Xeliou66

Good point about the killer not having any injuries - I get that they didn’t want to make it obvious he did it but it was a hole. This is another reason why they shouldn’t show the crime in progress - if they had just left the exact way the murder went down up to the imagination it would’ve been better. I really miss the openings of people finding crime scenes instead of seeing one of the last scenes of the victim’s life or in this case the actual murder. To be fair to the revival they started doing the stuff about showing the last scenes in the victim’s life in the final few years of the original run, and I didn’t care for it then either. But actually showing the murder here felt gratuitous and like something from a lesser show, while the ending felt more like SVU style melodrama. I hope they dial back the melodrama but I’m not looking forward to seeing Olivia Benson in the next episode. But I still enjoy the revival more than most and it has good stuff - I particularly like the Shaw/Riley detective pairing, they are very enjoyable to watch, and I’m enjoying DA Baxter’s scenes quite a bit - while no one can replace Jack, Baxter is a worthy successor and I like having more scenes with the DA. Price is hit or miss, sometimes he’s good and sometimes he’s soft or rubs me the wrong way. Jury is still out on the new LT but I’m pretty sure she’ll settle in. Maroun is definitely my least favorite and she gets too emotional and it’s interfered with how she does her job on multiple occasions, I wouldn’t miss her if she left.

I noticed her absence as well - wonder where she went? She was in just about every episode of seasons 22 and 23. I liked her fine but sometimes they relied too much on her and her computer so I didn’t really miss her. Yeah some people just don’t want a big hoopla about leaving and I take it Dixon is one of those. It was a bit odd how the new LT just showed up at the crime scene and said she was replacing Dixon but I’m glad they gave Dixon a happy ending and had lines about her after not adequately addressing Bernard or Cosgrove leaving. Like a couple of others, I’m wondering if they are setting Maroun up to depart this season. She is definitely my least favorite of the main cast and just doesn’t add much. I’m starting to wonder if she’ll go vigilante to take down her sister’s killer and that will be her exit. I hope it doesn’t get soapy like that, the ending of this episode was way too soapy and SVU-like for my taste, but I’m wondering if Maroun will be gone. Anyway it’s nice to have L&O back and I still enjoy it even with the flaws.

Season 1 is back on WE Today Prisoner of Love is pretty good, my favorite part is Cragen chewing out Greevey when Greevey wanted off the case because the victim’s life disturbed him - Greevey was such a judgmental prick, and I liked how Cragen firmly told him to do his job and didn’t let him off the case. And then Greevey got a shock when he learned the victim was a practicing Catholic just like him. The case was bizarre with the arts commissioner basically being a slave to the rich woman - I’m not sure why they let the victim die other than that it was just thrilling for the woman to hold that power over people and the commissioner was enthralled with her. It was a decent investigation and case - I liked Adam’s scenes as well. Out of the Half Light is just mediocre, very slow moving and predictable case but Robinette was great in it, I liked when he confronted the abusive father and when he went off on the Congressman who was grandstanding and furthering the hoax. Paul was really a great character, it’s too bad we never saw him take the lead in prosecuting a case and that they didn’t do a very good job with him when he returned as a defense lawyer. Life Choice is very memorable but there are plenty of plot holes - most notably that they didn’t realize the victim was pregnant and was at the clinic for an abortion and wasn’t the bomber - the autopsy would’ve revealed her pregnancy, and forensics likely would’ve revealed that she wasn’t the bomber and she probably wouldn’t have had residue of the bomb under her skin and stuff. And it was very coincidental that the victim happened to be an anti abortion activist but she wasn’t involved in the bombing plot. There were just quite a few holes in the plot. Adam was great as usual especially his line about how it struck him as one sided that 3 men were sitting around discussing what rights a woman had over her body. Ben was good as well in that he did his job professionally and effectively despite his own personal feelings. It has some good stuff in it but the plot wasn’t that tightly written.

I don’t mind the crossover, I just despise Olivia Benson. If it was any other SVU character appearing on the Mothership or one of the Mothership characters appearing on SVU I would enjoy it. But Benson is insufferable now and the hero worship of the character by is nauseating.

