S23.E14: Video Killed The Radio Star

[WendyCR72]

Oh, I just got an MTV flashback with the title. Airing March 3, 2022:

Quote

Benson investigates allegations against a popular radio personality. Rollins goes undercover when a shocking confession leads to another crime.

 

[Xeliou66]

Sounds like another episode centered around Benson/Rollins. Blah. I’m so sick of them getting all of the focus, when can we get a Fin centric episode, or a Velasco episode, or an episode where Carisi gets to flex his legal muscle and isn’t reduced to being Rollins boyfriend? The truth is, this season has sucked with the exception of a couple of episodes, the writers seem out of ideas and Benson/Rollins dominate the screen time. The whole cast is rarely all in the same episode.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Xeliou66

[CrystalBlue]

Benson-Rollins.  Benson does this, Rollins does that.  There are only two stars on SVU:  The Big Dipper Benson and The Little Dipper Rollins.  All other characters are minor supporting actors who get their chance to shine once in a blue moon (see what I did there?).

They need to give us a Velasco-centric episode or storyline so we can get to know him.  Carisi needs to stops being Are You My Daddy to Rollins' confused little girls.

Fin always needs more airtime.

[SunnyBeBe]

Man, that was a blow out ending.  Do you think he was dead?  
 

Has Benson fixed that squad room yet so that random people can’t just walk in from off the street?  Or barrel into an interrogation room……lol.   

[Ms Blue Jay]

What the fuck!  hahahaahhaahhaahhaahahhaha

[wknt3]

The Good:
The guest cast. Strong all the way around.
Fin and Velasco. I wish there was more of them, but i liked what we got. Their scenes just felt like classic SVU in the good way.
Carisi. They dialed back the soap a bit and he was the likeable professional and strong prosecutor again.
The COTW. It's well trod ground, but they did manage to give it a bit of flare and it was an actual investigation and the plot flowed well.
The Ned Eisenberg tribute.

The Bad:
They were really pushing the idea that Rollins is someone who can be trusted even if she seemed to be going off course. Have they seen any of her episodes before this? Not to mention that the whole talk tough and point out how the detective is going against all procedures, rules, and common sense, but then let them go through with it without consequences  and almost ending up with dead squad members felt like old school SVU in the bad way,
The "Shocking Twist" ending. Although I guess it was inevitable. Much like Chekov's Gun we have Dick Wolf's Jim True-Fost which says that if you see JTF in Act 1 he better have committed a crime by the end of Act 3. But I guess they were too busy trying to make us believe Rollins is Robin to Benson's Batman to actually come up with an actual resolution.

Overall this was a decent episode. Certainly would have been a better choice than last week for trying to bring back lapsed viewers. Although anything would including Ice-T's Tide commercials. Competent if uninspired, I do feel that more than ever it's time for the show to go off into the sunset, especially with the mothership covering this ground better right before.
 

Edited March 4, 2022 by wknt3
ducking autocorrect

[Xeliou66]

This was a mixed bag - terrible opening, but the episode slowly improved from there, until the predictable ending of Flynn being shot.

The opening that spelled everything out is so tiresome, and it felt like a promo for Mariska to show off, complete with her real life husband being there and a promo about how wonderful adoption services are. And the perp was a typical smug rich douchebag. And I hated how Benson and Rollins were browbeating the victim into cooperating, that gets so tiresome and is unprofessional.

The good parts were that the whole squad plus Carisi were finally all involved for once, Carisi got to be a lawyer instead of just being Rollins’ boyfriend, Fin and Velasco were good as well, they’ve been underused all season, especially Fin, so it was nice to have an episode where all 5 main characters were involved in the case.

The case got more interesting when Flynn said he killed someone, and the investigation into that was solid, but there were too many scenes of Rollins undercover and I just don’t like Rollins. And Rollins is just not trustworthy in situations like this.

It was an okay case, but I’m sick of Benson and Rollins hogging most of the screen time. Definitely better than last week’s snooze fest.

I laughed at the fact that the perp went to Hudson Law School, and next week looks like an episode about a college, how much do you want to bet it’s Hudson U?! 

[Iguessnot]

I was apprehensive at first when they showed Olivia with a bloodhound's sense for rape when the woman dropped her bag. However she acted more professional than usual during later scenes. Even her scenes with Rollins didn't annoy me.

