S19.E09: Gone Baby Gone

[Xeliou66]

11 minutes ago, QueenMab said:

There is another maybe possibility if the writers wanted to actually twist us a bit. Sometimes people get a tidal wave of PDA's and attachment to someone because detachment is coming. By now, it's quite possible Barba knows Stone is the new EADA, and I feel he might be introduced in the upcoming "Weinstein" episode. Someone has to come in from the outside, and no connection to the case to handle it. For several reasons, Barba is going to be de-nied the big case because of wealthy connections and maybe his "closeness" to Benson, who will no doubt be the big shot lead Det. on the case. Barba eating more career denting shit because of Benson. Struggling with morals and conscience, having to detach emotionally, and Barba considering some other recently offered opportunities because of all the crap. And Barba has consistently had outside relationships, we've been shown for years with his uneccessary to be there appearances in various outfits.." not my yacht". He didn't go to St. Bart's alone or with a buddy to relax. There is NOTHING to do there but have sex. It's a fave honeymoon place. I see a lot more possible personal soap opera story arcs if they went this way. Lots of conflict, crisis of conscience, disloyalty, trust issues, all that crap this show feeds on. JMO

Just to note, Stone will not be in the Weinstein inspired episode in 2 weeks, there are a couple of sights with spoilers that give a synopsis of the episode and the guests, and Stone/Philip Winchester isn’t listed as appearing. Maybe the events of that episode will lead to Stone coming in, because I’m sure Barba will bow down to St Olivia again and possibly take a weak case to court against someone with lots of resources and great lawyers and get destroyed and that will lead to McCoy bringing Stone in to clean up the mess. 

If Raul leaves, I would much prefer it be because of Barba getting fed up with Benson and her pushing him around and deciding to take a new job instead of it being because of a Barba-Benson romance. 

[Snookums]

Well, woulda yelled "CALLED IT" but since this entire thing has been telegraphed from fucking space for the last nine weeks I'm not exactly The Amazing Kreskin on that one.

Quote

All you had to do was be smart enough not to use your credit card when purchasing that car seat and we would've been rid of sweet baby Benson forever....

And not ask about fake passports, which made some kind of sense, only to decide that hey, it's TOTALLY WORKABLE to keep Noah on a farm with the rest of the annoying animals! Because he's never going to run away or use the phone or talk to anybody at the store, right? How long did Sheila, who planned this so carefully for so long, think that just hanging out at her sister's place was going to be feasible? Wasn't she worried about Juan tracking her down because they were supposed to be together or some such rot? What was she planning to live on for the rest of her life? GAHHH.

Barba and Finn both brought it for the tiny scraps of scenes they were allotted (Finn's "dick" was the highlight of the show) and Amanda, no matter how stupid/silly the circumstance, is very believable as somebody who is going to fuck you up if you don't get your hands up right fucking now.

I do not want to go to Barba/Liv land. Ever since they broke her and Robert John Burke up for absolutely no good reason at all I'm done with ships.

[QueenMab]

I was just over at tvline and it says Stone is going to be a "huge foe" to Barba. At fist he's new and "odd man out", I take that as Benson Barba vs. new guy. BUT, new guy is Executive ADA, Barba's boss, and he's going to break that up and Barba is maybe going to fight for working cases with Benson? There was a tease a while back about Olivia's love life (AH gain) and a "new love interest". It could be romance with Barba being "new" because they've just been "close" for five years (bullshit)...or, please not Stone who gets to work with Benson instead of Barba and for Olivia that usually means drinks and sex, or you can bet, some guy she's working on a case with. Just thought I'd point that out because we've been duped many times before.

[GalvDuck]

How many times do we have to see the predictable scene of Liv entering a room alone (either undercover or somewhere without backup) and getting blindsided by a hidden assailant?  She needs to get into the room and then get the door shut or scoot over to the side to get a wall behind her back, not an opening for another freak to club her, knock her out, and take her weapon.  It's getting old.  She's never watching her 6.

Edited January 5, 2018 by GalvDuck

[QueenMab]

I just read that SVU is a "sure thing" for renewal for the fall....a 20th season. That means to me they have the rest of this season to drag out, and stretch every story arc they've got to provide a dramatic beginning to their 20th big deal season. I bet we get no answers or resolution to anything this season.

[Xeliou66]

14 hours ago, QueenMab said:

I was just over at tvline and it says Stone is going to be a "huge foe" to Barba. At fist he's new and "odd man out", I take that as Benson Barba vs. new guy. BUT, new guy is Executive ADA, Barba's boss, and he's going to break that up and Barba is maybe going to fight for working cases with Benson? There was a tease a while back about Olivia's love life (AH gain) and a "new love interest". It could be romance with Barba being "new" because they've just been "close" for five years (bullshit)...or, please not Stone who gets to work with Benson instead of Barba and for Olivia that usually means drinks and sex, or you can bet, some guy she's working on a case with. Just thought I'd point that out because we've been duped many times before.

