S23.E05: Fast Times @TheWheelHouse

[WendyCR72]

Airing October 14, 2021:

Quote

The SVU faces the fury of social media fans when they arrest two popular influencer brothers.

 

[dttruman]

On 10/9/2021 at 8:32 PM, WendyCR72 said:

Airing October 14, 2021:

 

Well at least we don't have McGrath  here to call it a bad or good victim case. The bad part is that this maybe a superficial investigation, because of Benson setting up the OC episode and talking about Stabler.

[dttruman]

Did anyone else think that that confrontation outside where Carisi gets hit with a Big Red slushy was so terribly contrived. What the hell were the other cops doing, just watching straight ahead when that drink was chucked. Someone should have seen who threw it.

Oh my god, why is Benson testifying as an expert witness for rape victims? Why isn't a trained therapist testifying, it makes no sense and makes it so unrealistic. I guess the writers (and producers) had to make time for Benson to speak for rape victims.

Well the writers and producers are doing it again, the trial is going to be tainted by a standard method they have used in the past and then a game changer happens

[Pearson80]

This episode could have been better but it was missing something. 

I really hate how Benson is constantly telling Carisi what to do when it comes to a case.  She did the same thing to Barba and it is annoying..  

[mtlchick]

Were those the two dumbest guys ever? I mean they were disgusting as hell but DMing jurors during the trial?  I won’t ask how they got their names but good Lord. I kind of wanted their lawyer to slap them. 

[The Wild Sow]

43 minutes ago, mtlchick said:

Were those the two dumbest guys ever? I mean they were disgusting as hell but DMing jurors during the trial?  I won’t ask how they got their names but good Lord. I kind of wanted their lawyer to slap them. 

How did anyone who follows the Wheelhouse get ON the jury in the first place? They shouldn’t have made it through void dire. Jury shoulda been people my age - who wouldn’t  know TikTok from a can o’ paint! 

[Aileen]

I thought the wheelhouse guys and their lawyer were perfectly cast. I liked this episode a lot. Jet is one of my favorites from L&O-OC, so I was good with her popping up here (although I never thought she was a detective last season…I always thought she was just some computer hacker that worked for them).

Edited October 15, 2021 by Aileen

[Xeliou66]

This wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either - a mixed bag overall.

First of all, SVU was extremely short staffed and it was noteworthy - no Fin or Velasco, and they had to bring in Jet from OC in order to have enough people to work the case. No excuse for just having 2 SVU officers on the case. Fin has had next to nothing all season and I’m tired of it.

Carisi was the highlight of the episode, just as he’s been the highlight all season - it was really nice to see a courtroom heavy episode, hell we even got to see the jury read the verdict, and the trial scenes were well done and it was nice that it was Carisi who figured out how to put the douche brothers away in the end and not St Olivia or Rollins. I always prefer courtroom heavy episodes, and it was nice to see an episode with a lot of court scenes.

Bonus points for finally having an episode where no higher ups interfered with Carisi’s case and no trashing of the DA’s office. Minus points for shoehorning in Noah the brat at the start, and for the overly long montage opening, I always dislike those.

The OC crossover stuff was really clunky and just reeked of being filler, they didn’t have enough SVU stuff or people in the episode so they shoehorned in an OC promotion - I’m tired of SVU being a promo for OC, let OC stand on its on. 

So overall this was average - I enjoyed the courtroom scenes, Carisi was good and the case was okay, but the squad was really thin, there was plenty of filler and it was nothing special. 

[meatball77]

The plot for this weeks episode just didn't make sense.  Maybe 10 years ago but the only people there were those supporting the rapists really?  It's 2021, there would have been a crowd of women outside the house calling for their heads.

[preeya]

8 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

First of all, SVU was extremely short staffed and it was noteworthy - no Fin or Velasco, and they had to bring in Jet from OC in order to have enough people to work the case. No excuse for just having 2 SVU officers on the case. Fin has had next to nothing all season and I’m tired of it.

But both Fin & St. Olivia had major parts in the OC crossover.

 

8 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

it was really nice to see a courtroom heavy episode, hell we even got to see the jury read the verdict, and the trial scenes were well done

And with Janice Soprano back on the bench as the judge.

[Ohiopirate02]

4 hours ago, meatball77 said:

The plot for this weeks episode just didn't make sense.  Maybe 10 years ago but the only people there were those supporting the rapists really?  It's 2021, there would have been a crowd of women outside the house calling for their heads.

I was trying to figure out why the victim's friend who used to live in the Wheelhouse and apparently saw some things did not warn her.  He knew they were the worst kind of dudebros but still did not intervene when she was downing those shots of vodka.  And yes, Gen Z has no time for dudebros either. 