The scenes with Rollins and Flynn were really good. I really thought they were going to kill off Rollins.

Aren't there height requirements for beat cops? The cop arresting Flynn barely reached his chest. No way a cop of that stature could handle day to day arrests.

Olivia and Rollins' expressions to the shooting were exaggerated, but I enjoyed this episode.

[Poohbear617]

And we're back to Rollins going UC.  There were other women in the book signing scene, but Rollins is Just SO IRRESISTIBLE that within the first 30 seconds of meeting her he wants to go upstairs with her..Gmafb!  I knew we would go back to this when they let Kat go.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Poohbear617

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, Iguessnot said:

I really thought they were going to kill off Rollins.

If only.

[dttruman]

4 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

This was a mixed bag - terrible opening, but the episode slowly improved from there, until the predictable ending of Flynn being shot.

The opening that spelled everything out is so tiresome, and it felt like a promo for Mariska to show off, complete with her real life husband being there and a promo about how wonderful adoption services are. And the perp was a typical smug rich douchebag. And I hated how Benson and Rollins were browbeating the victim into cooperating, that gets so tiresome and is unprofessional.

It's a pity they won't agree with you concerning the opening, but I do. It seemed like there was more put into the opening and a little more richly developed to suit her, her husband and adoption services. Adoption services are a worthy cause, but here it's just used to make Benson look good.

[SunnyBeBe]

It was a treat to see Jake Weber as the radio star.  He used to be in the series Medium.  

[Route66]

How did he not guess that Rollins was a cop? 

He's a former attorney who's inexplicably dumb enough to mention that he killed someone and then discuss the case on his radio program?

Kaplan tells Liv that Bill enjoyed hitting on his friends' wives. So why does he pursue Rollins when that's not his MO?

I loved Velasco as the Uber driving hitman with all the subtle allusions about what they were planning. 

I thought Liv was going to start giggling like a schoolgirl when she suggested Carrisi play Rollins fake husband. 

 

 

 

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, Route66 said:

So why does he pursue Rollins when that's not his MO?

Not to mention, confessing to a murder to someone he had met, what, five minutes before?

[preeya]

The dialogue between The Radio Guy and Rollins was horrendous and unbelievable. She should/could have been shot (two center mass) dead multiple times.

Who writes this shit?

[gaucho91]

I knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as they showed Bob live streaming at the end. Anyone else?

[Ms Blue Jay]

3 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

It was a treat to see Jake Weber as the radio star.  He used to be in the series Medium.  

Thank you for helping me figure out who this was. 

[dttruman]

10 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

but there were too many scenes of Rollins undercover and I just don’t like Rollins. And Rollins is just not trustworthy in situations like this.

 

12 hours ago, wknt3 said:

The Bad:
They were really pushing the idea that Rollins is someone who can be trusted even if she seemed to be going off course. Have they seen any of her episodes before this?

 

44 minutes ago, preeya said:

The dialogue between The Radio Guy and Rollins was horrendous and unbelievable. She should/could have been shot (two center mass) dead multiple times.

Who writes this shit?

I think many others who have watch enough of SVU (the Rollins years) like myself kind have found this part of plot where Rollins is UC to be kind of unbelievable.Yes I know this episode was written specifically for her (and her fans), but they have written her in here like she is some kind of top-notch profiler also. That's all well and good but they forget about how unpredictable, unreliable, and unprofessional she has been . It totally does not make sense to me, how she can suddenly become a respectable profiler and a proper UC. IMO she is just so out of character, considering they have spent the last few years pointing out her many flaws on the job and at home and yet she still gets promoted. Thank Heavens for writers, I guess.

[Ms Blue Jay]

7 hours ago, Poohbear617 said:

I knew we would go back to this when they let Kat go.

What happened there? 

[Broderbits]

3 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

It was a treat to see Jake Weber as the radio star.  

Reminded me of his radio star character on Homeland.

[Ohiopirate02]

4 hours ago, Route66 said:

How did he not guess that Rollins was a cop? 

He's a former attorney who's inexplicably dumb enough to mention that he killed someone and then discuss the case on his radio program?

I feel like making him a lawyer was a late addition in the writing process.  The episode brief was--what if Joe Rogan was a rapist?  Lawyer doesn't fit the type of character they were creating.  Unless he is supposed to be the world's dumbest lawyer, but even then the last scene is a bridge too far.  

