[S20.E03: Zero Tolerance]

I really wish someone from the network or someone somewhere would tell SVU to lay off the political episodes. They often do "ripped from the headlines" well when it comes to straightforward sex crimes, but they do terribly when it to politically motivated episodes. They are ridiculously preachy and fall well outside the purview of SVU's actual mission. This case ceased to be a SVU type case once Uncle Luke was arrested. 

I was so glad when Olivia got her ass smacked down in court, because she was completely out of line. But of course she must get some sort of "win" in the end, because her buddies pulled political strings for her. 

I don't get where the writers are going with Dominic and Amanda. I can only guess they are still going on what they laid down last season, with Dominic desiring Amanda and maybe him being jealous or whatever about her being pregnant. And if that is the case, that is just creepy and weird. The show did a pretty good job of writing in Kelli's first pregnancy, and the friendship between Dominic and Amanda was well handled, and he was super supportive and understanding. But I really do think it is a big mistake for the writers to write Kelli's second pregnancy into the show. Their only option is to have Amanda become pregnant by a second man, and their only real option (short of writing in a one night stand) is to develop the "relationship" with the creepy, escort loving cardiologist. Nothing about this "relationship" is believable in the slightest for me, but this is the road they chose to go down. 

This is definitely an episode I am going to want to forget and never watch again. 

[Season 20 Spoilers & Speculation]

https://tvline.com/2018/07/14/law-and-order-svu-cast-george-newbern-season-20/

Yeah, I read the article about Amanda's boyfriend. First off, why the hell would she be getting back together with a dude who likes to frequent prostitutes? I mean, sure she seems to be going through a dry spell, but there is no need to lower yourself to return to such a douche. Secondly, and this probably undercuts a bit what I said in the first, but the article describes her boyfriend as "charming, handsome, and very wealthy doctor." I'm sorry, and I say this as someone who likes Amanda, but no way could I see a doctor like that pursuing Amanda in the first place. Of course this is a guy who frequents prostitutes instead of having more sex with his girlfriend, so something is clearly off about him. Want to make a bet that he turns out to be some sort of sexual predator? Of course that doesn't speak well to Amanda's perv radar, but it's like, the writers can't come up with a more decent boyfriend for Amanda? 

[Law & Order: SVU in the Media]

If Mariska wants more time for some work life balance, that could easily be accomplished by bringing Olivia's job in line with what it should actually be. Give more to the detectives doing the actual work and more of the ADA prepping and trying cases, and Mariska could go home. There is no reason the show HAS to spend so much time on Olivia. There is plenty of work to go around. I'm not even talking about writing Olivia like they wrote Cragen, but write her like they used to do, when the show was more of a true ensemble. And since she is an executive producer, she could actually get this done if she really, really wanted it. But this interview practically contradicts the TV Insider interview where she has the vision of Olivia not willing to let her subordinates do their job, because she feels she can do it better than them, and she MUST create a relationship between her and the victim. 

[Law & Order: SVU in the Media]

Yikes. I finally read that TV Insider interview, and I personally don't think it was a good look for the character of Olivia. It really does reinforce the idea that Mariska's ego has driven this image of St. Olivia to ridiculous extremes.

 I mean, this show actively encourages Olivia to be out in the field (which no LT would ever do, since they have an actual important job elsewhere). "[Olivia] needs to make sure her guys are safe, but there’s something in her you that makes her feel she can do it better. [Olivia] needs to be in the field. She needs get through to the victim because she thinks there’s a direct line with the survivor and herself." This has basically the central complaint about Olivia for the past several years (probably since about season 15 or 16, but I think it got worse after season 17). She basically feels that only SHE can do the job of detective (if so, why ever accept a promotion) and her squad is not as good at their jobs as she is (which can be a reflection of her lack of leadership, because she has failed to develop her team in the same way Cragen developed her). Olivia has lost all objectivity (which the season finale showed in spades), which makes her a poor leader. So many times, she seems to make the cases more about her rather than the victims, and the show reinforces that by having all victims worship her and credit her entirely with a successful case. I honestly think this show has some interesting material to work with if they only developed what her job should actually be. We didn't get to see that much of what Cragen was up to, but what little we did see, I found fascinating. Considering that both the show and real world SVU are understaffed and underbudgeted, we don't see her fighting much the political or resource aspect of her job, which is an important way of fighting to get justice for victims. Olivia is a woman of fair amount of power in a heavily male dominated profession, and that alone could produce some interesting stories. But they want to have it both ways by giving Olivia the power, but also doing the same damn job she has done for the past 19 years, when she has a mostly competent team to do that work for her. 

