Xeliou66

I have to strongly disagree about Jack - of course it’s a tv show so liberties are taken to make things dramatic and intense and all but Jack wasn’t a rogue prosecutor - he crossed the line a few times - the two most notable that I can recall being when he detained the mobsters without charge and when he hid the witness in season 8 - in both cases he came to realize he was wrong and had gone too far, there were a few other instances of him bending the rules but he was a great prosecutor IMO and he cared deeply about justice, and when he bent the rules he did so because he thought it was how to get justice, not to boost his ego or win at all costs. And when he pressured people to testify those people had usually done something illegal or underhanded in the first place and Jack had the right to compel them to testify. Do you have specific examples of when you feel Jack crossed the line? Jack wasn’t perfect and he made some mistakes but he cared about justice and the law deeply IMO, I couldn’t disagree more about him giving prosecutors a bad name. Cutter though was an egomaniac who didn’t seem to have strong ethics and was in it to win at all costs and boost his ego. He really rubbed me the wrong way. And he used trickery and underhanded tactics way more than any other character - at times it seemed like it was his only way to win. Among his worst moments were pretending to be in the cult to get a defendant to plead guilty, provoking the psychotic killer into attacking him so he would be medicated, using the juror’s attraction to Connie to their advantage without Connie knowing, forging the ME’s report in Lucky Stiff (and ME Rodgers wasn’t happy with him!) and of course when he questioned Anita about her cancer to score points with the jury (and god it was satisfying seeing Anita give him a verbal smackdown). Cutter is one of my least favorite characters and he never showed any regret or conflict about his actions, he oozed smugness. I just don’t see the show the same way as you do - if anything I think L&O gives a bit of an overly positive view of cops/DAs at times - I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, I want good guys/heroes in my fictional entertainment that I can root for and care about (it’s why I don’t like most “critically acclaimed” shows where all the characters are scum and it’s just evil vs evil). Jack McCoy is my favorite L&O character and one of my all time favorite fictional characters and several other L&O characters make my list of all time favorite characters as well. But Mike Cutter drives me nuts and I was really annoyed by his constant use of trickery.

You are right, that was a flimsy trick Cutter used and it was unlikely it would hold up. Still it was less ridiculous than what happened in the next episode Pledge, when Cutter somehow found a woman with the same first name as the woman the defendant was obsessed with who went to the same school at around the same time and was in the same sorority as the woman the defendant loved and who happened to marry a blue collar guy like the defendant. That felt totally absurd and unbelievable. Cutter is just not appealing at all to me between how he often he used tricks and borderline underhanded methods and his very large ego and smugness. When Jack occasionally used a trick or bent the rules, he did so in pursuit of justice, and he sometimes came to realize later he was wrong or had conflicted feelings about it - Cutter was the type who would do anything to win and didn’t care how underhanded and it felt like he was in it to boost his ego, not seek justice, and he used trickery and underhanded methods far more often than anyone else and was just so cocky about it. Cutter benefitted from being paired with the awesome Connie and having a strong cast around him and being a part of plenty of interesting cases, but he’s not a likable guy

I highly doubt Carisi could get in any ethical trouble here, his life was in danger and he never told the perp he was his lawyer, which is what got Serena in trouble in the Mothership episode, she went in as a negotiator and deceived the perp, Carisi was a hostage whose life was in danger. But then again given that SVU isn’t always well written I could see them trying to come up with some trouble for him. No way Carisi goes back to being a cop - it would mean less stable hours for him and he has a family now, plus for the show it would mean they would have to ditch someone in the current squad plus find a new ADA for SVU and I don’t see them doing that. I think this current squad is working really well overall - Fin and Bruno are awesome, Silva has been decent with what she’s had so far, Velasco is fine, Curry is okay, and they’ve finally given Carisi good material as an ADA. This season has honestly been better than I expected given how last season was really dreadful at times. SVU can still do good stories when they put the effort into it - the main issue is still the portrayal of Benson as some kind of saint who does no wrong and saves the day every time - it’s cheesy and ridiculous and weakens the show. But this season has been sort of a bounce back after how bad last season was.

This was slightly better than I expected - at least it wasn’t a Benson saves the world hour, and Carisi got a nice focus, but it didn’t seem to make sense that Benson was once again in charge of the hostage situation, and there were no real twists or anything - they just threw the rape in cause it’s SVU and they needed to have some sex crime. I wonder if they’ll reference this again soon, because that had to take a toll on Carisi. I still don’t sense any romantic chemistry between Carisi/Rollins, I feel they were forced together. I really missed Bruno and Fin, they are the best thing about SVU now, but it was a good episode for them to be absent given that they wouldn’t have had anything to do.

