Saint Olivia Benson: Mother to Us All

[SG11]

What Dirty Harry move? I finally quit watching after I couldn’t take one more Far Left speech.

[Patchy Fog]

And--the stilted, weird speech! WHY is she now breaking her sentences into breathless batches of 3-4 words? And, as stated before, WHISPERING all the time. I hate that she has ruined this show. It's been dependable entertainment for so long--no more. Now it's the All Olivia Soap Opera!

[Katy M]

I just watched the first half of Informant, an S8 epi.  Olivia made me so ragey.  Where does she get off harrassing and browbeating a victim like that?  It is the victim's choice if she wants to report the rape or not and get a rape kit.  Not Olivia's!  And Olivia certainly doesn't get to push her way into the apartment and then search it and steal her underwear. Seriously, the nerve on her.  Now I know why I don't usally watch this show.  How does she still have a job??????

[Xeliou66]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I just watched the first half of Informant, an S8 epi.  Olivia made me so ragey.  Where does she get off harrassing and browbeating a victim like that?  It is the victim's choice if she wants to report the rape or not and get a rape kit.  Not Olivia's!  And Olivia certainly doesn't get to push her way into the apartment and then search it and steal her underwear. Seriously, the nerve on her.  Now I know why I don't usally watch this show.  How does she still have a job??????

Yeah St Olivia infuriated me in that episode as well. She’s had plenty of moments like that, I just posted over on the show analysis thread about how much I hated her in the episode Branded. However Benson was okay in the seasons where she was a detective because we weren’t constantly told by everyone how wonderful, heroic and awesome she was, and she was sometimes called out on her behavior and she wasn’t treated as though she was superior to everyone. Ever since she became the squad leader, which was the same time Mariska became a producer, the show went all in on worshipping her, she was always right, everyone constantly is singing her praises, and she hogged up the screen time. She became damn near intolerable. She’s actually been a bit better for the most part in the past 2 seasons IMO, because I think they’ve dialed back having everyone worship her in a lot of episodes, I think the end of season 20 was the absolute worst of St Olivia. Even the show may have realized they went overboard with it after having Peter Stone fall in love with her. 

[wknt3]

13 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

She’s actually been a bit better for the most part in the past 2 seasons IMO, because I think they’ve dialed back having everyone worship her in a lot of episodes, I think the end of season 20 was the absolute worst of St Olivia. Even the show may have realized they went overboard with it after having Peter Stone fall in love with her. 

The show realized it before that. IMHO the worst of the Benson warship was Season 18 which was essentially one long infomercial for Mariska's ideas and foundation. Just about every case (almost all of which had the same basic plot) was solved by Benson alone with the rest of the cast reduced to sidekicks. Remember Joe Biden stopping by? Or "Motherly Love"? directed by Mariska which had Benson shot and lit to look like a literal angel? Ever since then they have tried in various ways to dial it back it a bit.

[Xeliou66]

2 hours ago, wknt3 said:

The show realized it before that. IMHO the worst of the Benson warship was Season 18 which was essentially one long infomercial for Mariska's ideas and foundation. Just about every case (almost all of which had the same basic plot) was solved by Benson alone with the rest of the cast reduced to sidekicks. Remember Joe Biden stopping by? Or "Motherly Love"? directed by Mariska which had Benson shot and lit to look like a literal angel? Ever since then they have tried in various ways to dial it back it a bit.

Oh yes season 18 was horrendous and was the worst season overall, but the Benson worship continued in seasons 19-20 even if the episodes were a bit better. I think it was dialed back some in the last 2 seasons.

[wknt3]

On 9/12/2021 at 9:16 AM, wknt3 said:

The show realized it before that. IMHO the worst of the Benson warship was Season 18 which was essentially one long infomercial for Mariska's ideas and foundation. Just about every case (almost all of which had the same basic plot) was solved by Benson alone with the rest of the cast reduced to sidekicks. Remember Joe Biden stopping by? Or "Motherly Love"? directed by Mariska which had Benson shot and lit to look like a literal angel? Ever since then they have tried in various ways to dial it back it a bit.

 

On 9/12/2021 at 11:45 AM, Xeliou66 said:

Oh yes season 18 was horrendous and was the worst season overall, but the Benson worship continued in seasons 19-20 even if the episodes were a bit better. I think it was dialed back some in the last 2 seasons.

I think it has been dialed back further, but it is still there. I think we need to remember and realize that Benson as our Lord and Savior with the rest of the squad as acolytes at best started in the second half of Season 17, was the entire focus of Season 18 and there has been a dialing back since then with a seeming tug of war between Mariska and the showrunners, both Leight and Chernuchin. I understand that most of those episodes are eminently forgettable, but we need to try to remember or we end up blaming writers and EPs for what is clearly a Dick Wolf/NBC decision and not appreciating their recognizing and attempting to fix the problems.

Edited September 14, 2021 by wknt3

[tray711]

I'm so sick of Olivia's brat, the excessive amount of story lines dedicated to the both of them. Just solve a darn crime, wouldya?