S24.E07: Dead Ball

[WendyCR72]

Quote

When the case against a popular sports star falls through, Benson digs into the suspect's past to uncover additional victims. Velasco is disappointed when he meets one of his heroes.

[dttruman]

21 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Quote

When the case against a popular sports star falls through, Benson digs into the suspect's past to uncover additional victims. Velasco is disappointed when he meets one of his heroes.

Are we finally getting that episode where it references Deshaun Watson and his hobby? I wonder how of an embarrassment this will be to the NFL? I will almost guarantee one thing. Since there will be many victims, there will be more than one all inspiring and uplifting speeches by Benson to these unfortunate ladies.

[Xeliou66]

Just now, dttruman said:

Are we finally getting that episode where it references Deshaun Watson and his hobby? I wonder how of an embarrassment this will be to the NFL? I will almost guarantee one thing. Since there will be many victims, there will be more than one all inspiring and uplifting speeches by Benson to these unfortunate ladies.

Yeah the promo looked like this was a ripped from the headlines about Deshaun Watson case. I just hope they manage to put something unique or original on stuff we’ve seen a ton of on SVU recently, but I have no confidence in them to give it to us, they are more focused on making Benson look awesome than on delivering good cases.

[dttruman]

32 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

Yeah the promo looked like this was a ripped from the headlines about Deshaun Watson case. I just hope they manage to put something unique or original on stuff we’ve seen a ton of on SVU recently, but I have no confidence in them to give it to us, they are more focused on making Benson look awesome than on delivering good cases.

Well said!

[MerBearHou]

It started Deshaun-ish and then definitely pivoted.  I thought it was an interesting episode.  Of course, I hated the last 2 minutes with St. Olivia playing mother / counselor to the girl.  I literally said “UGH” out loud in my house.  

One timely point though that SVU could never have predicted:  Olivia talked to the girl about being young and being groomed for sex by an older, charismatic man.  Sure made me think about the Warren Beatty accusations that just came out yesterday.  

Edited November 11, 2022 by MerBearHou

[dttruman]

Looked like a good investigation, but the basis for checking this guy out was a little flawed with that Nelly girl telling her story but conveniently not wanting to get involved because of the child even though she felt it was necessary to confront him. IMO, that was pretty lame.

All that investigating by the others, sort of interviewing the so-called victims seemed too superficial, just so Benson could have a confrontation with him. And MerBeearHou was just as upset as I was with Benson having that discussion with the girl without the parents consent. Another very unprofessional moment for Benson.

[Iguessnot]

When Paulo was alone with Nellie he didn't even remember her. So how does that reconcile with him telling SVU that they had a serious relationship with her 8 years ago? 

Valance and Rollins were like devils on the shoulder of Antonio, recounting all the crap Paulo had done. When they showed that big chef's knife on Paulo counter, I just knew Antonio was going to kill him. I don't know how SVU thought Antonia confronting a man who betrayed him by having sex with his daughter and was making payouts to his wife, would be a good ideal. All those cops sitting around listening to that conversation, had no anticipation of anything until the shot was fired.

Antonio got the confession on tape, so his job was done. But he gets a gun and somehow missed a guy who was standing right in front of him.Really killed the believability of the scene and his fu to Paulo.

[Xeliou66]

What a boring, unoriginal episode. We’ve seen it all a thousand times before, a rich, powerful, famous predator and victims scared to cooperate. There was no suspense, we knew exactly what was going on from the beginning, and I didn’t care one iota about any of it. We’ve seen cases end with sting operations to get the perps to admit stuff, and I immediately saw it coming that Antonio would lose control  during the meeting. And of course the case is wrapped up neatly and Benson gives one of her speeches to the victim, blah. This show is so dull and stuck in mediocrity now.