You can never trust what the promos say. The writers and the network will blatantly lie, they’ve done so many times. 

I hate how they’ve made Barba into little more than Benson’s bitch in most episodes, he is just there to bow to her commands and then comfort her when she whines. And I guarantee Barba taking weak cases to court just because he doesn’t have the balls anymore to tell Olivia to fuck off has hurt his reputation and that’s why McCoy is bringing in Peter Stone. I just hope they don’t make Barba and SVU downright unethical, Rollins roughing up the suspect was way too much like Chicago PD and since that’s where Stone is coming from I wonder if they are going to start making SVU unethical so Stone can be their adversary. 

And I find it interesting that Stone will be playing Barba’s boss since in real life Philip Winchester is a decade younger than Raul Esparza. 

[QueenMab]

They're going to have a 20th season and who says that's the end? There isn't going to be a Barben because the fangirls would turn the show into the "Barba Benson" show and MH isn't handing over half of each episode and sharing most of her dramatic "Emmy worthy" scenes with Esparza. Any hookups will have to eventually be unhooked to keep the soap opera drama going. Same with Carisi and Rollins who seem as close as the other two IMO, it's in the shows best interest to keep everything fluid and unresolved and stretched out forever. And lots of SH*T for the lead actress. Pine Valley:SVU.

[Gigglepuff]

I didn't catch this one live, and although I know the outcome, I'm going to play along here. At five minutes in, I'm laughing my ass off at the irony here already. When Benson first arrives on the scene and talks to Sheila, she says, "he (Noah) doesn't just walk away when I'm with him." Like, for real? No, Liv, you're right, he just about walks straight into traffic. I loved the irony of Dodds saying that Benson, "is emotional, that means she's liable to make rash decisions." Ha!! Now that's the understatement of the year. When's the last time Benson made a rational decision anyway? Then, in the scene in Sheila's apartment, Liv's "yes, you should have," response to Sheila's statement, "I should have help his hand." Again.....how short is Liv's memory? I guess by now she's all but forgotten the Noah drama of only a few months back. 

[atlantaloves]

Exactly Liv, he walked into traffic, you idiot an you bruised him and got into tons of trouble. I tell you I am getting fed up with her and I am a loyal BIG TIME FAN. The writers are really really lazy. 

[ForeverAlone]

I had a whole host of jurisdictional questions with how this investigation played out, once the players left NYC. Of course the show had to manipulate it so Olivia could go rogue and solve the case on her own, but in reality, this would have likely been coordinated with some other law enforcement agencies. Hell, Barba offered to bring in the FBI (who SHOULD have been brought in once this case crossed state lines) and she just blew him off. There is some hint in future episodes that Fin is going to have to protect Olivia, and I bet it has to do with her conduct during this case. I hope she gets smacked down for her irresponsible behavior. It would be nice if the team's unethical behavior wouldn't be rewarded or glossed over. 

Edited January 6, 2018 by ForeverAlone

[wknt3]

On 1/4/2018 at 7:40 PM, ShortyMac said:

What's next on Benson's Traumatic Event checklist?

Some possibilities from most to least likely:

The Man threatens to take Noah away. This is because Powerful Men are threatened by a Strong Independent Career Woman and Devoted Single Mother and not because Noah is in peril more than Pauline. Possibly another long lost relative turns up (Special Guest Star Kelly Clarkson) and threatens to take legal action.

Another long lost relative of Benson turns up as either the victim or perpetrator of a sex crime or maybe both forcing her to really truly finally this time we mean it confront her family history and issues.

Lucy is sexually assaulted after leaving the apartment at 3am. Benson has to deal with that making 100 percent of her friends and acquaintances being victims, feelings of guilt that she somehow hasn't completely eliminated sex crimes, Noah's sadness, and both supervising and investigating the case with a replacement babysitter who refuses to work more than 60 hours per week. 

She is diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and face simultaneously leaving her able to speak only in an anguished whisper and freezing her face in one expression while worrying constantly about Noah possibly growing up without her and being able to dispense justice to all the victims.

Noah grabs the tush of one of the girls in his daycare and says it's OK because she accepted his offer to share his juicebox with her. Benson thinks that maybe she has failed to teach him about the importance of consent and overcome society's messages about abuse and power. Ultimately she realizes that Noah was inadvertently framed because somehow nobody involved knows how to interview children and she wonders how she couldn't realize that Noah is perfect and she is the greatest mother ever.
 

