S18.E16: The Newsroom

[WendyCR72]

According to the database, there is a two-week break before this airs. After that? Straight on through until May 24th, with a double up with two episodes on the 24th (since so many were wondering). As of now, there are 21 episodes.

Quote

Benson and Barba ask witnesses to put their jobs on the line after a news anchor makes an on-air disclosure of rape against her boss.

[RafaelBarbas]

This episode helped me realize how much I do NOT miss WL. Definitely the weak link in this season.

[Spartan Girl]

Pretty timely, in light of the latest shitstorm hitting Fox News.

Which doesn't mean much, considering that NBC still doesn't have the balls to air the 45 episode.

[ForeverAlone]

Of the multitude of rich prick he said/she said cases this season, I probably liked this one the best. Yes, there was some St. Olivia (because you can't have one of these cases without her), but the focus was not quite as much on her and it was the actual victims who made the case and not Olivia saving Rafael's ass for him. Olivia didn't seem quite as sanctimonious, though she still had to have her halo polished at the end of the episode (but it still didn't make me roll my eyes as much as the scenes from "Net Worth"). 

The rest of the squad had a reasonable amount of stuff to do, though I could always do with more Fin. I liked seeing Rafael do his job on his own, meeting with the lawyers and reviewing victim depositions, ON HIS OWN. I always HATE when I see Olivia present for any of his meetings with the defendants, because she has NO BUSINESS being anywhere near those meetings. 

It was also nice to see Papa Dodds again, and it is always a pleasant surprise to see him have SVU's back and help them make their case. It brought to mind his supportive attitude in "Forgiving Rollins". Overall, for me, there was more team balance to offset the St. Olivia, but I think that is the best we can hope for at this current juncture. 

Oh and I see that the Hollywood version of Roger Ailes is not as repulsive looking Jabba the Hut impersonator as the real deal. Too bad, because that man is an absolute creep. 

Edited April 27, 2017 by ForeverAlone

[dttruman]

I am surprised they didn't have Gloria Allred make a special guest appearance here. I was really tick off again with Fin, he was trying to get people almost forcing them to testify. If you remember when Darius (a relative) was on trial for murder, Fin wouldn't let any other relatives testify because he didn't want any dirty laundry coming out. Big time hypocrisy there. They left a couple of things open ended. Did George get to keep his job?

[ForeverAlone]

1 minute ago, Spartan Girl said:

Pretty timely, in light of the latest shitstorm hitting Fox News.

Which doesn't mean much, considering that NBC still doesn't have the balls to air the 45 episode.

Considering how that episode ends, I can't understand why NBC won't air it, BUT I am glad they haven't, because that episode's ending that we know of is absolutely gag inducing. 

[Spartan Girl]

Can't be any more gag inducing than how it ended in real life.

[ForeverAlone]

2 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Can't be any more gag inducing than how it ended in real life.

Yeah it can, because that episode has the Trump figure innocent of the accusations and he was set up by others. I can see that episode causing a backlash among the fandom, precisely because of that. 

11 minutes ago, dttruman said:

I am surprised they didn't have Gloria Allred make a special guest appearance here. I was really tick off again with Fin, he was trying to get people almost forcing them to testify. If you remember when Darius (a relative) was on trial for murder, Fin wouldn't let any other relatives testify because he didn't want any dirty laundry coming out. Big time hypocrisy there. They left a couple of things open ended. Did George get to keep his job?

It is a consistent thing in SVU though that the squad is hypocritical in their actions. In that, they will push hard for other victims to do what they themselves would not or want their families to do. At least it is a consistent storytelling choice over the years. 

It didn't sound like George's contract would be renewed (though I doubt he would be let go early), so likely he would be out of a job in several months. 

[dttruman]

8 minutes ago, ForeverAlone said:

It was also nice to see Papa Dodds again, and it is always a pleasant surprise to see him have SVU's back and help them make their case. It brought to mind his supportive attitude in "Forgiving Rollins"

Do you think Papa Dodds making nice with Benson may have the writers planning a new romance for Benson?

