Xeliou66

We all know that anytime an episode is billed as giving more material for a character other than Benson, the episode will actually be about Benson. Last night the press release said Fin would be more involved when instead it was another Mariska Hargitay hour with the almighty Benson getting justice and making things right while Fin didn't do much more than usual. In fact I think Carisi and Rollins got almost as much screen time as Fin. So with this new Barba episode, I have a strong feeling it will be much more about Saint Olivia saving the day and about her feelings and reactions to it.

Good review. The episode was incredibly preachy and Benson was just unbearable, between her constant sanctimonious blather and Mariska's extreme overacting of the scenes. Like I said earlier, Mariska's acting is reminding me a lot of David Caruso's on CSI Miami, the constant over dramatic expressions, the solemn promises to victims, constantly being portrayed as a superhero who is always right, it's all similar. It was another case of Mariska's extreme influence over the show and it felt like a PSA for Mariska's foundation about helping sexual assault survivors. It was very disappointing that Fin had no more to do than usual and the fact that he was a ranger didn't even come into play at all, it was another Saint Olivia gets justice while delivering a sermon about rape. Fin should've been the one to be convincing Captain Williams to cooperate, he could've connected to her a lot better, I think she would've been more comfortable talking to Fin than listening to Benson's constant sermons about how she should act. Very disappointing episode, it seemed to have just as much preaching from Olivia as it did investigation. Mariska's huge ego has really harmed the show with numerous pointless, preachy PSA episodes such as this one. The writers don't seem to know what to do with a lot of the episodes so they let MH preach for an hour, and the show is definitely in chaos behind the scenes with its month long break.

Of course the episode will be all about Benson. Mariska's ego is way too big to share the spotlight with anyone. This whole hacker episode that's supposed to be about Barba will instead be centered around Benson, we all know that.

Disappointing episode after 2 good episodes. It was another example of Mariska's huge ego hurting SVU. The episode felt like a PSA with Mariska/Benson spouting the typical "don't be ashamed, it's not your fault" lines that we've heard 10000 times, and Benson was extremely preachy and irritating once again. It would've been much better had Fin been the one to talk to Captain Williams, he could relate more because of his past. But Mariska will not allow anyone but Benson to talk to victims because Benson is the almighty heroine and the only person on the whole goddamn planet who can stop rape and help victims. The good parts were that we didn't know who did it and all the squad got to investigate, and the identity of the perp was surprising. I'm glad it wasn't the CO as well, and the online troll guy was an interesting character, unlikable but not exactly one dimensional or a caricature. No personal drama either. I also loved when Olivia got jumped for calling the victim by her first name, it's so rare anyone ever criticizes Saint Olivia that it's nice to see when someone does. And I have to say, a month long break is a fucking joke. SVU is clearly in disarray with how the show is being run, and we've only had 12 episodes by the end of Febraury while last year we had 12 episodes by the end of January. There is clearly chaos, either the show runners don't know what the hell they are doing or the NBC network executives want to have fewer episodes, maybe so the Trump episode won't get aired. Also they care much more about promoting their new Chicago soap opera show than about SVU. Oh well, I will be watching Major Crimes on Wednesday nights now for the next month, that show is better than SVU anyway right now.

I'm enjoying the ION season 20 marathon on today. I really liked the lineup of Lupo/Bernard/Van Buren and Cutter/Rubirosa/McCoy. The episodes were high quality as well. Just saw the one about the Brazilian scientist that was poisoned, interesting episode as there was no murder as the scientist survived, and everyone involved was unlikable.

They have used Fin more this year which I like, he has gotten a solid role in a lot of episodes and we already got one Fin centered episode this year, episode 2 Making a Rapist. I hope he gets a good role in this one and we find out more about him. I also would like to see Ken again, he was always a good recurring character, way better than Stabler's worthless crybaby kids.

Yeah, everyone agrees the show is mainly just a project for Mariska now and she has taken over. I think she controls a lot of the storylines and makes everything be about Benson. I have become really annoyed by Benson, her constant snarling and judgmental bossy attitude, her personal crap with her constant law enforcement boyfriends and her kid, and of her overly dramatic expressions. Mariska's acting as Benson has become reminiscent of how David Caruso used to play Horatio on CSI Miami.