I did like seeing a full squad room of detectives, and while I’m not a Rollins fan, she’s been better lately and I’ll miss the full squad room when she leaves, I wish they would replace her with another new detective but that would cost too much. Fin, Velasco and Muncy were good. I missed Carisi, he should’ve been present for the plea negotiations at the end and a couple of other scenes. And McGrath remains a one note douche.

Overall I have almost nothing to say about this - it was unoriginal and had a lot of the problems of modern day SVU - Benson worship, extremely predictable, no suspense and no characters to care about. 

[Frisky Wig]

So, 12 women sued Paulo but none of them filed a police report? I didn’t realize it was possible to sue someone without filing a police report. I guess you can get a rape kit done, not report it to the police but still get a lawyer and sue. 
 

I call BS on Ana smiling and nodding when Saint Olivia said “you’ll get it, how inappropriate this relationship was, when you’re an adult.” Teenagers think they know all and hate being told “you’ll understand when you’re older.” Then again, this is Saint Olivia we’re talking about…

[Ms Blue Jay]

Can someone please do me a kind favour and recap the last 5 minutes?  My PVR cut it off.

Everyone sitting watching calmly while it would be obvious to anyone with 1% brain power that the guy was going to shoot Paolo was so stupid and surreal.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[wknt3]

The Good:
The whole squad was involved. It makes even beating a dead horse more interesting when you have more than just Liv and a couple sidekicks.
The guest cast was pretty good given what they had to work with. Hopefully TPTB will realize there are a lot of great Latinx actors that could be considered for other roles that aren't specifically written for them?
No Benson or Rollins family drams.imvesti
The promo for next week looks interesting.

The Bad:
What a boring retread of something we have seen a 100 times the last half decade or so of this show. No suspense, a retread of every ridiculous trope possible, Benson at her most sanctimonious, and not a single new element or idea.
Benson. Full St. Benson mode this week. I mean even Inspector Javert thought she was being a little overzealous and disregarding the rights of the accused. And holy crap when she started negotiating plea bargains at the end??? It would have redeemed everything if the last 5 minutes was just Jack McCoy tearing her a new one
No Carisi. I guess it was good we didn't see him actually abandoning the law for the word of Liv, but it was ridiculous that he wasn't there given the amount of discussion about laws, civil actions, etc. And it would have been nice to see a sympathetic portrait of someone suggesting that maybe we shouldn't be devoting the full resources of NYPD to pursuing someone based on gut instinct?
Speaking of things we have seen too much - was there anyone out there who thought we needed the "sting that goes sideways because we didn't bother patting down the highly emotional witness/victim before sending them to meet with the perp" thing back? I mean we've just been getting some indication that Benson had learned something about tactics and procedure finally!

Overall this was a dud. The horse they were beating is pretty much fossilized and there was no reason to go back to this well. I was pretty much bored start to finish. The only redeeming feature is that it didn't really trash the better material that came before it and shouldn't affect the future. A dead ball foul if you will.
 

[dttruman]

42 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

Speaking of things we have seen too much - was there anyone out there who thought we needed the "sting that goes sideways because we didn't bother patting down the highly emotional witness/victim before sending them to meet with the perp" thing back? I mean we've just been getting some indication that Benson had learned something about tactics and procedure finally!

They said that he got the gun from the perp's closet. What surprised me was that Antonio didn't try to kill the Paulo, I guess Hargitay didn't want another life lost because of Benson's zealous and reckless thirst for vengeance. Can Paulo and his lawyer argue that what he may have said was under duress because of the shots fired? I wonder what would happen if Antonio and his lawyer found out that Antonio's daughter told Benson she wanted to have sex with Paulo?

Edited November 11, 2022 by dttruman

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Can someone please do me a kind favour and recap the last 5 minutes?  My PVR cut it off.

Everyone sitting watching calmly while it would be obvious to anyone with 1% brain power that the guy was going to shoot Paolo was so stupid and surreal.