Benson realizes that Barba, Carisi, and Fin are all in love with her and have been for some time. She is flattered and tempted, but must deny them and herself in order to avoid emotional entanglements that would prevent her from Speaking For The Victims and bringing justice to all. Her deepening bond with Rollins is threatened by Carisi's revelation of his feelings for Benson and she must deal with everyone's resentment when she starts dating a new man (Guest Star the hottest guy the producers can find willing to take what they can afford at this point and is kept around despite having no onscreen chemistry with Mariska).

A city council member says something stupid and bigoted about sexual harassment and #metoo and she punches him in the face. She is transferred to Staten Island SVU for the rest of the season and is forced to deal with poor and middle class victims and perps and boring cases completely unconnected to important social issues. She only escapes the tedium in the season finale when her new boyfriend is involved in a case and she provides critical assistance to Lt. Eames and is allowed back to the big time.

Stabler returns. Benson suffers an existential crisis when she realizes that while she makes more money and has power than Stabler he seems to be happier and more content with where he is in life and the rest of the squad sees his career path as the one to emulate. She ends up in weekly therapy sessions with Dr. Reli Meta (Special Guest Star Mindy Kaling) written by Warren Leight.

 

A team of consultants is brought in to evaluate the squad including former LAPD Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and retired NYPD Lt. Anita Van Buren. They tear her a new one and tell her that you can be a strong leader without doing everything herself and being in the field constantly. She is unable to convince people they can't handle strong women or understand the job without them laughing in her face and is forced to change her ways.

Benson screws up yet another hostage situation and Fin is seriously wounded forcing him to retire. He stays on as a consultant to the NYPD Skyping from the beach or locations that somehow always coincide with whatever reality series or commercial Ice-T is shooting at the moment with a snarky remark and expertise in forensics, psychology, or whatever happens to be needed since he's taken some correspondence courses. Despite his constant reassurances there it is not her fault Liv is tortured and blames herself without actually learning from the experience and handling the next confrontation any differently.
 

Edited January 9, 2018 by wknt3
added some trauma

[red.]

On 1/4/2018 at 7:47 PM, txhorns79 said:

Her dead mother was not her actual mother, so Benson finds out she is a child of rape once removed sending her world reeling?  Or perhaps discovers that she is actually a twin?  Maybe amnesia?     

An Olivia twin so MH can be in twice the number of scenes hahahahahahhaa omg. Please no.

[Gigglepuff]

OMG, @red.  and @wknt3, please delete your comments before tptb get any ideas!! lol 

[WendyCR72]

1 hour ago, wknt3 said:

What's next on Benson's Traumatic Event checklist?

It's almost 20 seasons in! It's all been done! Twice, three times, a thousand.

At the risk of offending any mega SVU fans here, I have to be honest and say I'll be a bit miffed if this breaks the Mothership's record of 20 seasons. The quality level it is at now doesn't deserve to. (At least to me.) At least L&O: CI had the grace to end after 10 seasons when the gas was running out, and on an up note.

Again, just to be clear here, my opinion.  :-)

[J-Man]

Noah needs to be chipped.

[wknt3]

5 hours ago, J-Man said:

Noah needs to be chipped.

Whoa! I'm not his biggest fan by any means, but don't you think going all Fargo on him is a little extreme? Oh wait you mean like a tracking chip? Yeah maybe. Or they could just give Lucy custody...

[sockii]

14 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

And I find it interesting that Stone will be playing Barba’s boss since in real life Philip Winchester is a decade younger than Raul Esparza. 

I know we've had this discussion/debate here before, but personally, I don't have any issue with this. Some people (in real life) just end up on a faster/more high profile career path than others.

Stone was, after all, the son of Ben Stone, so it's easy to imagine that his father's reputation and connections could help grease the wheels and ease the path toward fast promotion. He was trying high profile cases in Chicago, not just a "sex crimes ADA" like Barba (who also wouldn't have the connections that Stone does.)

If there's anything I've always found (since being a Chicago Justice fan) hard to swallow about Peter Stone it was that he was supposedly a major league baseball player before getting into law. But then again, that "name factor" could also have ended up helping his ascent in law, too.

[Sake614]

Am I missing something? Isn’t crossing state lines with a kidnapping victim a federal crime? Why wasn’t the FBI involved in the story? For one brief moment when Rollins and Carisi were in NJ I thought they were actually going to use local law enforcement. And then when Olivia got out of the cab at the cabin I thought she was just going to knock on the door or walk in acting all happy for Noah, to throw Sheila off guard. But no, she has to draw her gun and then get knocked down by Sheila. so much for being a Cracker Jack detective!

i actually liked the final scene although I agree with the poster up thread who said this crew has never felt like family. 

[ForeverAlone]

This story was written in such a way as to allow the team, and Olivia in particular, to do all the work. No it isn't realistic, but this episode was going more for Mariska scenery chewing and overwrought emotion than realism of a multi state child abduction case.

