Xeliou66

The last thing we need is for Barba to become Rollins. Rollins is the worst character on the show, awful cop, awful human being. I hate that they may destroy Barba, probably just to make Benson look a lot better. And I wouldn't be surprised if Mariska would like for Raul to leave, because I think Barba is the most popular character and takes attention away from Benson.

Yeah that line certainly became famous, which is what they were going for. It was totally out of left field and badly acted, both actors looked very uncomfortable.

I agree, that was lazy and cliched writing, I didn't like it. Abbie was a massive bitch in that episode and I didn't like how it was all explained by the date rape story, it was a case of lazy writing. I didn't hate the episode, but, I did hate Abbie in it and the ending was bad writing.

Yeah Buchanan is great, he always adds a lot to his episodes. I hope he appears more soon. It was very weird Benson and the teenager getting in the car together. It was written to make Benson look angelic and as the only one who could save the case but it was so poorly acted it was laughable. I felt it was a bad move for Benson to be alone with the kid, especially with the case involving a middle aged woman screwing a teenage boy, it was really weird.

I love the L&O/ Homicide crossovers as well, 2 great shows, but I never watch them on TV because I don't get to see the second part on Homicide, however I do have the Homicide DVD's so I watch them on there. Matrimony and Legacy are 2 excellent season 7 episodes, season 7 was one of the best seasons. Buy you know, most episodes are similar to some headline in some way, including Matrimony. So why are those no goes for you?

This movie was a huge disappointment. It was a great idea to have a TV movie involving Mike Logan, but it wasn't executed well. It didn't feel at all like Law and Order. The opening dragged on for about 10 minutes of pointless crap and Logan's hothead partner beating a guy up and other filler that was unrelated to the plot. The case was interesting at the start, but then it became dull and it all depended on fingerprint evidence and the entire second half they were just waiting for the results. The subplot about Logan and the victims sister was just awful and something out of a soap opera, not L&O. Also, the characters were not portrayed well at all. McCoy's one brief scene was useless and he was totally wasted and that was all their was for the legal side and Lennie didn't look good at all, and I didn't like that scene on the roof between him and Mike either. And I didn't like how they ruined Profaci either. The only characters who seemed true to themselves in the movie were Cragen and Van Buren, and ME Rodgers. I liked seeing all of these characters together and I also liked seeing Logan and Curtis meet, but I just wish that the characters had been portrayed better and truer to themselves and that the movie had more of an L&O feel to it.

I know, this is getting worse and worse. I hate the sound of having Barba now go off the rails. I wonder if Raul Esparza is leaving the show, and I really couldn't blame him if he was. He isn't in a lot of episodes and Barba gets neglected a lot. I also wonder if Mariska wants him gone, because Barba's popularity is a threat to her ego and to everything being Benson centric. We all know she runs the show, and I wonder if she is trying to get Barba out the door. I dread this episode, and I hate how they are trying to ruin the best character just to make a Benson look good.

Yeah I agree with most of this post, there was something off with several of the lines in this one, such as the "he killed his god" line. What the fuck was that, there was nothing shown in the episode implying he viewed Trey as a god. I think Buchanan went a little bit easy on the son because he didn't want to appear overly harsh on a teenage boy whose mother was on trial for murder. About the verdict, I thought that it was rushed and that the son denying his mothers story about him being a murderer and wanting to bang her shouldn't have been concrete proof that she was guilty. After all the son could've been lying, they still should've shown Barba's second cross of the mom, but they wanted to make it look like Saint Benson was the only one who could save the case. The son was certainly a bad actor and he looked like he had never acted before, and it didn't help that he was being directed by Mariska who overacts everything herself. Benson's expression in the courtroom were hilarious. And the scenes with Benson and the teenage boy was not only horrifically acted but also felt extremely inappropriate for Benson to be having such a private and intimate conversation with a teenage witness, especially when the case involved a middle aged woman having sex with teenage boys it felt extra off

