Xeliou66

A good episode, minus Benson and the opening. I’m sick of openings where everything is spelled out for us, and the Benson worship was once again over the top. Benson was at her worst with her whispering and over dramatic facial expressions, and of course being portrayed as an all knowing beacon of light in her scenes with the victim and the witness. The case was pretty good with good investigative work and it’s nice having a full squad, even if Velasco was mysteriously absent, and the squad clicked well together in this episode, something which is on and off. Bruno is awesome, he improves every episode he’s in and adds real life to the show, and it’s too bad they are too cheap to bump him up to regular when he’s in just as many episodes as everyone else besides Benson. The episode being heavy on Bruno and Fin helped a lot. Carisi was good as well, although I really wish he would get back into court. The police commissioner who was in this one was also on the Mothership tonight as the same character - good continuity. The case was solid and I liked how it played out. This episode is yet another example of how much Mariska’s ego detracts from the show - because the way St Olivia is portrayed as some all knowing perfect beacon of light is beyond irritating and it weakens the show and makes it cheesy and cliched. Dial back the Benson worship and this would be a very good episode, but St Olivia’s usual crap took it down a few notches.

We know that being gay was part of the blackmail, because the killer’s boyfriend who worked at the magazine, the one Serena talked to, told them that. We just don’t know if he was also being blackmailed over steroids, since we know the victim was getting steroids for the killer. So it was possible the steroids were a part of the blackmail, which is why I questioned Judge Bradley’s decision to bar the evidence. Regardless Jack did nothing wrong by trying to present the evidence, and Serena’s whining got on my nerves. Jack’s closing was great, saying that cheating shouldn’t be a defense for murder and that the defense’s story wasn’t the whole story. Skoda offered convincing testimony about the defendant not being psychotic but just having an overly violent reaction to an inciting event, I love Skoda and his expertise. Yeah the murderer and his two accomplices should’ve at least thought to not say the exact same things word for word to the detectives when asked about their whereabouts, but they weren’t that smart. I liked how Briscoe/Green broke their alibi and their investigation was great as usual. It is a great episode, one of season 13’s best.

Interesting case, and there were some things I liked and some things I didn’t - The main thing I dislike is how the new DA is causing so much conflict and seems too concerned with politics - I really hope the writers don’t make him like the DA on L&O: Los Angeles. I get they are trying to differentiate him from the iconic Jack McCoy but they aren’t the best job so far. Baxter should’ve subpoenaed the undercover cop - it likely would’ve resulted in a different verdict. And if he’s so concerned about the politics, he should think about how an acquittal would look for his office in this controversial case. This was my main concern when McCoy left was that they would struggle with writing a new DA, and it’s looks like that is the case, and I really don’t like how it feels like Price/Maroun are in constant conflict with Baxter. I really hope things settle in going forward, but I don’t trust these writers. And once again Price/Maroun got caught off guard at trial by a new witness, and once again they didn’t seem to do a lot of research on the defendant. That is getting so tiresome. And yeah Price should’ve objected when the woman was basically making an argument for the defense on the witness stand. Price at first came off as too soft, and something about him and Maroun just don’t click with me. But he was right at the end that the victim in the case deserved better. What I did like was the investigation, that part of the show is very solid, Shaw/Riley are a very good pairing and are enjoyable to watch. Also I liked that they visited the ME, something we don’t see often now, and I liked that we heard closing arguments from both the defense and prosecution. The twist that there was an undercover cop involved was a good one that I didn’t see coming. And the not guilty verdicts are so rare now that it still surprised me they lost at the end. This episode is pretty consistent with how the show has been - good first half and investigation and an interesting premise, but some issues in the second half, and without the stabilizing presence of Jack I’m worried that the second half is collapsing completely. I really hope they dial back the Price vs Baxter conflicts, and flesh out Baxter some more. I’m afraid the second half is now just going to be Baxter putting people on edge and Baxter/Price arguing, and that will suck massively if that’s the case.