[tennisgurl]

This show really does think that Rollins is the hottest hottie to ever hot doesn't it? Of course the guy immediately just has to get with her over any of the other hot woman instantly, and he totally buys everything she's selling despite the fact that she is really bad at being undercover. I was never going to love this episode, being a Rollins episode, so I cant say I was a big fan of this one. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, at least the ending was good, but I found it mostly unremarkable. It was at least better than last week, they really should have aired this one last week to cash in on the flagships return. Its not great, but at least it didn't annoy me as much as the last one. 

When the story became a murder mystery I think the investigation picked up a lot, and while the dialogue they gave the shock jock was terrible, the actor did a good job with it. The whole thing just made me think of that episode from ages ago where Lewis Black played a shock jock style radio star and it all went from being a rape case to a story about freedom of speech, which was quite a bit better than this one if I recall. 

I am glad that at least Carisi was mostly focused on him as a lawyer, I was worried it would be more about him as Rollin's boyfriend. The amount of lecturing about how Rollins has her shit together, yes show we get it, she's grown as a character because her most decent boyfriend isn't a dumpster fire, we don't need a whole lecture about it. 

I have been long complaining about how the show will bring up something in the first half and totally forget about it in the second, so I was pretty excited when the angry husband showed up to blow the radio guy away. Trigger warnings indeed. 

[Wizardpatch]

6 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I feel like making him a lawyer was a late addition in the writing process.  The episode brief was--what if Joe Rogan was a rapist?  Lawyer doesn't fit the type of character they were creating.  Unless he is supposed to be the world's dumbest lawyer, but even then the last scene is a bridge too far.  

More like "what if Joe Rogan was an easily hornied up killer rapist"?

[wknt3]

11 hours ago, Route66 said:

Kaplan tells Liv that Bill enjoyed hitting on his friends' wives. So why does he pursue Rollins when that's not his MO?

Made perfect sense to me. It's not his MO it's HERS. Rollins is a magnet for screwed up guys who are spiraling out of control. I mean if you just had Rollins sit in a bar and test the DNA of every man who bought her a drink the squad could probably end up with a decent clearance rate with a lot less work. Although somehow between her and Benson they would still manage to end up in 3 or 4 botched hostage situations a year...

[WendyCR72]

13 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

It was a treat to see Jake Weber as the radio star.  He used to be in the series Medium.  

He's another franchise frequent flier. As a matter of fact, he helped kick off Law & Order: Criminal Intent as he played Karl Atwood in "One", the show's pilot, in 2001.

[Andyourlittledog2]

And another stunning overreach by Benson and company ends in tragedy for a wide range of people.  The entire episode I kept saying to myself 'what the hell are they doing now?'. 

Flynn may or may not have murdered someone. Now he's dead.

Mitch, who everyone knew was a 'protector' loose cannon, has murdered and his life is now basically over. 

Mitch's wife has been called out on national TV as being raped. She wanted to keep her life private and her husband from doing something stupid.  She has to deal with the fall out on both sides now.

Amanda has been called out on national TV. No more undercover for her. Probably lots of therapy though.

But yay! SVU got their man. I guess. I wonder how many other sex crimes went unworked while the entire team focused on this one case. 

This show sucks.

ETA:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hours ago, Iguessnot said:

I was apprehensive at first when they showed Olivia with a bloodhound's sense for rape when the woman dropped her bag.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes indeed.

"Excuse me ma'am. I noticed you dropped your purse. Have you been raped?" 

Followed of course by: "Report it report it report it report it..."

I swear SVU seems to be needing work nowadays. They are eager to find cases and then the whole squad devotes all their time to the one case. New York crime must really be down. 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Andyourlittledog2

[dttruman]

11 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

When the story became a murder mystery I think the investigation picked up a lot, and while the dialogue they gave the shock jock was terrible, the actor did a good job with it. The whole thing just made me think of that episode from ages ago where Lewis Black played a shock jock style radio star and it all went from being a rape case to a story about freedom of speech, which was quite a bit better than this one if I recall. 

I remember that episode and I know it was a rape case and it's suppose to be thought provoking, but I thought Lewis Black was hilarious as his character when he got shot (not killed).

[dttruman]

9 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Made perfect sense to me. It's not his MO it's HERS. Rollins is a magnet for screwed up guys who are spiraling out of control. I mean if you just had Rollins sit in a bar and test the DNA of every man who bought her a drink the squad could probably end up with a decent clearance rate with a lot less work. Although somehow between her and Benson they would still manage to end up in 3 or 4 botched hostage situations a year...

