Xeliou66

Matrimony had an interesting cast of suspects and I really liked the twist that the wife was innocent and her mom did it without her knowledge, it was a good episode, I liked seeing Arthur Gold defend the wife and his client actually being innocent for once was good. The slimy lawyer and the butler were good suspects as well. Working Mom was a strong case from start to finish, I liked the detectives investigation tracing the credit card bills and discovering the 2 women were moonlighting as hookers, and I thought Jack’s closing argument did a great job of showing how this was a case of a woman murdering her blackmailer, not defending herself from an attacker, the victim was sleazy but he wasn’t violent. The 3 parter had some stuff that I like a lot, particularly Lennie enjoying being in California and a lot of the court scenes were good, and there were some good one liners - “ a daring neorealist foray into Jellystone Park” is one of my favorite McCoy lines for some reason. But the stuff with Rey was irritating, it got tiresome how every woman seemed to find Rey oh so attractive. Survivor is a great episode as well, with the hunt for the coins that turned out to not exist, some really good twists. I agree Jamie was in the wrong for using what she knew about Judith’s phobia of being crowded to try to force their way in, it was underhanded, one of the few times I disliked Jamie. I liked Adam’s scenes and how he realized the coins weren’t around, and the millionaire businessman who was involved in the fraud was another memorable suspect. If I had to pick a favorite from season 7, it would be ID, that is an awesome episode with great twists, memorable suspects and good character moments. We Like Mike is a close second for me, that’s another awesome episode. I think season 7 has the best run of cases in L&O history - I like every episode except for Mad Dog which I don’t care for.

Yeah a situation where a judge has been bribed is the only way the prosecution can get around double jeopardy, and it’s also worth noting that in that episode the bribed judge tossed the case, he didn’t even let the jury decide - as Jack noted at the end of the episode, jeopardy never attached because the defendant was never in jeopardy, the judge was bribed and the process was corrupted.

Agreed it’s disgusting, but it has happened in real life and most SVU crimes are pretty disgusting. This is the 3rd time in franchise history they’ve had a “pregnant coma patient” storyline - the Mothership episode Grief and the SVU episode Waste being the first two. Like others I thought this story might go the way of the Mothership episode and have one or both of the moms paying someone to impregnate the victim. That Mothership episode was messed up, the mom in that one was nuts.

I think this combined two ripped from the headlines stories - the Gabby Petito case that the original story was based on, and a case of a comatose woman being raped/impregnated at a medical facility somewhere - I don’t know as much about that case but I do remember a real life pregnant coma patient case in the last couple of years and I believe the rapist was caught. So they mixed two real life stories for this one. I didn’t find it any more “tasteless” than other ripped from the headlines episodes, any case taken from the headlines is bound to possibly offend some people, it’s just the nature of the franchise, it’s what L&O has always done.

That was an episode of the Mothership, from season 8, titled Grief. SVU did a pregnant comatose woman before in the season 4 episode Waste.

The other ending that wasn’t revealed was Vaya Con Dios from season 10 - we don’t know which way the Supreme Court ruled on the Chilean military leader that the DAs charged with murdering an American citizen.

What a boring slog of an episode, with way too much St O worship and melodrama, complete with Mariska’s overacting. Fin and Bruno saved it from the heap of complete garbage, Fin got some good scenes and Bruno was strong as always. The investigation parts were fine but it was bogged down by Benson melodrama and Benson the awesome victim whisperer who takes everything personally.

Maybe the fastest “ripped from the headlines” case in L&O history, and for only the second time in Mothership history we didn’t learn the ending. Interesting, and it worked, and strange as it sounds I could see both sides of this case - not sure how much I want to say here given the real life situation, but I can see all sides - I abhor street justice and violence, but corporate greed is despicable, this fictional victim was a dirtbag, and the system is so biased in favor of corporate America that I understand the outrage. So I liked how they ended the episode, and I liked the discussion between Baxter/Price/Maroun about it, I like how the relationship between Nick and Nolan has evolved into a more trusting one. The biggest flaw of this episode was how biased the judge was, allowing witnesses to speculate and get on a soapbox. I couldn’t believe it took until the end to talk about trying to get a new judge and I would’ve liked more exploration of the pros and cons of asking the judge to recuse himself. I missed Shaw and I wondered given how he missed a big part of last week as well what was going on, was Mehcad filming something else during this time? Nevertheless I liked the “ticking clock” first half, it was unique and pulled off well. I was curious about Riley’s first lines, I guess he’s reconciled with his wife, it’s been mentioned several times that he split with his wife a few years ago, but maybe they are giving it another chance, still kind of weird they mentioned it out of the blue, the same way they never explicitly mentioned Nick splitting with his wife until he had a new girlfriend last week. Kind of weird, but the personal stuff is minor and I was glad there was no personal connection this week.