SVU has been renewed for season 26. The Mothership was renewed for season 24 as well. OC hasn’t been renewed yet, it’s still being discussed.

Just saw Asterisk on Sundance, this is a great episode, very strong plot about the baseball player killing the limo driver - I love Briscoe and Green’s investigation with how they zeroed in on Seleeby and realized his cousin and agent were covering for him and had made up their stories, and then the twist that Seleeby was gay was interesting - I wasn’t sure about Judge Bradley’s decision to block evidence of the limo driver getting Seleeby steroids, the steroids could’ve been part of the blackmail - it was an interesting dilemma, but Jack didn’t do anything unethical by trying to present evidence of the victim selling the defendant steroids. Serena was pretty whiny as usual. Jack’s closing argument was great, about how what the defense was saying wasn’t the whole story and how cheating shouldn’t be a defense for murder. Skoda’s role was strong as well, he provided good testimony - he added a lot to the episodes he was in, and I wish the revival would introduce a psych expert, we need to hear from a psych expert on the DAs side whenever the defense introduces psychiatric testimony. Asterisk is an excellent episode, one of my top 5 from season 13 for sure. Another favorite from season 13, Kid Pro Quo, is coming up on Sundance later, that’s an outstanding episode and case as well.

L&O and SVU have been renewed - so season 24 of L&O and season 26 of SVU are coming in the fall!!

Here’s the thread for episode 8 airing tonight

Good episode tonight - that coal mine was creepy and a unique setting - that was an intense ending with them figuring out how to escape. Good case, I figured one of the parents had mob connections once it was discovered mobsters did it and that’s why the kids were kidnapped - that dad was scum to help those mobsters - I loved Remy’s fury with him, what a colossal moron. Good investigation, good case, this show delivers compelling cases on a weekly basis. Don’t really care about Remy’s nephew Cory but I hope he doesn’t become a source of nonstop drama - don’t make him the family member always causing problems, he didn’t seem to take his legal trouble seriously and I’m afraid he’ll just be a pain for Remy. I don’t find Cory’s mom sympathetic at all - her keeping her mouth shut about the circumstances of Remy’s brother’s murder led to an innocent guy dying in jail and justice not being served for 20 years, and now she’s giving Remy attitude just because he’s helping Cory out, Cory has a right to be angry at her and she shouldn’t take it out on Remy. I wonder when we’ll hear about Barnes’ relationship problems again, kind of surprised they didn’t even mention it.

Best episode of the season tonight - a compelling case, Forrester back in the field, and no more Powell!! Powell is a whiny douchebag and I’m glad Forrester is having him transferred - hope we never hear from him again. He really rubbed me the wrong way and came off as a psycho. Good case with good suspense and it was very nice seeing Forrester back in the field and taking center stage in the operation. I like Vo in her role as second in command, don’t miss Kellett at all. I like Amanda and hope they develop her more, and it’s nice to see a couple of analysts working with the team at headquarters. This is my least favorite of the FBI shows, but this was a strong episode and I hope this is the start of Forrester returning to the field. And I’m thrilled Powell is gone and his crap is no longer stinking up the show.

Pretty good case, I liked all of the involvement from the whole team of agents, good investigation and intensity. It was a bit of a cop out I thought to have the daughter found just in time, I was hoping for a different resolution to the hostage situation where Maggie found a way to overpower the guy, but it was still a good case. Good role for each agent, Jubal and Isobel and the analysts at the office were good and I liked how Tiffany/Scola found the girl while Maggie/OA dealt with the hostage situation. I did wonder why the kidnapped girl’s friend identified the hostage as the kidnapper - was it just a case of mistaken identity? There was a resemblance between the hostage and the real kidnapper, but I would’ve liked more of an explanation of that. Not sure where the storyline about Maggie being interested in motherhood is going, I hope it doesn’t end with Maggie adopting a kid - Scola just became a father, we don’t need another agent becoming a parent, kids always detract from the show (I’m glad not much has been made of Scola’s son, other than a couple of references). Intense episode from start to finish, this show reliably delivers solid cases and good character work, it was convenient how the hostage situation played out but still a solid hour.

