S23.E09: The People Vs. Richard Wheatley

[WendyCR72]

Based on just the title alone, looks like a lot of L&O: OC overtones mixed in here. No more new episodes for November. This will air on December 9, 2021.

Description TBA

[illdoc]

16 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Based on just the title alone, looks like a lot of L&O: OC overtones mixed in here

Probably a lot of Barba/Benson stuff (the OC connection is that Barba is planning on representing Wheatley).

[Xeliou66]

I’m really dreading this - first of all, I hate the supervillain Wheatley storyline, also, I believe we’re in for a ton of soapy drama between Benson/Barba and Benson/Stabler. I don’t know why they felt the need to drag Barba into this disaster of a storyline, other than to give more tension and soapy drama for Benson with her caught between Barba and Stabler. Blah. 2 hours of this crap and I’m dreading it already, I honestly don’t know why I watch the show anymore, it’s been shit this season with the exception of one episode and a handful of other scenes - the writing is just terrible most of the time. When the original L&O comes back, I may just quit with SVU for now.

[dttruman]

On 11/14/2021 at 8:33 PM, WendyCR72 said:

Based on just the title alone, looks like a lot of L&O: OC overtones mixed in here. No more new episodes for November. This will air on December 9, 2021.

Description TBA

Does this mean if I haven't been watching OC lately this episode won't make much sense?

[wknt3]

17 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Does this mean if I haven't been watching OC lately this episode won't make much sense?

There's a pretty good chance it won't make much sense even if you've watched every episode of OC...

[WendyCR72]

8 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

There's a pretty good chance it won't make much sense even if you've watched every episode of OC...

No lies detected.

[dttruman]

11 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

There's a pretty good chance it won't make much sense even if you've watched every episode of OC...

 

well said!

[CrystalBlue]

Time to immerse yourself into a binge watch of L&O's OC Edition and get up to speed about Stabler and his alter ego Eddie Wagner.  Come on, it's not bad.  Better than SVU!  And you'll never look at Albanian mobsters the same way again!  😃

[dttruman]

8 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

Time to immerse yourself into a binge watch of L&O's OC Edition and get up to speed about Stabler and his alter ego Eddie Wagner.  Come on, it's not bad.  Better than SVU!  And you'll never look at Albanian mobsters the same way again!  😃

I think I am going to sit back and relax and wait for the Law and Order Reboot.

 

Will the writers for OC try and pull something like they did with Miami Vice some 30 years ago, where Stabler gets knocked on the head and he then thinks he is actually his alter ego Eddie Wagner? Or should I take this to the OC group?

Edited November 17, 2021 by dttruman

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, dttruman said:

I think I am going to sit back and relax and wait for the Land Order Reboot.

 

Will the writers for OC try and pull something like they did with Miami Vice some 30 years ago, where Stabler gets knocked on the head and he then thinks he is actually his alter ego Eddie Wagner? Or should I take this to the OC group?

This episode title is a cross-over from the first story arc of the OC which has apparently jumped over to the legal side of L&O: SVU.  Stabler there is the same Stabler who came back to NYC and St. Olivia after ghosting her for years, but he got a new job title.  In OC he's an undercover cop whose fake name was Eddie Wagner.  Despite Elliot knowing the difference and apparently changing identities daily when returning home and otherwise parading around town like he wasn't undercover, Elliot grew into his Eddie Wagner persona which he has apparently snapped back from now with the help of a razor and shaving cream.

[wknt3]

I have to say that right now OC is by far the superior show. In fact if I had to guess what happens we will get an alleged episode of SVU that is mostly just a trailer for OC. Lots of soapy angst between Barba and Liv, and everyone else and any sort of sexually based offense will be an afterthought. Then we will get a much better episode of OC where we don't get a conclusion per se, but an actual story that covers same of the same ground. I'm getting really tired of these alleged crossovers that aren't crossovers in the same way the mothership crossed over with SVU or HLOTS, but a trailer with some filler and then an actual story. But I'm going to try to keep an open mind and maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I mean surely there is someone at NBC or Wolf Entertainment that remembers how to do a crossover two-parter correctly. I mean there has to be right?

[WendyCR72]

11 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

But I'm going to try to keep an open mind and maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I mean surely there is someone at NBC or Wolf Entertainment that remembers how to do a crossover two-parter correctly. I mean there has to be right?

It's cute that you're an optimist!

