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S19.E12: Info Wars


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Benson and Barba must put their political beliefs aside when a female pundit is assaulted during a protest.

 

And folks, let's avoid spoilers, please. Not everyone watches the previews :)

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Please take the discussion about Benson to her own thread, especially as the episode has not yet aired. If we can't avoid the "Benson & Barba suck and this show sucks" derailing every episode thread before the episode even airs, we'll begin locking episode threads until Wednesday after the show airs. And please remember that politics have no place here. We can discuss the events of the episode, we can't discuss current politics.  

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Barba and Benson putting their political beliefs aside, yes but not the writers (or should I say the executive producers). When did Rollins become the fair minded member of SVU at the beginning. The writers bent over backwards to focus on the right-wing extremists and was making a poor attempt at justifying the left-wing extremists. This whole episode had a major bias agenda, especially in the courtroom. I am just sorry they used a sexual assault to forward that agenda. There was no real resolution to the sexual assault, yet the writers (or executive producers) chose to lean towards the left as the innocent.

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The Good:
No Noah! Lucy earned her pay this week.
Fin! He's the only character who came out of this looking good.
The defense attorney. I hope we see more of him.
Jack McCoy in the preview!

The Bad:
Making both sides caricatures isn't the same thing as balance.
Hey Liv here's an idea - why not have one of the detectives go with the victim and you actually supervise the investigation? I'm willing to cut them some slack on having Benson working the case since it's high profile. It would add some badly needed nuance if Rollins was pushing back not necessarily because of politics, but perhaps because she was identifying with the scared vulnerable victim she first met and not seeing just the obnoxious pundit the rest of the squad saw. And here's a radical idea - Benson as the skeptical CO and Rollins as the victim's advocate. I know I know viewers don't want growth and nuance.
There was an actually good show in here, but they kept making stupid story choices. Why not have Barba at the lineup? He could be having doubts along with everyone else, but feel pressured to go forward. Why not have him have the squad investigate after the conversation at the bar and know what's coming (without us as viewers knowing) and be unable to do anything about it? Why not frame his dliemma as an ethical one from the jump? As in how can he allow it to go to a jury when he doesn't believe he's made a case beyond a reasonable doubt? Why the false start with MAGA troll boy? Just to insult him? There was a lot of wasted potential here. Maybe the boss was focused on next week and could only do so much.
The return of Pod Barba. At least he made his own decision at the end even if we had to see him looking forlornly at Benson and begging her for absolution afterwards.

Overall this was a dud. They've done just about everything here better so many times before. It's a shame since it wouldn't take much tweaking to make this a good episode. Once again it feels like they took a decent concept and some of the creative team wanted to do the same garbage we got last season and others tried to salvage it and we got something in between. I'm hoping next week is something of a reset and we move more firmly to something more like the classic L&O franchise. Hey I can still dream right?

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About as terrible as I expected. While the episode wasn’t as one sided or Benson as preachy as I expected, it was still crap, felt like just an attempt to cash in on political controversy, and the depictions of everyone involved was over the top, everyone on both sides were extreme nutbags that felt more like cartoon characters than real people. 

And the writing for Barba and the legal stuff has just been awful this year. Barba didn’t have enough to win this case because it was once again mishandled, I don’t even think Barba should’ve gone to trial with what he had, he had squat and his investigators didn’t look into the fan who made advances on the victim at the hotel. But then only later after talking with Benson of course does he dismiss the case, and he does so in a way that just makes him look gutless and weak. 

And what the fuck was with Judge Horowitz allowing the lawyer to ask the alt right blogger to say who on the jury he would expel from the country?! Totally stupid ruling, there is no way the jury could be unbiased after that and it added no value to the trial, way more prejudicial than probative, and Barba should’ve asked for a mistrial right there IMO. Made me wonder if the judge didn’t have some bias himself because allowing that question was absolutely stupid, did he want a riot in the courtroom? 

It did show what a hypocrite Benson is, because she frequently yells at people and behaves like a bitch to them they question whether the victim is being truthful but she immediately questioned the victim’s story here just because she didn’t like her! They try to paint Olivia as the patron saint of all rape victims, but not if the victims are men or women who have different political views than her! 

Fin and Carisi once again got nothing, and they are the 2 best characters on the show now and the only 2 who came out of this one looking good. I’m sick of the Benson and Rollins hour, the show wants to push women to the front and show just how awesome they are, please give us more of Fin and Carisi. 

