Season 19 Postmortem: Back Off You Vultures I'm Not Dead Yet

[wknt3]

I thought it would be useful to look back on SVU Season 19 as a whole. Unlike Season 18 which I pretty much wanted to forget ASAP as soon as it was over there was actually plenty of good stuff here, although there were a lot of cringeworthy moments too. In fact at times it was worse as it was clear that they were capable of making a better show, whereas last season the stench of incompetence permeated most episodes beginning to end.

What Worked:
1. Better Writing. Unlike last year where I often felt like I was watching a first draft of the script, sometimes by someone who had only seen couple episodes of the show from the season before, this year was much improved. Even when it was going in a direction I didn't like it was usually competent. There was a return to something resembling the classic procedural format where we watched an investigation develop, sometimes with a twist. There was also a return to a variety of stories unlike last year when it seemed like they did the same episode at least 18 times with only slight variations and then a couple that were slightly different. It was far from perfect and there were some clunkers, but I think by any fair objective standards the scripts were greatly improved.

2. The Return of the Squad. Whereas last year was Olivia Benson & the Pips (featuring Ice-T) this year we got to see the entire squad playing a role in the investigations. While Benson is still in the field too much for a CO she didn't do everything all the time and sometimes other detectives solved the case. In fact they even got to have episodes focused on them! Not promoted as focusing on them, but really all about how Benson is the greatest, but actually about them. It was a nice return to the days when most episodes were about the leads, but the other members of the ensemble got a turn in the spotlight. Even if it was overpowered by Benson subplots the COTW was usually decent television in part because we got to see a talented working together and not just watching Benson do their job.

3. There is World Outside the Squad Room. It is obvious that Chernuchin wanted to try to bring the show back in to the larger universe of the franchise, whether because that it what he knows, or to try to lure back lapsed fans, or whatever with characters like McCoy Dworkin, and Olivet appearing, but we also got some characters from SVU seasons past like Cabot and Warner. And also more appearances of other agencies and the NYPD outside the squad. I really would like more of that although I suspect that it's going to be hard given some of the issues I'll discuss later.

4. ADA != BFF It was nice to see that the ADA do more than just follow Benson's lead. We had some decent Barba moments as well as some Pod Barba before Stone came in and they seemed to make it clear that he was making the legal decisions (at least until the finale).

What Didn't:
1. Mariska Mariska Mariska! Except for parts of the second half of the season Benson, who used to be one of my favorite characters on TV, was hard too watch and sucked up way too much of the oxygen. Perhaps the biggest single example of how the good moments made the bad moments worse was that those episodes where Benson was shown mostly as a CO and a cop, with no Benoah and no personal subplots except the ill advised BenStone scenes, made the whole Benoah soap arc with Sheila even more painful in retrospect. And now that we know that Mariska can still give a decent performance with nuance and subtlety, but chooses not to, it's worse. This isn't Ice-T rising to a good script or phoning it in when the give him nothing. This is the star of the show, with script input and creative influence believing that we want to see her do her Batman voice and make constipated faces rather than actually acting. And the time focused on her personal life often left the improved COTW plots without enough to breathe and the things we wanted to see or plot resolutions left on the cutting room floor.

2. BenStone. I'm guessing that somebody at NBC or Dick Wolf is trying to recapture the Benson/Stabler magic by shoving Liv together with the ADA's since she's CO now and they can't really do UST with anybody else. Lots of scenes talking a little about cases and a lot about their lives in bars and restaurants staring longingly at each other. Give up show. You actually have another Benson/Stabler with Rollisi. They have natural chemistry and there are actual reasons for them to be spending time together. And you could actually put Liv in an actual grownup relationship with someone she has real chemistry with.

3. It's A Small World Outside the Squad Room Afterall. There is still a distinct lack of recurring supporting characters. I can't help but think that the money they spent on Brooke Shields would have been much better spent on bringing in some of the many talented underpaid NYC theater actors as techs or maybe a Profaci/Dodds Jr. type of role as another detective for the main cast to play off of and fill in when Fin or Rollins isn't there.

The High Point:
McCoy's eulogy for Ben Stone. It just got everything right about both characters and was so well written. I wish the rest of that episode lived up to the opening scene. Not only was Barba's exit an insult to Barba's character and the viewer's intelligence, but I still haven't forgiven them for not doing a tribute to Steven Hill by talking about Adam Schiff the way they used Benjamin Bratt's return on the mothership as a salute to Jerry Orbach. There were quite a few better episodes this season, but nothing tops those few minutes.

The Low Point:
A tie between Something Happened and when they made the arrest in the season finale based on Liv's gut and absolutely no evidence or probable cause. I would say the entire season finale, but there were actually some good moments here and there (the opener, Stone dealing with the defense attorneys) unlike Something Happened which is just an ego trip dressed up as an episode. The common thread is that they both regress to last season's deification of Benson and throw out everything they did this season to try to move past that.