[Xeliou66]

OC is definitely a superior show, I enjoyed the storyline about the Albanian mob that they did for their first 8 episodes, but I hate the Wheatley story arc, it’s a dumb ridiculous plot, and I’m flat out dreading this episode. They are bringing in Barba just to pit Benson in between Barba and Stabler, and thus rile up the “shippers” on social media who want a romance between Benson/Barba or Benson/Stabler, they know it will get a buzz on social media and that’s what the showrunners want, they don’t give a shit about a quality story, they just want whatever will get them trending on Twitter. This show has gone completely down the crapper and is beyond stale and predictable, at this point I just hope SVU’s shittyness doesn’t rub off on the Mothership revival, then I will be really pissed. SVU is pretty much beyond saving, Mariska’s ego and poor showrunners have damaged the show beyond repair.

[illdoc]

Info on the episode and the "cross-over into OC": https://tvline.com/2021/11/23/law-and-order-organized-crime-christmas-episode-season-2-stabler-benson/

[Xeliou66]

I’m dreading this episode and the crossover terribly. It sounds like pure soapy dreck. Of course SVU is mostly soapy dreck now but this sounds worse than normal. Seriously, why the fuck am I still watching this crap? 

[CrystalBlue]

3 hours ago, illdoc said:

Info on the episode and the "cross-over into OC": https://tvline.com/2021/11/23/law-and-order-organized-crime-christmas-episode-season-2-stabler-benson/

Another missing L&Overse family member kid.  Remember Noah and Grandma Sheila?  Eli, who deals and uses Granny's drugs, goes missing for the Holidays.  Did Wheatley arrange to have him kidnapped?  Did he run off with some Albanian mob boys?  Is he hanging with his druggie crew?  Will St. Olivia be the one who finds him and delivers him all wrapped up in a shiny red bow to a grateful Elliot?  Does Ellen Burstyn cook Christmas dinner?

[dttruman]

21 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I’m dreading this episode and the crossover terribly. It sounds like pure soapy dreck. Of course SVU is mostly soapy dreck now but this sounds worse than normal. Seriously, why the fuck am I still watching this crap? 

 

19 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

Another missing L&Overse family member kid.  Remember Noah and Grandma Sheila?  Eli, who deals and uses Granny's drugs, goes missing for the Holidays.  Did Wheatley arrange to have him kidnapped?  Did he run off with some Albanian mob boys?  Is he hanging with his druggie crew?  Will St. Olivia be the one who finds him and delivers him all wrapped up in a shiny red bow to a grateful Elliot?  Does Ellen Burstyn cook Christmas dinner?

Does anyone think they will use the same gimmick they used on some of the L & O and SVU episodes of their "Trial" portions, where the defense attorney inadvertently (or not) makes a crucial mistake and their client ends up going to prison? Or will Barba's client have a massive stroke during the trial and Barba decides to pull his plug again?

Edited November 24, 2021 by dttruman

[SunnyBeBe]

I’m thinking Barba suddenly realizes his client is guilty and intentionally lets something in that guarantees a guilty verdict…..even if it ruins his career.  Anything for Liv. 

Edited December 10, 2021 by SunnyBeBe

[TooMuchRealityTV]

I assume a mistrial means the showrunners plan on having another trial episode in the future. SVU/OC is never going to let go of Wheatley are they?

[txhorns79]

Am I the only one who saw Wheatley take a very long look at Elliot's penis while they were in the bathroom together?  I half expected them to start making out, but perhaps I'm conflating SVU with Oz.

[Xeliou66]

I enjoyed the episode, not because the plot was very good, the Wheatley storyline is ridiculous, but I love a courtroom centric episode episode plus Barba being back was awesome and I was pleased he didn’t act as Olivia’s bitch like he’s done in the past. He represented Wheatley well. Wheatley is such a smug supervillain he was making me laugh with his antics, but it was entertaining television, which is more than I can say for most modern day SVU episodes. Carisi was good, and there was no trashing of the DA’s office which was good, and it made sense to have Baptiste co-chair with Carisi since Carisi doesn’t have much experience prosecuting homicides.

The courtroom action was entertaining, great back and forth between the DA’s and Barba. I was hoping for more Barba/Carisi interaction, but I liked the court stuff. I’m surprised Judge Ellery is still on the bench given that he’s a known pervert, but he was surprisingly good in this episode, unbiased and professional.

My main disappointment was that it ended in a mistrial, because I’m sick of Wheatley and his storyline, and I’m ready for it to be over. But they will never let it go.

Benson dragged everything down with Mariska’s usual over-acting and constipated expressions. But no Rollins was nice.

Fin was window dressing once again, but I laughed when he said he slept like a baby and then Carisi copied his line.

So while the plot didn’t make a lot of sense, just because the whole Wheatley storyline doesn’t, it was probably the most entertaining episode of the season, I love courtroom stuff and Barba, so it was worth watching. Now the OC hour was crap, I’ll discuss it over there.

