Xeliou66

iAgony is such a weird episode, with the discovery of the serial killer who didn’t actually do the crime the episode started with, and it was just pure coincidence that he got caught in the investigation, and then his offer to plead guilty to the crime he knew he didn’t commit knowing they would figure it out, it was all so convoluted. It was bizarre that the woman got her brother to attack her boyfriend’s ex just because the boyfriend was still focused on the ex, and it turned out the guy just got more fixated on the ex after her attack and the bonkers sister and her equally crazy brother ruined their lives for nothing - best moment of the episode was when the brother said he would make it look like some psycho did it and Abbie retorted “guess what, some psycho did do it”. It was creative for Jack to trick the serial killer with letterhead from the Houston DAs office and getting the killer to toss out his deal and then say that they would extradite because there was no deal, and I liked the scene between Jack and Abbie when Jack said he was wrong when he hid the witness the previous season and Abbie should realize she’s wrong for wanting to bend the law in this case and she shouldn’t wait until she’s facing a committee to realize it. But the whole episode was just really convoluted - and Skoda correctly profiled that the perp was inexperienced because he killed the mailman, but then when they suspected the serial killer was the culprit and he had turned out to have already killed several women, shouldn’t that have caused alarm bells to go off that maybe the serial killer didn’t do that attack? Strange episode. Scrambled is a strong episode, with the murder at the fertility clinic, good investigation and discovery that the perp was out to destroy a specific embryo. But my god Curtis was a jackass, he just wouldn’t shut his yapper about how much he disliked the clinic, and his remark to Anita about how maybe her sister wasn’t meant to have kids was way out of line. It was par for the course for Rey though. The legal stuff was interesting as well, I liked Adam’s scenes where he said they didn’t want to be debating whether embryos were property or not, saying it would open a major can of worms, and I liked how Jack got the other couple to testify, thus avoiding the jury having to decide about the embryos. Venom is one of L&O’s wildest plots, with the mother/son incest and them killing each other’s spouses and the son being unwilling to turn on the mom at the end. Good detective work again and the twists just kept on coming in this episode. I think the son was so warped that he was somewhat insane from years of his crazy mom’s abuse. Adam’s ending line was spot on “could be worse, she could’ve had twins” was spot on, vintage Adam.

I’m hoping they shift away from the personal melodrama for the rest of season 24. It felt so forced in and cheapened some of the episodes this season. I disliked almost all of the personal stuff from this season, such as Price’s dad, Maroun being overly emotional, Brady’s kids, Riley’s brother etc. The only personal stuff this season that went fine was Shaw talking about his experience in foster care, and Baxter being on the board of the school where the dean was killed - both of those were done in a natural way that gave us some insight into the characters without detracting from the case at hand or being too melodramatic. I hope they dial it back in the second half of the season - I like the revival’s cast minus Maroun (Brady started growing on me in the fall finale, I hope that marks a shift for her) and they can still write strong cases, but please dial back the personal crap and leave it for SVU. Yeah the death of Adam’s wife was well done, it was really sad and the pain on Adam’s face when he took her off life support said it all. Adam hadn’t really gotten much personal stuff until then and it was an example of a personal subplot that didn’t detract from the case of the week. Another example of a personal story done right was the season 5 episode where Anita was robbed at gunpoint and killed one of the robbers, that episode deviated from the formula but was pulled off really well and gave us a good case plus good character moments. On the revival an example of a personal plot done right was when the gang tried to assassinate Baxter in last season’s finale - it was a bit of a shift from the norm of the show but it was handled well overall and never became soapy and gave us some good character moments. So even the revival’s writers can do a personal story right on occasion. But overall it’s best when the show does very minimal personal stuff and sticks to the cases.

Agreed, at least on SVU they let you know from the first episode it would have more melodrama than the Mothership. The Mothership is supposedly to be zero melodrama and minimal personal crap - that’s why I hate Aftershock, disliked the season 8 subplots such as Lennie’s kid, Anita’s lawsuit and Rey’s wife being sick, and strongly dislike the infusion of personal crap into the current episodes. I really hope they dial it back in the second half of the season but I don’t have a lot of trust in the current writers. The season 7 finale when Adam’s wife died was a rare example of a personal subplot done right - it didn’t take away from the compelling legal case and it gave Adam some great scenes, and it wasn’t dwelled on afterwards, her death was just referenced once or twice in future episodes.

