Last night’s episode was a continuation of this downward spiral. There must be a minimum of 2 “ripped from the headlines” features in every show, making the plot convoluted. Plus, simple rape/murder isn’t enough. When Stabler asked if the victim suffered, I knew the answer already. Of course the victim suffered, and was anally raped just for good measure. Ordinary vaginal rape doesn’t get ratings.
Victims are tortured, burned alive, bled to death slowly, and sodomized with increasingly gruesome objects. We don’t need any CIA manual or active imagination. Any interrogator in the world can come up with a new hideous tactic just by watching the weekly SVU.
Then there are about 11 different twists in each episode so if you miss six seconds of it, the story is foreign to you. And don’t forget the pot shot at the right in every show!
“HIV is very treatable.”
“Yes, but I can’t get insurance because of my pre-existing condition!”:rolleyes:
They should get back to one story like per episode with less misdirection. I’d also like to see more Munch/Tutuola featured episodes rather than Benson/Stabler episodes.
I have to admit, I never get tired of looking at Mariska Hargitay in HD.
The premise makes it inevitable - after spending 45 minutes describing the crime in horrific detail, just sending the perp off to jail doesn’t satisfy the audience’s bloodlust. He’ll have to be killed at the courthouse or in his cell, preferably just after or while on the verge of getting sprung on some technicality so it all looks nice and justicy.
I’ve given up on the show, but I’d consider coming back if Stabler started roughing up a suspect (who later turned out to be innocent) who happened to be an ex-Green Beret and beat the shit out of Stabler in justifiable self-defense. At least this would be a sign that the show acknowledges the potential (and consequences) for police abuse in emotion-charged cases.
Stabler has serious self-control issues. Every time a case he’s working involves children he can be counted on to at least verbally, and usually physically, abuse every suspect. He presumes that every one of them is guilty the instant they’re under suspicion, and no attempt is ever made to rein him in.
The season has been an absolute trainwreck and yet I keep watching because it’s so bad. It’s the Jersey Shore of network television…or maybe it’s the other way around.
But I have to fall in with those who say the show got irredeemably bad a few years ago. The virtual world episode (with a side helping of sexsomnia!) was god awful, as was the multiple personality episode that came before it.
That doesn’t even get into the whole Olivia almost gets raped by a meathead with a beer belly when she’s surrounded by weapons.
I stopped watching a while ago - Benson was getting to be a joke and Stabler apparently has a magical Get-Out-Of-Jail free card for his messes. It’s gone on way too long.
The irony is that Finn and Much are far more intriguing characters who are now treated almost as tertiary, background members of the squad. Geez, that’s gotta burn. They’re not only more interesting but I’d have to rate the two as being better actors (or at least the BenStabler duo doesn’t get any good lines anymore).
Funny - I just mentioned this to my hubby last night -
"Isn’t a rape case interesting enough? Now it has to be a cop raped by another cop and the first cop was really working for Internal Affairs and was going to drop the dime on the rapist cop for working for a drug dealer, oh and the victim cop had actually trained Olivia…?
I still enjoy watching some of the SVU repeats, especially with the not-always-appropriate commercials.
The other night they were running an episode where single moms were getting raped after participating in an online dating site. During the first commercial break after this link was discovered, one of the sponsors was match.com.
The dialogue was incredibly stilted. The iPhone app that hooks you up and gives you AIDS seemed gratuitously sordid (Pardon my naivete, but is there a hookup app even remotely like that in circulation?). The ending where rich Grandpa dies and pays for everybody’s medical care was too pat by half. And when Alex grilled the rape victim/acid splasher on the stand, I got the distinct sense the whole thing was written by committee.
Benson and Stabler are like angels of death. When someone meets them, sure they’ve been raped or beaten or their kids have been kidnapped or abused, but by the end of the episode they will be dead, most likely in the most horrific way possible.
I watched an episode on Netflix instant last night about a boy who’d gone to them to confess that he wanted to have sex with his younger stepbrother, but had yet to touch him in any way. Not only did they treat him like a monster, but by the end of the episode he was brutally murdered.
If you have a problem, do not take it to Benson and Stabler. You will die horribly.
