S16.E12: Padre Sandunguero

[txhorns79]

To address the "Olivia needs a break!" angle, I also do agree that the spinoffs (at least, SVU and CI) were much more character driven, but like the Mothership, both have and did go through casting changes and survived.

 

I honestly think Olivia is already being given a break.  She might not be off the show, but she's much more in the background of a lot of these episodes than she ever would have been a few years ago.  

 

 

Maybe some new blood can give the show a jolt.

 

Without meaning to sound flip, Olivia is the only original cast member left on the show.  Out of the the six main characters, four were introduced within the last four years.  The show is almost entirely made up of "new blood," and to me, it seems like the struggle is less about the characters, and more about the writing in general.  While it might be nice to be done with Liv and her issues, I'd have trouble believing that her exit would change much in terms of the show.   

[Lebanna]

I have to say, I thought Pino's performance was very good in this episode. I mean, the story wasn't great - coming straight after Rollins' rape trial, having Amaro testifying on the stand that he was beaten as child - it's like most of the offences in New York were committed against the SVU squad, not solved by them. It's just too much. But the acting was great.

I also thought that Amaro Sr. was going to call Barba the 'f-word'. But I'm not sure that they're ever going there with him. He easily could be bi-sexual (probably not actually gay, we've already seen that he had a relationship once upon a time with the wife of his childhood friend and was still attracted to her), but I think it could just as easily be that the writers a) just want to lampshade Barba's awesome wardrobe, or b) want to illustrate that he really doesn't fit in anywhere.

Last season they had Nick calling Barba a sell out who was trying to 'pass', as it were. His best friend from childhood also basically called him a class/racial traitor. This season, Barba has had racist remarks from idiots, showing that he gets just as much abuse as Amaro or anyone else about his background. And Amaro's dad, whether he was getting at Barba's sexuality or just making fun of his clothes, just adds to the general chorus of unpleasantness. It explains the bitchy, tough act that Barba puts on most of the time, and also shows that he's quite vulnerable - it has to hurt, or he wouldn't bother reacting to it.

Also, last season Barba confessed his mamá issues to Olivia, and now it turns out that his dad was evil as well. So nobody on this show has any good parents at all. Please can Carisi turn out to have the most ridiculously sweet, loving family... something like an Italian version of the Waltons? Is that too much to ask? Probably.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Lebanna

[txhorns79]

Also, last season Barba confessed his mamá issues to Olivia, and now it turns out that his dad was evil as well. So nobody on this show has any good parents at all. Please can Carisi turn out to have the most ridiculously sweet, loving family... something like an Italian version of the Waltons? Is that too much to ask? Probably.

 

Knowing this show, it will turn out that Carisi is the product of both his parents being raped, was raised in an insane asylum by abusive nuns and Olivia is both his half-sister and daughter (yes, it makes no sense, but such is SVU). 

[Kel Varnsen]

I miss the days if when SVU actually spends an episode trying to solve a case, not a personal problem.

 

 

 

It is funny how back in the day the complaint about this show was that they would handle regular cases put the case would hit home with a character since it was often times similar to a personal problem they had and they would take it personally. Now it seems that they have just cut out the middleman and cases are directly about the characters personal problems. 

 

Also what was up with that crappy soap opera music in that first scene where Amaro was in Benson's office?

[Sake614]

Don't forget Benson with Voight during the crossover!

OMG I was so ready to ship them! Made me want more...LOTS more!

[Spartan Girl]

Amaro's dad is the very definition of a sociopath.

 

And I cannot begin to say how much I hate it when the family still supports the abusive sociopath by turning on the only member that is willing to do the right thing.  That's the same thing that happened to Jennifer Lopez in the movie Angel Eyes: she calls the cops on her father while he almost beats her mother to death, and the rest of the family -- including her spineless bitch of a mother -- shuns her for it.  There are no words for that kind of enabling and denial.

 

So I join in everyone else in saying: poor Amaro.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[DangerousMinds]

I'll let Olivia stay if Rolllins could be gone for good.

[WendyCR72]

I'll let Olivia stay if Rolllins could be gone for good.

 

Or, hey do a two-fer and bring back Jeffries (like that would ever happen!).

[RafaelBarbas]

Or, hey do a two-fer and bring back Jeffries (like that would ever happen!).

Out- Rollins and Benson

In- Jeffries, Van Buren, Eames

[Malbec]

Why does SVU have to get good right when I'm also freshly hooked on Empire??  This was one of the best episodes to come down the pike in a while.  I do not like the show's excessive fixation on Amaro's anger, but I do think there have been some excellent Amaro-centric episodes in the past ("Undercover Blue" comes to mind).  And a big reason why those episodes work is because Danny Pino is SO good.  He did not disappoint in this episode at all.  I thought he played Amaro's vulnerability beautifully -- he never overplayed it, but gave you just enough to feel the deep, deep wounds left over from his childhood abuse.

 

I thought it was enraging, but also REALLY realistic and believable, that Amaro's mother and sister fell all over themselves to enable Amaro Sr. and went along with gaslighting Nick.  The fact that they kept roping Zara in to manipulate him made me so angry, but again was also very believable. A lot of families have that code of silence where abuse and dysfunction are concerned.  As long as nobody talks about it, the problem doesn't exist.  And if somebody DOES talk about it, they're the one making it a problem, and they need to be shut down.  The writing for this episode was extremely insightful about how abuse is a whole-family situation.

 

And I just adored that scene between Barba and Amaro at the bar.  That was such great character work for both of them.  I really liked that while Amaro and Barba are very different men and didn't become instant BFFs, they did very credibly find that common ground.  It felt real.  Getting a peek at Barba's backstory was a good bonus, and the detail of him clenching his fist in the courtroom scene was PERFECT.

