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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.

There’s a controversial opinion! I don’t like Greevey - he was rather arrogant and abrasive, and he was absolutely horrible in Life Choice and Prisoner of Love. He had a couple of good moments but he’s one of my least favorites along with Curtis, Fontana and Beauty Queen. I like Phil Cerreta a lot, he’s underrated because he comes just before the iconic Lennie, but he was a good character and I liked his partnership with Logan.

Yeah both episodes have great plots - In Progeny it was interesting how Seeley knew deep down killing was wrong and couldn’t do it himself but he provoked others into doing it - he was rotten and I loved Jack’s cross of him. And yeah Rodgers was great as always. I also liked the discussion in Adam’s office where Claire wanted Seeley arrested before they knew of his involvement and Adam asked if two wrongs made a right - like I said Adam’s scenes were great. In Rage, Bud may have been completely oblivious to why no one cared for him, but what a rude condescending ass he was - he was nasty to everyone, from the limo driver who he told to “shut up and drive”, to the others at the firm and to the detectives. He’s one of the most memorable perps because of just how big of a jerk he was. It was funny how Bud’s lawyer wanted the case thrown out because the cops happened to zero in on the right suspect. The trial scenes were good, and it was interesting how Adam wanted to make a deal while Jack wanted to go to verdict. I did wonder if Bud was telling the truth about the victim making racist comments to him - the victim didn’t seem particularly nice but no one said anything about him being a bigot, so Bud probably made that up. Regardless it doesn’t justify murder and I think Bud would’ve killed him anyway to keep his fraud secret and gain power. Both Progeny and Rage are great, two of my favorites from season 5 - Purple Heart and Virtue would also make my top 5 of the season, there are no real weak episodes in season 5

Such a damn shame that we only saw Carver at trial twice. He was great in court in both Good Doctor and Wee Small Hours. Wee Small Hours has so many awesome scenes and lines - from Goren/Logan working together and Eames “ocean’s two” one liner, to Carver in court and his scenes with Branch. It’s a near perfect episode. I was glad the whole Garrett family was going to jail in the end, they were scummy. I didn’t buy Ethan’s act at trial of seeming remorseful, he was a smug creep up until then, but it’s no wonder he was so screwed up with those parents. And Goren confronting Garrett after Hot Tub Harry sent his goon after Goren’s mom is arguably my favorite Goren scene ever.

Progeny is a stellar episode, has some great moments - Jack’s cross of Seeley is a thing of beauty, he demolished him. It was wild how Seeley didn’t really believe his own defense, or at the least had doubts about it because he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger on abortion doctors even though he hated them. Also great was ME Rodgers shutting down Garnett’s cross when he was pressing her about autopsying pregnant women by saying that different parts of the body die at different times and finishing with “your question is moot, sir”. I also loved Adam’s scenes - with his grumbling about everyone using the office for personal gain and at the end saying “don’t you love it when everybody’s happy” - classic ending. Rage is a great episode as well - Bud was a memorable perp, he was so hostile, egotistic and unlikable. I don’t know if Bud really thought he was disliked because of racism or if he was just using it to try to get off the hook, but it was obvious Bud was disliked because he was extremely condescending as well as being a fraud. I loved the investigation, with Lennie and Mike questioning the Wall St brokers and zeroing in on Bud. It was funny how Bud’s lawyer tried to get the case dismissed because the police zeroed in on Bud - he wanted to punish them for getting the right suspect, that was comical, glad the judge quickly tossed that motion. It’s a strong episode. Performance is interesting - I liked how Jack used the Mack Rangers as a criminal conspiracy after the rape conviction was overturned, it was a clever strategy. I wondered what would happen to the rapists after they got out of prison, I have a feeling they would be dangerous going forward, and I wonder what would become of the rest of the Mack Rangers who didn’t go to jail - would they change their behavior seeing their buddies go to jail or would they get worse?

Saw In The Wee Small Hours 2 parter last night - this is my favorite CI episode as I’ve said before - so much to love about this 2 parter - great to see both detective parings working together and a lot of great scenes - I loved Goren/Logan interrogating Ethan and getting under his skin, the return of Connie from Sound Bodies to be a jailhouse informant, and especially the scene where Goren provokes Garrett to confessing to rape was awesome. Seeing Carver in court was great and it really made me wish they had done more court scenes, Carver wasn’t used nearly enough as he could’ve been. It was nice seeing Arthur Branch cross over and interact with Carver, and when he replaced the original arrest warrant with one with his name on it was funny. It’s a near perfect episode from start to finish, very gripping and complex case - I’m not sure who was worse “Hot Tub Harry” or his wife, they were both scum, it’s no wonder Ethan was so messed up given they were his parents.