[Law & Order: SVU in the Media]

The character of Rafael helped get me back into the SVU fandom after taking a break after Christopher Meloni left.  So I really, really, really love that character. However, the character I love was created and overseen by Warren.  I do think the season 18/19 writers completely assassinated his character. They took away his intelligence and his balls and put them in Olivia's purse where they remained. Before, if Rafael took a questionable case to court, that judgment error and the resulting tension between him and Olivia was baked into the episode. It didn't feel like he was bending over backwards to please her, plus the fact that there weren't THAT many weak cases taken to trial during the Warren years. Certainly not as many as season 18, where they miraculously got convictions they should never have gotten. 

I can't figure out if the season 18 writers just had no clue about what Rafael was like, or they just didn't care, because everyone in Olivia's orbit was supposed to worship her and support her at every turn. Plus the writers seemed to throw red meat at the romantic Barson shippers, so that also inevitably weakened his character. While I think Michael Chernuchin is an overall better showrunner and writer than Rick, I also don't get the feeling he was interested in restoring Rafael back to his glory days. Part of that could be that Michael maybe wasn't as familiar with seasons 14-17 Rafael. It is also likely that because Raul had already elected to leave before Michael came on board, that he had no interest in writing Rafael the way he used to be, because he was excited for his new ADA playtoy that would replace Rafael. 

UNLESS Rafael's character, intelligence and independence could be restored to the Warren Leight years, I would rather Rafael stay away. I can imagine all sorts of things for Rafael that please me more than what seasons 18-19 gave me. I would hate for him to return and see how further they could drag his character into the mud. I mean, his parting act was to unplug a baby that he had no connection to. About the only way it could get worse is if he was accused of rape. If the writers thought his final episode was serving the character and sending him off well, I have zero desire to see what they would do for a sequel. 

[S19.E23: Remember Me & S19.E24: Remember Me Too]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

So not even original (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_the_Maiden_(film)). 

Oh no, not at all. And this episode was more in line with the film rather than the play the movie was based. In the play, there was ambiguity as to whether or not the accused man was actually guilty, or if it was a case of mistaken identity. I had seen this comparison on another site before I watched the episode. 

I personally think it would have been better if either Lourdes' identification had remained ambiguous, OR if the team had discovered evidence to actually support it. Instead the show took the lazy way out, because Miguel eagerly confessed after one little tongue lashing from Olivia. I mean, this guy kept to his story after being tortured and even under strong cross examination under oath. But one little minor threat from Olivia is all it takes to break him? Like I said before, it was lazy and convenient storytelling, because either the show didn't want to leave it ambiguous (and thus leave the judgment of Olivia's judgment to be ambiguous), or because they didn't want to bother writing in the necessary scenes it would take for the team to investigate and solidly build a case against Miguel. Plus of course the writers/producers were hell bent on having Peter's mentally ill sister murdered in front of him (after she finally recognized him as her brother), because...reasons. 

Overall the writing was oddly paced. We had way too much hostage torture in the first half and way too little investigating/case building in the second half. So we had this painfully slow and repetitive start, only to crash into a contrived and unnecessary ending.

[S19.E21: Guardian]

Depending on how you feel about Trump, I don't know if you actually want to see that episode. Based on everything that has been reported about that episode, it seems that the Trump-like character didn't actually rape anyone and was set up for political purposes. Considering that episode would have aired after the Access Hollywood tape was published, it would have been a very awkward episode to air. 