[TimetoShine]

I'm glad for the happy ending and hope to never see Noah again.

[jrlr]

And on top of every other problem with this soapy episode, they had to rip off the title of a great Dennis Lehane book.   Did they think no one would notice?

Edited January 6, 2018 by jrlr

[wknt3]

22 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Quote

What's next on Benson's Traumatic Event checklist?

It's almost 20 seasons in! It's all been done! Twice, three times, a thousand.

At the risk of offending any mega SVU fans here, I have to be honest and say I'll be a bit miffed if this breaks the Mothership's record of 20 seasons. The quality level it is at now doesn't deserve to. (At least to me.) At least L&O: CI had the grace to end after 10 seasons when the gas was running out, and on an up note.

Again, just to be clear here, my opinion.  :-)

I agree that Benson trauma is pretty much played out (and it should be noted that the attribution of the quoted text got mixed up and it was not me but @ShortyMac asking the question.) I don't think there aren't any possibilities for fresh stories, but unfortunately they have no interest in telling them. As I have mentioned once or twice or 500 times here if they went the Jack McCoy route and showed us the politics and management they had only told us about before there are all sorts of new and different plots they could give us. And if they actually added some new recurring characters it would be quite possible to give us a new spin on the same old stories (as we were just discussing on the mothership forum!) Carisi replacing Amaro definitely gave this show a shot in the arm and Andy Karl helped too. Off the top of my head if Mariska's ego allowed it they could bring in a counselor who works with victims and gives us another view and helps the squad while occasionally being in conflict with them as their job is to help the victim even if what is best for them isn't best for closing the case. But just another detective would help. And it would be the pinnacle of irony if NBC kept SVU on the air too long because they cancelled the mothership too soon. Almost as ironic as a Dick Wolf series being creatively derailed by being beholden to an actor...
 

11 hours ago, Sake614 said:

Am I missing something? Isn’t crossing state lines with a kidnapping victim a federal crime? Why wasn’t the FBI involved in the story? For one brief moment when Rollins and Carisi were in NJ I thought they were actually going to use local law enforcement. And then when Olivia got out of the cab at the cabin I thought she was just going to knock on the door or walk in acting all happy for Noah, to throw Sheila off guard. But no, she has to draw her gun and then get knocked down by Sheila. so much for being a Cracker Jack detective!

You must be a new viewer :-) Benson hasn't acted like a trained police officer in these sorts of situations in at least 10 years and neither has the rest of the squad. And yes on the other series or the earlier years there would have been a nod to the FBI and local police forces, but TPTB seem to believe that anything that suggests Benson needs backup or deigns to work with other agencies on cases she feels strongly about is intolerable.

Edited January 7, 2018 by wknt3
fix formatting and add accidentally deleted phrase

[Sake614]

8 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

You must be a new viewer :-) Benson hasn't acted like a trained police officer in these sorts of situations in at least 10 years and neither has the rest of the squad.

If only lol! No, I’ve been watching since the beginning so I guess it was more a rhetorical question than anything else. I watch old eps on USA sometimes and wonder what happened to the show. It really jumped the shark a couple of years ago. ?

[pointybird]

OMG this episode sums up the entire season so far: The Olivia Benson Parenting Hour.  Jeez, the show has become completely insufferable with Benson bleating on about Noah evey five bloody minutes, various faux jeapordy situations involving the mop-haired little cutie, much overwrought hand-wringing from Liv, and mind numbingly dull parental angst.  JUST SHUT UP ABOUT BLOODY NOAH!  ARGHGHGHGHHHG, I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE!

 

*ahem*

 

I didn't like this episode. 

 

Or this season. 

 

Time for Liv to go and a fresh character brought in.  Just insufferable.

[shksabelle]

I thought this was awful. A 3-year-old could have figured it out within the first five minutes. MH was downright insufferable. 

At least, other than Finn and Barba, no one in the cast went hungry what with all that scenery chewing.

In the old days the reliance on the ensemble really hid how bad an actress MH is  

[auntiemel]

I have so many thoughts about this episode, but I'm too annoyed to even put them into words. So I'll just stick with the main one: how DARE they use the title of such a superior story dealing with the kidnapping of a child and slap it on this piece of utter crap? If you're going to name your story after a Dennis Lehane novel, your writing had better fucking be up to the challenge!

[shapeshifter]

18 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Whoa! I'm not his biggest fan by any means, but don't you think going all Fargo on him is a little extreme? Oh wait you mean like a tracking chip? Yeah maybe. Or they could just give Lucy custody...

LOL! Am I a terrible person for being unable to stop laughing at this post?