Yeah the personal stuff drives me nuts usually - one of my favorite things about original L&O is the minimal personal stuff. It’s the main reason I think the SVU spinoff is far inferior to the Mothership - SVU has a lot of personal crap and it’s only gotten worse over the years. CI is my second favorite L&O as well, I love Goren/Eames and of course Logan as well. Lupo is one of my favorites also, he was a good detective and I liked him with Bernard, they had nice chemistry. The show was very strong overall in season 20 and it’s a damn shame they took it off the air then because it was on a nice roll. Van Buren was leaving no matter what at the end of season 20 but L&O’s replaced every character at some point or another. I enjoy the revival and I’m glad they brought it back but the writing isn’t as good as it was when L&O went off the air after season 20. I’m also not a Max Greevey fan, he had a few good moments but he was absolutely awful a couple of times as well. Cragen chewing his ass out when he wanted off the case in Prisoner of Love is awesome. I love both Ben and Jack, very different but both great. I like how L&O doesn’t try to replace characters with a clone of the previous character - the one thing I liked about Fontana is that he was not a Lennie clone, and fortunately L&O hasn’t tried to clone previous characters.

Good post and I mostly agree with it. Briscoe/Green is also my favorite detective pairing, they had awesome chemistry and worked really well together. Lennie is a legend, he’ll forever be my favorite L&O detective. And yeah Jack is a legend as well, he was an awesome prosecutor. I think Ben would’ve been just as beloved if he had been on longer, both Ben and Jack were great but very different - Ben was stoic and business like and deadly serious, Jack was fiery and wore his emotions on his sleeve more and was visibly passionate about his cases, but both characters were great lawyers dedicated to justice. And yeah I love the Green/Lupo pairing as well, too bad they were only together for 14 episodes, Lupo gets forgotten about sometimes. Beauty Queen was awful. I found Fontana to be interesting but totally unlikable - arrogant, smug, a rule breaker, borderline shady and unethical at times, and lacking in empathy for people. I appreciated that they went with someone totally different from Lennie, but Fontana just had no likable qualities. Connie and Abbie are my favorite ADAs as well, although I love Claire, Paul and Jamie as well. Completely agree about disliking Cutter much of the time. The revival is usually pretty good, not as good as the original run for sure but still good, I like it a lot more than most, I love the Shaw/Riley detective pairing, I like both of their personalities and they have nice chemistry. Nolan Price is rather hit or miss but I’ve liked him more lately. I enjoy Tony Goldwyn as Baxter as well, even if they don’t always use him properly. I really miss Dixon though, the new LT Brady is too abrasive and surly. Maroun can really drive me nuts in some episodes though the same way Serena could. The worst thing about this season has been the intro of more personal melodrama, 4 of the 6 characters have had personal plots directly in the episodes and we’re only 8 episodes in. I really hope they cut this out, I don’t know if there are new writers who’ve come in from SVU or Wolf’s Chicago soap operas, but L&O should be all case centric and the revival needs to get back to that.

Really strong episode - very intense. We’ve seen rogue cops before in the Dick Wolf universe so it was pretty obvious where this was going but it was still compelling to watch play out. And pretty shocking when they tased Ray - those cops should’ve known that would be a big mistake but they weren’t that smart. Very satisfying to see all of those rogue cops taken down and I liked that the dad was disgusted with his son’s actions at the end. I did wonder how the rottenness of this sheriff’s office hadn’t come to light sooner in this day and age, but I guess everyone had been intimidated into silence. The guy playing the scummy sheriff has played a couple of memorable roles on original Law and Order, nice to see him. Remy had some good lines towards the dirtbag cops. This show has consistently good cases.