This was a really strong episode, very good plot even if it was somewhat predictable where it was going, still really compelling, and good stuff with both the investigation and trial. I particularly enjoyed Riley and Shaw, they both were great, their banter in the car was amusing and I also enjoyed Riley’s scene at the end with Brady. It was overly Brady heavy once again and I’m still not a big fan of her character and this episode didn’t make her look great given that she knew the perp was corrupt but didn’t say anything until it was too late, but I’m curious about the IA guy coming to her office at the end - is she going to be suspended or investigated, or is she going to be used to go after other dirty cops? Could be interesting. So while Brady hasn’t endeared herself to me really, this episode made things more interesting with her and I do appreciate that she is flawed and not perfect, unlike a certain SVU squad leader. I liked the trap they set for the perp and it caught me by surprise as well, really well executed twist. The cops in the squad who knew about the perp’s corruption and still didn’t say anything even after he smeared his dead partner as corrupt on the stand were sorry, I hope IAB goes after them and maybe that’s why the guy went to talk to Brady at the end. The one cop who was framed by the perp and still wouldn’t testify was spineless - Riley testified against the perp without hesitation, and Brady later testified as well, that dude should’ve followed their example instead of staying silent. The legal stuff was good, Price was solid, minimal Maroun and she wasn’t annoying, and Baxter was good even though he wasn’t used much - I liked the scenes discussing the case and talking about how to prosecute a decorated cop with a convicted drug dealer as their key witness. Overall this was probably the best episode of the season so far, strong plot for both investigation and trial, each character was used well, and while Brady didn’t become more likable she did become more fleshed out and interesting. Nice finish to an up and down fall season of L&O and I look forward to its return in January!!

Episode description Carisi tries to protect two women taken hostage in a tense standoff between police and a violent thief; Benson and Rollins devise a risky plan to get everyone to safety

Good episode - action packed and intense. Good investigation and manhunt, I liked how they figured it all out - the villains were all scum, I liked how Remy turned the brothers against each other to end the situation. I called the shot that they had inside help and since the female was the only character we saw that was working for the company I figured she was in on it, so no surprise there, still a good case. Remy’s “get Barney Fife out of there” line made me laugh, I love some of the lines Remy says. This show has consistently strong cases. Don’t care about Ray’s personal drama but at least the personal screen time is split pretty evenly between team members now.

This was a good episode, good investigation and an interesting case. I liked the way it played out, good role for everyone, and Wes is growing on me each week as team leader. But I’m afraid they are going down the Wes/Vo romance route, and I don’t want that, keep romance between main characters out of the show

Much better than I expected - I was expecting a politics fest at the start, glad it turned into a classic drug case and then the twist at the end that the frat leader was the actual killer was a good one, I didn’t see it coming that the victim wasn’t involved in drugs and the frat guy lied the whole time, good twist and a good investigation. So I guess Jubal will be out the next couple of episodes - he deserved his suspension honestly, he should know better than to get his kid special treatment like that. He screwed up and his whining at the end to Isobel irritated me, a rare time I was annoyed with Jubal - Isobel was right to stand firm. Jubal is usually very by the book so this kind of felt OOC for him. It will be interesting to see an episode without him, as he is kind of the guy who everything runs through and coordinates everything. Interesting seeing him get out in the field and shoot someone tonight. The new agent barely had any lines, she didn’t make an impact at all, I missed last week so I have no opinion on her yet. So overall a good case and investigation but Jubal’s whining annoyed me and I’m a bit sick of his kid drama - it’s getting almost as annoying as Jess LaCroix’s kid during his tenure on MW.

I’m very tempted to skip this episode given that original L&O just did an episode about campus protests and it was trash, I’m afraid this episode will just be a repeat of that and more of a political statement than an episode. If it wasn’t for the fact that I missed last week’s episode and thus haven’t seen the new agent who I hear is terrible, I would probably just skip this one because I’m sick of heavy handed episodes about campus protests. Maybe this will be better than L&O’s episode but I’m expecting the worst.

The episode’s premise sounds interesting, but I’m not looking forward to even more Brady - she’s been shoved down our throats this season and she’s just not likable. I wish she would take a backseat and let the much more likable Shaw/Riley pairing do the investigating. Hope this is a strong finish to the fall season, this is the last L&O episode until January.

