S17.E21: Assaulting Reality

[WendyCR72]

The producers of a reality TV dating series make Benson and the SVU team part of the show when they investigate a contestant's claim that she was raped.

[Spartan Girl]

These days, I think that the first five minutes of the squad's domestic lives are better than the whole episode.

I loved seeing Tucker and Liv dissing the show at the bar, them cutting to Rollins and Carisi aka Mr. Mom watching enthusiastically. And a Franny sighting! 

Everything else, meh. I didn't need SVU to tell me reality shows were fake. I figured that out a loooooooooooong time ago.

[CleoCaesar]

Benson and Tucker: “Who watches that show??” [cut to Carisi and Rollins staring at the TV]

Heh. I liked how the baby was cuddled up against Carisi.

The episode itself was boring. Yeah, yeah, reality TV sucks, zzzz.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, CleoCaesar said:

Heh. I liked how the baby was cuddled up against Carisi.

Are we sure that was a real baby? I didn't see it move--including the eyes.

Maybe because I'm not a reality show devotee, I felt really surprised and indignant on behalf of the fictional SVU team when the producers secretly filmed them, edited it to make them look like losers and the producers as heroes, and then aired it live. 

[LittleIggy]

Michael Gross sure is good at being a sleaze.

[minamurray78]

Finding out what happened to the rapist was almost an afterthought, we spent most time with the slimey producers, and the squad was almost most upset with them than with Graham, but damn they were ghastly people. Too bad they won't be seeing the inside of a cell.

Lol at the first scene, Tuckson all "who actually watches that show?". Cue Rollisi totally rapt.

[Muffyn]

When they showed Michael Gross, I assumed he was the rapist and Wendy Malick was covering up for him.  Oh well, they were just the sleazebag producers. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

This episode was such a rip off of "UnReal" wasn't it?  This literally happened on UnReal.  If you guys don't know, UnReal is a fictionalized show about a fake "The Bachelor" where all sorts of immoral fucked up things happen behind the scenes, as a commentary about how bad these reality show actually are to people -- basically, this episode.

The couple is Constance Zimmer and Craig Bierko's characters on UnReal and Larisa Oleynik was exactly Shiri Appleby's character.  A contestant on UnReal was raped too.

I guess I don't really mind, because I'm not an UnReal writer myself but it seems weird....

I was really happy to see Larisa.

I assumed the host was the rapist!  I NEVER guess correctly, LOL; I'm the perfect audience for this shit.  I also pay about half attention.

Honestly though, I've been loving the show the past few episodes, and I rarely say that.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[kitkat343]

 Michael Gross was really creepy, but I thought he wouldn't be guilty since he was the perpetrator on a previous SVU episode, "Lust."  

Both Michael Gross and Wendy Malick were really good in this episode, and I also really enjoyed seeing the family vignettes in the beginning.  

Edited May 12, 2016 by kitkat343

[WendyCR72]

39 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Michael Gross sure is good at being a sleaze.

I still remember him as the murdering creepy shrink who was obsessed with the woman he was interested in (played by Stephanie Seymour, ex of Axl Rose, and kind of wooden, IMO) on CI in S1, "Crazy", and he was damned scary there.

Not to mention he played Carter's cold fish dad on ER, too.

His only "nice guy" role really seemed to be on Family Ties ages ago.

Come to think of it, I think he made the rounds on all three L&O shows. He must be the go-to for suave sleaze. He seems to have made a decent career out of it. Guess the bad guys really are more fun to play!

[Racj82]

I called the rapist the moment they showed with all of his oh I got rejected again so I went to bed. The supposed nice guys are the ones you have to look out for. 

I'm not going to call out SVU for going at reality TV. This also doesn't have anything to do with the unreal show imo. Damn near every procedural does their riff on reality TV. Various crimes are done while they mock reality TV. Nothing new but far from ripping any one show off.

Alex Mack up in here making me feel old. I used to have my crush on her when I was in grade school and middle school. Far from those years.

It's a testament to my enjoyment of seeing these characters in casual settings that I didn't roll my eyes at the smash cut to Rollins and Carisi. Asking who watches this crap and cutting to characters in said showing watching the crap is as predictable as it comes. 