No problem my friend!

Here’s the thread for tonight’s episode - I’ll post my thoughts on it when I watch it later

Agreed but it didn’t even seem like the husband was going to divorce his lunatic wife, it seemed like he was going to stay with her. She was completely crazy, and that’s why I think the parents of the rapist would be the best guardians for the kid, grandma was nutty as a fruitcake, I agree everything she said just made her more unsympathetic and she seemed to think what she did was okay. She was batshit crazy.

The dad didn’t know what the mom did though, he was stunned when they revealed it to him, so he wasn’t nearly as bad. But yes that mom was a loony sicko, paying someone to rape your comatose daughter is depraved and insane. I hope the grandkid was kept far away from crazy granny, the orderly’s parents would be much more fit guardians.

Five season 3 episodes on BBC America today, starting with Mad Hops - that’s a great episode, Coach Powell was a good antagonist for Goren, and it had a strong plot involving the murders of the player and the PI who was searching for him, and I liked how Goren got to the bottom of the case, and figured out it wasn’t about the scheme to get star players into the one school but about the coach and his obsession with Karen Watkins and how he would do anything to boost her son’s career to get with her. I didn’t find Karen sympathetic, she was just stringing Powell along to help her son’s career. It was an interesting case of Powell’s obsession and desire to not be alone leading him to commit 2 murders. Good detective work in this one figuring out where the murder occurred - it was always funny when Goren got up close and personal with the bodies like he did here when he wanted to take a sample of the materials in the victim’s nose and an irritated Rodgers said “let me do that” and pushed him away. Great episode. The marathon finishes up with Shrink Wrapped, with the 2 nutbag shrinks, good god those people were fruitcakes.

The clerk was manipulative though, she seemed to have a crush on Cutter so she was ruling in Cutter’s favor, then she switched gears when Cutter got suspicious. The judge was very sympathetic, his whole life was devoted to practicing law/being a judge and he just couldn’t accept he was no longer fit to do what he loved. It was a sad situation. I liked at the end when the judge came to Jack’s office and remembered Adam being in the office, and how he loved to eat sandwiches there, that was a nice touch as we all know Adam ate sandwiches frequently in his office. It was also realistic that sometimes people with dementia/Alzheimer’s can remember people and things from a while back but can’t recall basic things from the present, as shown when the judge forgot who Jack was moments later. It was a very tough situation, and dementia is a terrible disease, I’ve had a couple of relatives with it and it’s very difficult to watch them decline, so I really felt for the judge.

That’s one reason why there’s no way they are making Baxter a villainous character. It just wouldn’t fit with the show to make a main character a bad guy. I think people need to chill out regarding Baxter - it’s not uncommon at all for their to be conflict with a new character in their first episode, and sometimes new characters get off to shaky starts. I thought Baxter was okay overall and I’m glad they didn’t try to go with Jack 2.0 as the new DA. I just don’t want every episode to be Baxter vs Price with Baxter putting Price/Maroun on edge, that would get tiresome fast. Hopefully things will go smoother going forward, but having conflict in a new guy’s first episode isn’t a reason to panic. The bigger concern is that Price/Maroun seem to get caught off guard so often, and there’s frequently some flaw in the legal writing that throws things off. That’s what needs to get straightened out.