Do you mean when Benson conveniently had a totally inappropriate conversation with Antonio's daughter. Another classical situation where a shrink or counselor should have been helping her instead of a captain that should have been tallying up her monthly manpower reports.

[Route66]

13 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

It started Deshaun-ish and then definitely pivoted.  I thought it was an interesting episode.  Of course, I hated the last 2 minutes with St. Olivia playing mother / counselor to the girl.  I literally said “UGH” out loud in my house.  

One timely point though that SVU could never have predicted:  Olivia talked to the girl about being young and being groomed for sex by an older, charismatic man.  Sure made me think about the Warren Beatty accusations that just came out yesterday.  

That last scene was just more forcing Saint Olivia on us. Ana wasn't hurt or angry about sleeping with Paolo, so there was no need to comfort her with his plea deal.

Also, the mom taking the money made zero sense. They were already wealthy. She was literally covering up a crime by taking the money, which must be illegal. Why was Ana's dad not furious at his wife for taking the huge payout in exchange for letting Paolo get away with statutory rape. 

[gesundheit]

Hey, at least Amanda tied her hair back so we didn't have to be distracted by her weird asymmetrical 'do!

14 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

Of course, I hated the last 2 minutes with St. Olivia playing mother / counselor to the girl.  I literally said “UGH” out loud in my house.  

11 hours ago, Frisky Wig said:

I call BS on Ana smiling and nodding when Saint Olivia said “you’ll get it, how inappropriate this relationship was, when you’re an adult.” Teenagers think they know all and hate being told “you’ll understand when you’re older.” Then again, this is Saint Olivia we’re talking about…

Exactly, I was cracking up that they had her nodding in agreement and even smiling a little. This girl thought she was hot shit for her situation with that rapist, "one day you'll get it" is a perfectly acceptable and true thing to say, but it's not going to move the needle for a 17-year-old!

Also, somehow she had been able to keep this secret for over a year but gushed to a total stranger on the street that she'd had a "relationship" with Paolo? Sure, sure.

9 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Everyone sitting watching calmly while it would be obvious to anyone with 1% brain power that the guy was going to shoot Paolo was so stupid and surreal.

I was honestly dumbfounded that they were just standing there.

[slowpoked]

It was an ok episode until the last scene, which was so unnecessary. I've been praising the last couple of episodes as solid, because they've been working as a squad, rather than as supporting characters to Liv. But I guess old habits die hard, and Olivia just has to play hero again.

I was confused about how they can get his financial information - I thought there was no case, they weren't able to charge him anything, so why did they still get access to it? 

[Demian]

I wonder what was behind the business decision to run a big ad for the World Cup in the middle of an episode about a rapist soccer player.

[dttruman]

42 minutes ago, Demian said:

I wonder what was behind the business decision to run a big ad for the World Cup in the middle of an episode about a rapist soccer player.

Do you think that Hargitay thinks so much of herself as a rape victim advocate, that this episode might scare off super rich athletes who think they are entitled to "Use, Abuse, and Throw Away" women at their whim?

[MarylandGirl]

On 11/11/2022 at 12:38 PM, gesundheit said:

Hey, at least Amanda tied her hair back so we didn't have to be distracted by her weird asymmetrical 'do!

Exactly, I was cracking up that they had her nodding in agreement and even smiling a little. This girl thought she was hot shit for her situation with that rapist, "one day you'll get it" is a perfectly acceptable and true thing to say, but it's not going to move the needle for a 17-year-old!

Also, somehow she had been able to keep this secret for over a year but gushed to a total stranger on the street that she'd had a "relationship" with Paolo? Sure, sure.

I was honestly dumbfounded that they were just standing there.

Right? They should have realized from what Paolo was saying that things were going sideways. I'm pretty sure they've had other confrontation-with-a-wire situations where the person being confronted ended up injured or dead, so shouldn't they have been prepared for it to go off the rails? As soon as Paolo was like, "what are you doing?" (or whatever he said), I thought they were going to rush in.