[Lizzing]

It was zero surprise that Rollins would watch a Bachelor type of show; she also watched the fake Duggars reality earlier this season.

Wendie Malick's streaking highlights should have been their own crime, though.  Sheesh, that look should have died in the 90s.

[WendyCR72]

4 minutes ago, Lizzing said:

Wendie Malick's streaking highlights should have been their own crime, though.  Sheesh, that look should have died in the 90s.

Seems to be hot again, the hair streaking. And I can't understand why.

[wknt3]

The Good:

Fin! Lots of snark and usually directed at the same things I was rolling my eyes at.

Great guest cast as usual.

Barba and Carisi's clothes as usual.

The Bad:

A lot of recycled SVU tropes without  much of a twist (reality shows are evil, the nice guy who's really a predator, the sleazebag producers, SVU against the world, nanny Carisi, etc.)

The plot felt like a lost episode from the campy monkey in a basketball era SVU without the sense of fun. We're really supposed to believe that a network with lawyers would air an episode making all those accusations? Or that the producers would fall for a sting so easily? It would have been so easy to have them leak it to Not!TMZ and come up with evidence to nail our name guest stars.

Overall this was just kind of dull. It's been done before better and worse. I don't understand why we have filler like this after that long break.

[Princess Lucky]

It was a fun episode. One of the episodes where the guest cast gets time to shine but not in the "I'm the creepy perv" way (like, say, the Tom Sizemore episode). I loved Michael Gross and Wendie Malick. They were hilarious and perfectly cast, I loved how they would say some lines in tandem, it was a fun touch. And Larisa Oleynik got some great moments too, without being the bad guy. Oh and I liked the bachelor guy's mom, too. Fun little gig. Same goes for the host. He really nailed it.

It was pretty twisty overall. I knew Michael Gross and Wendie Malick were involved but I wasn't sure about Larisa Oleynik. And the rape being committed by another guy, that was also a good twist.

4 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

This episode was such a rip off of "UnReal" wasn't it?  This literally happened on UnReal.  If you guys don't know, UnReal is a fictionalized show about a fake "The Bachelor" where all sorts of immoral fucked up things happen behind the scenes, as a commentary about how bad these reality show actually are to people -- basically, this episode.

The couple is Constance Zimmer and Craig Bierko's characters on UnReal and Larisa Oleynik was exactly Shiri Appleby's character.  A contestant on UnReal was raped too.

I guess I don't really mind, because I'm not an UnReal writer myself but it seems weird....

Definitely, the story was all UnREAL. But the bachelor and the two main bachelorettes (the rape victim and the "liar"), they were a Bachelor rip-off from this latest season, at least physically. The one girl was even called Gigi when the real Bachelor contestant was called Jojo. And the other girl was a blonde "aw shucks" type like the rape victim. And the bachelor was a cute but totally dumb guy, like in this episode, and he looked disturbingly like him. I mean, not subtle at all.

3 hours ago, Racj82 said:

I called the rapist the moment they showed with all of his oh I got rejected again so I went to bed. The supposed nice guys are the ones you have to look out for.

Same. As soon as they said the rapist was not the bachelor, I knew it was that guy. The character was too insignificant to get that little vignette for no reason, and the actor played that moment with subtle sleaze.

As for the detectives, for all their screentime this episode was kind of light on squad/police moments, but we did get some ship fuel. Benson is really into Tucker. Like, that's chemistry. He grunts about a date night and she's all "rowrrrrrr". Good for her. And Carisi/Rollins, what's up with that? I don't think they're doing it yet, but they might start soon. Benson did not look happy about it, by the way. Interesting.

On a shallow note, Carisi had a lot of close-ups and he wore a lot of different outfits and he cooked and he held a (possibly fake) baby so this episode was A+ in my book.

Oh and I only remembered Dodds wasn't in the episode when he showed up in the promo. He's such a pointless character. He's not bad and the actor is fine but when he's gone I never miss him.

[stillbored]

I actually enjoyed this episode. The date bar scene with Liv and Tucker was cute but I loved the scene with Rollins and Carisi (and baby and Frannie). Rollins really does like her reality TV doesn't she? (At least that's some continutity). So when are the two of them going to start dating? Carisi is way too nice to get caught up in Rollins drama. (But yay for carisi with a baby!).