I did like the defense attorney pretty good, entertaining character. Found it interesting that Barba commented he was a “disciple of Bill Kunstler” it was an accurate description and interesting cause Kunstler played himself in a mothership episode. 

I’m ready for Jack McCoy and Peter Stone to come on and hopefully give Barba a wake up call or just get rid of Barba for good, he’s become a spineless pussy who can’t do anything without consulting Benson and he’s behaved like an idiot for a long time now.

It was funny that Hudson University was the crime scene yet again, that place is the rape capital of America.

Edited by Xeliou66
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The past couple years, political episodes on SVU make me cringe, because they are so over the top and with very little nuance to either side. I mean, Martha was such an over the top, uber cold bitch, with not even a little bit of humanization after being the victim of a crime. And don't get me started on how she characterized Rafael, who was trying to do right by her, because it is his own job, and she deliberately made it more difficult for him to secure a conviction. Then she turns around and blames him in the end. Both the leftists and rightists were basically caricatures of each other. I get those types of people actually do exist, but it gives the feel of some political PSA when employed in a dramatic episode. 

Sure there was a little attempt by Olivia to empathize with Martha in the beginning, but she was certainly quick to assume she was lying. If she was this skeptical with every victim, I wouldn't care, but for every other victim, they could flat out lie to Olivia about details, change their story multiple times and Olivia would be solidly in their corner until the bitter end. Okay, she tried again, but everything was just so unpleasant. 

I did appreciate Rafael trying to do his job professionally, sensibly and also a bit sensitively. He was acutely aware of the political challenges of this case and how his victim apparently was making his case more difficult. But he tried nonetheless in the beginning. He has to assume that his complaining witness was telling the truth; otherwise he can't exactly bring a case to trial. I liked the interplay between Rafael and the defense attorney, because it's been a while since we have seen that sort of amiable legal combat between the ADA and the defense. 

I did like the doubt brought in against Randy by the defense attorney. It's that sort of surprise that makes courtrooms scenes so much fun.  I do wonder why SVU didn't do a little more due diligence if Olivia was really and truly convinced that Randy was the rapist, or at least that Martha's initial ID was suspect. They could have discovered that whole encounter with Randy in the bar beforehand, especially since they thought Martha was misleading them.

If this case was not about politics, but rather a victim who couldn't really remember and there were two different legitimate suspects, the episode would be more interesting for me. The legal questions for Rafael about the truth of the case, even mixed with an unsympathetic victim, could be a good moral quandary. I didn't even mind his choice to dismiss the case, because he couldn't be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was really and truly the rapist. I just wish that poisonous politics were not the underpinning for this episode. 

Edited by ForeverAlone
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On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 9:12 PM, SuzieQ said:

Guessing she was supposed to be Anne Coulter, but this made me want an hour of my life back.  However next week looks like the end of Barba.............

Amen & hallelujah to that! It was awful and predictable! I knew she was FOS and really couldn't ID her perp! She just wanted somebody to go down! Ann Coulter's the same way; make outrageous comments just to incite and keep her name in the news! The attacks on the 911 NY/NJ firemen widows sent her into a tailspin she never recovered from with barely meager appearances on FNC! She finally went too far and no one gives a $#!t what she has to say! She can write those awful books, but only real suckers would buy them since they're full of lies and assumptions not based in fact! ;-(

Edited by Fiero425
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"but Rafa, look Rafa, Rafa Rafa, but Rafa". ENOUGH. Send this guy off to be an ADA in Dubuque, or just put a bullet in him. St.Benson, the rape victims knight in shining armor, except when their politics are different. So...next week, as I thought, McCoy is on Benson's side, and Barba gets prosecuted for.....? Not being Uber Left like McCoy and Benson? Maybe he'll jump to the JTTF, where apparently ADA's go to salvage their careers. I'm hoping next week is the end of Barson, not the end of Barba, but......

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1 minute ago, QueenMab said:

"but Rafa, look Rafa, Rafa Rafa, but Rafa". ENOUGH. Send this guy off to be an ADA in Dubuque, or just put a bullet in him. St.Benson, the rape victims knight in shining armor, except when their politics are different. So...next week, as I thought, McCoy is on Benson's side, and Barba gets prosecuted for.....? Not being Uber Left like McCoy and Benson? Maybe he'll jump to the JTTF, where apparently ADA's go to salvage their careers. I'm hoping next week is the end of Barson, not the end of Barba, but......

