little better so the interpreter doesn't have to fumble over their nonsense words. It was interesting to see the preview commercial for next week's Disney night and see all the 10s from past seasons. We've only seen one 9 thus far and it was in the last dance.

I understand the function of the sex registry, but I don't understand why sex crimes are held above all others. Why should sexting teens be put on the registry for "distributing child porn", but not someone with 3 DUI charges? That's not a public risk as well? If I were a parent, I'd be more concerned with a guy who repeatedly gets behind the wheel of a car drunk being around my children than I would be about a guy who plead guilty to date rape. I don't like Rollisi. I don't like Rollins at all, so I don't need yet another weekly update about her personal life and yet another colleague she's maybe hooking up with. We went 15 seasons without hearing a damn thing about Benson's personal life and never got the Benson/Stabler hookup because they were partners and was wrong, but suddenly Rollins has slept with every man in the precinct and no one cares? Is Fin next? I just dislike when TV writers pair off all the main characters with each other. It's lazy and boring. And when it comes to workplace dramas, highly unrealistic. Day players are not that expensive. How often did Kathy appear during the Stabler years- 4 times a season? Maybe? At least bringing in a recurring character like Cassidy or Tucker made sense- someone in their world, but not necessarily in their office. I really don't want to see the musical chair romances on this show. That's the reason I stopped watching Greys Anatomy.

This seems like a really low-scoring season. I like it. It's hard to distinguish the good from the meh when they're all getting 7s Week 1. Those 4, 5 and 6s were well-deserved. Geraldo dressing up as Donald "I'm going to build a wall" Trump during Latin week was just gross. It wasn't even funny. I can't get excited about Paige. Mischa is getting a serious bitch edit. I don't think I've ever seen it so blatant this early. They also seem to be going out of their way to catch her bad moments during the live-broadcast. I'm curious if it's earned or editing. Wanya for the win! "Blood flow." I laughed out loud. Line of the night.

To be fair, Tucker hasn't really tried to get Olivia arrested and fired except the case where her DNA was on a murder victim. His investigations usually involved Unstabler and Amaro. In Post-Mortem Blues, he even tried to guide her towards a confession that would close his case. I'm loving Tuckson and I'm never a shipper.