Loved seeing Larisa Oleynik on it. I thought for sure she was sleeping around with the contestant cos they never did explain how the victim got an STD from the rapist when they had apparently all been tested prior to the show. But i'm glad she wasn't entirely involved in it (I can definitely see how she felt bulllied into not saying anything). 

My thought on filming the SVU squad - when they walked into the house then they probably had every right to film and air that footage, however - the stuff that was filmed when the entered the squad room should have been illegal to air and possible film. No waivers were signed by the squad. And the fact that they bugged her hotel room is quite creepy (and illegal).

Also - I guess the entire squad is well aware of tucker's and liv's relationship? Because no one is questioning why IAB is just hanging out in the squad room

Edited May 12, 2016 by stillbored

[auchic]

That was...eh.  They took too much time playing set-up and then all the SHOCKING TWISTS! left the ending rushed and me feeling unsatisfied. I know pleas are SOP in how these cases play out, but I like the courtroom scenes (not solely for the sake of more Barba) and it feels like it's been a long time since we've had a case go to trial.  

The producers were brilliant though, the perfect amount of skeezy and entertaining.  Especially every time they came in all "well shucks, we screwed up again! Don't hate us!" It was fun watching them get taken down via hidden camera (which, come on, they should have spotted a mile away, those sunglasses would have only been more obvious with a pair of rabbit ears attached).

Barba's face when he realised they were filming him...I'm surprised he wasn't out for more blood in the end.

Carisi cuddling that baby DID things to me...I can't even speak, I need to lie down.

[allonsyalice]

7 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

This episode was such a rip off of "UnReal" wasn't it?  This literally happened on UnReal.  If you guys don't know, UnReal is a fictionalized show about a fake "The Bachelor" where all sorts of immoral fucked up things happen behind the scenes, as a commentary about how bad these reality show actually are to people -- basically, this episode.

The couple is Constance Zimmer and Craig Bierko's characters on UnReal and Larisa Oleynik was exactly Shiri Appleby's character.  A contestant on UnReal was raped too.

This is exactly what I thought the minute I heart that awful "Heart's Desire" title. (just a little worse than "Everlasting.") Obviously, some circumstances are different, and I think I like this whole mystery component. (But to be fair, I could never stomach the actual Bachelor franchise, so if something similar happened there, and i hope not, i would have no idea.)

A lot of people didn't like this episode, but I did. Of course this sleazy show made a special episode of this investigation. Of course.  

The guest stars were on fire tonight, too. (also why do fictional romance hosts give me the creeps) 

I loved seeing Rollins and Carisi watch together, and the baby! IMO, Carisi and Rollins are like the second best team on the show, only right behind Barba and Benson. It's basically gold when they're together. 

On a more shallow note, I'm not a Tucker fan purely because he's also Bart Bass and I hate Bart Bass.

[Laethe]

The episode was mediocre at best. I knew who the rapist was the second they showed him and it was hardly a surprise that executive producers of reality show are sleazy. But whatever. The whole season feels like a filler episode after a filler episode. I don´t think those two remaining episodes will change my opinion that this season is the worst in 4 years. 

I´m not that easily pleased as some people so a character holding a fake baby didn´t do anything to me. Also Tuckson still looks like everything but a relationship with chemistry. Anyway what was Tucker´s purpose in this episode? They wanted to remind us that they´re still together before the finale or what? Btw A+ for character development. At least he used to be an adversary to SVU, now he´s just THE boyfriend. I couldn´t care less for him but this is a very good way how to destroy a character. 

Couln´t we see Barba outside of work for once? Why we see same scenes over and over? Tuckson hanging out in bar. Carisi holding a baby, Rollins watching stupid reality shows. Who cares? Urgh.  

Edited May 12, 2016 by Laethe

[blxckbird]

tbh the acting was over the top & cartoonish.
halfway into the episode i figured gigi would turn out to be the rapist, but maybe that was too obvious.. the guy who actually DID turn out to be the rapist was also kinda obvious though.
would've actually kinda liked to see mini dodds in this ep, since rumors say he's leaving after this season anyway... 
can't wait for next week tho :D

[Lee4U]

Didn't really care for it but it did serve as a reminder that those so-called "reality" shows are fully scripted - some people out there actually don't seem to know that.  

