S19.E22: Mama

[dttruman]

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Its truly amazing how huge Mariska’s ego has become, at times it feels like the show is nothing more than a PSA for her foundation, it was really telling when she said she can’t tell the difference between herself and Benson! She’s just playing herself and using the show to promote herself, and it has damaged the quality of the show badly.

Do you think she might run for office somewhere? It seems to be the fashionable thing to do these days.

[Fellaway]

5 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

it has damaged the quality of the show badly.

It really has.  I think this show, from the very beginning, has always treated Olivia like she's more special than anyone else, but, at least in the past, they allowed her to be fallible.  And there was balance.  Other characters had storylines of their own, families and histories, their own opportunities to be the focus and/or the hero.  Now, not so much.  Now, even when Olivia does make a tremendous blunder, people still rush to pat her on the back and tell her it's not her fault.  And what could've been a decent B storyline - Fin's transfer and the strings he pulled to get out of it - is given the time and depth of a D storyline, at best.

Like I said before, the Liv Love reached new levels of egregiousness this week.  I really don't know why they're letting this slide by, why they think it's good for the show.  Do they really think MH would leave the show if they got that balance back?

[Xeliou66]

I think MH has more control over the show than anyone now and she is inserting all of this in. Ever since she became an executive producer, the show has been extremely Benson centric, Noah was added, at her request I’m sure, and the worship of Benson started. It’s become downright laughable now how many episodes end with victims or someone else thanking Benson for being a hero, and it’s especially weird seeing how many people involved with the show say the same thing about Mariska basically. There seems to be a cult like vibe around Mariska/Benson, and the show is just designed now to appeal to viewers who love her, relate to her and share her views. Everyone else is screwed.

[Bexx88]

The viewers that love Liv are the biggest chunk of the audience. There was a survey recently about the most popular female characters on TV and she came around third. People I know who watch the show watch exclusively for Liv. Putting her front and centre is just playing to their base. Their base being white women of a certain age and income level. It’s also why all the victims tend to be white women of said income level who could legitimately be played by the same actress every week. It’s working for them, the ratings reflect that, so I can’t blame nbc (and I do think it’s nbc, not Mariska) for going hard with a formula that keeps a steady show going, but it doesn’t make for a very good show and it certainly doesn’t make the show the groundbreaking force for progress the writers (and Mariska) love to think of it as. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Oy, Joe Piscopo has not aged well. And given his politics I was surprised to see him on a feminism-friendly (self-proclaiming anyway, but that's another discussion) show like this. I guess a paycheck is a paycheck.

[HunterHunted]

On 5/17/2018 at 7:17 PM, dttruman said:

I know this has nothing to do with SVU, and only the CI episode, but I thought I would ask it anyway. Who ended up with the hotel. Father kills wife, daughter kills father, and daughter goes to jail. Who wins?

On 5/17/2018 at 8:06 PM, Xeliou66 said:

The daughter killed both the mom and the dad in that one, the dad just manipulated her into killing the mom, knowing she was mentally unstable, he set up the whole situation along with his lover/would be son in law, so he could gain control of the hotel and it’s finances and share it with his lover I guess. That was a twisted but great episode! I have no idea who got the hotel, it was probably sold. 

 

Under common law, there is the slayer rule, which prevents murderers from inheriting from their victims. Most U.S. jurisdictions have memorialized this in their state statutes. What likely happened is that a probate court and executor of the estate went through to try to determine any other heirs of the mother or named beneficiaries in the will in order to pass the rest of the estate along, including the hotel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slayer_rule?wprov=sfla1

 

I don't know why it took the SVU so long to guess that the rape might have been in the past for victim 1. She was cycling so rapidly between past and present that it should have been their first guess, especially after the doctor's evaluation turned up nothing. Once again, this is why they need Huang. We'll never get him back because BD's killing it career wise and doesn't need this chickenshit gig.

[preeya]

WTF!!  Would someone please explain the Finn promotion, transfer, not transferred scenario because I'm confused?

[Angeltoes]

This episode should never have a game that you have to take a drink when someone says marzipan cookies.  Everybody would be loaded by the first commercial.

I did laugh when Rollins told the grandson to buy the Harley and he shot back that that was his brother.

I doubt if cops are even allowed to accept gifts like the necklace from victims.  

Edited May 20, 2018 by Angeltoes

[wknt3]

On 5/18/2018 at 6:38 PM, dttruman said:

Do you think she might run for office somewhere? It seems to be the fashionable thing to do these days.

Come on. Do you really thing going from being the egocentric star of an aging former hit NBC series to electoral politics is a realistic career path? Just can't imagine that happening...

[QueenMab]

Well, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Swartzenegger, Fred Dalton Thompson, and "Casey Novak"........ nobody expected Trump to win or Hillary to not sit down and shut up when she lost either, soooo.........

[dttruman]

7 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Come on. Do you really thing going from being the egocentric star of an aging former hit NBC series to electoral politics is a realistic career path? Just can't imagine that happening...