[S19.E23: Remember Me & S19.E24: Remember Me Too]

I...don't know what to think about this finale. It certainly had elements from previous episodes that I don't particularly like. I've never been a huge fan of the human trafficking cases, and they seemed to especially proliferate in seasons 15 and 16. For long stretches of this episode, it really felt like there was hardly any team interaction. It was just too many impassioned speeches filled with political overtones from guest stars  and very little actual investigation or case work. It seemed like an excuse to revisit the oppressive environment from "Something Happened", yet another solo Olivia hostage situation (I've lost count on those), along with further burnishing Olivia's crown as the patron saint of victims. 

One thing I did like about this episode is that for a good chunk of the episode, I didn't actually know if Miguel was truly Lourdes' rapist, or if it was just an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Sure there were hints that there was something dark going on, but no actual confirmation until the end when Miguel snapped and confessed to it all (which was awfully convenient for them to build a case, because he had so steadfastly maintained his innocence prior to that). I do wish there had been some actual investigation into Miguel. Sure we heard about it, but it was all conducted off screen. This is a team that has managed to take down large groups of traffickers in the past, and yet they could turn up nothing on Miguel or the dude with a bashed in head? Granted, that was all just an excuse to head the story in the direction it did, but it did feel like a cheap shortcut.

I definitely was not there for Olivia's feeling over fact stance that she had for the entire episode, and especially how that feeling was vindicated in the end, rather than building a case with objective evidence. I get that Olivia is certainly not objective when it comes to this sort of trauma (which really makes her suspect on running a squad where she is confronted with sexual violence and victims' pain on a daily basis), but she has been in law enforcement for decades and knows that prosecutors can't build a case without facts to support it. The fact that she kept pushing and pushing Peter to take Miguel to trial without any objective evidence to support his alleged crimes became tiresome after a while. I do give credit to Peter for standing firm and pushing back, because she was in the wrong in this particular case. If she wants Miguel to be prosecuted, she needs to do her actual job and find evidence to support Lourdes' story. And it was especially annoying, because just a few weeks ago, she put a domestic abuse victim at risk (who was ultimately killed), because Olivia insisted on following the law without any other consideration. But in this particular case, Olivia's feelings are supposed to triumph over the law. It's an annoying inconsistency trotted out whenever it is convenient to the character. Plus it gives the impression that certain victims' pain is more "worthy" of her Olivianess than others. But honestly, the writing has so veered away from any sense of realism that it is hamstringing the believability of the show. Olivia really needs to be reassigned to another department or retired. She simply lacks the emotional objectivity to be effective in her job. In episodes like these, it shows that she has never really gotten over William Lewis and shouldn't be in charge of a group of SVU detectives. Fin was much more rational and much more of the team leader than Olivia was. While the writers are probably thinking they are showing just how empathetic Olivia is and supportive of victims, I honestly think they are doing Olivia a disservice, because they are showing that she is emotionally incapable of doing her job. Of course I do agree with those that say this is all in service to Mariska's ego and trying to showcase Olivia, to the detriment of the overall realism of the show.

And I must say, that utterly ridiculous and unnecessary ending with the shootout between the NYPD and Diego that resulted in Peter's sister being gunned down was completely over the top. It really was unnecessary and other than giving Peter some manpain, I can't figure out what was the point. I think anyone associated with the cartel wouldn't be stupid enough to threaten an ADA, particularly in this case, because they were threatening Peter's sister, because they wanted him to drop the charges on Lourdes so they could deal with her themselves. If they wanted to kill Lourdes, I'm sure there were ways to get to her. What was the point of bringing the full force of American law enforcement on their heads? And that stupid, suicidal bravado that was the pointless shootout. There was absolutely no need to kill Pam, especially in that manner. It just felt cheap and exploitative, and a good excuse to end the season with Peter crying in Olivia's arms. Booooo!!

[S14.E24: All of Me]

Well...if you made a Grey's Anatomy finale bingo card, or made up your very own drinking game, you would likely have won and be super drunk, because this episode pretty much covered every one of fan's predictions, so there was a whole lot of schmaltz and very little surprise.

1. April and Matthew got married (for real this time). I'll never get behind this relationship, but it's better than killing April off. But I'll always believe that this whole thing was only thrown together after Sarah was let go, and this was not some long envisioned love story for April. 