Ugh - bad news L&O fans - Olivia Benson is crossing over from SVU for an episode this fall. I’m not happy about this - St O has ruined SVU and I really am not happy about her appearing here, I’m certain she’ll ruin the episode with her crap. Everything she touches turns to garbage.

How did you think Jamie treated Adam like shit? And I never thought the show wanted us to see Adam as a “bad guy” by any means, sure Jamie and Adam disagreed some, and I agree Jamie could be very blunt, but I never saw their relationship as adversarial, certainly not like how Serena and Arthur were so often at odds. I don’t like Fontana either, he was an asshole who was borderline unethical and very condescending and lacked compassion. I get that they were going for someone totally different from Lennie but Fontana was just a one note jerk much of the time.

Season 14 is one of the best seasons of L&O, almost every episode is stellar Everybody Loves Raimondo’s is a great episode - I loved the plot about Raimondo’s with the gangsters and the celebs, some colorful characters and a compelling story. It was wild how the hitman was more apologetic about “dishonoring” Raimondo’s than about anything else, and the twist that Paul Raimondo was involved in the murder was great, I liked how the DAs figured out the hitman broker talked with Raimondo and how Lennie and Ed found the gun in Raimondo’s car. Lennie undercover shooting pool with the guy who brokered hits for the mob was an awesome scene as well, and I liked the hunt for Bumpy, the mob guy who did the first shooting, and the interviews with the mobsters. Van Buren’s comment about the celebs and mobsters deserving each other was spot on, and it was kind of disturbing seeing the judge and the Chief of D’s who enjoyed dining with gangsters and I liked when Lennie asked the judge if it spoiled her appetite. It’s a great episode. Vendetta is interesting, the victim being based on Steve Bartman, the Cubs fan who interfered with the ball in the MLB playoff game was an interesting plot idea but it turned out it had nothing to do with the murder and it was just a random bar brawl. The backstory about the perp murdering the one girl and the detective framing him for another murder was fascinating, but Detective Daniels was scum and I really disliked Green seeming to empathize with him. Daniels was a shithead, he blew the case against Grimes for the murder Grimes did commit by losing his temper, and then framing Grimes for another murder ensured that the real murderer in that case would never be brought to justice, something which was never pointed out in the episode, and of course planting evidence is massively wrong no matter the circumstances, and yet all that happened was Daniels would lose his job - that was infuriating to me, he should’ve been charged with evidence tampering and gone to jail, I was unsure why he wasn’t charged, both Arthur and Jack rightfully seemed disgusting with Daniels so why didn’t the DAs arrest him? And Green seeming to sympathize with him was frankly OOC for Green. Grimes tying up his lawyer and locking him in the closet when the lawyer tried to get him to surrender was a funny twist, I was surprised the lawyer continued to represent him after that stunt. Gaijin is awesome, one of my all time favorite episodes, maybe the best of season 14. Great detective work in figuring out the shooter was actually in the Lexus and tracking him down through the Holland Tunnel cameras and realizing the husband was lying. The legal stuff was equally great - it was a gutsy move by Arthur to stage the press conference to lure Yoshida back, but it paid off - I liked how Arthur wanted to have Yoshida tried in NYC and how he was willing to take a big risk to lure him back, I understood Anita’s concern about the situation and I loved seeing her interact with Arthur, that was a rarity, but Arthur made the right move. I liked the scene of Arthur and Jack having dinner and Arthur coming up with the idea of using the press - “I just love it when I get a flash of good old fashioned American ingenuity” - great line from Arthur. Seeing some of the voir dire proceedings was interesting and the trial scenes were very good - the testimony from the waitress who saw Yoshida and the hitman meet was interesting. Both Jack and Olson did good as lawyers, and I was unsure what the verdict would be - I was glad the jury convicted and I liked that Jack and Arthur wouldn’t deal with him - what Yoshida did was evil - he not only arranged the murder of his wife for money but he tried to exploit racial bias to get away with it and then trashed all of NYC for his own actions - he was a piece of shit. Awesome episode from start to finish. Season 14 has almost all great episodes really

That’s an interesting take, I think you’re the first L&O fan I’ve seen to strongly dislike Jamie. Why do you dislike her? I’m curious.