Barba has many secrets that have come out, but have been pushed to the side! McCoy's finally gonna come down on him probably! It was only a matter of time with his self-righteousness! ;-)

2 hours ago, dttruman said:

Barba and Benson putting their political beliefs aside, yes but not the writers (or should I say the executive producers). When did Rollins become the fair minded member of SVU at the beginning. The writers bent over backwards to focus on the right-wing extremists and was making a poor attempt at justifying the left-wing extremists. This whole episode had a major bias agenda, especially in the courtroom. I am just sorry they used a sexual assault to forward that agenda. There was no real resolution to the sexual assault, yet the writers (or executive producers) chose to lean towards the left as the innocent.

I just couldn't believe that juror who stood up and threatened the "Alt-Right" guy wasn't thrown off the jury or maybe the whole thing resulting in a mistrial! This episode was a complete joke and I'm sorry I wasted my time on it! ;-)

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1 minute ago, QueenMab said:

When did Rollins become the voice of objectivity and reason....you know, like an investigator should be?

Well the 1st time I can remember is with "Dissonant Voices" a few seasons ago when 2 girls accused their music teacher of molesting them! Rollins tried to slow it down, but Liv was so sure he was guilty, his career was ruined by those b!tches! All they got was probation for the most part with Barba unwilling to prosecute and use the younger brother as a witness to their deception! ;-)

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I was really surprised the judge let the juror's interaction ride and didn't declare a mistrial.  When a juror rises from the box and declares he wants to beat up a witness, isn't it game over?  It doesn't matter which side the witness is testifying for, just that it's juror misconduct, so that juror should have been dismissed and an alternate put in place, or a mistrial declared because the outburst was in open court and tainted the proceedings.

I didn't like the victim or the accused or the probable real rapist.  The OTT Ann Coulter caricature made me wonder if the actress was acting or if she's like that in other roles too.

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There seemed to be a few questionable legal things in this episode.

1. Yes, the judge should never have allowed the witness to say who he would remove from the jury. And if he had, that one juror who had an outburst should have been removed. I don't know if a mistrial would have been called, because Randy wasn't the defendant (though the defense certainly raised enough reasonable doubt that he COULD be the rapist). There was no real prejudice to the actual defendant. But yes, at a minimum, that one juror should have been removed.

2. From my understanding of the law, is that SVU builds the case and when complete, hands it off to the ADA for prosecution. But it seemed like they were still investigating when Rafael started to prepare his prosecution. If SVU was genuinely skeptical about the victim's ID, they should have kept investigating. Then they would have likely found out about Martha's rejection of Randy. Of course that strand of investigation was hampered by the fact that Martha was bound and determined to accuse the Antifa guy, even though she wasn't SURE that he was the one who raped her. 

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1 hour ago, CelticBlackCat said:

I was really surprised the judge let the juror's interaction ride and didn't declare a mistrial.  When a juror rises from the box and declares he wants to beat up a witness, isn't it game over?  It doesn't matter which side the witness is testifying for, just that it's juror misconduct, so that juror should have been dismissed and an alternate put in place, or a mistrial declared because the outburst was in open court and tainted the proceedings.

I didn't like the victim or the accused or the probable real rapist.  The OTT Ann Coulter caricature made me wonder if the actress was acting or if she's like that in other roles too.

It was Rhea Sehorn from Better Call Saul. Her character in that show has a similar demeanor, but in real life she seems different (ive seen her on BCS talk show).

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5 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

About as terrible as I expected. While the episode wasn’t as one sided or Benson as preachy as I expected, it was still crap, felt like just an attempt to cash in on political controversy, and the depictions of everyone involved was over the top, everyone on both sides were extreme nutbags that felt more like cartoon characters than real people. 

And the writing for Barba and the legal stuff has just been awful this year. Barba didn’t have enough to win this case because it was once again mishandled, I don’t even think Barba should’ve gone to trial with what he had, he had squat and his investigators didn’t look into the fan who made advances on the victim at the hotel. But then only later after talking with Benson of course does he dismiss the case, and he does so in a way that just makes him look gutless and weak. 