2. Callie is making overtures to Arizona (so presumably they'll reunite offscreen).

3. Teddy is pregnant. 

4. Hellmouth wants to screw Merideth. 

5. Glasses made an ass of himself yet again (seriously, how is this guy still in the surgery program? He really will get someone killed soon enough).

6. Amelia wants her ex husband back (after proving over and over again why this couple doesn't work). 

I don't understand couples in real life who break up and reconcile over and over again, and for the most part (with only a few exceptions), I don't like it when shows play the relationship merry go round over and over again, like they spend all their time building a couple up, only to tear them down after they get together. 

[S19.E22: Mama]

There were some interesting old school throwbacks to this episode. So much so, that I was sort of expecting/hoping this episode to have the same kind of genuinely shocking ending from season 2, "Pique" (the episode that introduced us to the wonder that was Dr. Huang). It was very obvious Henry was both under the thumb of his mother and sexually obsessed with her, so no surprise how it all played out. Granted it ended with a whimper, but it didn't really gather any momentum during the hour.

Overall I had mixed feelings about this episode. The acting from the guest stars was very good, but the story really sort of stalled for the first 30 minutes and then rushed to an ending. 

Before the final scene, I honestly thought this show was setting Fin up for a Mike Dodds exit. Granted that would be one crappy way of getting rid of the character with the second longest longevity on this show, but you never know. But since it was all resolved off screen (and who knows if we will ever be privy to the reasons behind it all), I was left feeling like what was the point of this entire subplot? 

And I still have a feeling Stone's sister is going to die in the season finale. If so, I will wonder why it needed to happen at all, and if it doesn't happen, I will wonder why the show has spent so much time on this subplot. Sure, I get that Peter is the showrunner's pet, but surely there are other ways to develop his character. 

So I guess I can sum up my feeling about all the subplots: what was the point of it all?

[Law & Order: SVU in the Media]

Just how much more Amanda family drama do we need? ???

 

And I guess this means Amanda survived the finale.

[Season 19 Spoilers & Speculation]

It's going to be weird with SVU on Thursdays. It doesn't really fit in with the the rest of Thursday's lineup, but I guess NBC wanted their all Chicago night. 

[Spoilers and Spoiler Speculation: Benchmarking]

Now I am wondering just what the hell April's exit story is. It's likely tied to Matthew in some way (boo!), but simply getting married or whatever they want to do with the two of them, wouldn't require her to leave her job. Please tell me she doesn't marry Matthew and then decides to quit her job to raise both of their children. I have zero indication that would happen, but that choice would piss me off, because I think it is ridiculous. We know that Arizona is moving for Sofia's sake, so now we just need to know what reason they give April for leaving the hospital. 

[S14.E23: Cold As Ice]

I wasn't exactly pleased with this episode, even though I was pleased April was okay. If I had to guess, this was some episode slapped together after Sarah was let go, so to facilitate an exit story for April. For me, this episode was all about tell and not show. I mean, these doctors were gathered around her, emotionally traumatized by her injuries, and yet most of her colleagues weren't exactly all that close to April. She floundered for months and nobody seemed to notice or care until it was nearly too late. She was frequently the butt of jokes for her ways and her personality, and overall, she just wasn't that appreciated. Combine that with the (not shocking, but still ugh, for me) revelation that she has been in love with Matthew for months now. Just how many months have passed on this show, because it was only a few weeks ago when we saw April and Matthew have some sort of wordless rapprochement. If the show wanted to plausibly have them reconnect, why not actually show that, even if it were just a few scenes here or there? Instead we have Arizona basically lay it all out while this all happened offscreen. Maybe if I actually wanted April and Matthew to get back together again, I would be delighted about this turn of events. But since I was so hoping the show wouldn't go there with all that, I am not exactly happy about these storytelling choices.  [Minor point, but I was still wondering: just where was Matthew's daughter, since she obviously wasn't in the car with them? Another minor point: just where the hell does Matthew live, because it seemed like the car accident took place out in the middle of nowhere?]