Yeah I agree with what other people are saying about how bizarre that scene with Olivia and the teenage kid in the car was. Totally inappropriate and forced, once again it was just "Benson is the only one who can save the case" and it was inappropriate for a detective to be having such an intimate, private conversation with a teenage witness like that, especially when the case involved was about a middle aged woman taking advantage of teenagers. I hated the way the courtroom scenes constantly flashed to Benson and her overdramatic expression. I think we can all agree it's the Mariska hour now and the show is just a vehicle for her. I have noticed that Benson is no longer bossing Barba around which is good, I wonder if the backlash was so strong that they stopped doing that.

Yeah it took a downhill turn in season 15 and hasn't recovered. That was when Mariska started getting more influence over the show and turned it into her personal soapbox. I still watch because I love the L&O franchise and SVU is the last remaining show in this legendary franchise but it isn't that good any more. It has had a couple of good episodes this year but overall most of them have been weak. I've liked about 3 or 4 episodes of the first 10. There are way too many he said/she said cases with rich white people, there is very little investigation in a lot of episodes, and the whole show feels like a personal vehicle for MH to preach.

A poster on IMDB says the episode that Casey mentioned a similar case in was Streetwise. But this case did have lots of similarities to the case in Conned, so yeah SVU kind of ripped off their own material tonight as they frequently do now. I was glad that Benson didn't bully Barba into taking a weak case to court like she does frequently, but it was still Benson heavy and I am so tired of Mariska's overdramatic acting and preachy tone with everyone, I used to like Benson, but this Benson that we've seen mostly since season 15 is the bossy, bitchy, preachy, melodramatic Benson and I'm tired of it. I think it is because of the fact that Mariska has so much control over the storylines now that she can basically do whatever and SVU is basically a soapbox for her to preach and overact.

There are so many great episodes it's hard to choose a favorite. There were great ones every season, and most L&O's are very rewatchable on reruns. Certain episodes that are my favorites are : Teenage Wasteland : Great discussion about the death penalty and a terrific case, one of the only times Nora Lewin was remotely interesting. Thinking Makes It So : The episode were Fontana stuck the kidnappers head in the toilet. Very balanced and thought provoking look at when and if excessive force is ever okay, very good writing in that one. Marathon : Where no one believes Briscoe when he claims the suspect confessed to him, very good episode. Gaijin from season 14 : Just stands out as a terrific, classic L&O, good police investigation in the first half, good legal maneuvering in the second half. Challenged from season 19 because I really liked the character of the mentally ill witness Pete who overheard his long lost brothers murder, one of the most memorable L&O one off characters. From the Stone episodes, Sanctuary from season 4 stands out as a memorable episode dealing with racial tensions. Life Choice from season 1 was a great one as well. Best seasons would be 7 and 10, almost all episodes from those seasons were great. Now to the worst : Aftershock, easily the worst L&O ever. It split the fanbase and I'm on the side that hates it. Pure soap opera drivel that went against everything the franchise was. I don't care about the characters personal lives and most people don't either, it was a soap opera and a really fucking stupid soap opera like way to kill off Kincaid. Season 17 was easily the worst season and had a lot of bad episodes, the worst being Released, really stupid and offensive and I hated McCoy in that one. Talking Points was really bad as well. Embedded from season 14 was really bad, just felt like a forum to discuss the Iraq War in a preachy way. Pretty much the only season 14 episode I didn't like, it was an otherwise great season. Tragedy on Rye from season 13 because of the stupid ending. Seriously, the fact that someone stopped calling the victim means they were the killer? Totally out of the blue and a bad ending to an otherwise promising episode. A lot of season 5 episodes were boring IMO, episodes such as Seed, Performance and Scoundrels were just boring and uninteresting.