[ForeverAlone]

Just now, dttruman said:

Do you think Papa Dodds making nice with Benson may have the writers planning a new romance for Benson?

Honestly...just based on some of interaction, it would not SHOCK me if they went there. Of course the writers would run into the problem with Papa Dodds basically being her boss (so they would have to reassign him somewhere else). But the thought certainly did cross my mind when I was watching their final scene together. 

[dttruman]

Quote

It is a consistent thing in SVU though that the squad is hypocritical in their actions

Did you see next week's episode that deals with Noah? It looks like Benson will be investigating even though she is personally involved. And how many times have we seen in the past where the SVU detectives lecture people to not interfere in their investigation when they are personally involved.

[WendyCR72]

Let's stop with the Trump talk and the allusions to politics, folks.

[balmz]

episode was ok but i would have liked it more if the news people had dug up stuff on svu and used it against them and not just against the one guy, also they very obviously stole the scorpion story from a a star trek voyager episode which was amusingly enough called scorpion, the ripoff was very clear and a sign that they are running out of ideas and have to steal from other shows

[ForeverAlone]

The scorpion story is a common story I have heard in a wide variety of TV shows and movies. I first heard it over 20 years ago in a movie, and I'm sure that wasn't the first time that story was ever mentioned. 

While I agree that it would be interesting to see what sort of hardball HNT would have played with SVU, that would also be too similar to the two episodes that sandwich it: Know it All and Real Fake News. But that would also highlight the sameiness of some of the episodes this season. 

[skittl3862]

2 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

Honestly...just based on some of interaction, it would not SHOCK me if they went there. Of course the writers would run into the problem with Papa Dodds basically being her boss (so they would have to reassign him somewhere else). But the thought certainly did cross my mind when I was watching their final scene together. 

I was really surprised with the tone of that final scene, considering the entire episode was about workplace sexual harassment and men using their power and authority over women working under them. Obviously Dodds isn't a rapist, but considering how some people were apoplectic about Tucker dating Benson, dating her direct superior is literally insane to the point of shark jumping.

TV pet peeve: How did Heidi know where Benson lived? They met "years ago" at a thing, and suddenly she has Olivia's address and apartment number? Even if she gave it to her after the disclosure, doesn't Olivia have a doorman? Only my best friend's doormen all recognize me and let me up without calling.

Episode was fine. The only egregious misstep IMO was the scene where Benson, Rollins and Heidi gang up on Margery at the courthouse after she testified. It's incredibly inappropriate for them to approach a witness like that.

[JyDanzig]

3 hours ago, hovegeta said:

episode was ok but i would have liked it more if the news people had dug up stuff on svu and used it against them and not just against the one guy, also they very obviously stole the scorpion story from a a star trek voyager episode which was amusingly enough called scorpion, the ripoff was very clear and a sign that they are running out of ideas and have to steal from other shows

 

3 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

The scorpion story is a common story I have heard in a wide variety of TV shows and movies. I first heard it over 20 years ago in a movie, and I'm sure that wasn't the first time that story was ever mentioned. 

Yeah, I remember rolling my eyes at that Voyager episode, thinking it was ridiculous they felt they could get away with having a big chunk of screentime dedicated to a character reciting this scorpion story that had already been so embarrassingly overused by TV trying to appear deep.

That was in 1997.

Though on the whole, I liked this episode.  I would say it's one of only three episodes this season to rise above the level of Total Failure (this really is the worst the show has been since the gruesome end of the Neal Baer era).  They developed the specific guest characters enough that it didn't feel as cut-and-paste as all the other recent rich-white-man rapist eps, and the Benson/Dodds material was affecting.

Edited April 27, 2017 by JyDanzig

[wknt3]

The Good:
Chief Dodds is back! It really helped having another character - different POVs, different relationships, etc. It shows why even if it's not main cast they need to bring in other characters, even they're just recurring or one shot. It just flows so much better.
Barba. Even if he wasn't quite as feisty as I'd like.
The whole squad was involved.