Other than that, I enjoyed the B story with Geena Davis's return. It was a fun return, particularly the revelation about her liaison with Dr. Koracik. Dude, that guy screws a lot of doctors. :) :) :) I knew that she was going to offer some sort of job opportunity for Arizona, so I wasn't surprised that she was set up with a very nice exit story. 

[S19.E21: Guardian]

I liked this episode. It felt like a classic era SVU episode. Not the classic era of WTF twists, but instead a solid episode with a variety of investigation leads that eventually lead to the truth. I wasn't expecting where it went, but I enjoyed it.It was good to see Fin have something more to do than normal, and the amount of Olivia was in the tolerable level rather than the overwhelming amount in the first half of the season. 

 I didn't expect that Malik was pimping out his sister AND his mother. Yikes, wasn't expecting that one. I didn't find Malik to be sympathetic in the slightest, and I felt like the episode was trying to push us to feel some sort of sympathy for him. The dude was an asshole, no matter how much he claimed to love his family. Just because he was abused by his father doesn't give him license to abuse others. 

[S19.E21: Guardian]

Of course the show would never use real names because they would likely get sued, but if the show wanted to, they could still do the same story- only with fictional names for the characters. That would be delightfully ballsy if they went there, because the real world NY law enforcement is currently providing a wealth of material for provocative stories.

[S19.E21: Guardian]

If the show replaced McCoy with some other fictional character, it would actually be rather interesting to see the real world law enforcement troubles play out as a ripped from the headlines multiple story arc (because I don't want to see McCoy being painted as dirty or corrupt). I mean, we have the real world Manhattan DA under investigation by the State AG for how he handled (or didn't handle) a high profile sexual assault case. Then the State AG turns out to be his own sex pest, with the initial investigation of him going to be given to the Manhattan DA. Of course, that has now changed so another county's DA is investigating the AG, while the AG office is still investigating the Manhattan DA. Honestly, this could be a VERY interesting story (though I'd prefer it if it was investigated by Rafael, just because l like him more than Peter). But alas, this is likely to be one juicy, ripped from the headlines story that won't be made into a SVU episode. Of course I think the current writing team would screw it up, but I bet Warren could have done something interesting with it. 

[Season 19 Spoilers & Speculation]

The blurb was in the print version of TV Guide. I saw it posted on Tumblr under the SVU tag.

I CAN see them killing off Peter's sister, but that will likely only be for shock value, since she isn't some beloved character, nor would any fans really care all that much. Plus she has zero impact on the rest of the show. I can't see Phillip leaving the show, because he just got to the show. He's clearly Michael's pet and he's gotten more personal  character development in just a few episodes than Rafael got in his years. 

[Season 19 Spoilers & Speculation]

The press release for the two hour finale is published. It sounds like yet ANOTHER hostage situation where Olivia must ride to the rescue. Of course.

And even though it's not in the press release, Michael Chernuchin gave a statement to TV Guide that basically said that "something terrible happens to one of our characters." 

Should we take bets on who and what it is? My guess is that it's something to do with Amanda and that will either kill her (probably not) or is the cause of her departure. The title of the episode "Remember Me" just brings to mind "Heartfelt Passages" and how that played out. 

[S19.E20: The Book of Esther]

The only way I think they could determine that it was Amanda's bullet that killed Esther is if the bullet was still lodged in her and then ballistics compared the kill shot to all of the police officers who fired their weapon and the bullet matched Amanda's gun. But that was certainly the quickest ballistics test ever by the NYPD! 

[S19.E20: The Book of Esther]

I thought this was a bad episode, nearly from start to finish. I can't really put my finger on why I thought this episode was poorly written, but the rhythms of this episode just felt off, and most of it was Amanda going rogue (like so many people on this team are wont to do).  Again we have Amanda who can't keep her emotions in check on the job. At least this time, she wasn't taking out her personal problems on a innocent victim, but she really needs to get control of herself. Right now, it's like the writers are turning her into Unstabler 3.0 with her being unable to be professional on the job. I figured we would find something out about her father or something that was causing her to be so emotional, but it just seemed like she took this case personally. And of course the writers had to have her fire the kill shot on Esther, because why the hell not at this point? 