Yeah Fernando’s fiancé was just as rotten as he was, she didn’t care at all that he bashed a woman’s head in for her car, she cared more about losing the car when Lennie and Rey found it. And then whining that she didn’t want Fernando going away forever because of her baby, not caring at all that there were young children without a mother because of Fernando. He deserved to rot and never get out. It was interesting how the DAs got played by the 2 attorneys who knew the statement about the gun would be suppressed. The guy playing Fernando’s attorney played several memorable roles in the franchise. In ID, I have a feeling Marks stepped down from the bench soon after the episode’s events, it wasn’t explicitly stated but the final lines between Jack and Adam kind of implied Marks wasn’t going to be on the bench anymore, with Jack saying he brought himself down and Adam saying he wasn’t going to celebrate. It would now be public record how Marks acted during that trial and his reputation would likely be toast - he just let the power of his position go to his head and thought he was above the rules. It was interesting how Marks just kind of appeared weird at first and then he slowly got worse with his comments to Jamie and then showing his bias. I liked when Adam told him the rules didn’t allow the judge to act like the defense attorney or put words in witnesses mouths, which is what Marks started doing once his ruling got overturned because he was upset about it. The twist of the killer impersonating her sister was good and made sense, given that they found the picture of the killer with her husband but they assumed it was an affair between the sister and the husband. Marks’ ruling was absurd that the defendant should benefit from her deceiving everyone and impersonating her sister and I’m glad the appeals court reversed him. The scene between Adam and Jack in the holding cell makes me laugh every time, Adam growling at the other guy to sit down and then the look he gives Jack after Jack tells him to wear silk is awesome, vintage Adam. ID is an all time favorite of mine.

Season 7 has started today on Sundance, it’s my pick for the season with the best cases Causa Mortis is a great start to the season, strong case. Fernando was evil and his fiancé was almost as bad, she knew her boyfriend bashed a woman’s head in for her car and didn’t care, and then she whined about losing the car when Lennie and Rey found it. She was so whiny and pathetic. The ending of the recording the victim made before she was killed being played, pleading for her life, while the husband and daughter cry in court was very memorable and chilling. I liked Jack’s insistence on how prosecuting the case was his responsibility and that he didn’t want to hand the case off to the feds. It was a good intro to Jamie as well and showed that she was an effective lawyer. I also liked how it handled the aftermath of Claire’s death, while I loathe Aftershock and how they killed off Claire, they did a good job here - they didn’t dwell on it but didn’t totally ignore it, and the ending scene between Jack and Lennie was nice, I liked how instead of having beef and hard feelings, each wanted the other not to feel guilt over Claire’s death as shown by their final lines. ID is awesome, one of my all time favorites. Great case with a lot of colorful characters. The scene where Adam visits Jack in his jail cell is downright hilarious - Adam telling the murderer “young man, sit down” was great and then Jack telling Adam to wear silk when meeting with Marks and the look Adam gives him is priceless!! Adam confronting Marks was great as well, Marks was a creep on a power trip, he just let it all go to his head as Jack said at the end, he thought no one could hold him accountable. I liked the chief judge who told Marks to take sick leave or face the disciplinary board at the end. The case itself was awesome, I liked how Lennie and Rey went over the elevator records to figure out which floor the victim was on, and the twist that the killer stole her sister’s identity was great. She was so cold - “my sister didn’t have a life”. The Jersey cop enjoying a fancy meal at the steakhouse was funny, as was the rambling receptionist. Season 7 really has almost entirely strong episodes - just about every episode is memorable and excellent.

Really good fall finale - I knew Clay was bad news from the start, but he was even more evil than I thought he would be. OA had a major blind spot with him, and it almost cost OA his life. I thought Clay was playing them from the start of the case but I wasn’t 100% sure. Good investigation and case with a good role for each character - I liked Jubal and the analysts in the command room as usual, and Isobel telling the dirty cop he was a disgrace at the end was good. Scola’s new partner does nothing for me though - very bland. This was a good high intensity fall finale.

It might be my favorite of season 11 as well, because like I say I don’t care for a lot of episodes from seasons 9-12, and some of the ones I find entertaining just because they are so over the top (such as the monkey in basketball case). Conned is an example of an actual strong case that played out well. And yeah there were red flags for the shrink all around, good points you make.

Yeah she was an extremely sick perp, very creepy. Yeah the mixup wasn’t SVUs fault, the detectives really didn’t do anything wrong here, but I I was glad to get an episode where the others got more screen time - in the last few Stabler seasons it was almost all Elliot and Olivia, all the time, and the others didn’t get a chance to shine much.

Oh yes Andrew was extremely sympathetic, but he wasn’t a perp really, he killed in self defense and the shrink framed him for rape and then had him institutionalized so she could continue to have sex with him. He was a victim of his shrink. That shrink was such a sicko creep. I was very glad she got a lengthy prison sentence. That’s a good episode, one of the best from the later Stabler seasons when everything felt over the top and ridiculous, but that’s a strong episode, maybe because Stabler/Benson took a backseat to Fin/Munch/Cragen/Huang.