The Bad:
Yet another rich people he said she said culture of sexual assault case. This was better than most of them, but it's just so overdone and I am so bored seeing variations on the same plot.
Zombie Fin. He really seemed to be going through the motions. No memorable snark, no cynical realism, they didn't give him anything.
A totally unnecessary Noah scene.
A particularly exasperating example of the continuing trend of having the whole squad in court, making concerned faces during testimony. You would think since there are only 4 of them plus 3 extras investigating all the sex crimes in Manhattan they would be too busy. Plus it's just exasperating. We get it show. They feel for the victims. They are shocked, surprised, concerned, whatever, just like we are supposed to be. It's not needed. Just do it like they did it before. Barba glances at his phone, asks for a recess, cut to the court hallway and the detective telling him their witness has cold feet and him telling them to do whatever they have to to get them to court. And the cops aren't there until maybe the verdict unless there is some very good reason.
Benson, Benson, Benson. She has to be the most famous Lt. ever in the NYPD. She gets a solo press conference with the VP, she goes on talk shows. It would have worked better and been more realistic if Chief Dodds was the guest and she was there as part of the retinue. Then when he is worried about taking on someone so powerful Liv could argue that he was there and saw her face and is too good a cop not to know there's something there. She can still be the hero, without doing everything. I don't mind her being so involved since it's such a high profile case, but they can never be content without pushing it one step too far.

Overall this was solid. If it was the season premiere I'd be pretty happy. But it's not and being the 2nd or 3rd best of the 35 times they've done this same episode this season doesn't change the fact that it's stale and overdone. If I want to watch a police procedural telling the same story every week to push an agenda and service its star's ego I'll watch Blue Bloods. At least Selleck gives the rest of the cast screen time.

[sockii]

This episode wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be from the previews (and how sad is it that I'm happy, this season, with an episode that isn't just plainly awful?) Saint Benson did seem a little toned down compared to other recent episodes, maybe thanks to the directing? And I loved seeing Dodds Sr. again — Peter Gallagher brings a level of acting and intensity that's generally missing from the show these days. I thought the guest cast was unusually good, too, which went a long way in elevating the material.

If this season hadn't already been inundated with rich-white-pretty-he-said-she-said episodes, it would have been even better.

But in focusing on Dodds and Benson (and Barba too, I guess) it seemed like the rest of the main cast was barely there. I usually like scenes where Fin is working with Carisi but they were just completely flat here. Amanda, too.

The one thing I did outright hate, though, was having to have Dodds kiss up to Benson and apologize to her regarding Mike's death. Sorry but her negligence was, at least in part, a factor in his shooting and it seemed like a total personality transplant to have daddy Dodds now being so apologetic. But then, of course, in this current version of SVU Benson can do no wrong, ever, so they had to do something to retcon that series of events. I would have much rather had a nice juicy twist where the network did retaliate by airing a piece regarding Mike's death and her suspected negligence. But, eh, I guess that's too much to ask for with this show right now.

[Xeliou66]

I liked this episode overall, it was well done. Very timely with the shitstorm involving Ailes and O'Reilly at FOX, but unlike other ripped from the headlines episodes ( the Ray Rice one for example ), this one didn't feel like a comedic parody and it was well written, and I liked the subtle shots at Fox and their tabloid brand of "journalism". 

Olivia wasn't nearly as annoying in this one, there was a lot less St Olivia preachiness and the whole team was involved. I could've done without the pointless Noah scene, and I hated the scene near the end with the victim and Olivia, it was such a heavy handed, unneeded scene and it was just another "victim empowerment" PSA that was no doubt in the script because of MH's real life work in the area. Also once again St Olivia was in the courtroom gallery making soap opera expressions at every piece of evidence and testimony, but I'm glad that Olivia wasn't bossing Barba around and that the case was won because of the testimony and actions of the women to stand up to the creep and not St Olivia badgering someone into testifying.

I liked how Barba was used a lot throughout this episode, and he really seemed to have his classic Barba spark and gusto in this one, going after the guy hard and not backing down or being bossed around. I hope to see this Barba throughout the rest of the season, and I hope they continue to use Barba a lot and that he keeps his mojo like he had tonight, he is by far the best character and I love episodes with lots of courtroom scenes. 