I did like the duo of the producers, the two worked well together - good choices for both of them.

[mojito]

Everyone has his guilty pleasures. These bachelor-type, housewives-type, "living with"-type shows are not among mine , so I really enjoyed this episode of SVU for giving me a kind of behind-the-scenes look at a genre that I know nothing about outside of promos. I liked Michael Gross and Wendie Malick as the guest villains. I found myself pointing fingers at Gross and the host though normally I don't expend much brain power into figuring out who done it. 

I love how Carisi has evolved (or is it just my opinion of him?). I hope they keep the relationship between him and Rollins where it is. I'm so sick and tired of dumbed-down TV that has to explain everything to me and put everyone in tidy relationships. I love a little mystery in my TV and actually, in my friendly acquaintances (like having interesting conversations with people without exchanging personal information or just allowing the information to leak out gradually). I'm just not someone who needs full disclosure all the time.

For me, this is one of the more engrossing episodes of this show.

[Desperately Random]

Didn't care for this one but then I despise reality shows so that probably was the main reason. The guest stars were all good especially Michael Gross and Wendie Malick. I wish Barba hadn't agreed to deal them down to the one felony. I was wondering why he did that. What did they have to give him that was worth him giving them such a good deal after all the sleazy things they had pulled since that first morning when they were told by Larisa Oleynik what had happened. Those two where fine with covering up a rape as long as it benefited them and their show. They obstructed justice, tampered with evidence and made the NYPD look bad in a very public way. I would have thought Barba and Benson would want to see them really punished.

I was also wondering how the rape victim (Melanie?) got an STD. Her rape kit showed no semen and that a condom had been used. So how did she get the STD from Graham?

Edited May 12, 2016 by Desperately Random

[sabriiina2016]

Boring episode... Is that baby fake though?

[Primetimer]

When a Faux-chelorette gets raped, the show's producers try to cover it up. How unreal -- er, UnREAL -- is that?

View the full article

[fivestone]

Alex Mack did a great job with her character. It would be great to see her regularly on a series again. And Steven Keaton is almost always a sleazebag these days. After years of being dear old dad on Family Ties, I didn't realise he had it in him until he played a sleazy principal who sexually assaulted students.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, PreviouslyTV said:

When a Faux-chelorette gets raped, the show's producers try to cover it up. How unreal -- er, UnREAL -- is that?

View the full article

Quote

After a series of cheap but nevertheless enjoyable shots at "romanceality" TV and how heavily it's scripted, edited, and reliant on retrograde sexism and heteronormative assumptions as well as the Stockholm-syndrome compliance of its "contestants,"

Well put, Sarah D. Bunting. Maybe that's why the producers 

Quote

[cast] themselves as the crusaders for justice and SVU as a bunch of apathetic bumblers.

Edited May 12, 2016 by shapeshifter

[The Wild Sow]

Quote

I was also wondering how the rape victim (Melanie?) got an STD. Her rape kit showed no semen and that a condom had been used. So how did she get the STD from Graham?

Same thing I was wondering!  He used a condom; how the heck did she get chlamydia?  

Plus, since all the participants were tested for STDs when they signed up, why the heck didn't they make Graham get it treated?  It's bacterial, people, not viral -- easily gotten rid of with antibiotics!

[MaggieG]

Carisi with the baby, my ovaries! 

[Snookums]

Chalmydia can be passed with skin to skin contact. Condoms definitely cut way down on transmission but not 100% all the time. He may also have penetrated her, then put the condom on and continued (time out for all the vomiting.)

This one was pretty good. Love Rollins and Carisi playing happy families and confirmation of Rollins' reality TV addiction. Also noting Liv and Tucker drinking coffee at the bar so I guess the whole Boozy Liv thing is fading. (And the part where they're deciding what takeout to get before BONING and then Carisi comes in and they jump apart? Hee.)

I honestly thought it was the host and he'd been doing this for ages and Melanie was just the first to call the show out. The other idiot bachelor actually being the rapist made more sense, I suppose, but it's less twisty then I've come to expect from my SVU.

Quote

Michael Gross sure is good at being a sleaze.

