S26.E05 Economics of Shame

[dttruman]

When a TV reporter becomes the victim of sextortion that could ruin her career, Benson helps her take back control while Velasco goes undercover as a potential rich target.

[MediaZone4K]

I remember someone mentioning the lack of variety in modern SVU episodes, that everything is now a rape case. It was great to have some variety tonight with a sextortion plot. Hopefully the plot variety continues.

[wknt3]

The Good:
The cold open. While I still think that we should drastically cut back on showing the crime and use the openings to feature some of the squad coming into the scene and leave some mystery about what happened, this was very well done as these things go and didn't rely on heavy music and editing to try to create a sense of something happening. It actually made me more interested in what was to come which after all is the job of the opening scene.

Fin & Bruno! Working together and showing us SVU detectives can be empathetic while also remaining professional. And being cool as hell and watchable too. Plus they even gave us some characterization and continuity with the watch!

They actually gave Velasco something to do! I'm surprised. Even if they probably should have done some more with the undercover op it was nice to see him do more than glare and take up space while occasionally delivering some exposition.

And Silva too! Although they still haven't bothered to much in developing characterization or letting her play a major role in solving the case - back in the day she probably would have been the one to go undercover and we would have gotten some background about her past and her POV. But at least she was more than a glorified extra this week.

The Bad:
JFC. Benson just casually dismisses a Deputy Chief and a trained ESU team???!!! And they actually go along with it????!!! Without bothering to see if she has rapport with the jumper? And then we immediately cut to the victim praising Benson as her lord and savior? Way to ruin a good setup.

Benson the victim whisperer heals everyone and figures out the perfect solution  that makes everything OK. While I appreciate that she isn't single handedly solving the case and was actually leading and letting the team work, this was still a particularly unsubtle ego stroke for Mariska.

With a full house this week and several cast members underserved, what was the point of having Curry there? I quite like the actress and I like the character (although I hate the ridiculous idea of TWO captains working in one squad) but I don't see what she brought that anyone else couldn't have provided if they cared to overcome the idea that only a woman over 35 can truly be wise and empathetic with victims.

Overall this was an significant improvement over last weeks sodden mess, but still shows how this current season is less than the sum of its parts and can't be bothered to execute the fundamentals. It was like Game 5 of the World Series all over again...

Edited 11 hours ago by wknt3
ducking autocorrect

[Diana Berry]

What happened to the young man that had the encounter with the reporter at the beginning and took the pictures ?  

[Xeliou66]

An improvement over last week, and nice to see the whole squad plus Carisi all have something to do, but I found the case boring and not that compelling. Just couldn’t get invested in it, and it had way too much Benson worship and Benson saving the day along with usual whispering and cliched statements. And the case was rather complex and hard to follow in places. It was nice to see Bruno again, and nice that they gave Velasco something to do, but the case was just mediocre.

[Zaffy]

It was quite amusing listening the famous greek naughty word of... "mala**" on SVU, I believe that's a first. The actor could definitely speak Greek.
I can assure you though, that 85000$ are not a big deal to live here, even if our economy is screwed, you can't even buy a decent apartment with this money.
I agree that it was a refreshing case and I liked all the squad contributing and the happy ending.
Of course Olivia can also save "jumpers", but hey, nothing surprise us anymore, right? It actually made me laugh.

And I will never ever never understand how people keep exchanging explicit photos or even taking ones. They never learn...

Edited 23 hours ago by Zaffy

[wknt3]

On 11/1/2024 at 1:16 AM, Xeliou66 said:

An improvement over last week, and nice to see the whole squad plus Carisi all have something to do, but I found the case boring and not that compelling. Just couldn’t get invested in it, and it had way too much Benson worship and Benson saving the day along with usual whispering and cliched statements. And the case was rather complex and hard to follow in places. It was nice to see Bruno again, and nice that they gave Velasco something to do, but the case was just mediocre.

I think the biggest issue with the COTW was the poor execution of fundamentals. Some of it is Mariska's malign influence and some of it is just nobody caring enough to do better. I don't think the case was overly complex, but it was hard to follow. Why? Because they wasted time. Both with the usual Benson worship and with sloppy writing and/or editing. While I though the opener was effective it could have still been effective if they tightened it up a bit, probably even more so. There was also wasted time where they were TELLING us how empathetic Curry and Benson are instead of SHOWING. And where they beat us over the head that Benson figured out how to save everyone's job and get them back everything they lost. I don't care enough to go back and watch again and track, but that is at least 6 out of 41 minutes. The actual story and character beats could have been done in 2, giving us 4 minutes for exposition and clearly flowing from plot point to plot point. Combine that with dialogue at the same level that Leight or Chernuchin usually got from the writers and the case becomes a lot easier to follow even if it is nothing particularly special. It's not going to be a home run, but done right it's a solid episode instead of barely acceptably mediocre.

Edited 10 hours ago by wknt3
typos

[Wizardpatch]

I don't think anyone would actually believe that a reporter would have sex on tape with some random criminal just to go "undercover". They know she fell for him.

[Sake614]

The girl (don’t remember her name) is 19. She said her encounter took place last year or two years ago? So she was 17/18. And the guy brought wine on their date. Why didn’t Benson even blink at that or try to find the guy and charge him with plying a minor with alcohol? She was only interested in the girl to make the larger case stick. Where was the outrage from her? I don’t miss it but it was strange how she never even reacted to that statement.