Considering what some people were saying about the speech Oprah made and the fact that Cynthia Nixon is running  for office, I wouldn't put it past MH.

[Joe Hellandback]

I thought this was actually pretty good, as others have commented a lack of melodrama and more of a realistic ep than before, reminiscent of the Nightstalker case in London. Twists and turns, you think it's the Sinatra impersonator, then you think it's the old professor and glad when it's not, I actually thought that it might be the old guy in the pastry shop or his son but thankfully not. Great performance from Anne Archer as the mommy dearest, halfway between Sunset Boulevard and The Manchurian Candidate.   

1. Okay so they can't do the suspect for rape but surely at least identity theft?

2. Shouldn't Carisi read him his rights when he arrests him?

3. Finn in uniform, should he be allowed to drink in a bar wearing it?

4. We have a press leak but for once it seems the right idea although you wonder if these witnesses will be any better than the original 2?

5. I'm ok with the whole 'I love you' bit to Benson, she probably mistook her for her daughter. 

[dttruman]

8 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Okay so they can't do the suspect for rape but surely at least identity theft?

Weren't their other victims that identified him?

 

20 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Finn in uniform, should he be allowed to drink in a bar wearing it?

I didn't know that was a rule. I learn something new today

 

28 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

I'm ok with the whole 'I love you' bit to Benson, she probably mistook her for her daughter. 

I think under normal circumstances I would too, but I can not help but think there was some ulterior motive. Was it an ego thing that MH had them write in for her benefit or was it one of those (sort of mother-daughter) moments that Benson never got to experience with her mother.

[illdoc]

On 5/20/2018 at 9:28 AM, Angeltoes said:

This episode should never have a game that you have to take a drink when someone says marzipan cookies.  Everybody would be loaded by the first commercial.

I love marzipan and have never even heard of "marzipan cookies" until this episode!

[HunterHunted]

1 hour ago, illdoc said:

I love marzipan and have never even heard of "marzipan cookies" until this episode!

https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/04/almond-horn-cookies/

http://www.diaryofamadhausfrau.com/2014/08/german-marzipan-sand-cookies.html

A lot of recipes use marzipan and almond paste interchangeably. They are not, but most "marzipan cookie" recipes actually call for almond paste.

https://www.thekitchn.com/almond-paste-and-marzipan-what-46772

I suspect conflating the two began because most cookie recipes using almond paste end up adding the ingredients that are also present in marzipan (sugar and egg whites).

[Picture It. Sicily]

On 5/18/2018 at 5:59 PM, QueenMab said:

I actually thought Benson would put the necklace in the daughter's hand and say something appropriate like " I can't, this belongs to you". $18,000 a month for senior living in NYC??! Jaysus H! No wonder Barba's abuelita wanted to stay in her crappy apartment! He would have had to get his suits at Men's Wearhouse. Olivia the Goddess to all humans has gotten waaaay old. I guess if the ADA can't hop in bed with her, he doesn't exist. Stone is a beefcake non-entity. That's all I got from this "episode".

It's completely against regulations to take any sort of gift. Remember when Olivia boasted that Karen Smythe wouldn't even take a free cup of coffee?

Edited May 22, 2018 by Picture It. Sicily

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, Picture It. Sicily said:

It's completely against regulations to take any sort of gift. Remember when Olivia boasted that Karen Smythe wouldn't even take a free cup of coffee?

Heck, I remember Rey Curtis on the Mothership looking down his pious nose at Lennie when Lennie mentioned getting a free breakfast or two.

[shapeshifter]

17 hours ago, Picture It. Sicily said:

It's completely against regulations to take any sort of gift.

That's what I was always taught at the School of L&O.
Like:

15 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Rey Curtis on the Mothership looking down his pious nose at Lennie when Lennie mentioned getting a free breakfast or two.

So what was the point of having her violate this cardinal rule?

• Will it be a plot point in another episode?
• Are the writers just taking the audience's pulse to see if we're still alive?
• or...?

[illdoc]

And it's not like she hid it...she was wearing the necklace at the end of the episode!

[WendyCR72]

41 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

That's what I was always taught at the School of L&O.
Like:

So what was the point of having her violate this cardinal rule?

• Will it be a plot point in another episode?
• Are the writers just taking the audience's pulse to see if we're still alive?
• or...?

Probably will never be brought up again. For some reason, TPTB probably think it's Benson's due since she is the be-all, end-all NYPD savior.

[TV Diva Queen]

I work for state government and you can accept gifts, but they have to be under a certain value and you have to report it to the state's ethics officer, which is a huge pain in the ass, so most of the time, its just easier to decline the gift.  

 

I don't think Fin should have been in a bar (drinking) with his uniform on.  In Chicago, (at least downtown) when cops are off duty they wear a sports jersey (the nice button down ones) over their uniforms.  I think the rule is...is you're off duty, you can't have the uniform on, so they just cover it up.  The reality is...they stick out more with the jersey on, than they would if they had their uniforms on.  :)

[TV Anonymous]

(deleted)

Edited May 27, 2018 by TV Anonymous