Law and Order: SVU Reviews R

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.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Denial” Season 3. Wikipedia summary is: “A drug addict (Martha Plimpton) is sexually assaulted. In her purse, detectives Benson and Stabler find a decomposing baby's finger. When looking for both her attacker and the baby, they suspect she might be withholding information to protect her mother (Mary Steenburgen) or grandmother (Estelle Parsons). Tutuola tries to help by getting her clean.”

The detectives don’t pursue her for doing drugs.

“Competence” Season 3. Wikipedia summary is: “A woman (Lois Smith) reports her twenty-two-year-old daughter with Down Syndrome (Andrea Fay Friedman) is pregnant because a rapist (Matt DeCaro) took advantage of her innocence about sex. Detectives Benson and Stabler have to make sure that it is not just her mother being overprotective and in denial of her daughter's sex life. The girl's boyfriend (James Badge Dale) who also has Down Syndrome offer to help raise her baby. ADA Cabot then has to interfere and take on her superior, to settle the mother–daughter dispute on whether the daughter should have an abortion or not.”

In another season 3 episode there’s something that makes me think some of the people calling shots behind the camera are pro-union. With that in mind, when the character who got the woman pregnant brags that he pays union wages in his business, it’s a pro-union statement even though he’s sort of the “bad guy” in the episode.

“Silence” Season 3. Wikipedia summary is: “A murder takes place in a church. Detectives Benson and Stabler learn that the murderer (Sean Dugan) had been paid off by the church to stop him from reporting how he was sexually abused by a priest as a child. He blames the church for taking away his innocence and accuses a priest from his youth, Father Michael (Eric Stoltz) of molesting him.”

First, there’s one little bit about a nun (I assume a Catholic nun) who supports prostitutes by, for example, giving them free condoms. Catholic nuns tend to be a little bit to the left of the church.

This episode is mostly about the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. As I explain in some sections of a post here, I believe there is anti-Catholic bigotry in this country and sometimes I think that’s a small part of some peoples’ reaction to that scandal. But it’s a horrible scandal and it often really pisses me off and probably 99% of all Catholics. I haven’t heard of a mass exodus of victims and their families and I assume most of them are still Catholics. On the other hand, if I do leave the Church at any point it will be partly because of the scandal (but mostly other things (the second to last section of that post has more information)). Between the fact that lots of reasonable people criticize the Church about the scandal and the fact that one of the main characters is very Catholic, I don’t think it’s an anti-Catholic show. I just think that some people take a reasonable criticism of the Church too far and think that the Church was okay with what those priests were doing. They weren’t okay with it but their solution (transferring pedophile priests) was horrible.

“Chameleon” Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “The detectives go on the trail of a recently paroled rapist responsible for the murder of a sex worker during a raid at a men's club and are called to the scene where he was shot in self defense by his own gun. However, the murder weapon was also used in another crime while he was still in prison, leading the detectives to investigate the victim (Sharon Lawrence) through a trail of previously unsolved cases, a spending spree and another victim.”

I’m not sure if this is liberal-progressive the way that opposing racism or homophobia is, but I should mention at least once that the detectives make it clear that they’re not Vice. I don’t know what Vice does except going after prostitutes but I believe that prostitution should be legal, safe and unionized, so I don’t think I like Vice very much.

There is also some opposition to the death penalty. Two ADAs support it, but the DA (a main character on Law and Order who gets along with the two ADAs in that show) and the FBI agent helping SVU oppose it.

“Juvenile” Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “A cancer patient who was growing marijuana in her apartment is found raped and murdered, sending the detectives on a hunt for two junior-high students (Shane Lyons and Connor Paolo), each blaming the other. The prosecution team is faced with the dilemma of trying the older boy as an adult, despite evidence that he was not mentally capable of being able to carry out the crimes.”

The average reaction of the main characters to the fact that she was growing and selling (or distributing) marijuana is slightly positive. It’s very pro-medical marijuana.