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)
(I’m temporarily skipping the publication of 4 reviews from Seasons 4 and 6 that I’ll come back to in about a week)
“Blood” Season 6. Wikipedia summary is: “A young woman (Lauren Hodges) reports that her baby has been tossed out of a car. Benson and Stabler learn that she is addicted to prescription pain killers and this leads them to an elderly woman (Melinda Dillon) who lives with her son (Matt Schulze) and daughter-in-law (Christine Elise). The young woman identifies the daughter-in-law as the one who sold her the drugs, but when the detectives go to confront her, they find the drug dealer dead. Stabler uses his influence as a police officer when his daughter, Kathleen, is arrested for drunk driving.”
Although I generally like the character Eliot Stabler, in this episode he uses his position as a cop to help his daughter when she gets arrested for DUI. His superior officer criticizes him for this and he argues back, defending what he did. I agree with Captain Cragen, who asks Stabler, “is that the message you wanna send your kids? That the law only applies to certain people?”
“Goliath” Season 6. Wikipedia summary is: “After the wife (Amy Landecker) of a police officer (R. E. Rodgers) claims her husband raped her, Benson and Stabler arrest the man and come close to believing his version of events when he attacks his captain (Ronni Lieberman). When another officer (Brian Hutchison) murders his wife and attempts to kill himself that same night, the whole force gets involved and soon realizes that the two men both recently returned home from Afghanistan, where they were given the drug Quinium, an anti-malarial. With the reluctant help of a reporter (Jon Bernthal) and a base doctor with an attack of conscience (John Dossett), Novak takes on the U.S. Army.”
I’m commenting on this episode because it illustrates corruption in the military, in this case forcing an officer to lie on the witness stand. Both the drugmaker and the military look pretty stupid manufacturing and prescribing (respectively) a medication that’s has extremely serious side effects for one of every 140 people who take it when a much safer drug just has to be taken more often than once a week.
This is based on a scandal in the real world with at least one suicide I heard about.
“911” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “Benson is on her way out for the evening when a call comes in from a little girl named Maria (Jeanine Monterroza and Rachel Diaz-Stand), who says she is all alone in a locked room. While trying to draw the girl out, Benson is drawn deeper into the little girl's life. Although the other officers begin to suspect that the whole thing is some sick joke, Benson is convinced that the little girl is telling the truth. By talking to Maria, Benson is able to ferret enough information to get a place to start, but Maria's captor (Christopher Evan Welch) has an affinity for electronics and has done everything he can to make sure that no one can find the little girl he bought and paid for.”
It wasn’t real clear that a coyote (someone who, for money, helps undocumented immigrants cross the US-Mexico border) was involved, but since she was sold to a pedophile after she crossed the border without documents, it occurred to me that this is another reason we need regulated but unlimited immigration into this country (I mean, there should be paperwork and some criminals should be kept out, but there shouldn’t be limits on how many people can come here, that way something like 99% of immigration will be legal and not in the shadows where things like selling children to pedophiles can happen).
“Ripped” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “When the teenage son (Paul Wesley) of Stabler's old partner (Noah Emmerich) comes under suspicion for attacking a classmate, Stabler is caught between his boss, who thinks he is cutting the kid too many breaks, and his friend, who thinks he is not doing enough to help. Stabler seeks counselling from another friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) when the case starts to bring out the worst in him.”
In this episode, Captain Cragen has to again come down on Elliot pretty hard when he (Elliot) goes real easy on a suspect who is the son of his old partner. Benson is also unhappy with Stabler about it.
“Strain” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “Police discover the bodies of two young gay men who were both methamphetamine addicts as well as victims of a new strain of HIV that can kill its victims in less than a year. Tutuola learns that his son Ken (Ernest Waddell) is gay, and has difficulty accepting it. Ken helps Benson and Tutuola infiltrate an anti-meth group and they learn that the leader (Brian Bloom) killed people who were spreading the virus. The father (Bill Smitrovich) of one of the victims realizes that this crime saved lives and asks that it be punished with a lenient sentence.”
The gay community is a major theme of this episode. First, one of the detectives learns that his son is gay. Straight drug dealers who steal drugs from gay men say that they target gay men because they (gay men) won’t go to the police because they’d be outing themselves. To whatever degree that happens in reality, it’s just one more reason to fight homophobia.
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