[HunterHunted]

38 minutes ago, shksabelle said:

I thought this was awful. A 3-year-old could have figured it out within the first five minutes. MH was downright insufferable. 

At least, other than Finn and Barba, no one in the cast went hungry what with all that scenery chewing.

In the old days the reliance on the ensemble really hid how bad an actress MH is  

The writing was better in the old days. The ensemble was stronger in the old days. Additionally, Meloni is such a gifted actor who really helped to elevate MH. All the reviews of his new show, Happy!, have said that it only works because of him.

[spunky]

Just when I thought we would never hear about Noah again until he was 21, my hopes were dashed. I always suspected that Sheila would take Noah, I just didn't think they would have her be dumb enough to use her credit card. Then again this the Olivia show. I'm guessing there were no sexual assaults, domestic violence cases etc for the entire time that all of SVU were chasing Sheila , or did the victims tweet Benson to find out when her team had the time to investigate their cases?! So when it comes to Olivia's personal needs police brutality is acceptable ?.  I don't have the words to describe how terrible this episode was. 

Edited January 7, 2018 by spunky
Misspelled word

[ChristiKRN]

It is so surprising to see so many fans on social media gushing over this episode from the acting to the writing, etc; I'm guessing they are caught up on the emotion of the episode.  

One thing that comes across quite clearly (if it didn't already) is that Benson is not equipped to handle her leadership role at SVU; she allows her personal feelings to rule over any objectivity that the job entails.  Turning down the assistance of the FBI (when it should have been their case once state lines were crossed) is absolutely foolish in a missing child case.  The more boots on the ground, the better.  How pretentious to think that only she and her 3-man unit could solve the case? It could have been a fatal mistake for Noah (darn it!). Then telling Rollins and Carisi to use any means necessary to get info from the gardener and his daughter b/c they have no jurisdiction; what good leader says that? Any halfway decent defense attorney will be able to get the gardener off after what Rollins did. I hope Dodds Sr takes a look at the police reports and comes down hard on them. 

[Xeliou66]

4 hours ago, ChristiKRN said:

It is so surprising to see so many fans on social media gushing over this episode from the acting to the writing, etc; I'm guessing they are caught up on the emotion of the episode.  

One thing that comes across quite clearly (if it didn't already) is that Benson is not equipped to handle her leadership role at SVU; she allows her personal feelings to rule over any objectivity that the job entails.  Turning down the assistance of the FBI (when it should have been their case once state lines were crossed) is absolutely foolish in a missing child case.  The more boots on the ground, the better.  How pretentious to think that only she and her 3-man unit could solve the case? It could have been a fatal mistake for Noah (darn it!). Then telling Rollins and Carisi to use any means necessary to get info from the gardener and his daughter b/c they have no jurisdiction; what good leader says that? Any halfway decent defense attorney will be able to get the gardener off after what Rollins did. I hope Dodds Sr takes a look at the police reports and comes down hard on them. 

Benson hasn’t been competent to lead SVU for a long time, she lets her emotions and personal bias interfere with how she does her job. And this episode was the worst, Benson could’ve gotten herself and Noah killed, and telling Rollins “you’re not a cop in New Hampshire” just shows how awful of a leader she is, just because Rollins doesn’t have jurisdiction in NH doesn’t mean she isn’t a cop still who working a case, she could get in huge trouble for that. And Fin behaved like a complete idiot in not notifying the local police and having them stake out the cabin, his negligence could’ve gotten Benson killed. I hope Dodds comes down hard on all 3 of them for their misbehavior, but since the show won’t acknowledge that St Olivia can do wrong, I doubt we will hear anymore of it.

The people that like this episode are the Benson fangirls who worship Benson and love anything centered around her. 

[QueenMab]