Episode description When a murder suspect becomes an underground hero, Brady seeks help from a former colleague to track down a culprit who seems to be in multiple locations; Baxter, Price and Maroun disagree on the best way forward when public interest heightens.

Episode description The doctor of a comatose woman calls SVU when he discovers his patient is pregnant; Benson must convince the family to reject magical thinking and look at the facts

LOL I was reminded of Rollins’ loser sister on SVU when Nina’s sister popped up as well.

Case felt rather routine, not bad but not the most compelling either, perp came off as too one note much of the time and it was very obvious she had past trauma that triggered a breakdown, though I did think the final confrontation with the abuser was well done and the best scene of the episode. And I was left wondering was the old lady really the perp’s aunt? I guess she was but I wasn’t 100% sure. I for one was glad Remy is back as he adds a spark of life that is absent without him - his annoyance with the clinic and then his “bravo Dr Freud” line to the other shrink made me laugh, I know he’s polarizing but I like the passion and charisma Remy brings to his cases. Don’t care about the personal stuff with Nina but I thought she was right to be pissed about Scola going behind her back. At least the personal stuff is split equally now so one personal storyline doesn’t go overboard the way the stuff with Jess’ kid did. Still really bummed that this show has been cancelled - I like the darker, psychological nature of this show as compared to the other two FBIs.

Pretty good episode last night, not a whole lot of twists but a solid enough case, nice seeing Jubal assist from NYC and I liked the role each character had, Wes is really good as team leader. So disappointing that they cancelled this show.

Very good episode, I liked having a serial killer case, with a good investigation and good work by each character, I liked seeing Maggie and Scola work together and I liked Jubal and the analysts at headquarters as well. Each character got some nice moments - good call by Jubal on folding the paper and some good calls by the analysts to find the locations. I did wonder where the rest of the SWAT team was when Maggie/Scola fought with the killer at the end, that seemed like a flaw, seemed like backup would’ve gotten there sooner. And I also wondered if it will come back to bite Maggie that she knew all along the imprisoned guy’s father had died, it seemed like a bad precedent to set because criminals would be more reluctant to make deals with them in the future. No sign of OA or Isobel, but this show has a deep cast of characters so it worked fine and I liked seeing Maggie/Scola work together. Good episode.

From the little bit I’ve heard about the crossover it does appear Carisi will be in it and will work with Price, so that should be interesting. And I hope Bruno and Fin are in it and work with Shaw/Riley, I imagine those 4 would get along well.

I hope this idiotic sounding CIA spinoff never sees the light of day. I’m fucking pissed about both MW and International being cancelled, and I’m glad there’s no backdoor pilot for CIA because I won’t be watching it period. So so stupid that MW and International are gone.

LOL - they were the 2 funniest L&O characters for sure. That’s why a conversation with them would’ve been epic

I saw online that they are filming a crossover between the Mothership and SVU right now. Not sure how I feel about this - while I like that the shows are connected and have continuity between them, frequently crossovers don’t work well, part of what makes L&O so good is its consistent formula and crossovers tamper with that, plus St Olivia drives me nuts on SVU and has a way of hijacking the show to be all about her, I hope she doesn’t drag the Mothership characters down with her. On the plus side I would enjoy seeing Shaw/Riley work with the likes of Fin and Bruno, that would be awesome, and I wonder if they’ll work Carisi into the legal side with Price/Maroun. Oh well, we’ll see how it goes.

Season 7 is on today, so many excellent episodes this season, just one classic case after another Matrimony is a great episode, strong case with colorful suspects, it was a good twist that the mom of the wife was the one who killed the rich old guy and the wife wasn’t in on it. I liked the courtroom stuff with Arthur Gold defending the wife, he was always a great adversary and in this case his client actually was innocent and was rightfully acquitted, it was a bit different from the norm in that the DAs jumped the gun and believed the wrong suspect was guilty before figuring out the mother did it. It was a really well done plot. The killer mom’s rant about going back to Arkansas and being the “dancing naked idiot family” at the end was pretty funny. Also funny was the wife casually calling the detectives by their first names when they went to talk to her the second time. I did wonder if the lawyer would go to jail at the end or not. Good case with lots of interesting characters. Working Mom is another great episode, with the middle class women from Westchester moonlighting as hookers. I thought Jack’s closing was great and spot on, this was a case of a woman executing her blackmailer to keep her secret life hidden, not a case of self defense, Jack did a great job of laying out the real reason the murder occurred and how there was no evidence of self defense, and how the deceased was a blackmailer not a rapist. The victim was certainly sleazy but he never raped anyone or was violent against anyone, he was a blackmailer. I didn’t feel much sympathy for him but he didn’t deserve to be killed, blackmail doesn’t justify murder. I thought the husband was clearly lying when he said the wife told him about the shooting. The investigation was great as well, I liked how Briscoe/Curtis traced the credit card charges and money orders to get to the bottom of the case. The 3 part episode is on now, I know some people can’t stand it but I like it overall, it was nice to be able to go deeper into a case and see a longer investigation and trial, kind of wish L&O had done it again. The personal stuff with Rey was kind of irritating, it got so old seeing all women find Rey so attractive, but it didn’t ruin the episode. Lennie in LA was amusing, he was ready to play golf with the shrink until they had a lead on the case. I liked the trial scenes in part 3 and Adam’s giddy “makes them look weak” line after Jamie got the media to throw the defense off their game was funny, and of course the ending lines were great. It was also interesting seeing Olivet clash with the sleazy shrink, especially since he was played by the same actor who played the doc who assaulted Olivet in season 3 - I wonder if that was a hint to continuity when he asked Olivet where all the hostility was coming from. It was a pretty good case with the Hollywood suspects and the legal proceedings in LA and the intense media scrutiny. It’s not in my top 5 of season 7, there are so many good episodes from this season, but I do like it.

