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S16.E14: Intimidation Game


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I am never going to get that hour of my life back. I could have done so many things with that hour. I could have made a cake. I could have written a story. I could have exercised. I could have rearranged furniture in my room. Instead, I spent it watching a bunch of 40-60 year olds thinking they know modern gaming portraying a caricature of a serious issue without the slightest sense of nuance or realism.

Edited by RafaelBarbas
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The only good thing about this episode was Fin and Carisi. Fin is just awesome. He should be in every episode.

The girl who got groped at the convention had the stupidest lines. Does anyone speak like that in real life?

Edited by Suzy123
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I find it very hard to believe that Fin goes home from work everyday just to play video games (especially ones where the end goal is to kill the cops). (I have an easier time picturing carisi playing video games).And the idea that he is so into it that he goes to conventions on his weekends off and knows all the acronyms is ridiculous. And there's no way Fin (or carisi) would just ignore the fact that someone is being attacked.

I think Liv is over reacting about Noah either growing up to be violent or a video game lazy buy. I do like that Liv isn't going out into the field as much anymore (Cragen hardly ever went out of the office)

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I am sure this episode will be full of nuance and represent both sides of the debate with respect and fairness.

 

What is "the other" side of this debate?!  All I know about it is that a lot of women in gaming or women who criticize violence in gaming get rape and death threats on the hour or minute.  What is the other side of that?

 

And there's no way Fin (or carisi) would just ignore the fact that someone is being attacked.

 

That was horrible, ridiculous.

 

I think Liv is over reacting about Noah either growing up to be violent or a video game lazy buy

 

I would worry about the exact same thing if I had a boy.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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What is "the other" side of this debate?!  All I know about it is that a lot of women in gaming or women who criticize violence in gaming get rape and death threats on the hour or minute.  What is the other side of that?

The fact that a lot of the female gamers were the ones doing the swatting and doxxing, and the indications that many involved sent death threats to themselves, among others. Also the fact that the GamerGate people are not the cartoon characters they were written as.

Disclaimer: I am not on any side of this argument, and I am a feminist.

I would worry about the exact same thing if I had a boy.

Video games are harmless. This episode was really just a redux of the "video games cause school shootings" moral panic, only this time it's rape and sexual assault. Not too long ago the same thing was thought about people who read comics.

 

I know misogyny in video games is a serious issue, but SVU handled this with the same grace that CSI handled furries with.

Edited by RafaelBarbas
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The fact that a lot of the female gamers were the ones doing the swatting and doxxing

 

 

Citation needed. To my knowledge there was one guy arrested for swatting so far and it was dude. Considering that the number of female gamers is supposedly low, it would be a bit on the hard side for them to statistically do "a lot" of the swatting which in itself is not a super frequent occurrence. 

Edited by LolaRuns
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There is a huge difference between doing something and being arrested for it. Most people who swat/doxx do not get arrested. 

What?  There are no "two sides", there's the assholes who think the idea of feminists and other socially conscious people talking about video games/"nerd culture" should be met with hourly rape and death threats, and there's the non-assholes who think that's a dick thing to do.

 

Anyways, it's a shitty topical Law and Order SVU episode, one of many shitty topical SVU episodes.  I don't think we should've been surprised.

Edited by Mars477
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I think I will actually have to rewatch this episode on VOD, because I'm really not sure what to think. Tonally, it was all over the place for its first half--and that's not even counting all the "Stay classy, Internet" stuff ("Redchanit," uploading stuff through the Darknet, and that hackers can hack anything up to and including jumbotrons).  And the downer ending just felt...wrong.  Not even Fin actually camping a location (the one bit of gamerspeak the show nailed apart from Civilization V) could offset that, IMO.

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I watched this because I haven't seen this show in ages and I knew tonight's episode would be something special.  It was really over the top and went past my expectations.  Kotaku is decrying it and lots of people are just laughing about it.  They should've just let Jack Thompson give a speech.

 

Can someone tell me what happened to Det. Munch, and who is Noah?

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My immediate reaction to the episode is that it's proof SVU just shouldn't exist anymore. That's if it ever should have. Gang raping, uh, let's call her "Zoe Wukeesian," was, if not the grossest thing the show has ever done in terms of responsibility, the gross thing with the most immediacy thanks to seeing the reactions of people like Zoe Quinn on Twitter.

 

There were a myriad of things wrong with this episode but never before have I felt like a terrible person for watching this show.