[nittany cougar]

Hated everything about this episode except the douchey acting defendants.  The actors made me laugh because they really nailed their roles as giant pricks.

It was really disturbing that the jury foreperson could be identified and contacted by the defense.  

I rolled my eyes at the victim telling Amanda that Carisi likes her, as if the victim didn't have other things to notice at trial.

This show has a terrible habit of relying on social media for its plots.  I cannot even count the number of episodes in the past two seasons in which the victim or the perpetrator had social media posts that were picked up by our crack squad of detectives, leading them to solve the case.  Every crime on SVU is magically solved by Tik Tok or Instagram.  The worst is the "victim" making videos for the followers which Liv and the crew discover in the course of net surfing.  It's ridiculous and lazy writing.

[marceline]

This was a halfway decent episode. I hate the asides into OC stories because I refuse to watch that show so every time they went there it was like slamming on the brakes.

I wish I could say that the social media storyline felt unrealistic but it didn't. I'll be the old fogey and admit that the current incarnation of social media terrifies me. It just seems to be total lawlessness. The good thing about being Gen-X is remembering how to function before social media.

The joy of this episode for me was the defense attorney for the TikTok bros. He was so smooth and smarmy through the whole trial but when he learned that his clients had been tampering with the jury he looked like he wanted to punch them senseless right there in the judge's chambers. I thought he was about to go full Stabler.

Edited October 16, 2021 by marceline

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, nittany cougar said:

This show has a terrible habit of relying on social media for its plots.  I cannot even count the number of episodes in the past two seasons in which the victim or the perpetrator had social media posts that were picked up by our crack squad of detectives, leading them to solve the case.  Every crime on SVU is magically solved by Tik Tok or Instagram.  The worst is the "victim" making videos for the followers which Liv and the crew discover in the course of net surfing.  It's ridiculous and lazy writing.

This seems to be a trend on all the Dick Wolf shows.  FBI and its spawn always start an investigation with the command to scan all social media accounts to trace people who might know the victim/perp/whatever.  Do it now!  I really hate when the agents say "on it."  Which they always do.  OT, but I've now given up FBI, as it's too formulaic.

Edited October 15, 2021 by GussieK

[illdoc]

3 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

but still did not intervene when she was downing those shots of vodka. 

I don't even think he was there when she was drinking or in the hot tub. In fact, he kind of just disappeared for a while. Once those videos were done, where did he go? She'd gotten out of the hot tub, gone downstairs, gotten raped by two guys, got dressed and was in the bathroom crying by the time he finally showed up looking for her!!!! So much for "I'll look out for you. I'll keep you safe."!

[Ohiopirate02]

8 minutes ago, illdoc said:

I don't even think he was there when she was drinking or in the hot tub. In fact, he kind of just disappeared for a while. Once those videos were done, where did he go? She'd gotten out of the hot tub, gone downstairs, gotten raped by two guys, got dressed and was in the bathroom crying by the time he finally showed up looking for her!!!! So much for "I'll look out for you. I'll keep you safe."!

That was either a writing fail or an editing fail.  I know the show was trying to tell a whole story in 4 minutes, but his absence was felt.  I believe he shoots her a disappointed look when she does the first shot before disappearing until she texts him.  

[Aileen]

5 hours ago, marceline said:

The joy of this episode for me was the defense attorney for the TikTok bros. He was so smooth and smarmy through the whole the trial but when he learned that his clients had been tampering with the jury he looked like he wanted to punch them senseless right there in the judge's chambers. I thought he was about to go full Stabler.

He was OUTSTANDING.

[AD35]

20 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

How did anyone who follows the Wheelhouse get ON the jury in the first place? They shouldn’t have made it through void dire. Jury shoulda been people my age - who wouldn’t  know TikTok from a can o’ paint! 

Someone on the writing staff took the idea of "trial by a jury of their peers" a bit too literally.

Edited October 16, 2021 by AD35

[dttruman]

10 hours ago, nittany cougar said:

I cannot even count the number of episodes in the past two seasons in which the victim or the perpetrator had social media posts that were picked up by our crack squad of detectives, leading them to solve the case.  Every crime on SVU is magically solved by Tik Tok or Instagram.  The worst is the "victim" making videos for the followers which Liv and the crew discover in the course of net surfing.  It's ridiculous and lazy writing.

I thought having the jury tainted by a juror enamored with one of the defendants has been way over used by the entire family of Law & Order shows and I think that SVU has probably used it the most, especially at the end of this episode. They used this gimmick to expedite the justice for the victim. I have never seen anyone more arrogant, pompous and egotistical than these defendants. I thought the writers (and producers) went a little overboard in the way they had them portrayed.