Fair enough, we can disagree on the episode. It did feel like a soap opera though, and as for it being OOC I would say Lennie in particular felt wildly OOC - I didn’t buy that he would fall off the wagon over seeing some murderer he arrested get the needle, I mean Lennie had seen a lot of horrific crime scenes over the years and in season 6 alone he investigated multiple cases of dead kids and the subway bombing that killed over a dozen innocents, and he didn’t come anywhere near falling off the wagon in those episodes, but I’m supposed to believe he breaks down and gets drunk because of the execution of a murderer? That just wasn’t like Lennie at all, if he was going to get drunk he would’ve done so after one of the cases of innocent victims getting murdered, not the execution of a cold blooded killer. Rey cheating on his wife with some random woman was somewhat OOC as well, although Rey did have some hypocrisy as a character trait. I also didn’t buy that Jack would be more affected by an execution than by some of the cases he’s prosecuted of innocent people getting killed, he wasn’t as OOC as Lennie but it seemed overboard. I just didn’t find it rewarding at all to see the characters acting in ways that I found OOC. My comment about it being “L&O for people who don’t like L&O” is because it feels like the episode was designed to appeal to critics who dislike the L&O format and the cases being front and center. I see your point about how it could be a reward to see the characters outside of work but I didn’t enjoy seeing them act OOC and basically have breakdowns because some murderous piece of shit they put away got the needle. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree about Aftershock.

Well that’s an interesting opinion - Aftershock is pretty much an episode that has split the L&O fanbase, some think it was strong and really well done, others hate it. I’m on the side that hates it, worst L&O episode by a mile IMO, it was L&O for people who don’t like L&O - it threw all of what made L&O strong out the window and replaced it with a soap opera, and had the characters act very OOC, and then abruptly killed off Claire in a terrible way all around. But you are free to disagree - I know the L&O fanbase is pretty split on it. I liked Mayhem and Couples, they were entertaining and fairly well done in deviating from the formula, but I’m glad L&O has very rarely deviated from its reliable format.

Mayhem was actually an enjoyable episode, unlike the dog shit that was Aftershock, it actually had cases, it just switched things up by having multiple cases in a day and focusing almost entirely on the police. Mayhem and season 13s Couples are the two episodes that did this - focused on a crazy day for the detectives with multiple cases. Both episodes had dark humor running throughout them as well, moreso than usual - in Mayhem the scenes with the crazy woman who chopped her husband’s dick off and whacked Logan with the frying pan and the scene where Logan shoves food onto the perp who goes nuts in the squad room were pretty humorous. Of course the ending to Mayhem was a huge downer, with the guy getting killed in jail who was afraid to tell them his boyfriend was his alibi and the real perp still at large. They would follow up on this story and catch the perp in the season 10 crossover with SVU Entitled, although it was a disappointing follow up in that they didn’t focus much on the perp and mainly focused on the copycat case involving the rich family. But Mayhem was an enjoyable episode, as was Couples in season 13 - I’m glad L&O only very rarely deviated from its formula, as after all the formula is a big part of what makes L&O so consistently solid, but Mayhem and Couples were much more enjoyable deviations from the norm than Aftershock, which was a ridiculous soap opera bummer from start to finish and that’s putting it nicely.

Well that’s too bad - I like Tiffany a lot. Wonder how she’ll exit? Glad they gave her nice focus last season.

Season 13 has so many great episodes Genius is interesting, with the author wanting to be executed for the murder he committed. It was an interesting discussion, and I enjoyed Skoda’s scenes of him analyzing Warner, and it was interesting how Skoda asked Jack if he would prefer if he found he wasn’t competent, and Jack replied “analyze him, Emil, not me”. I also liked Jack and Arthur’s discussion at the end. Arthur was right that Jack would’ve felt better about the situation if the defendant was fighting to stay alive and would’ve been appealing and the final decision wouldn’t have been up to the DAs. Warner was a sociopath and a terrible human being, I didn’t have a problem seeing him executed, he killed a guy just because he was angry his victim told him to stop smoking in the cab, it was only by chance that his victim happened to be a violent Klansman hiding from the feds, Warner had no idea who he was when he killed him. He also killed a guy in prison just because he didn’t like him. He was a menace and as Skoda said he didn’t give a damn about anyone or feel remorse. And I think he only requested the death penalty to toy with the DAs and give them a headache - he knew he was going to rot in prison for the rest of life regardless so he just thought he would try to manipulate the DAs by requesting the death penalty. It’s a strong episode, it was interesting seeing Green have a drink with the writer who was the original suspect during the investigation. Maritime is another good case, about the missing football player and his brother. I definitely believe the brother killed the 3 people, all of the evidence pointed that way. The mom should’ve left the abusive asshole father and maybe her sons would’ve done well instead of one being dead and the other being in jail for murder. It was interesting how the mom tried to manipulate the money transfer to help her son, but she should’ve just dumped her piece of shit husband ages ago. It was interesting how Skoda agreed with the defense that the perp was susceptible to being pressured into a plea, I liked how Skoda called it like he saw it instead of being biased. I wonder if the son and his mom had it planned all along. I did like seeing the murderer son grow a spine and stand up to his bully father finally at the end, too bad he didn’t kill him instead of his brother and the other two. Another strong case and a good investigation, I love Briscoe/Green, their detective work is always entertaining and I liked how they got to the bottom of the case. I liked Lennie’s flirtation with Rodgers in the morgue, Lennie and Rodgers always seemed to have an attraction, I liked how in one episode of CI Rodgers mentioned her and Lennie went to the opera once. Also it was interesting in this episode how they mentioned the specific sports teams the victim played for - the Jets and the Florida Gators - usually they made up fictional names for teams when someone from them was directly involved in the plot. We found out Arthur had a nephew who played on the Gators with the victim, and Arthur was apparently a Giants fan.