 When ever they want to write an episode where Rollins is a little depressed, her family life and professional life are stressing her out, they can always pull out that old bar stool or find her some kind of illegal gaming activity. Benson will be there to tell her to take some time off and Rollins will swear she is fit for duty, but it will be Benson's inspirational speech with five minutes left for the episode, that pulls Rollins out of her funk. Wow it seems to write itself, doesn't it!

[dttruman]

10 hours ago, Wizardpatch said:

17 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I feel like making him a lawyer was a late addition in the writing process.  The episode brief was--what if Joe Rogan was a rapist?  Lawyer doesn't fit the type of character they were creating.  Unless he is supposed to be the world's dumbest lawyer, but even then the last scene is a bridge too far.  

More like "what if Joe Rogan was an easily hornied up killer rapist"?

Was this one of those episodes where the producers try and take an indirect cheap shot at a not so liberal radio talk show host?

 

[hifihifi]

If they SVU had any balls, they would have had Bob shoot both Amanda & Vasquez. If you go by the Poisoned Fruit theory, once Amanda came into Bob's apartment it was entrapment and anything that followed was legally inadmissible. While Bob was not the nicest guy in the world, the husband was a total idiot & I hope he enjoys 20 years in prison

[hifihifi]

So Amanda was exposed can't go undercover any more because her identity has been exposed, correct? Just once I'd like to see an episode where the sex victim Olivia was fronting turned out to be a liar and a con woman who made everything up. But noooooooooooooooooo!

[Ohiopirate02]

7 hours ago, dttruman said:

Was this one of those episodes where the producers try and take an indirect cheap shot at a not so liberal radio talk show host?

 

Yep.  

 

3 hours ago, hifihifi said:

So Amanda was exposed can't go undercover any more because her identity has been exposed, correct? Just once I'd like to see an episode where the sex victim Olivia was fronting turned out to be a liar and a con woman who made everything up. But noooooooooooooooooo!

Her name was dropped, but no accompanying image was included.  Also, the podcast/internet show is not going to be viewed or listened to by all of NYC.  Only Flynn's subscribers heard it.  Rollins can still go undercover using an alias.  

[gesundheit]

 

5 hours ago, hifihifi said:

So Amanda was exposed can't go undercover any more because her identity has been exposed, correct? 

They've all been exposed so many times on this show, press conference, front page of the Post, etc. But they still keep going. I guess they assume nobody pays that close attention. (Which is fair, I live in NYC and I certainly wouldn't recognize any of the many detectives in the news, but I'm also not a mastermind criminal who needs to know how to evade them.)

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, gesundheit said:

They've all been exposed so many times on this show, press conference, front page of the Post, etc. But they still keep going. I guess they assume nobody pays that close attention.

McGarrett (the head of Five-O and regularly gave press conferences) used to go undercover all the time (even into a prison) on the original H50 and no one ever recognized him!

[Wizardpatch]

Stabler just went undercover in the same city where his wife was very publicly assassinated less than a year before. They don't worry about it. 

[WendyCR72]

48 minutes ago, Wizardpatch said:

Stabler just went undercover in the same city where his wife was very publicly assassinated less than a year before. They don't worry about it. 

Logic hasn't had a place in the franchise for eons now.

[wknt3]

2 hours ago, Wizardpatch said:

Stabler just went undercover in the same city where his wife was very publicly assassinated less than a year before. They don't worry about it. 

Yeah but we never saw Stabler in the news onscreen and it's actually plausibe that he's been keeping a fairly low profile working for OCCB and that NYPD would ask for and receive media cooperation in not releasing his picture to try to protect his family from further danger. SVU is far more unbelievable with Olivia freaking Benson who is regularly on TV including with the freaking current POTUS going undercover repeatedly, including at a pharmaceutical industry (one of the biggest sponsors of those news programs we've seen her on) conference...

 

[CrystalBlue]

On 2/24/2022 at 8:35 PM, WendyCR72 said:

Oh, I just got an MTV flashback with the title. Airing March 3, 2022:

 

And I got a Rock n Roll flashback of a Rolling Stones song with Rollins' alias!

[CrystalBlue]

I cracked up when Bob Flynn called Amanda a trainwreck because of her gambling problem and two baby daddies.