And what the fuck was with Judge Horowitz allowing the lawyer to ask the alt right blogger to say who on the Judy he would expel from the country?! Totally stupid ruling, there is no way the jury could be unbiased after that and it added no value to the trial, way more prejudicial than probative, and Barba should’ve asked for a mistrial right there IMO. Made me wonder if the judge didn’t have some bias himself because allowing that question was absolutely stupid, did he want a riot in the courtroom? 

It did show what a hypocrite Benson is, because she frequently yells at people and behaves like a bitch to them they question whether the victim is being truthful but she immediately questioned the victim’s story here just because she didn’t like her! They try to paint Olivia as the patron saint of all rape victims, but not if the victims are men or women who have different political views than her! 

Fin and Carisi once again got nothing, and they are the 2 best characters on the show now and the only 2 who came out of this one looking good. I’m sick of the Benson and Rollins hour, the show wants to push women to the front and show just how awesome they are, please give us more of Fin and Carisi. 

I did like the defense attorney pretty good, entertaining character. Found it interesting that Barba commented he was a “disciple of Bill Kunstler” it was an accurate description and interesting cause Kunstler played himself in a mothership episode. 

I’m ready for Jack McCoy and Peter Stone to come on and hopefully give Barba a wake up call or just get rid of Barba for good, he’s become a spineless pussy who can’t do anything without consulting Benson and he’s behaved like an idiot for a long time now.

It was funny that Hudson University was the crime scene yet again, that place is the rape capital of America.

Glad you mention the incident with the judge allowing that freak to pick out from the jury who he would expel from the country. (I was afraid that might be a spoiler). The judge should have called an immediate mistrial. I thought it was a blatant attempt by the writers (and/ or executive producers). They chose to strictly focus on the extreme right (or white nazi crap) and they hardly touched on the extreme left. IMO, I thought they should have focused more on the middle left and the middle right and how they are misassociated with the fanatics.

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6 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

It was funny that Hudson University was the crime scene yet again, that place is the rape capital of America.

That is totally unfair! What about all of the murders???

 

6 hours ago, QueenMab said:

When did Rollins become the voice of objectivity and reason....you know, like an investigator should be?

Actually I would call Fin the voice of reason in this episode. He was the only one that didn't get involved in social media style political debates, pointed out that everyone involved in this case was terrible, and had the explicit remark about keeping politics out of the job and just working the case. He didn't get a lot of material this week, but he was the model of a good investigator throughout and the only one in the squad who came off as an elite detective skilled in investigating emotionally charged cases.

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On 2/1/2018 at 1:22 AM, Fiero425 said:

Well the 1st time I can remember is with "Dissonant Voices" a few seasons ago when 2 girls accused their music teacher of molesting them! Rollins tried to slow it down, but Liv was so sure he was guilty, his career was ruined by those b!tches! All they got was probation for the most part with Barba unwilling to prosecute and use the younger brother as a witness to their deception! ;-)

Yeah, they seem to have her on a yo-yo. Objective at first, then completely subjective and surly, and now back to objective. She will be back to her old subjective self when they need her to be.

Edited by dttruman
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13 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

He was the only one that didn't get involved in social media style political debates, pointed out that everyone involved in this case was terrible, and had the explicit remark about keeping politics out of the job and just working the case.

I think this was just their 2-3 second disclaimer of trying to keep an even keel and then went off on their major slanted view. Even Fin had his bad days. Remember when he hindered prosecution of one of his relatives for murder. I think the character was played by Ludacris (who by the way can't act). The character killed someone but Fin wouldn't let another relative testify because he didn't want anymore skeletons to be let out of the family closet.

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21 minutes ago, dttruman said:

I think this was just their 2-3 second disclaimer of trying to keep an even keel and then went off on their major slanted view. Even Fin had his bad days. Remember when he hindered prosecution of one of his relatives for murder. I think the character was played by Ludacris (who by the way can't act). The character killed someone but Fin wouldn't let another relative testify because he didn't want anymore skeletons to be let out of the family closet.

I think you're misremembering a lot of that storyline (in  "Venom" and "Screwed"). Yes, Fin was protective when first Ken looked suspicious. But it was Teresa who didn't want to testify (and have it come out that Darius was her son via rape). Fin didn't even know about that until she finally admitted to it on the stand,  and he didn't want her to run.