Hargitay hasn’t appeared on any of those shows. I’m confused by that post as well. And I’m not happy about being subjected to St Olivia on the Mothership next week and I really hope the episode doesn’t just end with her being right about everything and making the Mothership characters look bad. I really can’t stand Olivia now.

Poison is a great episode, the cameo from Briscoe/Green alone makes it awesome, I love seeing them interact with Goren/Eames and seeing Goren suggest they leak the story to the press. They were right to do so, and it was one time I strongly disagreed with Deakins, the public needed to know about the situation and I liked how Goren/Eames stayed silent when Deakins wanted to know who leaked the story - Deakins was wrong to side with the higher ups. Trudy was such a cold blooded psycho villain, willing to kill numerous people just so she could open her boutique. It’s a great episode.

Decent overall - the case was decent enough, and it was nice having a full squad of investigators again. Carisi in court was the best part of the episode, he did great and it was really nice to see them utilize his legal skills, and he even got to share the glory of closing the case at the end along with St O. It was nice that more than just Benson were used and it was awesome to see them go into the courtroom, they rarely do that now so it was nice. The case was decent, I figured the other roommate did it so it was a good twist he wasn’t the perp, but there weren’t a whole lot of twists to the case. Fin and Bruno we’re good as usual, seeing them paired together is always a treat, and it’s great that Bruno is in the opening credits now. What was absurd was the riot breaking out when they arrested the suspect, that came out of the blue and was just ridiculous, I didn’t buy at all that all of the sudden a ton of people would start going berserk over nothing. And having protests at the courthouse was absurd too. It felt like they were trying to make a statement about tension between cops/civilians but it made no sense to do it in this episode and it felt shoehorned in. A better start to the season than I expected - nice to see the courtroom again and more people than just Benson were involved.

This was better than I expected after a bumpy start and it took some twists that I didn’t see coming. I was suspicious of the fiancé from his first scene, but I wasn’t sure who the perp would be. I was afraid it was going to be another politics fest like last year’s premiere and while there was some of that I was glad it went in a different sort of direction. I really liked Baxter - his statement to the commentator at the start reminded me of McCoy’s statement on the witness stand in the season 18 episode where he said that his job was to uphold the law and prosecute crime without bias or prejudice and to stay above the political fray. He was strong throughout, and I’m enjoying having a DA who’s more active - Jack was awesome and can’t be replaced but his role was limited in the revival so it’s nice to have a DA get more screen time and I’m liking Baxter and what he brings. He was the highlight of the episode really. The new lieutenant was interesting enough, it will be interesting to see what her role is going forward, I expect her to settle in more in her relationship with Shaw/Riley. Shaw/Riley were really good as usual, I think they are a stellar pairing, I liked Riley’s blatant disgust with the fiancé when he realized he was the killer, I thought the scumbag was about to take a swing at him for a minute. Glad they gave Dixon a happy ending even if it was rushed - after not doing a good job addressing Cosgrove and Bernard leaving I’m glad they gave Dixon closure. I’ll miss her but I think the new LT will be pretty good as well. I didn’t see it coming that the perp would off himself but it was in character - he was a coward who knew he was about to rot. I was glad the judge didn’t make a stupid ruling tossing out evidence, I was pleasantly surprised that didn’t happen given how often it’s happened on the revival. My problems with the episode were the following - The final few minutes felt too soapy and too much like SVU to be honest, with Maroun breaking down crying and Price hugging her - it was over the top for the Mothership, the Mothership is better when it’s more restrained with its characters emotions. The whole thing about prosecuting the guy covering for the killer was done okay but Maroun’s emotions were overboard and felt too soapy. I’m tired of openings where we see the crime occur, I wish they would go back to the old openings of people stumbling on a crime scene. This one just felt gratuitous and done for shock value as well. And the foot chase was annoying but at least it was brief. Overall this was kind of middle of the road - had some stuff I liked but it was too soapy and melodramatic at the end and I hope they don’t go down that route.

Yeah Maroun is my least favorite of the main characters, she just doesn’t do much for me. I am looking forward to the show being back, and I look forward to meeting the new LT - I hope they address where Dixon went - they didn’t even address Bernard’s departure and the one line they gave about Cosgrove just left me with more questions than answers.