It is clear to me that the fangirls (probably "younger") have been so vocal in insisting on personal drama cheese, the writers and (ahem!) the producers have chosen to please them. Instead of, as old Prez Bush used to say, "stay the course", they have veered way off the L &O track, and gone the nighttime soap route. Their paranoia when Meloni left is painfully evident. They were so insecure about MH not having a man by her side they scrambled to find her a new partner. Enter Barba. But instead of calming down and bringing on a strong male character that was interesting and balanced the police part with good law/courtroom drama, they turned him into a "sidekick". And that's where this show went off the rails. They bowed to the fangirls who will not accept a good looking, interesting male character unless Olivia can bang him like she has all the others. Everytime a male character comes on that isn't a lowly detective , we don't have to guess, he's there to somewhere along the line, get all up in Benson and get personally involved. EVERYTHING, I repeat, EVERYTHING, about the waaaay too personal interactions between the main characters is WRONG on every level. We know McCoy had "relationships" with his female colleagues, but we didn't find out about them until they quit, got killed in a car crash, or showed up ten years later to expose it in a court trial. Which ADA McCoy was banging was not the focus of the show. And this desperately cheesy "we're a FAMILY" bullshit was non-exsistant. And we didn't need it. The police caught the bad guys and the DA's Office put them in prison. And the detectives and DA's didn't need to be soulmates through time and space and all eternity, or "totally get" each other,  or do everything possible to make it look like they're banging each other while telling everyone they're " just really close friends", to accomplish that. Amazingly they were able to do their jobs without having to adopt each other or hookup. This over emotional, trainwreck of a cop, who constantly has to prove she has a bigger dick than every man she works with, this sexually manipulative bully who IRL would have been busted back to a Meter Maid long ago, has turned this show into "All My Children", literally. All because from the suits at NBC on down, they didn't have the faith, confidence, or courage in MH to carry the show on as a Police/Courtroom Procedural drama. That the police and DA's have to be soulmates and lovers to work together and do their jobs is the tell. Mission accomplished. SVU is set in rich, white Pine Valley, and Benson is Erica Kane who gets all the shit and all the men as lovers and co-conspirators. These fangirls don't even know the history of the show or care. They keep shipping Barben because they don't remember how Benson and EADA Haden got caught screwing while working on sex crime cases by Bayard Ellis who was going to sue NYPD and the DA because of it, handed Benson her big ass on a platter, and Haden had to resign and jump to the JTTF or lose it all....because he was banging Benson. Three months later she walks into a Brooklyn courtroom and meets Barba and ...what? oops I did it again? And I'm getting away with it for six years because I've told everyone we're good friends, not lovers?! She and Haden came close to losing their whole careers and for Benson you might as well kill her if that happened. But now, it's a full blown soap opera, nothing more, and it's all about who she's going to have sex with this week. And the no nothing, sad, over imaginative fangirls are eating it up and saying so loudly. I expect nothing, nothing from this show from now on but cheesy, immoral, unethical sex hookups between the main characters until everyone has banged everyone else they work with, and case stories that are just excuses with lots of nasty, rape fantasy porno child porn, sex slave bullshit as a backdrop to more tacky sex between the lead actress and....pretty much every guy who walks past her. This is NOT Law&Order....it's just a soap opera fueled solely by sex sex sex....everybody having sex with everybody they work with and a few more they can drag into the show for the purpose of having sex...probably with Benson. Because a 54 yr old bat shit from menopause cow rapidly morphing into Steven Seagal with crazy eyes and a snarling mouth and tits down to her waist and an ass you could serve a family buffet on, turns on every man in NYC because there are no beautiful women in that town....except Olivia. I don't care how long this show runs, it's a cheesy soap opera write off. And crap like that doesn't win Emmy's.

[balmz]

i lost more respect for this show then i thought was possible, when there was the hispanic guy, i was wondering if for a twist, a member of the cartel that noah's bio mother was part of had kidnapped him as revenge on olivia, that would have been more acceptable but no they went the cliche and stupid route of sheila being the villain, that sends a bad message to adoption, there was no reason why olivia and sheila couldn't have had shared custody, it's a different family unit then what you usually see but it would have been nice to see them do that instead, it's so obvious now that the cast has to bend over backwards for marisaka's ego

[Xeliou66]

3 hours ago, QueenMab said:

It is clear to me that the fangirls (probably "younger") have been so vocal in insisting on personal drama cheese, the writers and (ahem!) the producers have chosen to please them. Instead of, as old Prez Bush used to say, "stay the course", they have veered way off the L &O track, and gone the nighttime soap route. Their paranoia when Meloni left is painfully evident. They were so insecure about MH not having a man by her side they scrambled to find her a new partner. Enter Barba. But instead of calming down and bringing on a strong male character that was interesting and balanced the police part with good law/courtroom drama, they turned him into a "sidekick". And that's where this show went off the rails. They bowed to the fangirls who will not accept a good looking, interesting male character unless Olivia can bang him like she has all the others. Everytime a male character comes on that isn't a lowly detective , we don't have to guess, he's there to somewhere along the line, get all up in Benson and get personally involved. EVERYTHING, I repeat, EVERYTHING, about the waaaay too personal interactions between the main characters is WRONG on every level. We know McCoy had "relationships" with his female colleagues, but we didn't find out about them until they quit, got killed in a car crash, or showed up ten years later to expose it in a court trial. Which ADA McCoy was banging was not the focus of the show. And this desperately cheesy "we're a FAMILY" bullshit was non-exsistant. And we didn't need it. The police caught the bad guys and the DA's Office put them in prison. And the detectives and DA's didn't need to be soulmates through time and space and all eternity, or "totally get" each other,  or do everything possible to make it look like they're banging each other while telling everyone they're " just really close friends", to accomplish that. Amazingly they were able to do their jobs without having to adopt each other or hookup. This over emotional, trainwreck of a cop, who constantly has to prove she has a bigger dick than every man she works with, this sexually manipulative bully who IRL would have been busted back to a Meter Maid long ago, has turned this show into "All My Children", literally. All because from the suits at NBC on down, they didn't have the faith, confidence, or courage in MH to carry the show on as a Police/Courtroom Procedural drama. That the police and DA's have to be soulmates and lovers to work together and do their jobs is the tell. Mission accomplished. SVU is set in rich, white Pine Valley, and Benson is Erica Kane who gets all the shit and all the men as lovers and co-conspirators. These fangirls don't even know the history of the show or care. They keep shipping Barben because they don't remember how Benson and EADA Haden got caught screwing while working on sex crime cases by Bayard Ellis who was going to sue NYPD and the DA because of it, handed Benson her big ass on a platter, and Haden had to resign and jump to the JTTF or lose it all....because he was banging Benson. Three months later she walks into a Brooklyn courtroom and meets Barba and ...what? oops I did it again? And I'm getting away with it for six years because I've told everyone we're good friends, not lovers?! She and Haden came close to losing their whole careers and for Benson you might as well kill her if that happened. But now, it's a full blown soap opera, nothing more, and it's all about who she's going to have sex with this week. And the no nothing, sad, over imaginative fangirls are eating it up and saying so loudly. I expect nothing, nothing from this show from now on but cheesy, immoral, unethical sex hookups between the main characters until everyone has banged everyone else they work with, and case stories that are just excuses with lots of nasty, rape fantasy porno child porn, sex slave bullshit as a backdrop to more tacky sex between the lead actress and....pretty much every guy who walks past her. This is NOT Law&Order....it's just a soap opera fueled solely by sex sex sex....everybody having sex with everybody they work with and a few more they can drag into the show for the purpose of having sex...probably with Benson. Because a 54 yr old bat shit from menopause cow rapidly morphing into Steven Seagal with crazy eyes and a snarling mouth and tits down to her waist and an ass you could serve a family buffet on, turns on every man in NYC because there are no beautiful women in that town....except Olivia. I don't care how long this show runs, it's a cheesy soap opera write off. And crap like that doesn't win Emmy's.

Terrific rant, and right on point. Mariska and her insane ego has taken over the show, and the shows purpose now is to stroke her ego and promote her personal agendas and her foundation. This show doesn’t have any resemblance to the mothership, which was all about the detective work and court cases, even when a bit of personal stuff came in it didn’t overshadow the case. Now Benson’s personal shit gets just as much as the case or is the case. 

And it’s ridiculous how so many recurring characters have hooked up with Benson : Cassidy, Haden, Porter, Tucker to name some of Benson’s boyfriends. And now I’m afraid they are going the Benson/Barba route, because apparently Benson has forgotten what happened when she hooked up with Haden and how it resulted in disaster. And it’s absurd that so many people would line up to bang fat whiny cow Benson at the risk of their jobs being screwed. 

The fangirls have no idea about the L&O franchise, they just love the soapy drama, sex and romance along with fantasy endings to cases.

[Jaded]

I don't post about the show anywhere else and don't normally go looking for comments about it on the sites like TVLine, EW and elsewhere. So the the comments I saw from people at TVLine  wanting Benson and Barba to hook up made those fangirls real to me. Their gushing was so over the top and just plain icky.

[wonderwoman]

QueenMab: a great rant, but this much text with no breaks is really hard to read and absorb. 

[GalvDuck]

On 1/6/2018 at 4:32 PM, jrlr said:

And on top of every other problem with this soapy episode, they had to rip off the title of a great Dennis Lehane book.   Did they think no one would notice?

Now you've gone all Jeopardy on me. 

[watcher1006]

On 1/5/2018 at 9:51 PM, WendyCR72 said:

It's almost 20 seasons in! It's all been done! Twice, three times, a thousand.

At the risk of offending any mega SVU fans here, I have to be honest and say I'll be a bit miffed if this breaks the Mothership's record of 20 seasons. The quality level it is at now doesn't deserve to. (At least to me.) At least L&O: CI had the grace to end after 10 seasons when the gas was running out, and on an up note.

Again, just to be clear here, my opinion.  :-)

SVU has a good chance now to outlast the original, the bar for renewal these days is set so much lower than it was in 2010. The show has a longtime loyal fan base (however dwindling it may be) that keeps the show afloat in the landscape of declining ratings for the legacy broadcast networks. However painful it may be for some of them to keep watching.