Anyway, about "Info Wars": I had a hard time fully concentrating on the episode as I found it so over-the-top, trying to cram in every reference possible to current alt-right vs. social justice liberal battles. It was like someone was playing Mad Libs while scrolling through reddit in one browser tab and Tumblr in another. I kind of wanted a bingo-card to play along at home.

3 hours ago, SWLinPHX said:

I thought the  conservative pundit's proud and unflappable demeanor were very realistic.  I would say a little Ann Coulter but with a lot of Laura Ingraham and Monica Crowley thrown in.

That's what I thought, too. For me actually the actress playing Martha was the one high spot of this episode. Unlikable yes but spot-on in capturing that particular "type". And in a way it was weirdly refreshing seeing a female victim rebutting Benson's whispery platitudes and ~sympathy~.

I thought the second half of the episode in the courtroom was much more engaging than the first, although like others I couldn't believe it that there wasn't an immediate mistrial after the juror outburst, or at least that juror being dismissed. Or that that whole line of questioning had even been allowed. But then again the judge looked so completely sick-of-this-whole-thing that maybe he was just waiting for them all to hang themselves. I don't know.

Bring on McCoy and Stone, that's all I can say right now.

Edited by sockii
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I hate how Benson calls Barba “Rafa” it is so unprofessional, ridiculous and just weird. And Barba has been completely ruined, he acts like a complete incompetent moron every episode now, I honestly don’t care if he leaves at the end of the year. Either have McCoy and Stone give him a brutal wake up call and have him start acting professionally again or just get rid of him. 

The political stuff was ridiculously cliched, it’s like the writers had a list of SJW and alt right buzzwords that they wanted to throw in repeatedly and the characters were just cartoonish and over the top. I’m so sick of the heavy handed political shit ruining episodes. 

I find Benson to be disgustingly hypocritical with how she will berate anyone who doesn’t believe victims in most episodes but then last night she was quick to not believe the victim and her line that not all victims are saints was funny  because she usually treats victims that way. Rollins seemed to be used just as a prop to have a different viewpoint than everyone else, her characterization seems all over the place. Can we please get more Fin and Carisi, they are the only 2 characters I enjoy right now. 

And yeah the judge should’ve immediately declared a mistrial when a juror threatened the Nazi guy. He should never have allowed the defense attorney’s inflammatory, irrelevant question in the first place. The writing for the legal stuff has just been terrible.

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Yeah so the show really wanted to act like they weren't officially "taking sides" but they were. Last new episode a co-pilot made 135 people fear for their lives because she was raped and the rape was all Benson cared about. Previous season, woman willingly prostitutes herself to get her kid into college, and Benson is outraged she was lied too by the fake admissions guy and insists its a rape. Don't get me wrong, I do not support the views of Martha and that guy (accept with not liking/trusting Antifa...) and I cringe as a white person whenever I hear the insanity of "we need to take our country back"... because, obviously, no. But the one time Benson actually says "being raped doesn't make someone a saint" it's being in reference to a Fox News-esque figure and that's annoying me. Why couldn't have been said about a woman who did something terrible that has nothing to do with politics. I'm annoyed to this is following the previous episode and the pilot with his "God fearing liberals comment" and lesson that people can go to Banglor without being terrorists. It's like the show doesn't know how to stick to rape cases anymore so they go for headlines and politics because its easy to just look up things to base it on. I did like Martha calling Benson out on being about to make an inspirational speech, in theory, but then again of course it was someone all about the Right- Wing who spoke to Benson like that and didn't listen to her in naming the guy unlike all the other women who are brave enough to listen to Benson (well, really too just give in to her pushing them into the decision.) Now more than ever I seek out fictional shows to escape the world of politics on since it's discussed in real life now more than ever, so it could just be I'm personally burnt out and thats why I'm so put off by the episode.

 

Screw the show too for the preview they might as well say "yeah you can have McCoy for a treat, but not without Barba being screwed, lol" He better not be written off the show. Please make this another misleading preview. With Stone coming on I'm especially nervous

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"I know I won't be the first or last woman who doesn't get justice after being raped at Hudson University."

She has Hudson's number!  Pro tip for next time: don't accept public speaking engagements at the rape & murder hellmouth.

There were all sorts of things wrong with this episode, but I also thought it was the best of the year so far. 