I liked seeing the 2 recurring judges, McNamara and Barth, again, we don't have many recurring characters now so it's nice to see the ones we do have.

Speaking of recurring characters, I was really happy to see Chief Dodds back. I really enjoy Chief Dodds, he is one of the only characters that will stand up to Olivia and won't be pushed around but he certainly isn't a cartoon villain bureaucrat like a lot of Deputy Chief/supervisor characters on cop shows are. I thought the whole storyline with his son was really interesting and I'm glad they followed up on how Chief Dodds is coping with his son's death, it was clear in the season premiere that he was still very devastated and angry about it and he seems to be doing better now. I liked that they gave an explanation that he had been avoiding coming around to the squadroom and that he was still trying to cope with his son's death. I'm glad that they didn't drop that storyline and I hope to see Dodds more frequently in the future, he's a great recurring character and I like having him involved and I like how they haven't forgotten what happened to Mike Dodds. I didn't mind Dodds apologizing to Benson for his previous outburst, I thought he was a bit out of line when he lashed out at her in the season premiere given that he is her boss and his grief was affecting his work. 

About the Benson-Dodds romance speculation, I hope they don't go there because I'm sick of Olivia's revolving door of recurring character boyfriends and because it would ruin a good recurring character, but I first had the thought of a Benson/Dodds romance back in early season 17 before they paired her with Tucker it seemed like they might be setting up a Benson/Dodds romance and the 2 characters definitely have chemistry, but I really hope they don't put yet another recurring character that Benson works with in bed with her. 

Overall this was a good episode and the best by far of the "rich white guy in a he said/she said case with an attractive woman that he works with" episodes. The rapist in this one was actually a memorable villain and oozed slime, I really wanted to see him go down while usually in these cases I don't care at all. The guest actors were much better than usual and I liked that they used Barba a lot. 

[stillbored]

Why couldn't they just get a search warrant for those videos that every body kept saying he had? If he's denying that he ever kissed/had sex with any of the women , then wouldn't a tape showing that he was lying prove he was guilty (cos he wasn't even claiming anything was consensual , he was just denying that it ever happened). And I don't know why they didn't go after him for witness tampering when the threatened exposing the guys daughter cos she had been arrested.

I also took issue with him threatening to sue the NYPD for slander and defamation of character when they were investigating him. Since when does an investigation based on someone's allegations amount to slander? And I can't believe that Benson and Dodds didn't say or do anything when he threatened to report on false news about them. 

[JyDanzig]

9 hours ago, skittl3862 said:

TV pet peeve: How did Heidi know where Benson lived? They met "years ago" at a thing, and suddenly she has Olivia's address and apartment number? Even if she gave it to her after the disclosure, doesn't Olivia have a doorman? Only my best friend's doormen all recognize me and let me up without calling.

In addition to running the squad, doing all the investigating, interrogating, and interviewing, and sitting in on every day of every trial, Olivia also operates a 24/7 rape crisis drop-in center out of her apartment, so her address is publicly listed.

All the "this is the best of all the rich-white-man rapist episodes this season" comments have me wondering if they're going to eventually claim in interviews that this wasn't a repetitive lack of imagination -- it was their THEME for the year.  Maybe that's the season finale plan: the rapiest rich-white-man with the prettiest young-white-woman victims yet!

[Primetimer]

HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA try 'tiresome and preachy,' but there's some good work from the guest stars.

View the full article

[Iguessnot]

Although ripped from the headlines, it was preachy from the get go. I'm over it.

The thing that bothered me the most was Olivia putting Noah to bed, turning off his light then leaving the door wide open to the fully lit apartment. Of course Heidi comes by right then and I'm thinking that Noah is getting an earful.

[WhosThatGirl]

Topical episode. (But a lot
Of times, aren't they all?) And yes the show is getting way too Olivia all the time. Also look a mini The OC reunion!!!