I don’t think Baxter is villainous by any means, I think they were just trying to make it clear that Baxter was different from McCoy and saw things a bit differently but I don’t think Baxter is meant to be a bad guy. I just hope that there isn’t constant disagreements between Price/Baxter, that will get old quickly. Price comes off as too timid much of the time, unlike others I don’t find Price arrogant at all, but he comes off as timid frequently and gun shy, like he’s afraid to take a strong stand. He was practically shitting his pants over Baxter the whole time in this episode and that was grating on my nerves, I think Baxter didn’t respond to him because he wanted Price to make his own decisions, Price didn’t need his hand held. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Baxter to want people to be on the same page as him, and it’s clear that having a functional system where everyone works well together is important to Baxter, not just his own office working well, but he wants his office to work well with the police, the mayor’s office etc, I think he’s a bit more politically savvy than Jack was (Jack didn’t give a fuck about politics much of the time), Baxter reminds me more of Arthur and Adam than Jack, at least from the brief stuff we’ve seen from him, but I think Baxter is a good guy who will act with integrity. And after all we’ve just had 1 episode with Baxter, so the writers will get more of a feel for him as the show goes on, sometimes the first impression of a character doesn’t define them - I mean Lennie was surlier and more edgy in his first episode, Green was more hot headed, it’s not uncommon for a character to have a bit of a bumpy start and cause some friction. I felt like Price needed to take a chill pill in this episode regarding Baxter, and I think some of the fans need to take a chill pill regarding him as well. Just my take on everything.

I wonder if the show is preparing to wrap up soon and that’s why they are bringing back faces from St Olivia’s past and why they’ve ramped up the St O worship to an all time high. As much as I would love to see SVU without St Olivia, that won’t happen, Mariska pretty much is the show now unfortunately. But I do wonder if they are planning on calling it quits soon. I think we would know if this would be the last season but I wonder if next season will be the final one. It’s too bad Mariska’s ego is so large and that she has so much power over the show, because it could be good - the cases are still frequently pretty interesting and the supporting cast behind Benson is good overall - I really wish they would give Carisi more stuff to work with and get into court more, I really like Fin, Bruno and Velasco, I’m not sold yet on Sykes or Curry and it’s very weird to have a captain and an FBI agent working under St Olivia, but they don’t annoy me like Muncy and Kat did, and maybe they’ll settle in better going forward, episode 6 had good squad dynamics but they were shaky again in this episode. But the nonstop Olivia worship is getting more hard to tolerate than ever.

Agreed - I love Shaw/Riley, and the investigation side is much better than the legal side, it’s written better and has more suspense and the characters have strong chemistry and things flow very smoothly. The legal side is much shakier and I’m worried that without the stabilizing presence of Jack things will weaken more.

A few more thoughts - I hope there isn’t constant drama between Baxter/Price, while it’s common for there to be some conflict when a new character joins, I hope things go smoother in the future with Baxter, it will get old fast if Baxter/Price are constantly at odds. I’m very glad Baxter isn’t a McCoy copy, and that they are making him a distinct character with his own personality, I just hope they don’t go overboard with it and have nonstop drama surrounding him. Price was acting downright paranoid in this episode and that was grating on me, I have mixed feelings about Price anyway, and if the second half of the show just becomes Price vs Baxter conflict, that won’t be good. I would like to learn a few tidbits about Baxter in future episodes, nothing major, but right now he’s a total mystery - where did he come from before he was named DA? And yeah it’s getting very old how the DAs are caught flat footed at trial frequently with some new info/new witness, I wish they would come up with a better way of creating legal drama than making the prosecutors look inept. Right now I think Baxter has the potential to be a strong character and I like Goldwyn as an actor, but I don’t have a lot of faith in the writers to pull it off well, I hope there’s more to the second half than just Baxter causing people to be on edge all the time and disagreeing with Price. I appreciate that Baxter is very different from Jack though. So right now the jury is still out on Baxter - he definitely has potential but I wish the writing for the legal stuff would get a boost.

