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Law & Order: SVU in the Media

maraleia

By maraleia
in Law & Order: SVU

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Culture Check: How do we recognize and address victim blaming as a community? If you are unsure what victim-blaming is, please read more about it in this article. 

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wknt3

wknt3

12 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I don't know; I liked "The Last Street In Manhattan" from CI S10, which Rick Eid wrote! :-)

Me too. IMHO the best episode of that surprisingly good final season.

11 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Hmm, didn't know he wrote that one, CI season 10 was pretty good, but Eid was also involved in the terrible season 17 of L&O and season 18 of SVU was crap. He is much better suited to a generic, mass market show like CPD. Overall SVU season 18 has really lacked in quality and had sloppy writing. 

As I've said before it's usually impossible for us to know who is to blame for these things from the outside. Season 17 of the mothership was terrible, but there was a lot of interference coming from the top (let's bring in a young hot chick to bring in the kids!) and the writing staff did seem to realize what was working (Connie) and tweaked things a bit to bring her to the forefront. And there is plenty of evidence that Mariska has gained a lot of creative influence and has played a role in the biggest problems this season (excessive focus on one type of case and the whole Benson hagiography thing.) Since this is the media thread I'm going to include a link to Deadline's coverage of the renewal since there are some good quotes that support the view that the network sees Mariska as the only important factor on the creative side and is happy to allow her a platform even if it's not necessarily good for the show as a whole -
http://deadline.com/2017/05/law-order-svu-renewed-19th-season-nbc-1202092524/

There is also plenty of evidence of NBC interference. Moving around episodes. Approving plots and then getting cold feet. Etc. On the other hand there was definitely a stretch of episodes in the middle that had problems solely on the writing side (poor dialogue, story structure, lack of polish, etc.) and there didn't see to be an effort to find new angles on the same story even if the repetitive plots were being pushed on them. We'll probably never really know and can only hope that next season is better.

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wknt3
wknt3

Unfortunately sometimes the news is depressing.... RIP Actor and Comedian Richard Belzer, Munch of “SVU” and “Homicide,” Famous for Dry Sense of Humor

Xeliou66
Xeliou66

Damn, RIP Richard Belzer/Munch. He was an absolute legend. Munch was such a great character on both SVU and Homicide, one of tv’s most memorable detectives.  I really hope SVU pays tribute to him be

WendyCR72
WendyCR72

John Munch and Richard Belzer gave this show a much-needed sense of levity amidst the sorrow and despair. And it was invaluable, as we now see how dreary the show has been without it. John Munch

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ForeverAlone

ForeverAlone

Has anyone actually watched Chicago Justice to know if this could be a good thing? Here’s hoping he tightens up the “Law” side of the show, because even when they featured Barba this season, the writing for him was rather weak too many times, with some occasionally embarrassing and amateurish legal arguments, and too many cases had to be saved by St. Olivia.

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Gigglepuff

Gigglepuff

Just now, ForeverAlone said:

 

Has anyone actually watched Chicago Justice to know if this could be a good thing?

 

Yes, I watched and quite liked Justice. It had some weaknesses, but for a rookie show, it was very good and thought provoking unlike SVU in recent years and especially this past season. Justice didn't always go for the lowest hanging fruit in my opinion. It was trying hard to be intelligent and less sensational, it didn't succeed 100% of the time, but at least it gave the effort. I think if it were given a chance it would have jelled. Anyway, I'm excited for Chernuchin to take over. Hopefully he will ease up on the St. Benson aspect, hand Barba back his spine, (Peter Stone, the lawyer from Justice was a stronger and better lawyer than Barba has been recently), and focus on the ensemble, as he did with Justice. 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

The best episodes of Justice were written by Chernuchin and he is a good writer, he will be better than Eid IMO. Hopefully he won't kiss Mariska's ass all the time like Eid and Warren before him did.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

7 hours ago, Gigglepuff said:

I just heard the news about Michael Chernuchin. I'm excited about it. Just hope he's prepared for the fandom, hehe. If he doesn't know crazy yet he will soon become acquainted. 