[TVForever]

16 hours ago, dttruman said:

Do you think Papa Dodds making nice with Benson may have the writers planning a new romance for Benson?

Weren't they headed in that direction at one point? In fact, I thought that they were actually a couple when his son came on board. Then it seemed like, never mind, she's with the former IAB guy.

[UNOSEZ]

Ill always love this show.. But man do I miss the days of having bd Wong... Tamara tunie... I think they need to add to the cast.. Get another psych... Lets go to the  med examiner... What happened to T. A. R. U.  Having those ppl in older episodes added something these later ones are missing... Also the debates among the detectives.. Munch abd stabler and fin didn't always see eye to eye and having them hash out those diffs was cool... I hope svu turns back the clock soon.. 

[angel1008]

This type of episode has been done several times this season, and the third where the woman was "concerned about her career" and put that ahead of justice.

Also, I am getting tired of the "Benson has been doing this so long she can just sense what is wrong" story.  I miss Huang, the REAL psychiatrist.  So, because Benson has been doing this for many years, I guess she has an MD license now.  How long before she performs autopsies and takes over for Barba?

[CelticBlackCat]

Query:  What did the fictional HNT stand for anyway?  The only thing I can think of now is that is completes the phrase "Fox Hunt" without the vowel in hunt.

[wknt3]

7 hours ago, PreviouslyTV said:

'tiresome and preachy,' but there's some good work from the guest stars.

View the full article

Is this summary a rerun? I didn't mention it, besides Peter Gallagher, but one of the things that's been consistently good this year has been the quality of the acting from the guest cast. I can only think of a few clunkers and most of those had obvious script problems. It's amazing that they can get so many great actors, but finding even competent writers is apparently an unsolvable challenge.

[EtheltoTillie]

Maybe I'm in the minority but I thought it was a snooze and didn't watch the whole thing. 

Can someone explain why Barba is still there?  I thought he was suspended or in trouble because of the case where he was feeding money to the dead witness's family. 

[ForeverAlone]

Barba was suspended after talking with the DA. The episode didn't specifically say how long, though I saw some stuff that said he was suspended for 30 days. Olivia and Rafael briefly talked about it, so we can assume the DA suspended him at the meeting at the end of Know it All, and now the SVU universe picks up after Barba completed his suspension.

[Iguessnot]

21 minutes ago, ForeverAlone said:

Barba was suspended after talking with the DA. The episode didn't specifically say how long, though I saw some stuff that said he was suspended for 30 days. Olivia and Rafael briefly talked about it, so we can assume the DA suspended him at the meeting at the end of Know it All, and now the SVU universe picks up after Barba completed his suspension.

Was that the scene where Barba makes an unexplained head gesture towards Olivia? 

It's amazing to watch old episodes where the ADA's are an independent group. Now it seems that Barba works for Olivia and is often found hanging around her office for no good reason.

It was a real mistake to make Olivia a lieutenant on this show. She's got no business doing the footwork she's currently doing. You sure didn't see Cragen pretending to be a detective 24/7 while barking orders.

[Xeliou66]

I agree, Olivia shouldn't be LT, Fin should be in charge, he is much more unbiased and would be a much more effective leader, and then MH could still get the most scenes, but then she wouldn't be allowed to boss people around and push her agenda on everyone and so she probably wouldn't agree to it. I'm sick of the St Olivia hour, and I hated the unnecessary Noah scene and the awful, heavy handed scene at the end where the victim is opening an empowerment program for girls, it was so preachy and over the top and done just to promote MH's real life agenda and to give the goddamn fangirls who love watching St Olivia be the almighty avenger and advocate for all women an orgasm over Benson empowering yet another woman and being super mom. 

[Iguessnot]

And just a couple of episodes ago, Olivia was trashing settlements.

[bikebrh]

The scorpion story is a common story I have heard in a wide variety of TV shows and movies. I first heard it over 20 years ago in a movie, and I'm sure that wasn't the first time that story was ever mentioned. 