And serious eyeroll at Liv talking to the daughter.

[dttruman]

9 hours ago, MarylandGirl said:

I'm pretty sure they've had other confrontation-with-a-wire situations where the person being confronted ended up injured or dead, so shouldn't they have been prepared for it to go off the rails? As soon as Paolo was like, "what are you doing?" (or whatever he said), I thought they were going to rush in.

There should be some reprimands handed out for that, except for Benson. She will be presented with a "Medal of Valor". They just recently had a situation like this on a episode of L&O OC, where the guy wearing the wire got killed. Is that considered to tacky or can we expect another incident like this on the Mothership in a few weeks?

[CrystalBlue]

I like how they named the soccer star Paolo, which suspiciously sounds so similar to Pelé.

Saint Olivia of the Sacred Whispers.

The Good:  No Noah!

The Bad: No Carisi.

[TV Anonymous]

$50M for 10 years? There is only one person north of U.S. - Mexico border makes that kind of money playing soccer. 

Fin: "We want to ask you questions."

Witness: "But I signed an NDA."

Fin: "What about off the record?"

Witness: "Okay then."

That is not how NDA works. Unless the subject is illegal, non-disclosure is non-disclosure, on the record or otherwise.

[tennisgurl]

That was such a boring episode, I knew every single thing that was going to happen in the first five seconds. Extremely powerful man who abuses woman who are too scared to press charges against him? Sting gone wrong? The squad taking ethically questions means to find information that can lead to them getting the bad guy? Olivia giving condescending saintly speeches to attractive female victims? Its truly SVU's "greatest" hits. I didn't find the episode all that anger inducing and the guest cast was good, which is about all I can say about the episode besides how boring it was. 

Why the hell is a police captain giving speeches to victims again? The daughter should be talking to a therapist not Olivia, and no way do I buy that Olivia and her condescending whispers got her to turn around in one conversation. What teenage girl who was all excited about landing a celebrity would suddenly turn around after an adult she hardly knows tells her that she's dumb and will know better later? And why wasn't her dad angrier at her mom for taking the payoff? As usual, we leave tons of dangling plot threads hanging just to get a long Saint Olivia speech. 

[dttruman]

48 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

That was such a boring episode, I knew every single thing that was going to happen in the first five seconds. Extremely powerful man who abuses woman who are too scared to press charges against him? Sting gone wrong? The squad taking ethically questions means to find information that can lead to them getting the bad guy? Olivia giving condescending saintly speeches to attractive female victims? Its truly SVU's "greatest" hits. I didn't find the episode all that anger inducing and the guest cast was good, which is about all I can say about the episode besides how boring it was. 

Why the hell is a police captain giving speeches to victims again? The daughter should be talking to a therapist not Olivia, and no way do I buy that Olivia and her condescending whispers got her to turn around in one conversation. What teenage girl who was all excited about landing a celebrity would suddenly turn around after an adult she hardly knows tells her that she's dumb and will know better later? And why wasn't her dad angrier at her mom for taking the payoff? As usual, we leave tons of dangling plot threads hanging just to get a long Saint Olivia speech. 

I think the producers are trying to get Hargitay nominated for another Emmy. The "Taken From the Headlines" plot was definitely from the Deshaun Watson incidents but changed it to a soccer superstar because of the World Cup about to be played. They used this same type of scenario last season. Whereas no one was killed here, there was a popular radio personality who got shot and killed

[jabRI]

On 11/11/2022 at 1:07 AM, Xeliou66 said:

Overall I have almost nothing to say about this - it was unoriginal and had a lot of the problems of modern day SVU - Benson worship, extremely predictable, no suspense and no characters to care about. 

I totally agree.  These last few episodes, I watch until the end and then think, 'is that it'? there's no suspense or anything surprising anymore.  It's the worst kind of police procedural.  They used to have great episodes, everyone now is just wandering around like a zombie, no life to the cast at all.