Michael Chernuchin has been involved in the L&O franchise prior by way of CI as one of its 5,000,000 producers. Hee. I think he has also been part of the Mothership. So I'm sure he knows all about the passion from the fandom. Which can only serve him well!  :-P

Good luck to him.

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sockii

sockii

I'm definitely excited about the Chernuchin news. Besides CJ, he wrote/storied quite a few earlier mothership episodes, including a number of my favorite, really powerful ones. So I expect some more interesting and varied stories that actually explore grey areas and aren't just repetitive he-said-she-saids. And based on CJ I expect him to improve the character interactions as well, without making SVU more melodramatic.

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wknt3

wknt3

18 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

The best episodes of Justice were written by Chernuchin and he is a good writer, he will be better than Eid IMO. Hopefully he won't kiss Mariska's ass all the time like Eid and Warren before him did.

Unfortunately it is pretty clear that NBC and Dick Wolf believe with some justification that Mariska is the show and so does she. As much as I would love to see them use her in more of a Sam Waterston or Kyra Sedgwick type starring role (clearly the lead, but not doing all the leg work) I just don't see that happening. If they can dial it back to where it was last year where she is doing too much field work, but not doing everything all the time and where the plots are not dictated by the Joyful Heart Foundation's priorities I think we'll have to be happy with that.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

(edited)

Not really show related, but apparently, Donal Logue's 16-year-old son has gone missing, and he has reached out on Twitter to try to find him. I pray this has a happy ending.

ETA: I meant no disrespect above as the article originally referred to Logue as DL's son. However, other sources now say Jade Logue is his transgender daughter. Makes zero difference to me but I want to refer to her in the proper context. Either way, I hope she is found safely. Apparently, per other sites, she is still missing in NYC. Her parents must be frantic.

Edited by WendyCR72
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QueenMab

QueenMab

Another ADA. This is now hilarious to me. I swear, Benson has never met a Manhattan ADA (male) she hasn't managed to bang. They'll go out for drinks at a fave bar, Benson will listen with a shitload of sympathy and understanding to every childhood trauma and schoolyard heartbreak ADA Stone ever suffered, then they'll go have sex..the "Benson Initiation". Then they can work together real good. Wait for it.....:)

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JyDanzig

JyDanzig

What they should do is the Alfred-Molina-on-LOLA gimmick.  "Before I was a prosecutor, I was a cop!  So I'm going to go back to that now, for some reason no follow-up questions just go with it"  Then put him in the squadroom, which has felt shorthanded since Mini Dodds got killed.  Not to mention, in need of exactly this kind of leading man type -- it's the first time they haven't had someone in the Meloni/Pino/Karl mold on the Detective team, and I feel the absence.

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Raja

Raja

1 hour ago, JyDanzig said:

What they should do is the Alfred-Molina-on-LOLA gimmick.  "Before I was a prosecutor, I was a cop!  So I'm going to go back to that now, for some reason no follow-up questions just go with it"  Then put him in the squadroom, which has felt shorthanded since Mini Dodds got killed.  Not to mention, in need of exactly this kind of leading man type -- it's the first time they haven't had someone in the Meloni/Pino/Karl mold on the Detective team, and I feel the absence.

Chicago Justice gave young Stone too much backstory. He was a Major League Baseball player before following his fathers path. It leaves little time to have also been a cop, much less work his way up to detective work. As an alternative, lawyers are one of those jobs qualifications that go directly to the FBI as Special Agents, only a Special Agent Stone has no reason or known specialty to be there like Special Agent Dr. Huang did.

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JyDanzig

JyDanzig

(edited)
56 minutes ago, Raja said:

Chicago Justice gave young Stone too much backstory. He was a Major League Baseball player before following his fathers path. It leaves little time to have also been a cop, much less work his way up to detective work. As an alternative, lawyers are one of those jobs qualifications that go directly to the FBI as Special Agents, only a Special Agent Stone has no reason or known specialty to be there like Special Agent Dr. Huang did.