Very good episode IMO - I like this cases on this show the best of the 3 FBI shows. Good investigation and good twists - I liked the reveal that Ash was undercover and then that he was dirty and had gone rogue. Vic was a pure psycho. Strong case that played out nicely and had a good flow to it. Remy’s old friend seemed like a sleazy alcoholic, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets in trouble in the future if they bring him back. It was weird that they said Remy worked in finance before joining the FBI, that’s never been mentioned before and seemed like an odd reveal. Maybe Remy made some money then and that’s how he affords his spacious apartment. The personal scenes felt tacked on here as they often do, although Remy being hungover at the first crime scene was kind of funny.

Pretty good episode, good intensity and case. Wes has grown on me a lot since the beginning and I’m enjoying him as team leader now. But I’m not a fan of this new agent - too hotheaded and I didn’t like his attitude. I’m not sure if he’ll be a new regular or what but I hope he grows on me because I wasn’t a fan of him. The villain’s wife was so spineless and I wasn’t happy she got off at the end but I guess that’s what it took to put the bad guy away. Nice seeing Tank make an appearance.

Wild episode - those were some crazy people they were dealing with - interesting enough case at the start although it was dead obvious from the first scene that the dad would be involved in the case, but it kind of dragged on and on without much suspense after a while. The shootout at the bar at the end was a bit over the top - it was based on the “Pizzagate” incident a few years ago for sure. I’m glad Jubal is back as I enjoy his interactions with everyone but there wasn’t a lot of him or the people in the command room tonight. Isobel was good in dealing with the prick leader though. Kind of mediocre overall in that it was predictable and lacked suspense but there were some good lines from each agent and some good moments in it. Scola’s partner doesn’t make any impact really and I’m not surprised she’ll be gone soon - she’s just not working for me.

Yeah that’s another one with some similarities - Profiteer from season 17.

I immediately thought of L&O when I heard about that murder - seems like something straight out of an episode. I was reminded of the season 12 episode about the guy who killed the insurance executive who voted against approving the treatment for his sick daughter, given that this real life victim was a healthcare company CEO. I also thought of the episode from last year about the tech big wig who was killed after replacing some jobs with AI. A few other episodes came to mind as well. I have a feeling revenge may be the motive in the real case as well. I have a feeling L&O will rip from the headlines with this sooner or later depending on how the real case shakes out.

Yeah Conduct Unbecoming is great, Bunker was a total asshole and misogynist. The defense might’ve made a mistake in putting Bunker on the stand, but I guess they needed to since they were trying to portray him as an upstanding noble guy who wouldn’t hurt anyone - Ben’s cross of him was excellent, and his closing was spot on. I love the investigation as well with Lennie and Mike questioning witnesses and getting to the bottom of it and Cragen’s frustration in dealing with Navy bureaucracy. It’s one of my favorites from the season. Yeah the killer in Animal Instinct was a loon, completely off her rocker. She was a memorable character but it seemed like the DAs should’ve vetted her more carefully. I also like Night and Fog a lot, the killer was really evil, killing his wife to keep from being discovered as a Nazi. Very compelling storyline. The run of episodes in the middle of season 3 is fantastic.

Conduct Unbecoming is such a great episode - love the detective work and legal stuff. Captain Bunker was such a piece of garbage, an egomaniac and violent misogynistic prick. Ben nailing him on cross was great, one of Ben’s best moments “which bitch is it, sir?” and his closing was great as well. So satisfying to see Bunker go down. I loved how Lennie realized the victim was attacked before going into the room where she died and how they discovered Bunker was in the room where she was attacked. Nice to see Cragen go to Adam’s office, and Cragen’s exasperated “I like corn beef” line when Lennie/Mike were talking about the food ordered to the room was hilarious. Ben’s line to Bunker about who has the right to judge him “that right belongs to your conscience and twelve taxpayers, and I assure you the latter will not be as tolerant as the former” was awesome, vintage Ben. And Adam’s final line about Bunker was one of the best “I doubt he ever got past the Declaration of Independence - all men are created equal” perfect ending line. Animal Instinct is a weird episode - the killer was a complete loon, she was very creepy with her fixation on the victim’s husband and how she insisted they were in love. But I thought the DAs should’ve done a lot more background on her before the husband’s trial and maybe they never would’ve taken the husband to trial for something he didn’t do. They were too quick to suspect him.