Baxter was appointed by the governor, not the Mayor, part of why Jack retired was so the mayor wouldn’t have the chance to have a puppet to run the office and fire all of McCoy’s people. So there’s no tie between Baxter and the mayor. I like Baxter and I appreciate that he’s different from McCoy, but I didn’t agree with Baxter’s decision here, the murderer deserved more than 12 years. I’m still curious to see how the Baxter/Price relationship goes. I really wish Maroun had been let go and not Dixon, Maroun sucks while Dixon was a good LT. Brady wasn’t annoying here but I don’t like her and it looks like next week will be heavy on her again.

I wish they would cut out the Baxter/Price distrust or dial it back - while I’m fine with having characters with different perspective and views, I want the conflict to be between the good guys and the bad guys, not between 2 of the good guys. I like both characters usually, but I was disappointed with Baxter last night, and I don’t want it to be where Baxter and Price just don’t get along. I hope it’s dialed back again going forward. I did enjoy seeing a lot of Baxter last night and I think Tony Goldwyn does a great job playing him, but dial back the Baxter/Price distrust.

This episode was dreadful. And Maroun can leave any time - I’m so sick of her feeling sympathy for killers, and acting more like an activist than a lawyer. Shades of St Olivia Benson with her. At least there was no personal melodrama and Brady wasn’t annoying.

I didn’t like this episode at all - felt more like a political statement than an episode. Oh and I couldn’t stand Maroun, once again she’s feeling sorry for a killer, and acting more like an activist than a lawyer, and being whiny. I’m tired of her. Disappointing that Baxter bowed to the mayor at the end, felt like political pressure was clouding his judgment - he’s the one who should’ve been called a sellout by the brother, not Price. At least Brady wasn’t annoying. That’s all I have to say about this one, it was junk.

Good episode, because of Fin and Bruno and their investigative work. It was great to see them take center stage and solve a case mostly on their own with minimal Benson involvement. Bruno and Fin are the best parts of SVU now, the more of them together the better, and it was good to have a classic sexual assault investigation without soapy crap. The main case was strong. Didn’t care about Carisi and his obsession with nailing the pervert teacher guy, and of course he needed St O to step in and save the day, so cliched. But it took Benson off of the main case and allowed Fin and Bruno to get most of the glory of solving it, so that was nice. Probably the best episode of the season because of Bruno and Fin and their case.

That was McCoy, not Stone. The episode was Cruel and Unusual from Season 5. Interesting but a very sad episode with no real easily solution.

Season 20 has so many strong episodes, it’s on on Sundance today - Innocence is a strong case, it’s an episode that deviated from the L&O formula a bit with the arrest starting the episode, then a quick trial, the reinvestigating and more legal proceedings. I liked how it played out and how ultimately the guy arrested at the start was guilty - Cutter’s law professor was slimy, she was giving her students incentives to tamper with witnesses and because of the pressure on them they were meddling in legal proceedings. I liked how the detectives and DAs got to the bottom of it and I liked all of the scenes between them. And while Cutter was never a favorite, his cross of the perp’s mom here was awesome - she fell right into his trap, going off on her homophobic tangent after saying her son shared her values, that was great on Cutter’s part. And his rage at the perp’s hatefulness at the end was good as well. Four Cops Shot is an intense episode, good manhunt for the shooter. Anita was awesome here, she did great in dealing with the captain of the officers and I especially loved her speech to Lupo and Bernard when they were reluctant to hand over the officers because it would reveal 2 of them crossed some lines, Anita was great then, asking them if she died would they make her into a retroactive saint and tell everyone how perfect she was, telling them to get over the officers making some mistakes. Interestingly enough the stuff in the officers books was the final piece the DAs needed to nail the perp for murder 1, proving that the motive wasn’t the threats to arrest his mom but a dispute over money. I liked Jack saying that he didn’t go forum shopping for harsher penalties. And I liked the scene between Connie and Bernard where she asked Bernard why he saved the perp’s life if he wanted him executed and Bernard said he wasn’t the executioner and Connie said neither was she. Brazil just finished, this is another stellar episode about the attempted murder by poisoning of the scientist, and it leading to the custody dispute and then the grandparents faking the kid going missing was a wild twist. No one was sympathetic really, the scientist who was poisoned was probably the most sympathetic of the bunch, but his wife was selfish and lousy for how she handled the custody dispute, and the 2 perps the dad and the grandfather were obviously bad as nothing justifies a murder attempt. I felt for the little girl at the end, what a screwed up family situation. I liked how the DAs addressed that at the end with Jack saying it was a good day’s work and Cutter replied “but not a good day”. Cutter did a good job again here by putting the dad on the stand and getting him to admit his guilt by using his concern for his daughter. Cutter was overall better in season 20 than he was in the previous 2 seasons. This was a good episode with good detective and legal work and some interesting twists.