We’ve seen Brady and Baxter interact a couple of other times, Baxter called her by her first name in one of their interactions so they’ve clearly known each other for a while. I don’t know if she had been to Baxter’s residence before. I really enjoy seeing the police and DAs interact and work together, they did this very well during the last few years of the original run when Jack became DA, and I’m glad they are doing it again on the revival. During Van Buren’s run she had scenes with Schiff in a lot of different episodes, she had 2 scenes with Branch that I can recall, I don’t think Nora Lewin ever had a scene with a cop. It’s enjoyable to have all 6 main characters working together closely and I wish they had had more scenes between the two “separate but equally important groups” in the show’s early years - I would’ve loved a conversation between Lennie Briscoe and Adam Schiff, that would’ve been awesome! So it’s nice that they are working all the characters into scenes together, they’re doing it really nicely.

I usually dislike hostage situation episodes, they tend to bore me usually, the FBI original episode that had a hostage situation that aired on the same night as this one was done much better, because there was other action going on and enough twists to the plot to keep it flowing nicely. This MW episode had no twists and no other action to further the plot, it was just a dull drag, which I almost never say about this show.

I liked the interview of the witness with the dog, I think the dog barking just added a bit of uniqueness/humor, kind of reminded me of how we used to see more colorful witness/detective interactions and interviews on the show. I’ll add in one more comment not just about this episode but the season as a whole - I think they are doing a really good job having the police and DA characters interact a lot, I always like when they have that and they are doing a great job of it this year - we saw Brady visit Baxter at home in this one, we’ve seen Baxter interact with the detectives a couple of times, we’ve had lots of scenes between Price/Maroun and the police characters. Makes the cases feel like a full team effort instead of two separate halves and I really like that, L&O did a good job of that at the end of its original 20 year run and I’m pleased to see they are doing it again - it’s one thing the revival writers are doing well.

About Nolan’s family, he has two brothers, we knew about the one brother having a drug addiction and eventually OD’ing from it before this episode, it’s been mentioned a few times, he mentioned him when talking with his other brother Thomas in the episode with his dad’s failing health, and we saw a picture of the 3 Price brothers as kids when Nolan was packing up his dad’s stuff from the hospital. Maybe I was a bit harsh in my initial assessment of the episode with regards to Shaw, it just annoys me when detectives go overboard because of emotions, reminded me too much of how St Olivia on SVU is always playing god and putting her emotions first. I do think it’s time to give Shaw’s psyche a rest, this was the 3rd time this season when put in a conflicting position. Overall I just want the personal melodrama dialed back - I like the revival more than most it seems but I wish they would dial back the personal stuff, some episodes it annoys me more than others, I don’t mind an occasional dive into the characters personal lives but it’s been a bit much this season.

Have to disagree about Nolan - nothing Nolan did was slimy or underhanded - the defendant had committed perjury in a prior legal proceeding, it was very much relevant to bring it up to impeach her credibility. I got Maroun’s point that there is something of a double standard regarding sex scandals when it comes to females vs men, but any prosecutor would use prior perjury to impeach a defendant, man or woman. Nothing slimy there. It was the defense attorney Kate who was rather slimy, convincing a witness he would lose his job if he testified when his private stuff couldn’t even be brought up, and trying to pit Nick and Nolan against each other, which Nick called her on. I don’t know if they’ll mention Kate again but I doubt Nick could trust her fully after this. It was an interesting episode with some good character moments and a decent enough case.

Did you miss last season’s finale? That was the only other time we’ve seen Baxter’s personal life be featured, it was implied his wife didn’t want him accepting the DA job in the first place and then when he got their daughter to testify that was the last straw. But yeah they left the viewer to fill in the gaps between Baxter’s wife not showing up to support him on election night and then him being divorced now and seeing a new woman