[Spoilers and Spoiler Speculation: Benchmarking]

I will definitely not be happy if April and Matthew end up as some sort of couple. I never liked them as a couple (I was a hardcore Japril shipper until the Grey's writers royally screwed up their relationship with the writing), and was relieved that they didn't get married. I certainly don't want to see a reconciliation. *sighs* 

[Spencer Reid: Gorgeous Gray Matter]

I think even for dedicated introverts, years upon years upon years of near solitude can weigh on you. I think most of the fandom has come to the agreement that Reid is not on the autism spectrum, so I don't think he is as adverse to personal relationships otherwise. 

Yeah, he has friends, but all of those friends have lives of their own, and being friends with married people with children means you are often standing on the outside. His one family member he is actually close to is deteriorating. While solitude can be enjoyable, it can also be crushing after a while, if you feel like you don't have solid connections of your own. Whether or not it is an intentional story choice (I don't exactly trust this show when it comes to writing anymore), Reid really did come across as more emotionally disconnected from the people around him in the finale, even JJ. 

[S19.E19: Sunk Cost Fallacy]

I can see Alex rationalizing that these abusers deserved to be in jail anyway for the abuse they committed, so it wasn't like truly innocent people were going to jail. It is definitely morally and ethically questionable, but it would be a consistent line of thinking for someone who was doing what she was doing. We haven't seen Alex at all in about six years (and we haven't seen her consistently in about eight years), so it's hard to say that she suddenly became a vigilante. It sounds like she has been at this for years now (though this seems to support the notion that Olivia doesn't keep in touch with people once they leave the SVU work orbit, because she had no clue what Alex was doing with her life, even though it sounds like Alex still lives in NYC. Yeah I know they joked about Alex moving to Florida, but that just didn't sound all that realistic to me). 

[S19.E19: Sunk Cost Fallacy]

I generally liked this episode, but couldn't help but compare it to "The Undiscovered Country." Both episodes embroiled beloved ADAs in morally and legally questionable behavior. Of course this episode did Alex better, because they didn't turn her into a baby killer and put her on trial. But both episodes approached thorny ethical issues that aren't really well served by the courts and the law and didn't offer up easy answers to either problem (because there aren't easy answers to situations like this). I would have preferred a Rafael exit episode like this that dealt with the gray issues without turning him fully onto the criminal side of the law. But oh well, you can't have everything in life. 

I did like that this episode showed that there was no GOOD answer to problems such as these. Domestic violence laws can often let victims down and put them at greater risk. Alex had seen firsthand how the law can not help victims at times. But yeah Olivia was right in the sense that what Alex was doing was aiding and abetting crimes at times. It was an issue that explored both sides of it, and the outcome was unfortunately what was likely going to happen in this sort of situation. And of course Asshole Husband "won" in the end, because he is now free of his wife and will likely maintain full custody of his daughter. I do agree from an episode closure perspective if they had found some evidence he was behind the car crash, but the writers were clearly making another point here. 

Of course I think some of this could have been avoided if Peter hadn't overreached by charging him with murder without bodies or really solid evidence of their deaths. Olivia would probably have an easier time looking the other way (like she did when Avery Jordan ran off with her child at the end of "Legitimate Rape") if Asshole Husband hadn't gotten smacked around in prison and had grounds to bring a lawsuit against them all. Of course if she had learned to parse her answers to a deposition that concealed the truth without flat out committing perjury, some of this could have been avoided as well. But if Jules and Ruby had gotten away in the end, it would have undermined the story they were trying to tell (and give an opportunity for some Anguished Olivia). 

At least Alex is out there doing what she can for victims. I know what she is doing is highly questionable, but I honestly can't bring myself to feel sorry for abusers. It was good to see her again and see her in court. I always liked her cool and smart persona. 

On another note, it pays to be the showrunner's pet, because we have seen more personal stuff for Peter than we have seen for other new characters in the past. I wonder if all of this is just character stuff for the hell of it, or if it is building to something specific.