[wknt3]

The Good:
Carisi. He was in character (unlike so many in this episode) and in control and his scenes were the highlight of the episode for me.
There was an actual story. Not an actual SVU story, but at least it wasn't merely a teaser for a story.
Someone on staff actually knows how to write courtroom scenes! Maybe they will use it in the future. I will really be impressed if it turns out that the judge was somehow on the take or being coerced by Wheatley and that some of the more questionable elements were actually deliberate. Although they did have a line about the judge being a defendant's dream so at least there some self awareness.
Dylan McDermott. I am tired of his character like everyone else, but he played the hell out of it and just about pulled it off,
Chris Meloni. Again he elevated the material and shows how you can be a star and still share the screen with others. Taking notes Mariska?

The Bad:
I am still rinsing off my screen trying to get the suds off. We expected soapy, but they dumped the whole bottle in with the dirty laundry.
I thought Benson as our Lord and Savior was the worst, but I was wrong. Benson as victim is worse. Why doesn't every man in her life put her first at ALL times? Why do they have their own jobs and feelings? Poor Liv.
Why waste one of Ice-T's limited number of episodes on a glorified cameo? If you are going to waste an episode for a character with like 3 lines at least waste Rollins. I mean it is already soapy nonsense so like Stabler steer in to the skid and have Rollins making eyes at Carisi and being all worried about him and Benson.
Stabler family drama. There are bits of equine flesh and bone spraying madly in the air as that truncheon arcs down again and again. Actually this is Stabler we are talking about so he is probably using his fists to beat the dead horse...

Overall this was a surprisingly decent episode. Not really an SVU episode, but at least it was an actual story. The soapy nonsense was at least competently written and acted (Mariska excepted) and we got an actual story instead of a promise to deliver a story if we stayed tuned. Like the judge in this episode I'll allow it even it doesn't really follow the rules. Perhaps I am just filled with holiday spirit but it was a B-/C+ that could have rated higher with just a bit a self-restraint

[illdoc]

Why didn't Carisi ask the obvious question(s) of Ritchie---Who are you looking at? Is someone in the room with you? I mean, it's obvious he was looking at someone! Why wasn't someone from the DA's office (or police) in the room with him!

[Zaffy]

When the episode started and I realized what it was about a loud "ooooh nooooooooo"  escaped my mouth.
But at the end  it was actually quite decent. 
I really like Barba (seeeexy!). TBH I do not remember how he left the DAO, but who cares! Barba is back baby.
I do not find Benson as annoying as many of the posters here do, but the one I would like to talk about is Carisi.
From being quite annoying (IMHO) he has been evolved to the best thing of the current SVU universe. I have to give kudos to whoever from the writing stuff thought to get him from the squad to the DA office. It was a very smart move. And the actor can deliver. And I like his thing with Rollins. 

What I can't stand of in every SVU universe is the "undying" villains that keep coming back.
We have Wheatley now, I guess next season the Albanian bros will come back to haunt us.
*yawn*
 

[tennisgurl]

I think my Hulu is broken, I thought I was turning on an episode of SVU, not OC, so weird that its mislabeled...

The episode was at least a bit better then I thought it would be, Barba made a lot of really good points about how Stabler leading the investigation into his own wife's murder is all kinds of unprofessional, and they at least kept the melodrama to a minimum. I was mostly just hoping that Wheatley would get locked up and they would throw away the key, but of course we aren't that lucky. I am so over super villain Wheatley, you half expect him to start cackling manically while petting a white cat on the stand at any second, he's just so ridiculous. OC got so much better when they started focusing on the Albanian mob instead of Wheatley, but of course he isn't gone for good. 

Come on Carisi, ask Ritchie who he is so obviously starring at! Other then that though this was a good Carisi episode, I loved his face when Wheatley threatened him in court, he looked like a kid on Christmas. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming? 

Edited December 11, 2021 by tennisgurl

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming? 

Well, no. Next SVU episode looks like it's the pilot for "L&O Hate Crimes" (not that that series actually will exist anymore)

[preeya]

On 12/9/2021 at 8:19 PM, txhorns79 said:

Am I the only one who saw Wheatley take a very long look at Elliot's penis while they were in the bathroom together?  I half expected them to start making out, but perhaps I'm conflating SVU with Oz.

I also noticed the penis peek. But, on another note, when and why is the defendant in a murder trial allowed to use a [public] bathroom where he can converse with witnesses in the same trial?  

The Penis Peek:

Edited December 11, 2021 by preeya

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, preeya said:

I also noticed the penis peek. But, on another note, when and why is the defendant in a murder trial allowed to use a [public] bathroom where he can converse with witnesses in the same trial?  

The Penis Peek:

First, let's get this elephant out of the room first:  I noticed the WTF penis peek and expected Elliot to ask Richard what the hell are you looking at, and Richard saying, "Not much."  Why did the bailiff not know that Wheatley had headed into the head and let Stabler in as a favor?  Or, was that the favor?  Him getting the boys back out was fun though.