I figured I would start the thread for the season premiere tonight, the episode description reads When a Brooklyn prosecutor is found slain in her apartment, Maroun takes drastic action to convince an eyewitness to come forward; Riley struggles to adjust to the new lieutenant in charge.

The spotlight is on St O in just about every episode now, I just hope there’s more to the story than just hero worship of Benson. It sounds like we might get some legal stuff with Carisi which would be good, all too often they don’t know how to use Carisi/the legal stuff.

The Collar might be my favorite season 12 episode - really compelling case about the wrong priest getting killed and the perp trying to silence the priest over the murder he confessed to him a couple of years earlier. Father Evans was put in a tough position but he did the right thing by telling what happened, and the DAs were correct that the confession wasn’t legally privileged, and putting the killer away and freeing the innocent person is what mattered most. I wonder if Father Evans would continue to be a priest after this. The perp was scum, he killed 2 people and didn’t feel any remorse for it. I liked seeing Nora deal with the church lawyer, she did a good job in this episode, and I liked Jack’s interactions with Father Evans and with his priest friend - Jack always had respect for the law and its protections and he was sympathetic to the church’s position about not wanting to interfere with the priest/penitent privilege as he knew it was important but he also did what needed to be done in closing the case and I liked how he reminded the Bishop that the perp wasn’t asking for forgiveness and that the court would decide whether it was admissible. Briscoe/Green will always be the best detective pairing, I loved their investigation and them tracking down the perp from the gun - Green yelling “get your ass back here, stupid!” to the perp when he ran was great. Also great was the gas station owner telling his employee who stole his gun he had already lost his job when the guy was whining about it. It’s an outstanding episode, might be my favorite from season 12. Undercovered is a frustrating episode, the murder wasn’t justified and the jury should’ve convicted the perp, the victim didn’t deserve to die because of the flaws of the healthcare/insurance system, and Nora was annoying me with her sympathy for the perp. Jack’s closing was good but I guess some of the jurors were just too sympathetic to the defendant’s situation. Interesting case but a frustrating ending. Briscoe/Green were great as always.

Thanks for starting the thread. Sounds like an interesting enough case, hope it delivers on its promise and doesn’t just become another “St O saves the day” hour. Glad Bruno is a regular now, he’s great. I hope the new female cop fits in well, they’ve really struggled with how to write female characters in recent seasons - Kat and Muncy were epic busts.

Looking forward to it - this show has the best cases of the 3 FBIs, always good twists and investigations. I love the current team as well - they gel well together and I like how the screen time is split pretty evenly. I’m on the side that likes Remy as the leader and I like the addition of Nina as well.

Look forward to the FBIs being back, sounds like an interesting premiere. I guess Tiffany will be leaving after this episode, I’ll miss her, but characters come and go on Dick Wolf shows, hopefully the new agent will be good.

Surrender Dorothy is a great episode, one of my favorites from season 10, good twists and an interesting plot - the defendant claiming he murdered the victim to try to avoid a manslaughter conviction for driving the deceased to suicide was wild. He was such a manipulative bastard and creep, I was glad his daughter turned on him. Jack’s disgust with him was great and his closing was very effective, laying out for the jury all of the evidence that proved it was suicide and how the defendant’s actions drove her to it - Graham Sr was a master manipulator and controlling creep, nice to see him go down and I liked the ending lines about how he underestimated the jury and thought he could manipulate them as well. I liked how Skoda consulted with the DAs about how Graham manipulated Dorothy and his disgust with Graham was good and I liked how he talked with Graham’s daughter. Lennie had some great lines, particularly his “take your own advice Doc, surrender with love” line and telling the Mets fan “you better hope your waiter is not a Yankees fan“. I love Briscoe/Green, their investigations are always great. Season 10 is an awesome season, this episode is probably in my top 5 of the season, really great plot.