I liked Claire for the most part, but yeah sleeping with Thayer showed an extreme lack of good judgment from her, especially given what a creepy sleaze Thayer was. And then she didn’t come clean about it to Ben when Thayer was arrested - what was she thinking? That really made Claire look bad. Not sure why she wound up sleeping with Jack, but at least Jack was nothing like Thayer and him and Claire did have strong chemistry.

Paul was all over the map when he returned, and he wasn’t like himself at all - he had become much more radical and in one of his episodes he blatantly accused the NYPD and the DAs office of framing his client because he was Muslim, and in season 6 he took a similar stance when he defended the black mother who had kidnapped her child from his white adoptive parents. But then in season 16 he defended the white nurse who sterilized minority patients without their knowledge, which didn’t seem like something he would do. He just didn’t seem like the same character that was so good as a regular, he never did anything unethical but he wasn’t written very well or consistently. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m fine with the show having all new characters and don’t want any of the originals brought back, I’m afraid they would just throw them under the bus for shock value, and even if they didn’t, it would feel gimmicky. Jack provided the bridge between the original series and the revival for a couple of years, and now that the revival has established its characters and is entering its 4th year, a bridge is no longer needed to the first 20 seasons. This show is about the cases, not the characters. The revival doesn’t need to bring on a past character, it needs to have sharper writing for the legal scenes and not make the DAs look inept by losing motions on flimsy grounds or having a mid trial twist that makes them look unprepared.

As I’ve said before - I wish Connie had become lead prosecutor when Jack became DA. She would’ve been awesome in the role and it would’ve been interesting to see a female lead and a male second chair as the ADAs. That would’ve been great - the last seasons of the original run were strong anyway for the most part but I’m not a Mike Cutter fan. I highly doubt we’ll ever see any character from the show’s original run on the revival again, and to be honest I’m perfectly fine with that - L&O is about the cases more than the characters, and bringing back a former character would feel almost like a gimmick to try to get viewers. And all too often L&O has just trashed characters when they bring them back, they stupidly crapped on Jamie for no reason when she appeared and they didn’t do a good job with Paul when he returned as a defense lawyer. L&O has had great characters but it’s about the cases first and foremost, so I’m very content with having all new characters now on the revival - I’m really glad Sam/Jack came back for a while to get the revival going but L&O doesn’t need any former characters to return.

Nice to see someone else who loves Connie - she was awesome. She had a closer relationship with Jack than Cutter did, Connie and Jack had a strong mutual respect. Cutter and Jack respected each other as well but they clashed some and Jack was sometimes annoyed with Cutter’s tricks. I wish Connie had become lead prosecutor when Jack became DA, Cutter really irritated me a lot of the time while Connie was great. I loved Claire, Abbie, Jamie and Paul as well. Serena is probably my least favorite second chair, she was very whiny and soft and lacked personality. Don’t care for Borgia either. As for Maroun, she’s very bland and by far the weakest link of L&O’s revival cast, she hasn’t annoyed me as much as Serena or Borgia but she doesn’t add much. I hope she’s replaced by someone with a more compelling personality soon. I don’t dislike Nolan Price the way some others do, he doesn’t have a lot of personality but he’s not terrible, and frankly I find him more likable than Mike Cutter, Cutter really pisses me off much of the time. No one can be as good as Jack or Ben Stone were in the lead prosecutor role.

Yep, Tommy was just self absorbed, and he acted like his background justified him bashing Beth’s skull in because she broke things off with him. I think he only came to the station and confessed because he knew he was about to be arrested. It’s a strong episode all around.