I see what you're saying, but I just don't think these are things the L&Overse cares about.  Aside from the ridiculous Alfred Molina DA/cop swap on LOLA, this is also the franchise that put Jeremy Sisto in consecutive episodes as a defense attorney and the new lead detective.  Or Cabot turning up on Conviction with no acknowledgement that we'd last seen her leaving NY forever to hide out in witness protection.  Or Goren and Eames just reappearing at their desks on CI, despite the fact that he'd been fired and she resigned.  If Wolf Films wants the actor/character in the slot, they'll just put them there and give us one line to justify it -- if we're lucky ("I was attending the police academy while I was in basic training for the Cardinals")

But this is just me fantasizing about alternate cast arrangements I'd like, since they've already announced he'll be in the ADA slot.  Though, of course, we did see Alfred Molina's ADA have a hard day on a case, walk out of the prosecutors office, and straight over to his new desk in the squadroom, so they could use that trick again...

Edited by JyDanzig
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QueenMab

QueenMab

Maybe, just maybe, Barba gets a promotion to Executive ADA and Stone has to answer to him. Barba was supposed to be a career hotshot with ambition. 5 years stuck in an ADA rut never did jibe with his supposed character. A promotion for Barba is overdue. But this is wishful thinking and not how this primetime soap opera goes. Cassidy, Barba, Stone. A delicious mash up of suitors for Benson's "affections". I'm kind of dreading this new season.

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QueenMab

QueenMab

You got my drift Gigglepuff. This is a telenovella where immoral, unethical and unprofessional behavior gets routinely rewarded. There is nothing realistic about how and with whom cops investigate or how they work with the DA's office. And Barba should have been in front of the Bar Assoc. Ethics Committee a dozen times....mostly for his unethical relationship with the cop investigating the same sex crime cases he prosecutes. I never understood that hookup....its one of the silliest ever. A show that is all about hot, nasty sex and we're supposed to believe they're not banging each others brains out? That's what Benson does with her colleagues, but not Barba? C'mon! This is soap opera world and they will skew these characters accordingly. And it will all be silly, unreal and and wrapped around yet another nasty rape case. The show truly believes we want to see Benson bang every guy she works with. Any new male characters and I have a knee jerk reaction. They're on the show to bang Benson. There are no stories or real Police or courtroom work. Just her latest sex life. UGH!!

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QueenMab

QueenMab

I'm thinking Brooke is going to be a relative of Noah. Ellie Porter's sister? Aunt? Or worse yet, a relative of Jonny D. Threatening to take Noah away is the only thing I can imagine shaking up Benson's world. Or...she has dark brown hair and eyes....Benson's sister? Since her half brother seems to have disappeared. So...its going to be all about Benson until Barba vanishes and the new ADA shows up. Ah well.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

I hope Ms. Shields has improved in her dramatic acting. When she guest starred on L&O: CI, I found her either flat or hammy as hell, depending on the given scene. (To be fair, the role was as a former famous model/trophy wife of a suspect, so there wasn't a lot to it.) Then again, I have read she acquitted herself well on The Middle (a show I don't watch), so maybe she's comfortable with comedy, especially since she did have her own sitcom ages ago. Not to mention her turn as a stalker of Joey Tribbiani's soap-opera character eons ago on Friends.

As for her L&O: SVU role, a relative of Noah's popped into my head, too. Sadly. That crap is already tired.

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watcher1006

watcher1006

L&O SVU is on in syndication on several channels. It's interesting to watch some of those old episodes - particularly from the Benson and Stabler days - and contrast the better balance of characters back then to what has been trending toward "Olivia Benson - SVU" in recent seasons.

I'm glad for him that Philip Winchester has another job. I suppose it's easy enough to explain Peter Stone's move to NYC. Does this make Raul Esparza's character "recurring" rather than "regular"? He was pretty much that already. I have stuck with this show a long long time and will be tuning in to see the beginning of Season 19. But if it doesn't improve from last season I will be moving on. The new regulars may or may not help.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

2 hours ago, QueenMab said:

Its because they hyped the shit out of this episode and tossed the word "Emmy" around. People watched out of curiosity.... Like a carwreck.