I really didn't have a problem with Barba not appearing in this one, since the case involved juveniles and Barba frequently doesn't handle those cases. This episode was good the way it was, I usually sorely miss Barba when he is gone. I do wish he was in more episodes though, he is extremely underused.

I felt sympathy for Judge Sabatelli in Semi Professional, he did participate in a conspiracy to murder but I found him sympathetic, at least compared to Blakemore. I liked how he worked his way up from nothing compared to the piece of shit Blakemore who had life handed to him on a silver platter despite being talentless and useless but he came from wealth so he was automatically successful. I hate people like that with a passion. I hope Blakemore was ruined when it was revealed his mistress had been writing all his articles for him and he had to step down from the bench. I think everyone involved hated Blakemore as well. Good episode BTW, I liked the references to the mothership with the numerous references to Nora Lewin and the one reference to McCoy, one of only 2 times he was mentioned on CI that I can recall.

Yeah I thought that the killing of the victim was a bold move and it added another twist to an already good episode. I really liked this one and the one before it, they were better episodes than what we have had most of this season, I hope next week is good as well, it looks interesting. I like that they aren't copying headlines word for word or preaching a lot, and I liked how in this one Benson was toned down.

Buchanan has defeated Barba several times in court, you haven't been paying close enough attention. I can remember several that he got his clients off in.

Um, I'm sure they did. It was just a matter of finding the dad.

Yeah there is no excuse for the censorship on WE and Sundance, they both show stuff uncensored that is way more offensive than L&O but with L&O they censor it. I'm so fucking sick of the channels treating the L&O audience like babies. ION doesn't censor either, I've never heard anything edited on there, as well as TNT. But honestly it's pathetic.

That is a funny picture of Mariska's reaction, she really needs to tone it down. This was one of the better episodes for me overall, not everything was immediately obvious, there was actual investigation and it wasn't dominated by Benson. It was a nice break from he said-she said rape cases that we are dominated with.

The dad on tonight's episode ranks as one of the worst parents ever as well.

I didn't really think that the writers "laid it on thick", I found this episode to have very little preaching. I didn't find Carisi's story hard to believe, bullying is rampant in public schools, a lot of people have had incidents with them, so I didn't think it was heavy handed. It was funny how Fin thought he invented it to relate to Kyle, reminded me of how Fontana on the original L&O would routinely make up stuff to get suspects to talk to him, such as having kids, being in the military etc. Yeah I agree about her line before the credits, that was preachy and condescending. It was supposed to be dramatic but it was delivered poorly. It was both a hazing and a sexual assault, this stuff happens more than you think in locker rooms. After that though there wasn't a preachy air about it though and Mariska didn't overact.

Stabler is never coming back. There's always fanfiction for you. He has no reason to return, and I don't want him to. Benson and everyone else have forgotten about him and are glad he's gone. Awful character, he should've never held a badge and belonged in the looney bin. Unfortunately there are a lot of cops like that in real life, I'm glad SVU is done with angry hypocritical douchebags as detectives.

I didn't feel that much sympathy for the mom, I get that she was under her husbands control but she lied and covered for him and her son and had she spoken up well maybe the sons wouldn't have been abused and Jack wouldn't be dead. I was certainly losing my patience with her when Rollins was talking to her.

Good episode, one of season 18's better efforts. It was different from the usual preachy, he said-she said rich white people rape case, and it had good twists and turns. I liked that they did an episode about sports hazing, it is truly a widespread epidemic that needs to end now, and it's scum like the dad who spout dumb shit such as "boys will be boys", "PC crap", "hazing makes you tough" etc that allow it to continue. So I was glad SVU did an episode on this, as it is an epidemic that needs more attention. Also was a shock that the victim died, that was a good twist and a gutsy move by SVU to kill him. I also didn't know everything from the start, it required good investigation and it was a little while before I suspected that the dad was the main villain. All of the detectives were good, Carisi in particular was excellent tonight, Benson didn't preach or snarl and no soap opera acting from Mariska, Rollins has become much more competent and professional as of late, and Fin got a good role again. I didn't miss Barba as much as I usually do, because this wasn't really a legal case and it involved a minor which Barba doesn't handle. Overall, a very good case, I liked the twists, I never suspected Kyle of being the one who shoved the stick up his ass, usually I'm able to spot the perps when they appear. I also went from hating Kyle to feeling some sympathy by the end because of his scum dad, although I'm glad he didn't get off. I would like to know what happened to the "Bash Brothers", I hope they served time in juvy because they were accomplices to sexual assault and manslaughter.