You are right on about how some SVU episodes in recent years feel like comedic parodies of real life events instead of a serious drama. The Gamergate was one of the worst ever, it was laughable and pissed off everyone, both gamers and the feminists involved, and it was just a total fucking joke, it honestly felt like a comedy show. The Ray Rice episode was another one like that. I mainly just want to see the Trump episode to see the meltdown Trump and his snowflake minions will have on Twitter and to see how they do the story.

Yeah I remember that one, one of the better later Stabler episodes and I remember it did involve Fin and his son. I agree with the other poster who said they wanted to see old faces back for the 400th, I would've liked had they done a case that brought back Munch or Cragen, who like they said were around even before SVU was, as a callback to the show's past. Even Huang or Warner would've been nice. I miss seeing all of those characters in episodes, it used to be much more of a team effort. Around season 15 it became all Benson centric and everyone else started disappearing, with Rollins getting some soapy drama as well. This episode was decent, but it was a disappointment for the 400th. The show has been screwed up with the schedule dates because of the Trump episode, which I hope airs at some point.

Decent episode overall. I knew it was going to be strange when a "Viewer Discretion Advised" thing popped up just before the episode, I didn't really see why it was needed, I didn't find it anymore disturbing or explicit than other SVU's. Other posters have said as much that the case was fairly predictable without any big twists, it least until the mom's bizarre change of her testimony during the trial. Also the writing seemed to be off in places, for example Barba should've placed more emphasis on the pictures of the mom and victim, because the mom's story about how the kid apparently climbed into her bed and took pictures of her while she was asleep was total bullshit. We should've had a scene of prosecution testimony about that, I'm sure Barba told the jury but more emphasis should've been placed on it. And then when the mom changed her testimony, that's when it got weird, Luke's word alone on redirect shouldn't have been enough for an automatic conviction. They all should've expected him to deny his mom's story of him being a cold blooded killer, Barba still should've cross examined her. The writers seemed to write themselves into a corner where they didn't have enough time for everything so they ended it quickly. Also we knew the mom was lying about not saying she was being raped, I think it would've been better had we not seen that and the episode started with SVU responding to the scene. Also, Mariska overacted terribly again, her scene in the car with the son and her final scenes in the courtroom were cringeworthy she was so overdramatic with her dialogue and expression. Really a problem with the show now, Mariska needs to start putting some effort into not acting like a soap opera actress. It makes Benson all the more unlikable and she is constantly on a soapbox, which is what Mariska wants the show to be IMO. Best part of the episode was Barba and Buchanan and the courtroom scenes, they always add spark and interest to the screen when they are on and those are the most interesting parts of SVU. They've really toned Rollins down and made her much more professional as of late, which is much better than her screwing up investigations while screwing the whole squad. Fin and Carisi were good like they usually are. The mom was such a manipulative bitch, I'm glad she was convicted. She reminded me a lot of another female psychiatrist from an episode around season 11 who had manipulated a troubled teenage boy into sleeping with her and eventually fathering her kid, they even looked somewhat similar. Anyone remember that episode?

It seems like everyone involved now, victim or perp, is an upper class attractive white person. It hasn't always been this way, but as of late it has been a ton of he said-she said cases involving upper class white people. It gets tiresome quickly.

Yeah, the show has gotten very preachy ever since Mariska was made executive producer, and all of the storylines are centered around Bensom and we get a ton of forced scenes with Benson and her baby, Benson and her latest boyfriend, Benson snapping at her squad and Mariska overacting some forced dramatic Benson scenes. It's tiresome.

This episode was very mediocre, like a lot of others said. It felt like a mash up of a bunch of past SVU episodes. I missed Fin in this one. Also that scene where Benson whispers "we will" after the victim leaves her office was cringeworthy. Mariska always overacts these dramatic scenes where they try to make Benson look saint like, it is clear Mariska is in charge of the show and the writers are under her thumb, and she gets to have super dramatic Benson drama scenes that make viewers cringe and that are entremely forced but it gives Mariska more dramatic scenes for Emmy nominations and to show off her acting "talent".