Driven is a good episode, very interesting story, but I didn’t think that the sentence should be the same for both parents - the shooter should get a longer sentence than the mom, yes the mom deserved to be held accountable but the killer was the dad and don’t forget the confrontation was instigated by the shooter’s son and his friends, they were more responsible for the conflict than the mom and her kids were. Unpopular opinion probably but the sentences shouldn’t be the same. Other than that it’s a strong episode, I liked Jack’s scenes in it and seeing him interact with Van Buren.

I look forward to seeing Maura Tierney’s character and how she interacts with Shaw/Riley - I’ll miss Dixon but hopefully the new LT will be cool as well. I do NOT look forward to seeing Olivia Benson on the Mothership, she stinks up everything she touches, and I’m afraid her appearance on the Mothership will end with the 2-7 and the DAs office bowing to her and telling her just how special she is, I kind of doubt MH would agree to crossover if it wasn’t about making Olivia look saintly. I hope I’m wrong, but I dread it regardless - I have a strong disdain for Olivia Benson - she sucks the life out of everyone around her just about.

Empire sucks, it’s one of the few episodes I usually skip when it’s airing. Not the absolute worst episode ever but definitely one of them, the plot was ridiculous and nonsensical and the stuff with Roberts’ character and Curtis was soapy and stupid. The only thing I liked about it is Adam and Lennie having a scene together at the end - it’s such a shame they only shared the screen a couple of times because they were both awesome, I wish they had worked Adam into scenes with the police a few times, the way they worked DA Baxter into a few scenes with the police last season. Adam and Lennie having a one on one conversation would’ve been awesome. But yeah Empire sucks overall, worst episode of season 9 definitely.

Yeah I saw the new promo, look forward to L&O being back and to meeting the new LT - I’ll miss Dixon, hopefully the new squad leader will be good as well. I really like Shaw and Riley as the detectives, I also look forward to seeing how the relationship between DA Baxter and Price/Maroun continues to develop. I look forward to season 24.

Deadlock is the best episode of season 17 by far IMO - it’s a great episode from start to finish. Very intense manhunt for the mass murderer in the first part, and a compelling legal case at the end with the DAs prosecuting the vigilante dad. This episode has Jack at his finest - his closing argument here was one of his best as it was a very tough case, and he was spot on that what the defense was asking was dangerous, that they wanted to give Purcell a free pass for a vigilante murder just because the man he killed was evil, and if they did they would be opening the door to lawlessness and chaos. I liked his line about how Purcell didn’t believe himself to be a judge, jury or executioner but he acted as all three, and his line to Purcell earlier about how they don’t have a do it yourself death penalty was great as well. The jury got the right verdict, and I was glad Jack was able to get Purcell to turn on his lawyer for facilitating the murder, she was slime, I doubt Purcell would’ve killed without her encouragement. It was a satisfying finish - as Arthur said at the end “now that’s justice”. I liked how Connie figured out the lawyer was involved. The hunt for Vorgitch was intense, I hope his stupid girlfriend went to jail for aiding him after he escaped, and his friend too, their enablement led to Vorgitch killing children. You could tell Green was tempted to kill Vorgitch after seeing the dead kids but he rightfully did not. Vorgitch was one of L&O’s most memorable and evil perps. Purcell was sympathetic but he didn’t have the right to commit a vigilante murder - no one does. Season 17 is probably L&O’s weakest season, both because of weaker writing and Beauty Queen Cassady being terrible. But Deadlock is a genuinely outstanding episode, by far my favorite of the season. And I really liked the legal team of Jack/Connie/Arthur in season 17 - they worked well together - I like Arthur as DA for the most part and Connie was an awesome addition, she really gave the legal side a boost.

Join the anti Olivia Benson club!! I no longer find SVU to be very good because of St O, and I have also quit OC, that show is nothing but a ridiculous Stabler family soap opera and its sole purpose is to bring Stabler back so he can inevitably hook up with Benson. I’m dreading seeing Benson on the Mothership, mainly because I’m afraid it will just be the Mothership characters bowing down to her and acknowledging she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and an all knowing beacon of truth and wisdom. She’s never wrong about anything anymore and I can’t imagine Mariska would agree to crossover unless it was all about making her/St O look good - her ego is enormous. I’ll be sickened but not surprised if she comes in and starts bossing around the squad of the 2-7 and the DAs office. Everything St Olivia is involved with becomes garbage. At least Jack McCoy retired without ever becoming a Benson puppet.