[wknt3]

A little bit late on this one. I had to be at work by 5am for an IT upgrade and nothing this season has made me think it would be worth watching instead of getting to bed early.

The Good:
Carisi. He was almost the only thing worth watching this week. Perhaps because they didn't have enough cops there was actually a lot of courtroom action this week and he was awesome as usual.
Jet. Perhaps because the SVU team couldn't do anything stupid with someone else's character or perhaps because the actress hasn't been beaten down by going through the motions of the same story a hundred times already. OR maybe because promoting OC is the show's highest priority these days above even telling quality stories about an elite squad investigating sexually based offenses.
The promo for next week looks potentially good and looks like some people will be getting some of the guest appearances they wanted.

The Bad:
The worst kind of opening. The montage with bad music badly mixed and edited leaving no doubt about the facts of the case. Made worse by adding Benoah.
No Fin. We could have really used his snark. But I guess it's better than watching him phone in half assed dialogue.
Not much of anyone else. This is exactly what I feared when I heard about the cast changes. We;re back to stunts to try to give us enough characters to tell the story. And while the OC cast members were better than most of the SVU characters this week it was still glaringly obvious that they are short staffed. Made worse by the fact that it meant more focus on the guest cast which couldn't take the weight.
The script. Blandly competent on the plot mechanics, obviously completely lacking any sort of understanding of the culture being depicted, and just generally dull. Not good and not bad in an interesting way.

Overall this was another dud only partially redeemed by letting Carisi be the focus. It was filler and yet another ad for OC. And yes it did make me want to watch the spinoff, but that was mostly because I wanted to be done with this half-assed story about the kids these days and see the interesting detectives investigating the interesting case. And then Carisi prosecuting that case. Instead it was just filler. They should have titled this one "Our Contract Requires This".

Edited October 16, 2021 by wknt3

[gaucho91]

I know nothing about social media influencers. Were those guys supposed to be good dancers?  Or do influencers not need any actual talent?

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, gaucho91 said:

I know nothing about social media influencers. Were those guys supposed to be good dancers?  Or do influencers not need any actual talent?

If you are an older viewer like myself I would consider them something similar to MTV's "Real People" (when I was a lot younger). almost like CBS's "Big Brother" but talking directly to the viewers on occasions.

But these guys on SVU were so repugnant. I am very surprised Benson didn't rally a lot of women from the surrounding campuses (like she has before) to bust their hot air balloon sized egos with a major protest.

It's just very bad story telling when there is a rape, especially in these times, that Benson can rally many women to protest, but can't do it here. Yet these guys can rally many viewers (especially women) to their side. Just doesn't make sense.

Edited October 17, 2021 by dttruman

[sashayshante]

On 10/15/2021 at 4:49 AM, meatball77 said:

Maybe 10 years ago but the only people there were those supporting the rapists really?  It's 2021, there would have been a crowd of women outside the house calling for their heads.

Agreed. However, if you're on Tik Tok then you know the environment on that app is highly toxic and misogynistic. Sadly, A LOT of that misogyny comes from other women.  Certain Tik Tok Creators develop this huge following of sycophants that go to disturbing lengths to prove their loyalty. (I'm DYING to discuss this more if anyone knows of a forum on here where I can do that.)

What I'd like to know is how Olivia - the Captain of the SVU unit, a unit that often deals with cases of child abuse/porn - could let her 8? 9? 10? year old son on an app like Tik Tok. How does her child know about a 20-something Tik Tok star?

[dttruman]

58 minutes ago, sashayshante said:

What I'd like to know is how Olivia - the Captain of the SVU unit, a unit that often deals with cases of child abuse/porn - could let her 8? 9? 10? year old son on an app like Tik Tok. How does her child know about a 20-something Tik Tok star?

What you have shrewdly noticed here (and congrats by the way) is that the writers are not researching the material thoroughly enough. I am too old to get into Tik Tok or any of that other stuff, and I barely use the Facebook.  So thank you again for bringing it to our attention. It's just another thing where these episodes lose their authenticity.

[CrystalBlue]

Another rich white guys and wannabe rich white girls "date rape" / "acquaintance rape" story, this time with the TikTok crowd who live and die by social media.  Why is Noah tracking what's going on at the Wheelhouse?  He's not in their demographic.

I love Carisi but I hate this Rollisi relationship.  At least he hasn't moved in with Amanda yet.  They're really pushing it:  even the victim could tell how much Carisi likes Rollins!  Gag.