Good episode - I hope they bring the female assassin back in the future, she would be a good multi-episode villain, this episode was a very rare time where justice wasn’t served so I hope they do more with her story and bring her back maybe at the end of the season, would be cool to see Remy square off with her again. Another very good episode from start to finish, this show has great cases. Like everyone else I knew Hana’s boyfriend was going to be no good, just didn’t know how. I was almost expecting him to be something worse than a run of the mill drug addict.

That was a creepy and weird episode - I was certain creepy doc’s son was the killer the minute I saw him, it seemed so obvious I was wondering why the characters weren’t commenting on him as a suspect from the minute he flirted with Maggie. So it was a good twist that it wasn’t him. But I didn’t get why they had Maggie go undercover, couldn’t they just bring the doc in for questioning? - they had enough evidence connecting him to the victims to do so. So that whole thing seemed off to me and a waste of time while a kidnapping victim was out there. And the new agent, Scola’s partner, coming off as an expert profiler lecturing everyone else on what was fairly obvious didn’t work well, I can see why this new agent won’t be around for long. The killer was bonkers. And then the guy stalking Maggie at the start turned out to have nothing to do with the case. Weird. It felt like there wasn’t much to this episode so they added on some filler and it felt kind of disjointed. Not much of the command room, and I missed Jubal and his interactions with everyone there. Interesting that Kelly is knowledgeable about birds though. As for Maggie’s personal subplot, I never understood why she was Ella’s guardian in the first place, Ella has other family who it seemed like would be more fit guardians than Maggie, I can see Maggie taking custody temporarily until things got figured out but not permanently, that just didn’t make sense to me, so I’m glad that subplot is likely over.

Innocence from season 20 is that episode. It was nice to see Cutter get taken down a peg in that one. I really am not a Cutter fan, so cocky and smug. My favorite moment of Cutter getting knocked down a peg is when Anita chewed him out for questioning her about her health on the witness stand - Cutter was such a dick for doing that, it wasn’t necessary at all to win his case, he just wanted to try to score points with the jury by bringing it up, and he planned to all along I’m sure he just didn’t give Anita a heads up because he knew she would object. He completely deserved the verbal smackdown Anita gave him. I also enjoyed when Jack came into court and rebuked Cutter in open court for trying to tell the couple to not have the surgery done on their disabled daughter, Cutter went completely rogue there and Jack was right to pull the plug on it. I liked how they referenced when Jack wanted the woman who was killing her kids sterilized back in the season 5 episode, but there was a huge difference between what Jack did there and what Cutter did in that episode - Jack attempted to get the judge to order sterilization, the judge didn’t and Jack didn’t try to go behind the judge’s back and attach an illegal stipulation to a plea agreement like Cutter did here. Cutter was just so damn arrogant.

I guess Jubal won’t be in this episode since he’s been suspended - that will be kind of weird, I know Jubal is polarizing but I enjoy him and his interactions with everyone in the command room, he’s kind of the guy everything flows through, he interacts with everyone and all of the communication seems to go through him. I guess OA is the only one who will have been in every episode now, because I recall Maggie missing episodes in the past. Anyway I look forward to the new episode.

Jack never planned to indict the husband of the call girl killer in Working Mom, he just wanted to see if he was telling the truth - the guy stood firm with his story and Jack didn’t charge him, he was just seeing how he would respond - if he had indicted him it might’ve been an abuse of power but he didn’t - and for the record the guy did lie and perjured himself at trial for his wife most likely - I don’t believe the wife told him about killing the guy - it’s pretty clear he lied for her, and Jack brought up his inconsistent stories when crossing him at trial. The other episode is Girlfriends from season 6, and while it’s been a good while since I’ve seen that one, the dad did help his daughter flee the country and then he falsely confessed to the murder at trial. I don’t recall the details of the enterprise corruption but I think the guy was guilty of it. We’ll just have to disagree about Jack - I strongly disagree that he gives prosecutors a bad name, he was a great prosecutor. Yes he crossed the line a couple of times and occasionally did some questionable stuff but I don’t think he really did anything wrong in the examples you gave.

Yeah she was crazy and was rightfully sent to an institution. It’s a good episode - I liked how Adam came up with the idea to charge fraud in order to get the case into a courtroom, and Jack was very good in it. I liked the defense lawyer as well, seemed like her and Jack had a romantic past, too bad it was her only appearance