Damaged was the one where Lennie's daughter was murdered. Orbach did play it well, he showed just the right amount of emotion without being over the top. He was a terrific actor. And I totally agree about the goddamn censorship. It is so stupid, this show is about violent crimes, anyone who can't take some profanity shouldn't be watching. It isn't a fucking kiddie show. Also this show aired uncensored on NBC in the 90's, but it can't air uncensored on Sundance, a premium movie channel, or WE, a channel with a ton of reality trash? I prefer ION and TNT because they don't censor anything. The worst example of censorship is when they censor the word douche in Fools for Love, because it has relevance to the case : Rodgers tells the cops that the killer used a douche on the victim and that's why they didn't have DNA, but without the word douche it leaves the viewer very confused. I hate censorship, people aren't babies. Fuck the Parents Television Council and any other pro censorship groups.

I'm so sick of the constant Benson worship. We get it, MH/Olivia is perfect and a saint and without her there would be no justice and no goodness in the world. MH's ego has gotten out of the show and her extreme influence over the writing has been very harmful to the show. I'm so fucking sick of Benson, her holier than thou attitude and her constant snarl, and the way she acts like she is above reproach. I'm also sick of the dramatic scenes where Mariska acts like she's in a soap opera.

I think he was found not guilty, since the fans voted on it and the majority voted not guilty, I think we can assume that was the jury's verdict since the viewers got to be the jury in that one. I don't think he did it either, that girl lost all credibility after she accused Stabler of inappropriate conduct.

Yeah Lead is another one that had a sympathetic perp, the reason it doesn't get mentioned is because season 10 was a crappy, joke of a season with lots of laughable episodes so people don't rewatch it much, so the very few good ones from that season get forgotten. Other sympathetic perps are Agnes from Mean, I hope she got off. The guy who killed the piece of shit frat pledge master who raped him was sympathetic, he got off easy and I was glad of it. Emma from Alien was another one, she did the world a favor by crippling that kid, he was on his way to becoming the next Eric Rudolph. Also the guy who shot the religious nut who stole the frozen embryo's in Inconceivable, he should get a light sentence as well.

I disagree about Transgender Bridge. Darius got the sentence he deserved, his friends did deserve a longer sentence, they've should've been locked up as well as accessories, but Darius was at fault for Avery's death. He ran all the way across the park to harass her because she was transgender, he stole her camera and assaulted her, and then when she defended herself Darius shoved her off a bridge. That was a hate crime and Darius was the main one responsible, he ignored his little sister's pleas to leave Avery alone and instead chose to run across the park to harass her. And his defense of being afraid of transgender people was absolute bullshit. You don't run across a park to pick a fight with someone you are afraid of, especially when your little sister is right there. Darius committed a hate crime and he belonged in prison. I don't see why people are so sympathetic to him, an innocent teenager lost her life because of Darius's actions, and he did it just because he was transphobic, and he will still get out when he is about 22. You ask me, he got it easy.

I agree about how Ritual, that was one of the few episodes in L&O that I was rooting against the prosecution in. That guy didn't deserve to go to jail, I think the murder was justified and I think most people would agree. I think most people would kill someone if they knew they planned to mutiliate their daughter. And I hated the mom, she was pathetic, yeah she stood up at the end but for the most part she was spineless and useless, the fact that she let her worthless bitch of a mom around her daughter was pathetic and I really disliked her. I wouldn't have even tried to put the dad in jail, and the dad should've divorced the mom when she started kept on allowing Grandma around even though Grandma wanted to daughter mutiliated. Just pissed me off. About season 8, I agree with the poster that said there were way too many personal stories. There were, and it stands out from other seasons because of it. Every character had a personal story, while usually personal stuff was just referenced occasionally. One of the reasons why season 8 is not one of my favorite seasons, although it had some outstanding individual episodes. My favorite episodes from 8 are : Stalked Expert Baby It's You Thrill Blood Under the Influence Denial ( though I hated the ending ) Burned