I don’t usually watch this show, so I don’t know if last night’s episode was an aberration.
Does this crack team of detectives ordinarily get assigned to work on a simple assault? I realize that it didn’t end up as a simple assault, but that’s the way it looked at the start. Young woman gets beat up in a cheap hotel and then sneaks out of the hospital. Did I miss something? Why did they think it was necessary to work that case?
I liked that they drew some attention to phony abortion clinics, but that sure was a convoluted way to do it.
My guess would be that because the assault: 1. took place in a by-the-hour motel known to be frequented by hookers; and, 2. invovled an underage girl, it was the sort of crime considered “heinous” enough to draw the attention of the special victims unit.
I started a “jump the shark” thread on SVU last week, but I gotta say this week’s was better with one exception: why did Casey put the nurse on the stand? Let the chick from Designing Women put her up there.
What gets me about the show is that it makes manhattan out to be about the safest place in America since every time there’s one sex crime the entire squad works on it, and it alone, for a period that seems like months.
Also since the time scale of the show seems like several months in their universe equals one week in ours, shouldn’t they be using holographic recreations, discussing the Jenna Bush administration, and be really, really old?
The assault appeared to have sexual overtones, the victim was underage, and when they followed up, it turned out she was a missing child, and when they did finally find her, she was pregnant and lost the child due to the beating she’d sustained. Totally up SVU’s alley.
As for the time frame issues, it’s a problem in any police procedural drama. We know you can’t get DNA results in less than a couple of months, that an investigation can take even longer to get all the evidence, and that trials can spread across years. For the sake of the plot, these events get compressed. And when you create a show that’s set in a very specific place - like Manhattan - and have the characters deal with one specific type of event - violent sexual crimes - you will eventually pass a realistic ratio of crimes:city and detectives:crime. Still, there have been times when one of the detectives states they have seventeen rape investigations still open or that there were a dozen rapes on Labor Day. The show can’t portray all those investigations in the course of one episode. It chooses to focus instead of one particular plotline to the exclusion of the others.
That being said, I was disappointed in the poor writing for the 11/15 episode. Last night’s was better, over all, but I would really like to see the focus of the show shift to a more ensemble approach. It seems the only purpose Munch serves these days is to say a couple of zingers or argue the controversial side of a subject.
I missed out on the overtones of sexual assault. They didn’t know she was underage until they identified her, did they? Had she been reported missing? I missed a few minutes at the start of the show.
I also didn’t understand how they were able to identify her so quickly.
Also, can they really finesse surveillance video like that? Clear up those muddy pictures?
I was going to start a thread about last night’s show. It was supposed to be a “ripped from the headlines” episode, and I vaguely remember a case about a boy and girl hitting the girl’s stomach to try to abort the baby. However, is the part about the fake abortion clinics true? I’ve never heard of this before, and was curious about the authenticity of that part.
No, they can’t. At least not that quickly and most definitely not ever that clearly. They’ve been using that plot-driven cliché on TV shows since Mission Impossible. Really bugs me when a classy show like L&O does it though…
Yes. There are a number of organizations which advertise as abortion clinics (or pregancy counselling clinics) which are decidedly NOT. Here’s a cite from the Planned Parenthood national website.
Apparently it’s true. A google search brought up a bunch of information about “pregnancy counseling centers”. But I don’t think any of them advertise as abortion clinics like the one on the show did.
First, when Lauren tried to obtain the abortion pill, she was turned away by the pharmacist because it was “against his conscience.” What, there’s only one pharmacy in her town?
Second, and related to the first, when she was unable to get an appointment at the clinic, why didn’t she find another clinic? There’s only one abortion clinic in Manhattan?
Third, I don’t understand why she wasn’t also charged with a felony. I didn’t quite get the legal loophole on that one.
However, I’m glad they went after the doctor.
If fake abortion clinics are starting to pop up, how are they not shut down for fraud?
Yes, she had been reported missing. They were able to indentify her because they found a bus ticket in her trash can, the origin of which was her small hometown of Pulaski, VA.
I wondered about that one, too. A quick search shows that at least five national chain stores have pharmacies in Pulaski.