Dodds was right, Olivia Benson couldn't be on the case, at least not out front, because of her extreme personal involvement. The chance of the case ending badly due to improper procedure was too great. But it was she who entered the cabin by herself. It seems that we are to believe that the case couldn't be solved without the great Benson. The writers gave the improper procedure part to Rollins.

Edited January 9, 2018 by watcher1006
Typo

[FozzyBear]

That was gross. I’m not sure I can hang with this show. I mean, I probably will but I may have to start drinking. It’s become little more than a fascist fantasy world where the police can do whatever the fuck they want because it’s all in service of insane straw man arguments. Half of the squad should have their badges taken away after this, but it’s all good because they were protecting little Noah and how do you argue with that? I’m disgusted by this episode.

[Gigglepuff]

Again, hammering our heads with the episode's "moral of the story." Blood relatives don't have to be family, and family doesn't have to be blood, so now we have, Uncles Rafa and Sonny, and Aunt Amanda. From what I recall, this is the first time the others were introduced as Noah's aunt and uncles. OK, writers....I know being subtle is not your forte, but jeez.....I'm not my coworkers kids, "auntie" but then again, I don't have a big, happy, loving, "family" workplace the the squad does.

 

Oh, and we all don't either bang each other or want to bang each other either. 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Gigglepuff
added last sentence

[Xeliou66]

9 minutes ago, Gigglepuff said:

Again, hammering our heads with the episode's "moral of the story." Blood relatives don't have to be family, and family doesn't have to be blood, so now we have, Uncles Rafa and Sonny, and Aunt Amanda. From what I recall, this is the first time the others were introduced as Noah's aunt and uncles. OK, writers....I know being subtle is not your forte, but jeez.....I'm not my coworkers kids, "auntie" but then again, I don't have a big, happy, loving, "family" workplace the the squad does. 

That part was so nauseating and ridiculous. No one has that, it’s just in Mariska’s fantasy world where everything is so wonderful and the world revolves around Benson. Sickening. This show doesn’t even feel like L&O anymore, the mothership never had all this everyone is family bullshit, Criminal Intent didn’t either even when it became a soap for a couple of seasons. This is just over the top, cringeworthy, poorly acted, melodrama with the messages being less subtle than a sledgehammer bashing your skull in. 

[DaynaPhile]

Only worthwhile moment in the whole episode was Barba’s line, in the greatest tone ever, “That’s jaywalking!”  

[25thID]

This episode pissed me off. Granted, it was more of the same old, same old, with St. Benson charging in without back up, "knowing what's best" without all the facts, over acting, etc. What got me the most, was making Sheila crazy, granted I had  feeling the writers were going to do that from the beginning, it still was difficult to watch, especially with St. Benson treating Noah as an object, rather than  person (HE'S MINE! LEGALLY! YOU DON'T COUNT, EVEN AS HIS BLOOD RELATIVE!).

As a side note, I couldn't find it in here to quote, but someone made the point that Mariska is a poor actress, and how the old cast and writing kind of covered it up, I agree. I didn't really think about it before-it just seemed like something was off before-but it does seem like the writers knew how to tailor a script around her to play to others strengths to kind of hide her weaknesses. Now, with her being front and center (in multiple ways), there seems to be nowhere to hide, so to speak.

Anyways, I think this episode is a throw away, and almost makes the Sheila character pointless, especially since we'll probably never see her again. I guess what really irks me the most, is that the writers could've made the Sheila character a positive one- a blood relative who cares about Noah, and can tell him about his mom/family, history (medical and otherwise), and just have another woman/parent in his life. Instead, the writers took the lazy/easy way out, and made St. Benson the only person who cares about Noah, and the only person who knows what's best for him, whether he likes it or not!

 

P.S. I was really hoping no one would find Sheila and Noah. I was hoping she would've been a little more level headed; she'd raise him,  he'd grow up to be well adjusted and functional, and that he'd forget about his time with St. Benson. It seems like St. Benson is setting him up for failure, she treats him like he's a fragile object that constantly needs to be protected, not raised. Anyway, enough with the Noah stuff, they should changed the name to "Special Noah Unit."

[katisha]

Urgh, finally caught up and watched this episode today and it was, as I had expected, pretty damn bad. Nothing really to add to the excellent comments above but I will say I very much doubt that's the last we will see of Sheila or Noah (regrettably). Sheila will probably get off on a mental health defence, escape from the looney bin and it will start all over again. Oy.

[Joe Hellandback]

Okay, this pretty much played out as I thought it would, however I did like that they didn't kill her, I would like to see Benson and Noah visit her in prison/mental asylum at some stage, 

[wanderingstar]

On ‎1‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 11:59 PM, Maximum Taco said:

Benson finding a serial rapist while combing the Peruvian Rainforest for Noah

Benson solving the first space rape while investigating the International Space Station because Noah was spotted there. 

This made me laugh so hard.