12 hours ago, wknt3 said:

It's a shame since it wouldn't take much tweaking to make this a good episode.

This is always my thought as well -- this was not a good episode, but it was SO CLOSE to being a good episode.  And all they have to do to make it much better is just restrain themselves a little.  That insane scene of the alt-righter specifically pointing out all the non-white jurors is a good example.  As actually staged, it's completely over-the-top nonsense, and it's impossible to believe the trial would have continued after.  But there was no need to go that far.  You have Barba draw out the same sentiment, get the witness talking about his plan to create a white ethno-state, and that does it!  All you need is the witness being openly racist with that air of cold calculation, insert reaction shots of the jurors, done, point made.  The theatrics are so undermining, the drama would be more effective if they didn't try to dial every moment up to a million.

And was the challenge to the writers that the dialogue could be constructed EXCLUSIVELY from hot controversial buzzwords?  Just pull that back!  Not every word has to be "cuck" or "libtard" for us to get it.

I'm of two minds about the more professional, skeptical Benson we got this week.  On the one hand, I wish she acted like this all the time!  On the other hand, it is a bit ridiculous that she's usually so endlessly soft and forgiving to victims that she KNOWS has lied to her repeatedly, and yet here, the mere suspicion of dishonesty has her adopting this much harder approach.

And there was something incredibly gross about how cavalier Benson was at the end over the fact that they had no idea if the man they were prosecuting was guilty or not.  But she still wants to go to verdict, because the victim getting a verdict, any verdict, is more important than an innocent man being convicted for a crime he did not commit?  I know there is realism to this, but it's just not what I want to see from a procedural where our characters are supposed to be admirable.

The one thing I thought was unambiguously great about this week was Rhea Seehorn.  That was a fantastic performance, she really elevated this material.  She was just as irredeemably despicable as the real Ann Coulter, but she was not only a hateful cartoon, she also registered as an actual human being (unlike the real Ann Coulter).  Impressive work.

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3 minutes ago, JyDanzig said:

I'm of two minds about the more professional, skeptical Benson we got this week.  On the one hand, I wish she acted like this all the time!  On the other hand, it is a bit ridiculous that she's usually so endlessly soft and forgiving to victims that she KNOWS has lied to her repeatedly, and yet here, the mere suspicion of dishonesty has her adopting this much harder approach.

And there was something incredibly gross about how cavalier Benson was at the end over the fact that they had no idea if the man they were prosecuting was guilty or not.  But she still wants to go to verdict, because the victim getting a verdict, any verdict, is more important than an innocent man being convicted for a crime he did not commit?  I know there is realism to this, but it's just not what I want to see from a procedural where our characters are supposed to be admirable.

The one thing I thought was unambiguously great about this week was Rhea Seehorn.  That was a fantastic performance, she really elevated this material.  She was just as irredeemably despicable as the real Ann Coulter, but she was not only a hateful cartoon, she also registered as an actual human being (unlike the real Ann Coulter).  Impressive work.

Agreed! It bothered me that she seemed to think Barba (sorry, "Rafa") should have still gone through with the prosecution. And the reaction shots of her in the courtroom were more over the top than usual!

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I haven't posted in forever but I logged in specifically to say this:

Hey SVU Writers! It's PROBABLY important to note that antifa HATE cops, chant things like "Cops and Klan go hand in hand!" and spray paint "ACAB" everywhere (All Cops Are Bastards). Maybe think of that next time you write a POLICE PROCEDURAL sympathetic to them.

Will collect my thoughts and make a better post later. EYEROLL!

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7 hours ago, sockii said:

I think you're misremembering a lot of that storyline (in  "Venom" and "Screwed"). Yes, Fin was protective when first Ken looked suspicious. But it was Teresa who didn't want to testify (and have it come out that Darius was her son via rape). Fin didn't even know about that until she finally admitted to it on the stand,  and he didn't want her to run.

I may have been a little strong with that comment about not having her testify. I should have said he agreed with her about her not wanting to testify but I thought he should have had Ken testify. But on numerous occasions we see Fin urging witnesses not to be afraid of testifying.

Edited by dttruman
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47 minutes ago, Monkeybball said:

I haven't posted in forever but I logged in specifically to say this:

Hey SVU Writers! It's PROBABLY important to note that antifa HATE cops, chant things like "Cops and Klan go hand in hand!" and spray paint "ACAB" everywhere (All Cops Are Bastards). Maybe think of that next time you write a POLICE PROCEDURAL sympathetic to them.

