Law and Order: SVU Reviews N

 This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

“I Deserve Some Loving, Too” Season 21. See this for a summary.       

The main political aspect of this is an investigator for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services abusing his position to coerce women involved with Green Card marriages into sleeping with him. I like to think it’s a comment on TRUMP’S USCIS, especially since the guy starts talking at one point about how immigration is an “invasion” of people who will take public services, food, and jobs from native-born Americans. The ADA says that instead of the immigrants getting the American dream, they get a nightmare.

There’s a few minor aspects worth mentioning:

1. Towards the beginning there’s a near-riot in response to SVU arresting a Black man for groping on the subway. They move on from it pretty quickly, and he IS guilty, so it doesn’t bother me.
2. Although this kind of undermines sympathy for immigrants, it turns out that one marriage the USCIS supervisor was messing with is fake- the man is gay.
3. One character says that after 9/11 Muslims feel ashamed of being muslim- it’s not because of what Al-Qaeda did, but how America responded to 9/11.

“Swimming with the Sharks” Season 21. See this for a summary.

There’s one thing worth mentioning. The white female character played by the main guest star is in a relationship with a black woman. I realize that nowadays inter-racial relationships are more accepted than they were 20 years ago, but it still seemed worth mentioning.

“Eternal Relief from Pain” Season 21. See this for a summary.

There are two political notes:

1. The apparently Arab-American supervisor of the SVU ADA (a recurring character) says that the main defendant’s father would never have let her marry his white son.

2. The new female SVU detective might be bisexual, although at the risk of getting too sexual for this blog, she might just like fooling around with other women (it’s my theory that a lot of straight women are like that but they don’t want a girlfriend or to even go on a date with another woman. Also the character is, I think, Arab-American, I just can’t remember for sure.

“Solving for the Unknowns” Season 21 See this for a plot summary.

I’m pretty sure at this point that Kat, the new female detective, is identified as bi-sexual. In some ways it’s no more important than the appearance of other LGB characters but I’d say it IS more important. In an average season, between the detectives and the ADAs there’s about 6 main characters, and there’s been 21 seasons. I think that about 15% of NYC is gay or bi-sexual and although there is I’m sure some conflict in real life between that community and the NYPD, it’s still nice that they are now a part of the show in a solid way, every episode, contributing to the team of detectives and ADAs chasing down sex criminals and kidnappers, wife-beaters, and child abusers. Also, although I don’t think that Kat is Muslim, she is Arab-American.

“The Things we Have to Lose” See this for a summary. 

There’s two minor notes:

1. A gay witness.
2. A man transitioning towards being a woman works as a prostitute and is close with the detective Kat.