I figured she would make appearances again this year. Oh well, I don’t really care - I was never a Rollins fan when she was a regular, and I don’t like her relationship with Carisi - not much romantic chemistry there, they were forced together IMO. I’m not even sure how much of SVU I’ll watch this year - the St O worship last season reached an all time nauseating high. I honestly think last season may have been SVU’s worst season ever - small sample size so it might not be fair but there were some truly awful episodes. It seems like the show is just a monument to Mariska’s giant ego. On the positive side my man Bruno is now a regular and he adds a lot to the show. I’m of the believe that SVU could still be good if someone could reign in MH’s ego.

I’ve signed up for Peacock again so I can watch football on it, and since it has seasons 13-20 of L&O on it I’ve been watching some of my favorites from those seasons - this season is filled with some classic episodes I just watched Chosen, this is one of my all time favorites - a memorable legal battle between Jack and Dworkin - Dworkin is one of my favorite defense attorneys, he’s very entertaining and he did an impressive act trying to get his client off when he was blatantly guilty. It was hilarious when Dworkin objected before the trial started when the clerk said “people of New York vs Strelzik” and Dworkin went on his rant about how not all of the people of New York were against his client. Jack was awesome as always here as well, I loved his closing argument about how Dworkin was a magician trying to make a murdered man disappear, and that he was trying to use the jury’s sympathy for his client’s pro Israel cause to set a killer free, and that the jury should set aside emotion and bias and look at the facts or else the whole legal process is meaningless - not the only time Jack gave an argument to that effect, this one was extremely effective and I was glad the jury found Strelzik guilty. I didn’t feel any sympathy for Strelzik, there were numerous other ways to aid humanitarian efforts in Israel that didn’t involve theft and murder, and Strelzik killed because he didn’t want to go to jail/lose his job. I also loved Jack going off on Judge Miller and refusing to apologize, Miller was one of the most biased judges, he allowed the defendant and his wife to go on political tangents about their personal beliefs on Israel that had absolutely nothing to do with the trial. I thought when Jack asked Mrs Strelzik if she would be okay with her husband murdering someone who she viewed as an upstanding member of society instead of a muscle for a gambling operation and then asking if Meeks were Jewish would she be okay with it were strong questions - it showed the double standard the defendant and his wife had - they believed some lives were worth more than others and that’s a very scary thing. Basically the defense’s whole argument was that the lives of the people in Israel being aided by the defendant were worth more than the life of Meeks the murder victim, and I liked that Jack called that out. There is lots of great stuff in this episode, I loved the scene where Arthur asked if Strelzik killed Meeks and if anyone in the room had their name is Strelzik’s book and after they answered yes and no Arthur said “then convict the SOB” - great scene. Arthur’s story about making the judges laugh in his appellate case was pretty good as well. And of course Briscoe/Green were awesome as always, their investigations were always great, it was a good investigation of how they went from suspect to suspect before finding out about Strelzik’s theft and then the knives at the steakhouse matching the murder weapon. The opening was funny with the drunk Wall St douchebags breaking into the wrong car and finding the body. It’s a fantastic episode all around. Season 13 has a lot of episodes I would rank very high if I were ranking L&O episodes - I love most of them, and the season starting with American Jihad, Shangri-La and True Crime is arguably the best start to a season in L&O history, and Chosen, Asterisk and Kid Pro Quo are 3 of my all time favorites. The only clunker in season 13 is Tragedy on Rye, that was a terrible episode, and Open Season annoys me because of Jack helping Melnick, although the rest of the episode is decent. Season 13 is awesome overall.

Fontana was a total asshole here and that was really par for the course with him - it's why he’s one of my least favorite characters - he was arrogant, condescending and a prick to everyone. He could really grate on me. The episode is decent but Fontana screwed the pooch throughout - I was glad when at the end the dad shut the door on him and didn’t accept his apology. And yeah given how shaky the evidence was I was kind of surprised the jury convicted - the brother was clearly only testifying because of Fontana’s promises and Jack was right to be pissed at Fontana.