Will collect my thoughts and make a better post later. EYEROLL!

I know I am nitpicking here about the beginning, but did anybody see any cops at that speaking engagement. Usually there is a major police presences that keeps both protesting sides apart, and all I saw was one bodyguard for the lady. All I thought was "How convenient"

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3 hours ago, dttruman said:

I know I am nitpicking here about the beginning, but did anybody see any cops at that speaking engagement. Usually there is a major police presences that keeps both protesting sides apart, and all I saw was one bodyguard for the lady. All I thought was "How convenient"

In real life, an Ann Coulter-like speaker at any university should have been surrounded by private security and of course there should have been the campus police (if they have it) or city police present.

Another thing that bothered me was when Benson told Martha flat out that she did not like her.  At all.  Well, that was unprofessional and Olivia had no business saying that.

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16 hours ago, sockii said:

Anyway, about "Info Wars": I had a hard time fully concentrating on the episode as I found it so over-the-top, trying to cram in every reference possible to current alt-right vs. social justice liberal battles. It was like someone was playing Mad Libs while scrolling through reddit in one browser tab and Tumblr in another. I kind of wanted a bingo-card to play along at home.

Heh. This comment is a breath of fresh air after that episode's script.

 

16 hours ago, sockii said:

For me actually the actress playing Martha was the one high spot of this episode

Rhea Sehorn is a treasure. She did such a perfect job of staying in character (which was a caricature) that I wondered if she would get any Kudos, but, yes, also:

13 hours ago, JyDanzig said:

The one thing I thought was unambiguously great about this week was Rhea Seehorn.  That was a fantastic performance, she really elevated this material.  She was just as irredeemably despicable as the real Ann Coulter, but she was not only a hateful cartoon, she also registered as an actual human being (unlike the real Ann Coulter).  Impressive work.

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23 hours ago, CelticBlackCat said:

 

I didn't like the victim or the accused or the probable real rapist.  The OTT Ann Coulter caricature made me wonder if the actress was acting or if she's like that in other roles too.

No, she isn’t. She’s fabulous on Better Call Saul.

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On 1/31/2018 at 11:48 PM, Xeliou66 said:

About as terrible as I expected. While the episode wasn’t as one sided or Benson as preachy as I expected, it was still crap, felt like just an attempt to cash in on political controversy, and the depictions of everyone involved was over the top, everyone on both sides were extreme nutbags that felt more like cartoon characters than real people. 

And the writing for Barba and the legal stuff has just been awful this year. Barba didn’t have enough to win this case because it was once again mishandled, I don’t even think Barba should’ve gone to trial with what he had, he had squat and his investigators didn’t look into the fan who made advances on the victim at the hotel. But then only later after talking with Benson of course does he dismiss the case, and he does so in a way that just makes him look gutless and weak. 

And what the fuck was with Judge Horowitz allowing the lawyer to ask the alt right blogger to say who on the jury he would expel from the country?! Totally stupid ruling, there is no way the jury could be unbiased after that and it added no value to the trial, way more prejudicial than probative, and Barba should’ve asked for a mistrial right there IMO. Made me wonder if the judge didn’t have some bias himself because allowing that question was absolutely stupid, did he want a riot in the courtroom? 

It did show what a hypocrite Benson is, because she frequently yells at people and behaves like a bitch to them they question whether the victim is being truthful but she immediately questioned the victim’s story here just because she didn’t like her! They try to paint Olivia as the patron saint of all rape victims, but not if the victims are men or women who have different political views than her! 

Fin and Carisi once again got nothing, and they are the 2 best characters on the show now and the only 2 who came out of this one looking good. I’m sick of the Benson and Rollins hour, the show wants to push women to the front and show just how awesome they are, please give us more of Fin and Carisi. 

I did like the defense attorney pretty good, entertaining character. Found it interesting that Barba commented he was a “disciple of Bill Kunstler” it was an accurate description and interesting cause Kunstler played himself in a mothership episode. 

I’m ready for Jack McCoy and Peter Stone to come on and hopefully give Barba a wake up call or just get rid of Barba for good, he’s become a spineless pussy who can’t do anything without consulting Benson and he’s behaved like an idiot for a long time now.