Oh yes that judge was rotten in Poison in season 5, a total asshat with a major bias, at least he faced some consequences at the end for his atrocious rulings. Judge Briggs in Pornstar’s Requiem didn’t. I’m not sure how they could bring the case back unless the rapist who got away with it raped again - which is definitely a strong possibility given that he got away with his first rape and was sadistic and smug. Maybe if he got in legal trouble again after committing another assault there would be enough backlash against Briggs for setting him free to force Briggs off the bench. That episode’s ending was downright infuriating. As for Stuckey, that storyline was just stupid and ridiculous, it was right at the end of SVU being a ridiculous show (same season as the infamous “so ridiculous it’s good” monkeys in basketballs episode). Stuckey was massively annoying and made the show hard to watch, and I hated how they didn’t even address O’Halloran’s death, it would’ve been nice just to have a single line from someone either in that episode or the next one mourning him. But I also kind of enjoyed seeing Stuckey give Stabler a dose of his own medicine since Stabler repeatedly roughed people up - I really dislike Stabler much of the time, he’s just not mentally fit to be a cop, and the only thing that makes Stabler more bearable than modern day St Olivia is that people don’t act like Stabler is perfect and he does get called out for his flaws. But back before Benson gained Sainthood status, when she was a detective, I liked her better than Stabler usually, Stabler was just hard to stomach, and I hate that the show brought Stabler back just to have him inevitably hook up with St O, this show shouldn’t be a romance show or a soap opera, so shame on the writers for bowing to the “shippers” who are loud online but are not the majority of the fans.

Definitely an unpopular opinion. I was uncertain whether the victim faked her fall or not, there was an inconsistency in her story but as has often been said on SVU victims frequently leave stuff out or change parts of their story. She never admitted faking the fall and her crying when they accused her of faking it was because she was terrified and knew the guy wouldn’t stop, it was not an admission of faking it and it rubbed me the wrong way that they accepted it as such. I don’t know how much Lennie genuinely believed but I thought him and Anita could’ve talked it out without Anita getting so pissed, maybe it was kind of OOC on both their parts since Lennie didn’t talk to Anita before talking to the DAs. But I was uncertain about whether or not she faked the fall. And what Rey did reflected poorly on the NYPD as well, he was a blatant hypocrite and I enjoyed seeing him knocked down a peg.

Episode Description Bruno must get to the center of a victim’s incomplete story to track down a serial rapist; Carisi is helpless to stop a crime he suspects is about to be committed.

Jack is awesome and Illegal is one of his finest moments. His statement on the witness stand was terrific, and it summed up Jack well - he did his job and upheld the law without bias or favoritism and held everyone accountable. He made a similar statement in his very last episode in season 23 in his closing argument to the jury about applying the law equally and without favoritism when telling the jury not to be swayed by the defendant’s friendship with the mayor and billionaire status. Jack was an outstanding DA and my favorite L&O character. I’m not sure what Latham was thinking but Latham was a rotten prosecutor who had his own agenda, I don’t know how he thought he could keep his job after tanking the grand jury presentation. I liked how Jack stood up to the bureaucrats as well when they were pressuring him and defended Van Buren and kept her on the case. And I liked how Van Buren trusted Lupo on the case even though they would both be under pressure and Lupo’s past might come up, Van Buren and Lupo had a strong relationship. Cutter for once was strong here as well, this was one of his best episodes. As I’ve said before, Illegal is my favorite of season 18.

Sadly I missed last night’s episode because of technical issues with my tv, but yeah from everything I’ve heard she was awful. I look forward to seeing what happens with her, I’ll try to find last night’s episode somewhere.

Good episode last night - interesting premise and an intense case. This show always delivers compelling cases, usually with evil villains. While it was nice to see Barnes again and to have the full team back, I was kind of annoyed at the whole “Barnes taking it personally” and going behind Remy’s back to investigate - the trope of a character “taking it personally” and going on a mission like this gets old and I thought Remy had the right to be pissed at her going behind his back. It will be interesting to see where Remy and Barnes’ relationship goes now since there’s definitely friction again between them - I wonder if it will be referenced in the future. They are definitely setting up something with Hana’s boyfriend Ethan.

Pretty good episode, I only saw half of it I missed the first part due to some issues with my tv, but this was pretty good - Wes is growing on me as team leader, I’m starting to like him now, and the case was interesting, I liked seeing Amanda get out in the field.