 

Overall this was an improvement over last year and there is an obvious path forward. If they can do what they did in the later part of the season and do something of a stripped down version of the classic SVU formula and contain Mariska's ego trips in a few "Very Special Episodes" I'm in until the end and will just zone out occasionally. That approach seems to work for Ice-T after all. Then hopefully NBC will announce that Season 21 will be the end and they will give Chernuchin a mandate to bring it home in a way that focuses on quality and restoring the Law & Order brand name, I'd hate to seem them try to keep going until the die hards give up and see multiple seasons on the level of last year.
 

[Xeliou66]

Great post and idea for a thread. Here is my recap and review of season 19

The Good Parts

The wider variety of stories that were told. Season 18 was almost entirely he said/she said rape cases involving the rich and famous, this season dealt with a much wider array of cases and issues, which was very refreshing to see. 

More use of the other detectives besides Benson, it was nice to see them doing more work throughout the episodes than they did in season 18. 

The return of Jack McCoy! It was terrific to see such a legendary, great character back on for an episode, seeing him interact with Stone and Barba was awesome, although I wish we had seen him with Barba before Barba went off the deep end (more on Barba in a minute). But it was great to see McCoy again, and his eulogy of Ben Stone was especially good, and I was glad McCoy got referenced in a few other episodes.

The return of other characters : Olivet, Warner, Dworkin, Cassidy, Cabot (although they shit the bed badly with Cabot), it was great to see familiar faces return. 

Peter Stone coming in. It has been very refreshing to have an ADA who will make his own decisions and stand up to Benson and not bow to her wishes. He has been a great addition and has strengthened the legal stuff and given it a new spark. 

The Bad Parts

Benson. She’s completely unbearable now, a total self absorbed, condescending bitch to everyone who always has the same overdramatic expression on her face. I’m sick of her being front and center all the time, Mariska’s ego and constantly being on her soapbox is hurting the show badly.

The Noah-Sheila storyline. Extremely predictable and completely pointless, just an attempt to give Benson more angst and drama, I’m sick of the brat taking up screen time and the whole storyline was stupid. 

The destruction of Barba. He had his balls chopped off by Benson and couldn’t do anything without her, and then he went off the deep end by pulling the plug on the baby. I hated what they did to him and how they ruined a great character.

Best Moment 

McCoy’s eulogy of Ben Stone. A great tribute to a great character delivered by another great character. I do wish they had referenced Adam Schiff at some point in there. The best episode of the season was Guardian, that episode felt like a classic, strong SVU episode. 

Worst Moment

The PSA at the end of No Good Reason. Getting your brains bashed in by a sledgehammer would be more subtle and less painful. It was the most out of place moment I’ve ever seen in the whole L&O franchise, and that’s saying something for a franchise with as many episodes as L&O has. It was painful to sit through, nothing more than a pathetic attempt to boost Mariska’s ego and make Benson look like a saint who could stop bullying with a single sermon. There are plenty of other bad moments, the season finale was chock full of them, the whole episode Gone Baby Gone was garbage, the shitting on Carisi in In Loco Parentis, the cartoonish depictions of political activists in Info Wars, the heavy handed political message in Flight Risk, but the PSA took the cake for awfulness. 

Edited June 8, 2018 by Xeliou66

[Gigi43]

This season  was a big mixed bag, which is a step up from the crap bag of last season, at least. 

 

For all the old faces popping up, McCoy at Stones memorial, there was also killing of Barba (honestly that's how I see it, they killed everything about him but he was still walking around and able to say nice things to Liv.)

 

They branched out to not just he said/she said rapes,  which was VERY welcome. It felt like there were more jury verdicts too. However as I've complained about some of the not-rape cases involved lazy writing of medical facts/cases that were the bare minimum of things they should have come correct with since some of it negated other elements of the plots. 

 

This season had promise and the show has been lacking that, so I'll be going into season 20 to see if there's  a snowballs chance in hell they can build on that or will it falter to season 18.

 

Best moment of the season I have to admit goes Peter Stone and his reaction that he'll  get to know the Squad better  "what? Learn that your all criminals?" Ha! *blocks out last shot of the season *

Edited June 8, 2018 by Gigi43

[Gigglepuff]

24 minutes ago, Gigi43 said:

Best moment of the season I have to admit goes Peter Stone and his reaction that he'll  get to know the Squad better  "what? Learm that your all criminals?"

That was a fantastic moment, lol. 

[Xeliou66]

Also Stone’s line in Chasing Demons after Benson asked if he was going to prosecute everyone there : “If they keep killing people!”. I loved Stone in that episode, like I say, Stone has been a terrific addition, he gave the legal side of the show the spark it needed after Barba got castrated, I just hope Stone continues to make his own decisions and put Benson in her place when the situation calls for it, and doesn’t become her BFF like Barba was.