Yeah and NBC had the blatant false promotion of "Benson's secret" and there was no secret revealed, we already knew everything Benson said. People were bashing NBC for it on social media. People tuned in because of all the hype NBC put in on it, and I think most people were disappointed. The MH worshippers are only a small fraction of the fanbase and they are the only ones who like this season. 

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QueenMab

QueenMab

Yet another personal, emotional crusade if Benson's where again, she convinces Barba to out his career ass on the line...and I'm afraid old lefty hippie McCoy is there to give Barba a pep talk about keeping the banner flying....and thus, glorifying Benson. It's too much to ask IMO that McCoy tells Barba who he works for..THE PEOPLE of NYC, not Benson, and tells him to go by the Law and the merit of the case, not Benson's overly invested emotions. (sigh).

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ForeverAlone

ForeverAlone

Yeah but it sounds like whatever Rafael does threatens the DA office. So I can't see how McCoy would be all that pleased with Rafael. And if he is doing this utterly stupid thing at the behest/encouragement of Olivia, I can only hope that McCoy hands Rafael his ass hard enough to make him reconsider just how much he allows Olivia to influence his professional decisions. 

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QueenMab

QueenMab

ForeverAlone...we can only hope McCoy ( and Stone) are used in a dynamic way to dig this show out of the Barson hole...only someone from the outside can the way things are, so a superior with Uber power hitting Barba where it might actually hurt, and getting him to see sense...in his career, would be a great way to do it. Of course we would still get the soap opera emotional trauma crisis of conscience bs before characters get back on track...but, a powerful visiting character dropping some ultimatums, expecting them to be obeyed, and then doing a ghost, would be effective IMO.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

Just spitballing based on what we know, but maybe whatever Barba does that jeopardizes the D.A.'s office causes McCoy to think Barba needs supervision and a dose of objectivity. Enter Peter Stone.

If I recall, Stone is supposed to be Barba's superior.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

Can’t wait to see McCoy back in action! He’s a legend. The episode sounds interesting, definitely based on the Charlie Gard case. 

I am really hoping this the start of ending Barba acting as Benson’s bitch. Since it says Barba getting involved will put the DA’s office in jeopardy, and we know Barba will get involved because Benson pushes him to, and this will piss McCoy off, and hopefully he will rip into Barba for being unprofessional and letting Benson boss him around, and McCoy will bring in Peter Stone to clean up Barba’s mess and straighten him out and force him to stop acting as St Olivia’s bitch. That is the best way to get rid of this cringeworthy, soapy, ridiculous “Barson” relationship. It’s ruining Barba and if they want to fix him, start by doing this. I hope this is how the episode goes.

However I have no confidence in the show to improve it because Mariska’s ego has taken over. If they have McCoy bow to Benson and act as her puppet as well I may break my TV.

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QueenMab

QueenMab

Xeliou...I know...serious.....word. we are hoping they dig out of the whole by having a visiting, or new, character come in with the juice to overide, overpower, and as I stated before, make demands that WILL be met, totally not involved, to inform  Barba that he has to stop flipping his middle finger at the Manhattan DA's Office, that the rules and ethics DO apply to him and his detective "friend", so a popular character can get back on a more interesting and truer track that we thought he was way back, and get Benson a since of dignity and calm in her approach to work, so we can get back to a fairly good L&O show. BUT...they keep going down the soap opera path and that's where we get suspicious. I can dream.

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cooksdelight

cooksdelight

Rose McGowan is on GMA this morning talking about her accusations against Harvey Weinstein. She’s written a book about him raping her, etc.

She played a hooker who drew men in and took them for loads of cash...and was sleeping with her brother. One guy fell for her and he ended up killing her brother. Remember her? Now she’s more recognizable than she ever was back then.

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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

(edited)

Entertainment Weekly just did this:

All the ADAs of Law & Order: SVU, ranked

I guess the idea came up because of Barba's departure. Anyhoo, while I agree with their #1 choice, I would've ranked the rest of the top 10 differently. And further down the list are characters played by actors I didn't even remember having appeared on SVU, such as Sharon Stone and Paula Patton.

Edited by Joimiaroxeu
fixed the link
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