S18.E15: Know It All

[skittl3862]

7 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

As a huge Barba fan, I wish he had more centric stories overall, but there really wasn't a possibility of that this episode, considering his role was more tangential to the case.

Yeah, well, the issue was, the description for this episode and all the SVU promo hype online was that this case was supposed to be Barba-centric and he had some big secret- and when it finally aired, it turned out to be tangential to the case.

Same thing happened with No Surrender- the episode description highlights Fin specifically and yet he was in 2 scenes and still second-banana to Benson.

It's garbage. SVU was the Benson and Stabler show for 12 seasons, but they still managed to have a few episodes per season that focused on Munch or Fin or even Cragen and Cabot. Hell, even Lake got an episode. There were entire episodes where Benson didn't appear. Or had only a few lines because she was "in court" and they would be shooting Ripped at the same time as 911 or whatever to give both of them equal focus as leads. No longer. All Benson, all the time. I'm surprised Mariska isn't fried.

[ForeverAlone]

Oh I agree. This episode certainly was heavily anticipated as being more Barba centric than it was, at least until we saw the promos and figured this was probably another Olivia centric hour. It's probably a good thing Barba fans likely had their expectations tempered by the promos, because I would have been heavily disappointed if I thought this was going to be all about Barba and then he only showed up a bit and it was more about Olivia in many ways, since Barba didn't interact with anyone other than Olivia this episode. 

[Xeliou66]

It's always going to be all Olivia every episode, it's been that way since season 15 when Mariska became a producer and the de facto showrunner. She wants to have the whole episode to herself to push her agenda and preach to the audience and show off her "acting" skills, which consistent of overdramatic facial expression and a constant bitchy tone.

In the older seasons, Cragen, Munch and Fin would get episodes where they had as much screentime as Benson and Stabler, and there were ME's and CSU's and recurring characters instead of just a few characters like it is now. This episode showed how much I really miss Warner, Huang and the CSU people, as well as the recurring DA's and legal people ( there are still a few of them, just not as many ). It would've been totally natural for Warner to show up, since they went to the morgue and talked about an ME's report constantly. 

[ethalfrida]

I just don't know. I have not missed one single episode of any Law and Order but feeling like these last seasons without Stabler are just bunky. Not really hitting on much but it's a habit. I like Olivia so much better when she partnered with Stabler.