While I agree that it would be interesting to see what sort of hardball HNT would have played with SVU, that would also be too similar to the two episodes that sandwich it: Know it All and Real Fake News. But that would also highlight the sameiness of some of the episodes this season. 

****The scorpion story is a common story I have heard in a wide variety of TV shows and movies. I first heard it over 20 years ago in a movie, and I'm sure that wasn't the first time that story was ever mentioned. ****

I'm pretty sure that versions of that story date back to Aesop's Fables or earlier.

[ForeverAlone]

That was my point. It's a common story widely told.

[Diana Berry]

On 4/26/2017 at 10:24 PM, skittl3862 said:

I was really surprised with the tone of that final scene, considering the entire episode was about workplace sexual harassment and men using their power and authority over women working under them. Obviously Dodds isn't a rapist, but considering how some people were apoplectic about Tucker dating Benson, dating her direct superior is literally insane to the point of shark jumping.

TV pet peeve: How did Heidi know where Benson lived? They met "years ago" at a thing, and suddenly she has Olivia's address and apartment number? Even if she gave it to her after the disclosure, doesn't Olivia have a doorman? Only my best friend's doormen all recognize me and let me up without calling.

Episode was fine. The only egregious misstep IMO was the scene where Benson, Rollins and Heidi gang up on Margery at the courthouse after she testified. It's incredibly inappropriate for them to approach a witness like that.

I also noticed she didn't look in the peephole before opening the door.

[TV Anonymous]

What is with this show and its characters demanding people to throw away their career and their lifestyle just so they can prosecute a bad guy? Several episodes back they wanted Missy Peregrym's character to throw away 20M$.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 27/04/2017 at 9:35 AM, stillbored said:

Why couldn't they just get a search warrant for those videos that every body kept saying he had? If he's denying that he ever kissed/had sex with any of the women , then wouldn't a tape showing that he was lying prove he was guilty (cos he wasn't even claiming anything was consensual , he was just denying that it ever happened). And I don't know why they didn't go after him for witness tampering when the threatened exposing the guys daughter cos she had been arrested.

That bugged me too. On top of that if the boss is assualting women in his office, why didn't they send csu to go through too see if they could find any physical evidence. I was also wondering if footage of the morning show episode the victim taped right after being raped could have been entered as evidence. Her co-anchor said she was acting strange that day (strange enough that he could remember it months later).

Also during the opening scene I really wasn't sure who the bad guy was going to be. You had the boss guy (Shooter McGavin) who always plays an asshole. But you also had the co-anchor (Duck Phillips) who always plays an asshole too.

Edited April 30, 2017 by Kel Varnsen

[Xeliou66]

The co anchor was actually rather likable which was surprising to me but I liked how it broke the typical stereotype of the sleazy rich white guy. He just didn't have the guts to testify but it was because he was concerned over the rapist smearing his daughter. 

I think that the recordings could be interpreted as the women voluntarily stripping and showing off their bodies to the guy, at least that's what the defense would argue, and it would be he said-she said. 

[skittl3862]

15 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

What is with this show and its characters demanding people to throw away their career and their lifestyle just so they can prosecute a bad guy? Several episodes back they wanted Missy Peregrym's character to throw away 20M$.

Yeah, this trend bothers me. I also remember people flipping out at Rape Interrupted because the victim didn't want to go through with a trial. Benson was going to let the guy make a deal and certain fans thought this was somehow unacceptable. Why? Only in SVU World do rapists get the book thrown at them. In real life, if they've even convicted, they get a slap on the wrist. Better to get your $20 million for suffering than the moral victory because he went to jail for 3 months and got out in 45 days for good behavior. It's not like a rape conviction will ruin the life of a rich white man.

[Iguessnot]

I wasn't paying close attention, but did every or a good number of the  women who offered testimony say they put on strip teases for the guy? I'm no vile Alaskan politician who just brushes away allegations because the women were big earners, but these women weren't the undocumented cleaning staff or inmates, so they just came off stupid.