I liked the judge and wanted to slap the two douchebag bros around the block (so the actors did a great job).  As much as I hate the crossover stuff, I liked having Jet in this episode.

[Zoe]

On 10/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, dttruman said:

Did anyone else think that that confrontation outside where Carisi gets hit with a Big Red slushy was so terribly contrived. What the hell were the other cops doing, just watching straight ahead when that drink was chucked. Someone should have seen who threw it.

I thought it was going to lead to their relationship being exposed because of the way they walked off wrapped around each other. 

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, Zoe said:

I thought it was going to lead to their relationship being exposed because of the way they walked off wrapped around each other. 

By now everyone in NYC probably knows that that cute ADA is with the beautiful SVU detective with the blonde hair.  It's all over social media.  I mean, if the rape victim witness can feel the love because besides being traumatized and scared of having to testify, she's all concerned with the cute ADA and who he's dating, everyone else can plainly see!

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, CrystalBlue said:

By now everyone in NYC probably knows that that cute ADA is with the beautiful SVU detective with the blonde hair.  It's all over social media.  I mean, if the rape victim witness can feel the love because besides being traumatized and scared of having to testify, she's all concerned with the cute ADA and who he's dating, everyone else can plainly see!

I wonder if the producers are going to have the writers come up with an episode where their relationship causes a controversy concerning one of SVU's cases. A defense attorney claims the case against his (or her) client has been compromised because Rollins and Carisi are dating. I hear of numerous lawyer-cop relationships so I wonder if they will try and fudge a situation where, their relationship will be against police or ADA protocols?

[TM101]

These social media plots are so damn cringey. I’m surprised platforms like TikTok even let NBC use their name. I remember way back when they had to use like “FaceSpace”.

 

[dttruman]

28 minutes ago, TM101 said:

These social media plots are so damn cringey. I’m surprised platforms like TikTok even let NBC use their name. I remember way back when they had to use like “FaceSpace”.

 

I wonder if any publicity is good publicity to them?

[Zoe]

20 hours ago, dttruman said:

I wonder if the producers are going to have the writers come up with an episode where their relationship causes a controversy concerning one of SVU's cases. A defense attorney claims the case against his (or her) client has been compromised because Rollins and Carisi are dating. I hear of numerous lawyer-cop relationships so I wonder if they will try and fudge a situation where, their relationship will be against police or ADA protocols?

They've already suggested it once, and that was what ultimately split up Benson and HCJr.

But I'm starting to think that maybe this could lead to Carisi hopping over to the mothership so he won't have to work on SVU cases anymore.

[CrystalBlue]

3 hours ago, Zoe said:

They've already suggested it once, and that was what ultimately split up Benson and HCJr.

But I'm starting to think that maybe this could lead to Carisi hopping over to the mothership so he won't have to work on SVU cases anymore.

That would be great!  No Rollins cross-over, please.

[dttruman]

3 hours ago, Zoe said:

They've already suggested it once, and that was what ultimately split up Benson and HCJr.

But I'm starting to think that maybe this could lead to Carisi hopping over to the mothership so he won't have to work on SVU cases anymore.

I hope they got better writers and producers, so they can take advantage of Peter Scanavino talent.

6 minutes ago, CrystalBlue said:

  No Rollins cross-over, please.

A very good suggestion if they are reading CRYSTALBLUE'S comment.

[lazylump]

5 hours ago, Zoe said:

They've already suggested it once, and that was what ultimately split up Benson and HCJr.

But I'm starting to think that maybe this could lead to Carisi hopping over to the mothership so he won't have to work on SVU cases anymore.

This is exactly what I am thinking.  They will draw out the disclosure until law and order is ready for next season and Carisi will move over there to get viewers to watch. Of course there will be fallout because what is the point of waiting to disclose if it is t going to be a mess

[txhorns79]

On 10/15/2021 at 9:07 PM, dttruman said:

I thought having the jury tainted by a juror enamored with one of the defendants has been way over used by the entire family of Law & Order shows and I think that SVU has probably used it the most, especially at the end of this episode.

It reminded me of the L&O episode where the juror was enamored with Rubirosa. 

[tennisgurl]

Like most episodes on this show that involve any kind of youth culture or social media, this one was filled with a combination of pearl clutching about the damn kids and a lot of the "How do you do fellow kids?" cringe of people trying to write about things they clearly do not understand. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, a lot of it was carried by a good cast of guest actors, I especially loved the guy who played the smug defensive lawyer who looked like he was about to start throttling his dumbass clients at the end. It wasn't as bad as some of SVU's attempts to relate to the young people (remember the embarrassing gamer gate episode?) but it was an unfortunate mix of awkward and bland for the most part. 