He really is! He's been a sleazy guy on just about every incarnation of the L&O universe by now. He's like Hudson University; nothing good will come of saying his name.

[RafaelBarbas]

9 hours ago, Laethe said:

The episode was mediocre at best. I knew who the rapist was the second they showed him and it was hardly a surprise that executive producers of reality show are sleazy. But whatever. The whole season feels like a filler episode after a filler episode. I don´t think those two remaining episodes will change my opinion that this season is the worst in 4 years. 

I´m not that easily pleased as some people so a character holding a fake baby didn´t do anything to me. Also Tuckson still looks like everything but a relationship with chemistry. Anyway what was Tucker´s purpose in this episode? They wanted to remind us that they´re still together before the finale or what? Btw A+ for character development. At least he used to be an adversary to SVU, now he´s just THE boyfriend. I couldn´t care less for him but this is a very good way how to destroy a character. 

Couln´t we see Barba outside of work for once? Why we see same scenes over and over? Tuckson hanging out in bar. Carisi holding a baby, Rollins watching stupid reality shows. Who cares? Urgh.  

This. All of this.

[Princess Lucky]

18 hours ago, sabriiina2016 said:

Boring episode... Is that baby fake though?

21 hours ago, Laethe said:

I´m not that easily pleased as some people so a character holding a fake baby didn´t do anything to me.

On 12/5/2016 at 1:36 PM, Princess Lucky said:

On a shallow note, Carisi had a lot of close-ups and he wore a lot of different outfits and he cooked and he held a (possibly fake) baby so this episode was A+ in my book.

Peter Scanavino has tweeted to settle this question. A fan asked "Big debate if baby was real Srs Question: Robot baby or just v content?"

Quote

@PeterScanavino:

baby robot? Come on! 100% real baby

So the baby was real? How was it so quiet and still? I do remember Kelli Giddish and Mariska Hargitay calling Peter a "baby whisperer", and Mariska saying (I think it was on Ice T and Coco's talk show) that they would give the old Noah babies* to Peter to hold so they'd stop crying, and I guess now we have confirmation. Peter is so good with babies they just get mesmerized into perfect stillness. Peter does have 2 babies of his own, so that probably has something to do with it.

In retrospect, if they were using a fake baby, they probably wouldn't show its face, they'd just have Carisi hold it differently so we just see the back of its head. Plus, why use a fake baby at all, it was a totally quiet scene of a dude holding a baby, it wasn't anything complicated. Good to have an answer, at any rate.

*I miss the old Noah babies. Aw.

[wknt3]

14 minutes ago, Princess Lucky said:

So the baby was real? How was it so quiet and still?

You remember those giant glasses of wine we haven't seen for a couple episodes...

[shapeshifter]

Quote

 @PeterScanavino:

baby robot? Come on! 100% real baby

At least I wasn't the only one who thought it was a doll. 

So because the actor is a baby whisperer they are going to have him standing around holding a baby in every episode from now on?

[Princess Lucky]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

At least I wasn't the only one who thought it was a doll. 

So because the actor is a baby whisperer they are going to have him standing around holding a baby in every episode from now on?

The perils of having two kid characters on a procedural.

Frankly, if we have to see Noah and Jesse, my second choice would be to have Carisi holding them at all times.

And my first choice would be robot babies.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

My first choice would be zero babies, but given that they got rid of the biggest GD baby of them all -- Amaro -- I guess I should count my blessings.

[Bananna]

This seemed to be a fairly SVU by the numbers episode, nothing was too bad. Everything was just terribly predictable and I felt that the episode finished rather weirdly too.

But there seemed to be less St Benson in than usual, so I'm thankful for that.

[Scootman]

Did not call the rapist. Thought for sure it was going to be sleazy host.

A solid episode in a very solid season. A little predictable, but the guest stars made it interesting.

[CleoCaesar]

Quote

 

So because the actor is a baby whisperer they are going to have him standing around holding a baby in every episode from now on?

 

I'd be totally okay with a scene in every episode of Carisi cuddling a baby.

[LeGrandElephant]

I thought at the beginning that it was going to turn out that one of the other girls drugged her without the knowledge of the guy. Guess the twists went in another direction. 