I can't believe how the show handled that Margery Evans. If she had gotten her tape back, she would've been happy to screw everyone else. If I recall correctly, the show never changed her outlook, which was that she thought she was different. How stupid and/or evil would that make her to believe that at the point she was introduced into all of this. In the end she's presented as a laudable character when she's anything but.

[CelticBlackCat]

I find it hard to feel sorry for the so-called victims of the Big Bad Network Boss who made them do things to get or keep their jobs.  When you're propositioned like that on the job interview, and then go with it, what do you expect?  These women were all adults and played to get and keep their jobs.  Keeping silent for years and enjoying the benefits until it's convenient to become the victim is disingenuous to me.  Not that the network boss wasn't a scumbag; I am not excusing his behavior at all.  If he never had any takers, there wouldn't have been victims.

[dttruman]

On 4/27/2017 at 4:11 PM, CelticBlackCat said:

Query:  What did the fictional HNT stand for anyway?  The only thing I can think of now is that is completes the phrase "Fox Hunt" without the vowel in hunt.

I am willing to bet that the "H" probably stands for HUDSON, in honor of Hudson University where all the school sexual assaults occur.

[Xeliou66]

My guess for HNT is Headline News Today, sort of a ripoff of HLN I guess. 

[ishcabibble]

On 4/27/2017 at 3:11 PM, WhosThatGirl said:

Topical episode. (But a lot
Of times, aren't they all?) And yes the show is getting way too Olivia all the time. Also look a mini The OC reunion!!!

I was thinking how cool it was that they had two actors from Mad Men on this episode!

[katisha]

Not much to say about this one except that it felt like this was an SVU episode I'd already seen about ten different versions of, and that like with a photocopier, each copy of a copy of a copy deteriorates in quality.  And I had no knowledge of the real life case that inspired this episode so I didn't even have that to keep me interested.  Ho hum.

[love2lovebadtv]

On 4/30/2017 at 2:48 PM, skittl3862 said:

Yeah, this trend bothers me. I also remember people flipping out at Rape Interrupted because the victim didn't want to go through with a trial. Benson was going to let the guy make a deal and certain fans thought this was somehow unacceptable. Why? Only in SVU World do rapists get the book thrown at them. In real life, if they've even convicted, they get a slap on the wrist. Better to get your $20 million for suffering than the moral victory because he went to jail for 3 months and got out in 45 days for good behavior. It's not like a rape conviction will ruin the life of a rich white man.

I think the show is missing a huge opportunity to highlight this. It is a sad situation but also an interesting and complicated one that could bring about conflicting opinions among the different SVU veterans. I guess being realistic about how this goes down wouldn't really help get more victims to open up - in real life or on the show. 

On 5/1/2017 at 9:45 PM, Iguessnot said:

I wasn't paying close attention, but did every or a good number of the  women who offered testimony say they put on strip teases for the guy? I'm no vile Alaskan politician who just brushes away allegations because the women were big earners, but these women weren't the undocumented cleaning staff or inmates, so they just came off stupid.

I can't believe how the show handled that Margery Evans. If she had gotten her tape back, she would've been happy to screw everyone else. If I recall correctly, the show never changed her outlook, which was that she thought she was different. How stupid and/or evil would that make her to believe that at the point she was introduced into all of this. In the end she's presented as a laudable character when she's anything but.

I thought after she had changed her outlook when she said that she thought she was different (but then realized when he attempted the same with her) that she wasn't. Maybe that doesn't qualify as changing her outlook. Not so sure. 

On 5/2/2017 at 10:28 PM, dttruman said:

I am willing to bet that the "H" probably stands for HUDSON, in honor of Hudson University where all the school sexual assaults occur.

I think the H is for Hudson University, the most prestigious university in all the land lol.  Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but wasn't it retconned this way in the last season or so? 

[Iguessnot]

2 hours ago, love2lovebadtv said:

 

I thought after she had changed her outlook when she said that she thought she was different (but then realized when he attempted the same with her) that she wasn't. Maybe that doesn't qualify as changing her outlook. Not so sure. 

 

She didn't get her tape so she sought payback. But she was willing to lie through her teeth, knowing her back story with him was no different than the others.