 

(I wrote more on Medium but I don't wanna link it unless the mods say it's OK. Dunno if it would be considered a plug but I'd prefer to link it for convenience's sake.)

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I watched this because I haven't seen this show in ages and I knew tonight's episode would be something special. It was really over the top and went past my expectations. Kotaku is decrying it and lots of people are just laughing about it. They should've just let Jack Thompson give a speech.

Can someone tell me what happened to Det. Munch, and who is Noah?

Munch retired from the NYPD but works as an investigator for the DA's office (off screen). Noah is Olivia's adorable little foster son.

Next week the wonderful ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza) is back. I miss the guy when he's gone for even 1 episode. If you haven't been introduced to him yet you should watch the show just to see him. He's like 75% the reason why I watch the show.

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I find it very hard to believe that Fin goes home from work everyday just to play video games (especially ones where the end goal is to kill the cops).

I don't know I think Ice T pretending to be a cop killer is totally believable...

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The Good:

The case had nothing to do with the squad's personal lives.
Well acted all around.
A topical episode without lots of heavy handed exposition/statistical advocacy where Finn tells Olivia that video games are a $70 billion industry and she shouldn't be surprised he's a big fan since gamers over 30 are 43 percent of the total and women are half, but Rollins counters that 4 out of 7 female gamers report harassment and 25.3 % will encounter some sort of real world incident and in 34 states serious harassment through video games can't be prosecuted.
They let the heavily armed, armored, highly trained ESU team go in to the extremely dangerous situation first and followed them.
I wasn't bored.

The Bad:

 

More Saint Benson against the evil world determined to corrupt her little boy. And could you be a little less subtle and heavy handed with the thematic link? I think there might be someone out there that didn't get it.
No Barba.
A little too reminiscent of the campy over the top monkey in a basketball era SVU where you're not sure if they're deliberately exaggerating and stylizing like CSI or just out of touch.

It could have been really good if they dialed it back a bit and made the "confusion between reality and video games"thing  a BS psych defense for Barba to shred.

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I'm not a gamer nor will I pretend to know anything about what GamerGate is about, just putting that out there before I go on.

 

I liked this episode, missed both Amaro & Barba, episodes with all of them - which we've only had 1(!) this season - is much better. I loved all the Fin / Amanda interaction, they are my favorite partner team. Since I know Ice is into videogames, and since I have a hard time keeping him apart from his character I don't find it strange that he would play videogames through the night if he felt like it. I found it funny that he translated things for Olivia, I needed him too to keep up with that convo.

My only hope when I heard Dr Lindstrom would be back was that Liv would find out Amanda never went to see him about that referal, I guess it might come up later on though. I can't really look at him as I only see Nate Haskell and that man creeps me out big times.

What happened to Raina was horrible and it doesn't really make a difference to me what profession she was in, it was absolutely tragic that she pulled out of a profession she seemed really invested in. It's always a shame when women are targeted because they are the minority or 'doesn't belong', it should never ever be about gender, nor culture or color or anything really.

 

And I just have to ask - are there actually any fans of the show that are on this board/forum? I'm starting to feel like a minority but I do love the sarcastic reviews so I would hate to see this forum go...

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Oh I'm a fan MorbidPet. I'm just more of a fan of Raúl/Barba. So he's the main reason I started watching the show again after many years of not watching it.

I wasn't a fan of this episode. I know nothing about gaming. I play solitaire on my iPod and that's about it. My gaming is stuck in the Mario Brothers era. I don't like violent shooting games and I don't have the eye/hand coordination for things like driving/skiing/etc. games. Those are mostly the types of games my brother plays (except for Farming on Facebook). If I could afford my own gaming system and games I would play games but I'd still be happily playing games like Mario Brothers (yeah okay I'll be 50 in a couple weeks. So maybe I'm an old woman). I actually fast forwarded through a few scenes as I started watching the show about 15 minutes late. I don't think I've ever fast forwarded through an episode of this show before.

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I don't know anything about gaming culture, but I thought perhaps the episode was referencing those men on forums who  have been threatening to leak pictures of people like Emma Watson and company. I know that has nothing to do with gaming, but that's where my mind went during the episode. 

 

I like the new guy Carisi. He's sort of funny without being too weird.

 

The actress at the beginning of the show who was attacked kind of perplexed me. She seemed so chipper for someone who had been attacked. 

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And I just have to ask - are there actually any fans of the show that are on this board/forum? I'm starting to feel like a minority but I do love the sarcastic reviews so I would hate to see this forum go...