Reminds me of the mothership episode where someone was pushed off a roof during a reality show, and it turned out the producers had set it up. I think they did serve time in that one, but then it was commented they'd probably be producing another show when they got out. In this one the producers were not going to serve time but for some reason they'd never work in TV again? Seemed like they got off pretty easy, all things considered. 

Would have liked more resolution on who actually did it, like Melanie confronting Graham or a scene of him accepting a plea or something. 

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, LeGrandElephant said:

I thought at the beginning that it was going to turn out that one of the other girls drugged her without the knowledge of the guy.

I thought that too on more than one occasion during the episode, except I thought the drugging would have been in cahoots with the rapist, and even considered the contestant wrangler could have done the roofying--but, yeah, at first I thought of a jealous girl doing it.

 

6 hours ago, LeGrandElephant said:

Would have liked more resolution on who actually did it, like Melanie confronting Graham or a scene of him accepting a plea or something. 

But that would have gone against 17 seasons of SVU's preaching that the victim always avoids confronting the doer. Or have there been exceptions?

Edited May 15, 2016 by shapeshifter

[GarnetGirl]

I really don't have anything to say about the episode- it was a bit of a snoozefest, BUT, based on the promo, if anything bad happens to my sweet and sassy Barba, there will be issues between you and me, show. 

 

*** Unless NBC announces the next day they are giving Raul Esparza his own show. 

[skittl3862]

On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 AM, stillbored said:

 

My thought on filming the SVU squad - when they walked into the house then they probably had every right to film and air that footage, however - the stuff that was filmed when the entered the squad room should have been illegal to air and possible film. No waivers were signed by the squad. And the fact that they bugged her hotel room is quite creepy (and illegal).

I THINK that in NY state, as long as 1 of the 2 parties knows they're being filmed it's ok. So the video of her hotel room- illegal, which they charged them with- but their video of the squad room was technically legal because the producers knew.

This episode made me excited for UnREAL Season 2. That may be why I liked it, even though UnREAL did better. The Bachelor is the devil. 

I totally thought the tech guy behind the scenes would be the rapist. He seemed sketch and would have access to turning cameras off and making videos disappear. Also he had some pretty clear close-ups for a non-speaking role.

During the scene where Tucker was standing in the background as they watched the TV episode, it made me think about how a season ago, Tucker would have been called in to ream SVU out for what happened.

How come Rollisi is getting more development and screentime than Tuckson? They're not even for real. But based on Benson's side eye reaction, the show is going to stretch out the official yea or nay confirmation in-world.

I'm fine with the babies, because neither of them are talking enough yet to rival Amaro's obnoxious, overacting daughter.

Someone give Larisa Oleynik a show.

Edited May 16, 2016 by skittl3862

[stillbored]

16 hours ago, skittl3862 said:

I THINK that in NY state, as long as 1 of the 2 parties knows they're being filmed it's ok. So the video of her hotel room- illegal, which they charged them with- but their video of the squad room was technically legal because the producers knew.

Someone give Larisa Oleynik a show.

I'm not sure about video , but I know in spots audio recordings work that way. But I was trying to say that airing the footage of the squad was illegal. Since on a lot of reality shows they blur out the people in the background. 

And I agree about giving Larisa a show (another one). I've been a fan of hers for years. (Alex Mack, Baby-sitter's club movie, 10 things i hate about you).

[Evangeline]

I enjoyed this episode. I thought it was going to be the host, though. Would have made more sense too with the STD part of the storyline.  I was more impressed than outraged at how the producers spun everything, lol. 

Is it just me or has SVU been having editing problems with syncing sound and video? This is the second time I've noticed it's been off by a few frames, drives me crazy. Other TV shows I watch don't have the same problem, so I can't think of what could cause that other than poor editing. Or maybe it's a local NBC affiliate problem.

[amass]

On May 12, 2016 at 1:19 AM, Ms Blue Jay said:

 

I assumed the host was the rapist!

I did too!

[Shaynaa]

So life seems to be imitating art here. Revisiting Law & Order: SVU's The Bachelor-esque Episode, "Assaulting Reality"

[wanderingstar]

On 5/16/2016 at 1:14 AM, skittl3862 said:

Someone give Larisa Oleynik a show.

That was my main takeaway from this episode.