 

In a way, this episode highlighted exactly what I don't like about the episodes that focus on the detectives' personal lives.  This episode was so good, but it would be way more effective if it weren't the umpteenth time we've revisited Amaro's personal drama.  What the show needs to do is pull back and drop character-centric episodes like this into the mix sparingly, because that's what makes them effective.  I know that's been a lost cause with SVU for years now, but just saying.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Malbec

[Dot Com]

So is Nicholas Amaro Sr. Supposed to be Italian or Cuban? The actor is Italian but to me the episode seemed to imply that he's Cuban. However I recall seeing an episode where Nick mentioned that he was half Italian half Cuban.

Amaro is a word in both Spanish and Italian. So that doesn't help. I looked up Amaro in both Spanish and Italian. I had to chuckle because in both languages Amaro means bitter, unhappy, painful. Perfect name for that family.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Dot Com

[Lebanna]

To me, absolutely everything suggested that Amaro Sr. was supposed to be Cuban. But his family could be meant to be first generation Italian immigrants to Cuba or something, so Nick would still have Italian heritage.

As well as being Italian for bitter, Amaro is also one name for clary sage in Spanish. I'm pretty sure that it this has absolutely nothing to do with the character, though.

[Everleigh]

So is Nicholas Amaro Sr. Supposed to be Italian or Cuban? The actor is Italian but to me the episode seemed to imply that he's Cuban. However I recall seeing an episode where Nick mentioned that he was half Italian half Cuban.

Amaro is a word in both Spanish and Italian. So that doesn't help. I looked up Amaro in both Spanish and Italian. I had to chuckle because in both languages Amaro means bitter, unhappy, painful. Perfect name for that family.

 

I remember the episode where Amaro tells Fin he's Italian and Cuban (after Fin makes a joke about white people), but I always assumed they just dropped the Italian part and made him fully Cuban because it was never really mentioned again. Barba makes a comment this episode about the fight that broke out at the party reflecting poorly on the Cuban community so I assume Amaro Sr. is Cuban also. 

[candall]

Don't like Amaro; didn't like Cold Case Scotty.  I think Danny Pino primarily emotes by droppin' all the g's on his gerunds.

 

But here's a funny thing.  I just saw Aida Turturro as a sassy waitress on an old L&O--she's made it all the way to the bench!  She's such a force of nature, I'm willing to believe she was taking law school classes at night and worked her way up.

: )

Edited January 28, 2015 by candall

[millennium]

What a piece of shit this show has become.    Remember when the cops and lawyers in the Law & Order universe had no private lives, at least none that we really knew much about?   They were facilitators of the law, servants of justice, and that's where it ended.

 

I am so sick and tired of Amaro and his anger, his angst, his brooding, his divorce, everything.    Now we've got daddy issues to add to the mix.   I guess there must be no more real crime in New York City if they can devote an entire episode to a simple assault case.

 

But this is probably what happens when you lose -- or just don't use -- half your cast.

[chick binewski]

I wanted to "Thank" this 50x just for the last paragraph. I needed someone else to process the Olivia-RJB scene for me.

So what, is Noah just hanging out in an iron lung somewhere?

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Nick annoys me, but that was brutal.

His family sucks. Zara is so adorable.

[wanderingstar]

I recently caught this episode. The overwhelming takeaway for me? What was the point?

[dttruman]

On 2/4/2015 at 2:44 AM, millennium said:

What a piece of shit this show has become.    Remember when the cops and lawyers in the Law & Order universe had no private lives, at least none that we really knew much about?   They were facilitators of the law, servants of justice, and that's where it ended.

 

I am so sick and tired of Amaro and his anger, his angst, his brooding, his divorce, everything.    Now we've got daddy issues to add to the mix.   I guess there must be no more real crime in New York City if they can devote an entire episode to a simple assault case.

 

But this is probably what happens when you lose -- or just don't use -- half your cast.

I don't mind if they show glimpses into the private lives of the detectives, but SVU has made it a mainstay as part of the show.

I think if they had shown this episode today instead of five years ago, there might be numerous complaints about it as a bad portrayal of the latin community and how they ignore and condone actions like that.

Edited May 13, 2020 by dttruman

[wanderingstar]

20 minutes ago, dttruman said:

I don't mind if they show glimpses into the private lives of the detectives, but SVU has made it a mainstay as part of the show.

I think if they had shown this episode today instead of five years ago, there might be numerous complaints about it as a bad portraying of the latin community and how they ignore and condone actions like that.

It was super stereotypical and that's one of the reasons it bugged me. That and the fact that the episode was just lifeless. Lots of screaming and screeching to very little purpose.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Gillian Rosh

[Xeliou66]

Yeah this was one of those episodes where the personal stuff was the whole plot, which I rarely like, and something which SVU does far too often. It was just soapy dreck. 

And yeah it was somewhat stereotypical, but I think Barba even commented in the episode how it was unfortunate that people would use this case to stereotype Cubans/Latin Americans. 

[dttruman]

After watching this episode again on ION, I am in complete agreement with most of these comments. The one thing that really stands out to me is how the plot was so terribly manipulated to get a specific outcome. It was very sloppy and many of the commentators pointed that out, concerning the EMT guy who should have testified at the trial. The question is did Leight run out time because he wanted to concentrate on the Latino culture concerning "violence and abuse" more or was it because they had to fit in Benson's private life and meetings with Tucker. I still don't understand the statement Tucker said to Benson, when he referred to Amaro testifying against his father as being "barbaric". I thought a cop was suppose to be objective when he (or she) is testifying.