How do the detective know absolutely nothing about social media? Shouldn't people that look into sex crimes know about platforms that have a number of young people on them where they could find evidence of crimes? Or just through general cultural osmosis, even if it isn't something they like? Especially considering Olivia and Rollins have young kids and Olivia found out about this through her son, you would think they would have talked to their kids about internet safety or put some parental blockers on their phones or computers. I know that they have to explain things to an audience possibly unfamiliar with TikTok influencer culture, but do they have to make the cast look like they have no idea what is happening in pop culture? As always it all feels like any attempts the writers make at internet culture seem outdated and over the top, even by internet standards. Yes some people would have stood by the rapists, but there would be tons of people calling for their heads too, it feels like they could have dug a lot deeper into the subculture then another "the internet is scary yall" episode that have been the same since 2002. And even then, beyond the TikTok gimmick its just another he said/she said case featuring wealthy beautiful white people, the shows long time favorite sort of case. 

At least we got a break from the evil chief, but we did have to sit through a LOT of Benson being the victim whisperer and even testifying as an expert, because we don't have any victim advocates or therapists around. Of course the real reason is that we need some more Benson worship, the queen of victim saving. 

We got a lot of Carisi being awesome at least, he handled things with the reluctant roommate well and he really got to shine in the courtroom, plus he got to figure out what was going on with the jurors, although it also makes the rest of the detectives and courts look pretty dumb for not seeing the foreman of the jury taking pictures with the bros outside the courthouse. I continue to roll my eyes at the forced Rollins/Carisi shipping. 

I am a few weeks behind on OC so I have no idea who these people being trafficked are or why Olivia is now working with the vigilante guy who was one of the villains in the pedo hotel episode, I feel even worse for people who have never even seen OC. I still hate how they are trying to force us to watch both shows, I always find that to be really annoying when it comes to spin offs. A crossover or two a year is fine, but trying to add in subplots that cross shows every week is really obnoxious. At least they used Jet, one of the best OC characters.

Edited October 19, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Zoe]

On 10/19/2021 at 3:50 PM, tennisgurl said:

or why Olivia is now working with the vigilante guy who was one of the villains in the pedo hotel episode

I might be wrong, but I don't recall him showing up in OC either, so this was the first time we saw him reappear.

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, Zoe said:

On 10/19/2021 at 4:50 PM, tennisgurl said:

or why Olivia is now working with the vigilante guy who was one of the villains in the pedo hotel episode

I might be wrong, but I don't recall him showing up in OC either, so this was the first time we saw him reappear.

Are we talking different characters? After all that pedo hotel episode is from last season, so the actor can just be playing another character.

[Xeliou66]

27 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Are we talking different characters? After all that pedo hotel episode is from last season, so the actor can just be playing another character.

No Elvis the leader of the vigilante group was seen in the Pedo Motel episode last season and he reappeared in this episode, same character. I’m not sure why they brought him in in this episode, other than to fill time because they didn’t have enough meat on the case, and no the character hasn’t appeared in OC.

[dttruman]

7 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

No Elvis the leader of the vigilante group was seen in the Pedo Motel episode last season and he reappeared in this episode, same character. I’m not sure why they brought him in in this episode, other than to fill time because they didn’t have enough meat on the case, and no the character hasn’t appeared in OC.

Is he suppose to be some sort of spokesman for the people living in the area. or is he some kind of liaison for the police to pass on information to the masses.

[CrystalBlue]

IIRC Elvis Baktashi was the leader of a Guardian Angels type group, so he would be "Curtis Sliwa 2.0" but I believe they threw in some white supremacy vibes bullshit to muddy the waters a bit.

Edited October 22, 2021 by CrystalBlue

[Lady Jane]

On 10/15/2021 at 7:47 AM, nittany cougar said:

It was really disturbing that the jury foreperson could be identified and contacted by the defense.  

This was the only realistic part of this for me -- the defense, as the prosecution, has all manner of information about the jurors even before voir dire starts. Our last jury questionnaire was maybe 20 pages long. I could have told you what each juror's favorite TV show is. Name, address, and social media info are always easy to find. Heck, if the jurors have their cell phones anyone could just airdrop them from the courtroom.

[DaynaPhile]

What the ever loving freck would an SVU Captain be doing letting her under 10 kid have tik tok on his phone? Or a phone at all?!

I swear my ears bleed every time someone swoons the word influencer, follower, and content. And don’t even get me started on everyone doing vertical video. 

Get off off my lawn!

i did think Carisi cooking in Rollins’ kitchen was a cute moment between them. And she still calls him Carisi. Shades of Mulder and Scully with the last name lovers. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by DaynaPhile