 

It's hard to actively be a fan when they just gang raped a composite character of three different women who have been terrorized by rape threats (to the point of fleeing their homes, needing security escorts, etc) for six months and counting.

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I really like Carisi, but I think the actor was really out of his element in the action scenes. He looked pretty uncomfortable holding and firing the gun - and that run down the hallway? Yikes. He couldn't have looked more ridiculous if he was slipping on a banana peel.

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Wow, they really could have done something with this episode but that was pretty embarrassing. I liked the basic plot but the dialogue was shameful. It's not as if those writers aren't capable of nuance, why do they do this so often? The show had really been improving and now I feel like it's on a backslide again. 

 

Everything else?  Meh.  I have to roll my eyes at the people that thought a woman in the video game business was such an atrocity.

Well, in this case that's quite literally taken from reality. And I roll my eyes in the real world at people who think that. I'd like to do a lot more than roll my eyes at the preponderance of them who threaten rape or death to women in gaming.

 

From the recap: 'Benson murmurs anxiously about...gaming in general, I guess, "Is this Noah's future?" while picking up a picture of him and staring at it. Girl!'

THAT WAS HORRIBLE. I think I had my head in my hands at the clunkiness of it. 

 

And yes, Olivia's constant condescending "I get it, Carisi" was particularly absurd in an episode where she needed every little thing spelled out for her. 

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And I just have to ask - are there actually any fans of the show that are on this board/forum? I'm starting to feel like a minority but I do love the sarcastic reviews so I would hate to see this forum go...

 

I've always watched so I'll probably stick with it to the end but honestly, the show has gotten so lazy with these ripped from the headline plots that I can hardly call myself a fan. Now it's mainly nostalgia that keeps me coming back.

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Eh, I liked this episode.  I found it far more watchable than last week's, which I thought was terrible.  I always hate it when I figure out the perp the moment the character walks on screen.  I was surprised that my initial feeling of the fiance being in on it was wrong.  I even thought for a moment that Rayna herself set the whole thing up to garner more publicity for her game.   I do agree with others that the episode was all over the map for the first half and I was completely unsure of where they were going.

 

Anyhow . . . I love Carisi and as much as I like Amaro and am a fan of Danny Pino, I really didn't notice he wasn't there until I made myself think about who was missing afterward.  I do miss Barba in any episode he is not present.

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Thank god this show will not be on long enough for us to see a storyline about Noah Benson getting in trouble with the law.

 

Not so sure. Seems like this show will go on when Olivia and Company are in Depends. But, yeah, I have no need to see the next generation.

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Not so sure. Seems like this show will go on when Olivia and Company are in Depends. But, yeah, I have no need to see the next generation.

I just got a flashback so strongly to Stabler's daughter (Kathleen?) disoriented on a playground, and picturing it being so much worse if it's a Benson and a boy.  He's accused of rape but says he's innocent, she doesn't quite believe him for a while because he's been distant or smoking dope, fallout for a hundred episodes.

 

I really enjoy Carisi, still love Fin, and of course love Barba, so I'll keep watching. I just wish they'd take a season-long break from Benson's Issues.  If Gotham wasn't doing well I'd rooting for Donal Logue to come replace her altogether, but failing that, let's just get some procedural eps for a while, please!

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I just got a flashback so strongly to Stabler's daughter (Kathleen?) disoriented on a playground, and picturing it being so much worse if it's a Benson and a boy.  He's accused of rape but says he's innocent, she doesn't quite believe him for a while because he's been distant or smoking dope, fallout for a hundred episodes.

 

I really enjoy Carisi, still love Fin, and of course love Barba, so I'll keep watching. I just wish they'd take a season-long break from Benson's Issues.  If Gotham wasn't doing well I'd rooting for Donal Logue to come replace her altogether, but failing that, let's just get some procedural eps for a while, please!

The show doesn't have to be on that much longer for them to stick in a groped-a-kid-at-daycare-and-everyone-thinks-it-is-because-his-mom-is-the-sex-police episode.

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I really like Carisi, but I think the actor was really out of his element in the action scenes. He looked pretty uncomfortable holding and firing the gun - and that run down the hallway? Yikes. He couldn't have looked more ridiculous if he was slipping on a banana peel.

Lol! Aw man, I choked on my soda when I read this.

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The show doesn't have to be on that much longer for them to stick in a groped-a-kid-at-daycare-and-everyone-thinks-it-is-because-his-mom-is-the-sex-police episode.

 Oh god.  Keep it down, they might hear you!