It was funny that Hudson University was the crime scene yet again, that place is the rape capital of America.

My daughter wanted to go to NYU and I told her "are you nuts, everyone gets raped there",  I was joking and she played right along with me and replied "mom, you do know it's not really Hudson University"  there's a funny Hudson U recruiting meme out there on the interwebs that I send her occasionally.    

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17 hours ago, dttruman said:

I know I am nitpicking here about the beginning, but did anybody see any cops at that speaking engagement. Usually there is a major police presences that keeps both protesting sides apart, and all I saw was one bodyguard for the lady. All I thought was "How convenient"

and the speaker was standing in a corner.  Really?  Nice job security/advance team.  

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I think if this episode had been any more on-the-nose most of the viewing audience would need to seek medical attention for nasal fractures.

So was this Martha Cobb woman supposed to be Ann Coulter? Or Laura Ingraham? Or Tomi Lahren? Or Megyn Kelly? ?

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It was blatantly Ann Coulter. She's had these types of situations all through her career, including assaults on her person that, because of security, did not end in rape. But, wherever she goes, chaos ensues. It was soooo Ann Coulter.

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All this episode did was confirm what I already knew.  The extreme left and extreme right are exactly alike.  No one is allowed to express an opinion they don't agree with, and they think they have the right to tell everyone else how to live their lives.

No resolution to the case and no justice for the rape victim.

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All this episode did was confirm what I already knew.  The extreme left and extreme right are exactly alike.  No one is allowed to express an opinion they don't agree with, and they think they have the right to tell everyone else how to live their lives.

No resolution to the case and no justice for the rape victim.

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9 hours ago, QueenMab said:

It was blatantly Ann Coulter. She's had these types of situations all through her career, including assaults on her person that, because of security, did not end in rape. But, wherever she goes, chaos ensues. It was soooo Ann Coulter.

The only difference was that Ann Coulter would have better security.

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16 hours ago, The Mighty Peanut said:

It turns out there IS one thing I dislike more than The Olivia Benson Tribute Hour, and that would be False Equivalencies with Fake Ann Coulter.

I’m gonna stop here before I get myself in trouble. 

Ann Coulter is a lot more extreme than I can put up with, but I can think of couple of women that are as far left as Ann is right.  I doubt if L&O SVU would do an episode like this on a far left woman and portray her in a bad light the way they have portrayed Ann Coulter

Edited by dttruman
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The main thing I took away from this episode was that this is a perfect example of Olivia Benson being a massive hypocrite. She constantly talks about how all women should be believed when they make a rape claim and yells at anyone who questions them, but in this episode she was very quick to question the victim just because she didn’t like her politics. She’s such a disgusting hypocrite, she acts like the ultimate defender and protector of rape victims but then she quickly turns when the victim is an outspoken right winger. And if the victim was a controversial left winger and the defendant was an alt right member, do you really think Barba would’ve dismissed the case like that? I don’t, I mean he didn’t have enough evidence to get a conviction but he has taken weak cases all the way in the past to please Benson. 

 

This episode accomplished what it wanted to do, and that is inflame people and cause controversy. Just look at all the people who are pissed off about, I have no doubt that is what the episode’s purpose was. It’s very disappointing how SVU seems to just be deliberately doing the most controversial stuff possible, the mothership would deal with social issues as well but it was almost always done in a way that was intelligent and thought provoking and not just done for the sake of being controversial.

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4 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

It’s very disappointing how SVU seems to just be deliberately doing the most controversial stuff possible, the mothership would deal with social issues as well but it was almost always done in a way that was intelligent and thought provoking and not just done for the sake of being controversial.

It's my standard "Can't agree with you more". Most of these episodes are about political stances, social issues and a certain character's private and professional life. How about an episode that mostly centers on the investigation of the sex crime and puts a lot more thought into the trial, if there is one.

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20 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

I think if this episode had been any more on-the-nose most of the viewing audience would need to seek medical attention for nasal fractures.

So was this Martha Cobb woman supposed to be Ann Coulter? Or Laura Ingraham? Or Tomi Lahren? Or Megyn Kelly? ?

As I stated above I believe her "snarkiness" is a lot like Laura Ingraham, but she looked a lot like Monica Crowley.  Of course Coulter is the obvious right-wing female extremist, but a lot of it is to create controversy and instigate people.

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