OK, now that the laughs are over:

I agree with y'all that this was an unexpectedly good episode.  I enjoyed it very much and would give it an A- to B-, certainly above a C.  I guess my holiday spirit is a bit higher than wknt3's  ☺️

My take is that the Judge was bought and paid for, especially since he accepted a deadlock after only one day.

I loved seeing Barba again and cracked up when he declined Wheatley's offer of becoming his consigliere.  Carsisi was pretty awesome.  Fin was underused but at least he was there.  No Rollins was nice.  And No Noah!

[The Wild Sow]

23 hours ago, illdoc said:

 

Why didn't Carisi ask the obvious question(s) of Ritchie---Who are you looking at? Is someone in the room with you? I mean, it's obvious he was looking at someone! Why wasn't someone from the DA's office (or police) in the room with him!

 

Because presumably that person - the one running the camera! - was bought and paid for!  And yes, why didn’t Carisi say something?

Of course, the DA’s office should know who’s in the room with Richie, and see what kinda magical Monopoly money, er, I mean crypto-whatever-coins (*yawn*) they might have come into lately!  Then again, wonder how long that person’s gonna be for this world? cf. the court stenographer that took Agnes’s bribe but bit the dust long before she ever got to spend it on more pretty shoes.

And yeah, we ALL saw that unsolicited dick-peek! And haven’t stopped laughing yet!

[Toonces464]

8 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

And yeah, we ALL saw that unsolicited dick-peek! And haven’t stopped laughing yet!

By all accounts, Chris Meloni and Dylan McDermott have become good friends. I noticed it right away and wondered if it was ad-libbed.

[wknt3]

On 12/11/2021 at 2:16 AM, CrystalBlue said:

I agree with y'all that this was an unexpectedly good episode.  I enjoyed it very much and would give it an A- to B-, certainly above a C.  I guess my holiday spirit is a bit higher than wknt3's  ☺️

 

To be fair I said C PLUS. I liked it and it was much much better than expected, but it had some serious flaws such as not being an actual SVU episode and all the parts with Mariska. If it aired as an OC episode with Mariska's part reduced by 1/2 and instead more Bell and a Jet appearance it would be a B+, possibly a bit higher if they handled some of the trial hinkiness a bit better. I guess a lot of how you grade it depends on the curve you apply for expectations and the season as a whole.

Or in other words, Bah Humbug!

[faithie]

I was going to complain about the never-ending Wheatley arc. But yesterday ION TV ran a William Lewis episode. That nightmare  made me grateful for Wheatley.

[JenLily]

On 12/11/2021 at 1:16 AM, CrystalBlue said:

Why did the bailiff not know that Wheatley had headed into the head and let Stabler in as a favor?  Or, was that the favor?

The bailiff did know. As Stabler was walking in to the bathroom, he whispered to the bailiff, “Thanks. I owe you.” He wanted to talk to Wheatley with no one else present to get into his head and rile him up about Angela.

[CrystalBlue]

12 hours ago, wknt3 said:

To be fair I said C PLUS. I liked it and it was much much better than expected, but it had some serious flaws such as not being an actual SVU episode and all the parts with Mariska. If it aired as an OC episode with Mariska's part reduced by 1/2 and instead more Bell and a Jet appearance it would be a B+, possibly a bit higher if they handled some of the trial hinkiness a bit better. I guess a lot of how you grade it depends on the curve you apply for expectations and the season as a whole.

Or in other words, Bah Humbug!

How about more Jet, and a brief Bell appearance.  My expectations are pretty low so anything above average is commendable!

[CrystalBlue]

4 hours ago, JenLily said:

The bailiff did know. As Stabler was walking in to the bathroom, he whispered to the bailiff, “Thanks. I owe you.” He wanted to talk to Wheatley with no one else present to get into his head and rile him up about Angela.

Right.  I wasn't sure if the favor was letting Stabler use that particular men's room to relieve himself instead of diverting him to another on another floor to reduce the risk of encountering Wheatley, or for a tete-a-tete with Wheatley on the sly.

[Wizardpatch]

I guess they are never going to reveal why Bekhar killed Gina, even though saving an undercover agent from death was really the only way he would ever have avoided prison time.

[Spartan Girl]

I know I’m late about posting about this since I barely even watch this show anymore.

I hate Olivia just as much as the rest of you. That being said, I couldn’t help being on her side when Barba came up to her in the bar and tried to make nice after the trial…I mean, you can’t just basically get Elliot’s wife’s killer off and expect for them to still be friends.

It hurts me what they’ve done to Barba. The final straw for me with this show was how they wrote him off, and every time he comes back it’s like