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I am a fan of the show (have watched every episode since it started) but I really hate it when they do an episode as bleak as this one. The sex crimes they handle are usually bad enough; if they don't give us a ray of hope at the end, why watch? I like to go to the brink of the abyss, but then I want to step away from it again. Last week the rapist was so horrible a man and his crime so bad that his being caught didn't make up for it, and now this! If they're trying to rouse us to indignation about the way women are treated in the gaming world, okay, a valid goal, but they need to be realistic. In our day and age, there IS a lot of outrage about how women are treated by some male gamers. Actual rape being streamed online, etc.-- there would have been an outcry, mass demonstrations, people flocking to buy a copy of "Amazonian Warriors" (misleading title, from her commercial) just to show solidarity with her. "Don't you see? They've already won!" BAH, HUMBUG!!!

 

I too thought her fiancé, or she herself, would turn out to be behind it. But no, this had to be one of the As Bad As Possible crimes. The outcome was not As Bad As Possible, the way it was in all but the last of the William Lewis episodes, since the perps were killed or captured, but that whole implication that they represented a world of male gamers who loved them and supported them... Surely this would not be so rampant and unopposed in real life. 

 

Next week better be one of the nice ones where the accused is innocent and acquitted, or the crime didn't happen, or justice is satisfying. Bummed out right now.

Edited by Corvino
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I really liked seeing Fin and Carisi acting like excited little kids at the video game convention. And loved Amanda just sort of shaking her head at them like she didn't get it. Guess Fin dragged her out there to keep her mind off things since she obviously has no interest in video games. I always like seeing the detectives hanging out together off duty. 

 

So the SVU detectives no longer get called to crime scenes anymore, they just happen to stumble upon them now while off-duty? Last week with Olivia and Amanda, and now this. 

 

Totally thought the fiance was going to end up being evil, he seemed almost too caring for this show. Glad they didn't go that route though. 

 

My biggest problem with the episode was the over use of gamer language. I'm not a gamer by any means but I'm pretty sure no one speaks that way in real life, at least not out loud. Online or on their little xbox headsets, maybe, but not even the most obsessed gamer is dropping those terms into every day life like the first victim was when she gave her statement to Olivia and Fin. I always feel like SVU over does these things.  

 

The first person shooter perspective thing they did with the perp and Carisi up on the roof was kind of interesting though.

 

They've done a couple of episodes about people being unable to separate virtual reality from actual reality in the past, but those episodes have all been from the perp's perspective and usually involved a defense lawyer trying to use that as an excuse, this episode was more focused on the victim. 

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I didn't love this one, but I didn't hate it.  I liked the three cops hanging out together at the convention.  Before the case became so gruesome, I thought that the second victim was the one behind the attacks.  She made so many comments about her game launching that I thought that she set everything up so that her game launch would get more publicity.

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I was surprised that my initial feeling of the fiance being in on it was wrong.  I even thought for a moment that Rayna herself set the whole thing up to garner more publicity for her game.

 

I too thought her fiancé, or she herself, would turn out to be behind it.

Oh, here too.  In fact, TheWildBoar  just watched it (I watched last night), and he turned to me & said, "Oh, yeah, it's gotta be the boyfriend, right?  Probably now that she finished designing the game, he wants to push her out and keep the profits!"

 

I didn't spoil it for him of course!

 

But that actor plays creepy pretty well, and seemed sadly miscast as a decent guy.

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Next week the wonderful ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza) is back. I miss the guy when he's gone for even 1 episode. If you haven't been introduced to him yet you should watch the show just to see him. He's like 75% the reason why I watch the show.

So glad to read that I'm not the only one who watches to see him. I've been watching this show from the start but a year or two before Stabler left the storylines started getting so much more over the top. I hate that I feel like I watch now to see how over the top each episode will get instead of watching for the actual story and the characters.

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If Carisi's colleagues don't give him a break, I'm gonna cut a bitch.  Olivia's "I get it!" says more about her than it does about Carisi, as did Barba's "Booya!  Fordham Law!" last week (crushing, perhaps?  Hmm???).  There aren't many likeable characters on this show any more, and the ones I still enjoy watching (Fin, Barba, Carisi) don't get enough screen time.  Thankfully, Amara and Rollins have been less annoying in the last couple of episodes.  Benson?  So annoying now that at times I seriously want to change the channel.  Cragen never got on my nerves; why can't the writers allow Benson to successfully pull off a work/life balance and JUST FUCKING BE HAPPY???