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I cracked up when Bob Flynn called Amanda a trainwreck because of her gambling problem and two baby daddies.

Well, he wasn't wrong!

[dttruman]

15 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Her name was dropped, but no accompanying image was included.  Also, the podcast/internet show is not going to be viewed or listened to by all of NYC.  Only Flynn's subscribers heard it.  Rollins can still go undercover using an alias.  

Normally I would agree with this, but the writers prop Flynn up so much by saying he's got a very popular pod cast and also a best seller. So I am thinking the newspapers, TMZ, CNN, and many other news outlets are going to want to talk to Rollins about this

[Ohiopirate02]

3 hours ago, dttruman said:

Normally I would agree with this, but the writers prop Flynn up so much by saying he's got a very popular pod cast and also a best seller. So I am thinking the newspapers, TMZ, CNN, and many other news outlets are going to want to talk to Rollins about this

They might have if the husband did not just shoot Bob during a live broadcast.  No one is going to care about Amanda Rollins after that.  

[wknt3]

12 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I cracked up when Bob Flynn called Amanda a trainwreck because of her gambling problem and two baby daddies.

 

10 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Well, he wasn't wrong!

I guess it's true what they say. Even a dropped jock is right twice a day.

[dttruman]

3 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

6 hours ago, dttruman said:

Normally I would agree with this, but the writers prop Flynn up so much by saying he's got a very popular pod cast and also a best seller. So I am thinking the newspapers, TMZ, CNN, and many other news outlets are going to want to talk to Rollins about this

They might have if the husband did not just shoot Bob during a live broadcast.  No one is going to care about Amanda Rollins after that.  

Are you kidding, IMO the Liberal media would want everything on Flynn to tear down his image. They would be filing "freedom of information act" request to get the whole story from the police. So we all know that McGrath would be pitching a Holy Fit to Benson.

Edited March 6, 2022 by dttruman

[CrystalBlue]

6 hours ago, wknt3 said:

 

I guess it's true what they say. Even a dropped jock is right twice a day.

I've never heard of a dropped jock.  Just the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" phrase.

[faithie]

So this convoluted episode was a mixture of Chris Cuomo (famous media guy accused of sexual misconduct against a colleague at an event where the colleague's husband is present) and Joe Rogan (the media guy is a loud, polarizing podcaster who likes wearing t-shirts).

As others stated earlier, the backstory of the media guy being a former lawyer was very poorly executed - it didn't fit at all with the character and did seem like it was a last minute addition to the writer's room.

Was it intentional that both SVU and OC contained a shocking gunshot murder caught on video (Wheatley killed his son in front of a bunch of cops, politicians, emergency management personnel)?

[dttruman]

23 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

On 3/6/2022 at 10:20 AM, wknt3 said:

I guess it's true what they say. Even a dropped jock is right twice a day.

I've never heard of a dropped jock.  Just the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" phrase.

I was assuming there was something lost in translation, but I did understand the " is right twice a day." part so I left it at that. Now if there is another meaning for "dropped jock" in another country, can someone please elaborate.

[wknt3]

On 3/6/2022 at 10:20 AM, wknt3 said:

 

I guess it's true what they say. Even a dropped jock is right twice a day.

 

On 3/6/2022 at 4:39 PM, CrystalBlue said:

I've never heard of a dropped jock.  Just the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" phrase.

 

1 hour ago, dttruman said:

I was assuming there was something lost in translation, but I did understand the " is right twice a day." part so I left it at that. Now if there is another meaning for "dropped jock" in another country, can someone please elaborate.

It's a joke based on the saying "even a stopped clock is right twice day." Jock is slang for disc jockey as in the phrase "shock jock" which Faux Rogan certainly qualifies as. And he was dropped by Jim True-Fost's CEO character whose name I can't remember in the "surprise" ending.

[dttruman]

12 hours ago, wknt3 said:

It's a joke based on the saying "even a stopped clock is right twice day." Jock is slang for disc jockey as in the phrase "shock jock" which Faux Rogan certainly qualifies as. And he was dropped by Jim True-Fost's CEO character whose name I can't remember in the "surprise" ending.

You got me on that. I was thinking of some kind of "underwear"  reference

[Tdoc72]

Six months later—I’m catching up from my DVR. If anyone cares, the titles needs to be changed to season 23. Sorry for the nitpick.