Good episode, this may be my favorite storyline OC has done, I’ve watched it on and off, the ridiculous Wheatley storyline soured me on the show, but this was good. I liked how they zeroed in on the killer and it was intense seeing the police chief have to kill her brother to save Stabler. Awesome to see Cragen again even for just one scene - I hope next week Cragen and Stabler share the screen. I suspected something was up with the IAB investigation, since it was clearly a justifiable use of force by Stabler given that the suspect had just shot Bell. I look forward to seeing the fallout from this case and what happens next week, I’m sure the judge killed his wife and that’s what started his son into becoming a serial killer. Look forward to seeing how it plays out and seeing Cragen again. I also thought it was strange how the whole squad was pretty much sitting around Stabler’s living room.

This episode could’ve been good if not for the St Olivia worship. It has reached a ridiculous all time high this season - and many of her scenes were just painful to get through, Mariska cannot act anymore and she’s clearly just in it for her ego, as a result we have almost nonstop Benson worship in every episode. It’s become comical how hard they try to make Benson out to be a hero. The case was solid and had some good investigative work, but the squad dynamics were screwy once again after being spot on last week - I’m sick of Fin having beef with Curry, and Curry giving Velasco attitude at the start as well was off. And Curry having such a weak stomach for crime scenes was off for a captain. Bruno was sorely missed - he improves every episode he’s in and is one of the best things about the show now. And Carisi has just been relegated to a background role basically which is a shame as he has a lot to offer, and he was good in his scenes tonight, but giving him legal material takes time away from the Olivia worship so he gets sidelined. Nice to see ME Truman again, I like him a lot. After the shaky start with Curry Fin was good, and his interactions with Olivia are about the only time St Olivia is bearable now. This was a decent case dragged down by the constant Benson melodrama and the shaky squad dynamics. This show could be good if it wasn’t for Mariska’s giant ego.

Good episode. I for one liked the intro to Baxter - they needed to clearly establish him as different from Jack McCoy, and they did - Baxter seemed kind of quirky and clearly has his own personality, and I liked how he showed up at the crime scene and introduced himself to the detectives, it was something different - we never saw Jack go to a crime scene as DA, it was unusual but unusual is what was needed here IMO. The scene where Baxter was reorganizing his office and rambling on was kind of funny - I like that they’ve given Baxter a personality completely different from McCoy but he has a good presence as well. I think he’s a promising addition to replace a legend, I liked how they referred to McCoy as an icon in this episode, it’s clear his presence is still very much felt. I thought Price was coming off as kind of paranoid that Baxter would fire him, he wasn’t giving Baxter much of a chance it seemed. But I thought Nolan was right to proceed to verdict, they had a strong case against the murderer, and now that they convicted her they could leverage her to give evidence against the rapist actor in exchange for a better sentence recommendation or something, I was surprised that wasn’t mentioned at the end. I think Baxter had trust in Price and let him call his own shot, and that’s why he dodged his calls, he didn’t want to tell him how to proceed, my issue with Price is that he comes off as timid much of the time, and he didn’t need Baxter to hold his hand throughout the process, he’s not a kid and Baxter’s not his daddy. I liked the ending scene where Nolan was all over dramatic while Baxter was very relaxed. Pretty good case, I enjoyed the detective work as always, Shaw/Riley are a good pairing and I liked their investigation. The main issue with the case is once again Price/Maroun seemed unprepared for trial, had they done a deep dive into the killer they would’ve found her previous blackmail victim sooner, but that would’ve taken some of the drama away, so that was annoying, I wish they would clean up those errors. And yeah that foot chase was comical. The defense attorney was the same actor who played Ben Stone’s nemesis Swann in American Dream back in season 4, and he was the Baltimore prosecutor Danvers on Homicide - it was nice to see him, wish he had a bigger role. This was a pretty good case, and it did a good job of establishing Nick Baxter as a different type of DA than McCoy but still an interesting character - I look forward to seeing how he does things going forward, I think he’ll add some intrigue into the show. I love the detective side, and the show is entertaining, I do wish they would clean up the errors/sloppy stuff on the legal side though.

What do you mean specifically? Are you talking about Carver’s comments in The Third Horseman?