 

Was it surprising to anyone else that Fin was a gamer?  It's almost like things were retconned so someone could explain the gamer culture.  If I'd been at the writer's table, Carisi would have been my first choice for gamer, as we know nothing about his past.  My second choice would have been Rollins; gaming could have been an early addiction, and having another female knowing the ins and outs of gaming would have served the story well.

 

Carisi in jeans, smiling?  Thank you, whomoever.  Peter Scanavino, where have you been all my life?

Edited by DesertCyclist
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What happened to Raina was horrible and it doesn't really make a difference to me what profession she was in, it was absolutely tragic that she pulled out of a profession she seemed really invested in. It's always a shame when women are targeted because they are the minority or 'doesn't belong', it should never ever be about gender, nor culture or color or anything really.

 

 

I can't decide whether it's a good or bad thing that the actor's race was never mentioned by the gamer rapists--it was 100% pure misogyny, which isn't usually the case--woman hating and racism tend to go hand in sweaty, clammy, sticky hand. But considering what they asked of the performer maybe they didn't want to double down that much?

 

I find it pretty hilarious that it was easy to pick out exactly where the writers decided to "dial it back"--the fiance wasn't in on it, the designer didn't set it up and it went too far--because, God forbid, that would be unbelievable. 

 

However, I do find it even more hysterical/sad/mostly sad that MRAs and many gamers were outraged by the extreme-but-logical-if -you-squint outcome of the episode and were all "we'd NEVER! We are SHOCKED! SHOCKED at this portrayal!" If you spend your time making the kind of threats that have been made (and the threats from the episode were not exaggerated in the slightest--hell, they were toned down because S&P wouldn't let that language onscreen in a million years) and torturing women from the safety of your screens, why is it such a surprise that people believe you'd do something like this? 

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And I just have to ask - are there actually any fans of the show that are on this board/forum? I'm starting to feel like a minority but I do love the sarcastic reviews so I would hate to see this forum go...

I think there are plenty of fans of the show here. I like most of the actors and characters and am getting into the show again as the writing seems to be improving. I want it to be good and I'm rooting for it. Just because we have snarky comments (like pointing out the way the writers love to show off that they did some research by having the squad rattle off statistics) or serious criticisms (the Noah story is seriously overdone and Mariska Hargitay needs to put aside her ego for the good of the show) doesn't mean we're not fans.

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I find it very hard to believe that Fin goes home from work everyday just to play video games (especially ones where the end goal is to kill the cops). (I have an easier time picturing carisi playing video games).And the idea that he is so into it that he goes to conventions on his weekends off and knows all the acronyms is ridiculous. And there's no way Fin (or carisi) would just ignore the fact that someone is being attacked.

 

 

Isn't Fin's backstory that he was an ex-marine? Didn't he once say that he even saw combat in Somalia (Black Hawk Down or something close to that?). You would think that with that kind of history, killing pretend people on a computer screen wouldn't have the same appeal,

 

Also when they were looking at those message boards, one of the comments was from ChickyChickyParmParm. Who knew that Tom Haverford from Pawnee, Indiana was such an asshole. Although I guess this explains what he was doing during the 3 year time jump.

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I kind of enjoyed that they brought back "leslie." His character entertained me and strangely seemed to fit into the storyline well enough.

Carisi's moves caught my eye too. I just thought maybe we haven't ever seen a detective move so fast. He was moving pretty damn fast scramming down that hall.

When the lights started flickering in the theater, I thought they were going to Ripped from the Dark Night Headline. I'm like Please Don't! I'm glad they didn't.

Strangely, when they went to that abandoned building, I thought it was the Lewis episode one. Glad they didn't go there either.

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Wow, talk about some seriously incompetent policework. 

 

Plus, she could have done the presentation by teleconference in the safety of their corporate office or even her house. Having a live audience in attendance wasn't necessary at all. Judging from the idiots with the laser pointers, the people there weren't exactly journalists or the media that had to cover the presentation live.

 

 

And I just have to ask - are there actually any fans of the show that are on this board/forum? I'm starting to feel like a minority but I do love the sarcastic reviews so I would hate to see this forum go...

 

This show is just on in the background while I occupy myself with more entertaining tasks - like counting the number of furs on my puppy. I can't recall any single episodes in the last 2-3 seasons that held my interest enough for me to just sit and watch. I'd rather go through old episodes when it was actually good TV. Right now I'm rewatching season 6. Love that ADA Casey Novak!

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