Law and Order: SVU Reviews Y

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)

“Closet” Season 9. Wikipedia summary is: “When an investment banker is found murdered by an intern (Ian Alda), suspicion turns to his boyfriend (Bailey Chase), a professional football player who could lose everything if the truth about his sexuality comes to light. When information about his sexual orientation is leaked to the media, despite the best efforts of his publicity manager (Rick Hoffman), Benson comes under fire by Internal Affairs for her relationship with a reporter (Bill Pullman).”

This is partly about homophobia.

“Cold” Season 9. Wikipedia summary is: “The SVU is shaken when multiple members of the squad are determined to stop a conspiracy of dirty cops. Haunted by a ten-year-old rape-murder case, Detective Lake meets with a contact (Deirdre Lovejoy) to find out about new evidence. On his way back, he gets into a firefight with two police officers and kills one of them. In an injured state, Lake tracks down the surviving rape victim (Victoria Cartagena) and convinces her to testify. While this is happening, the SVU squad discovers that the second shooter (Jack Gwaltney) works for the Fugitive Apprehension Team. Benson and Stabler arrive just in time to stop him from killing Lake and Novak proceeds to put the shooter on trial. However, the case quickly goes downhill in the courtroom and Novak withholds evidence in a last-ditch effort to win a conviction. She is informed by Elizabeth Donnelly (Judith Light) that she faces censure and possible suspension, and that the District Attorney declined the opportunity to refile the charges. This leaves Chester with no choice but to gun down the corrupt cop himself, therefore resulting in his arrest.”

It’s about a rape/homicide of a teenage girl by two cops.

“Lunacy” Season 10. Wikipedia summary is: “A famous astronaut (Kristina Klebe) is found dead and Stabler's old mentor Dick Finley (James Brolin), after whom Stabler's son is named, helps investigate the case. They first believe the victim is linked to a string of serial rapes, but other suspects closer to the space program present themselves. An obsessed fan (Chris Elliott) is questioned, but is released and soon gets into a gun battle with Dick. Stabler becomes suspicious of Dick after he keeps diverting attention away from himself and finding out about Dick's own aspirations of going into space.”

Two notes:
1) The victim was a gay woman.
2) Close to the beginning the detectives stumble onto three people making an amateur porn film about a muslim woman being raped, and the film-makers are criticized, as they should be.

“Retro” Season 10. Wikipedia summary is: “When a baby is found with advanced AIDS, Benson and Stabler are called in to investigate why someone would let a baby go untreated for HIV. They are led to a highly unethical doctor (Martin Mull), an AIDS denialist, who believes and teaches that HIV does not cause AIDS and offers alternative treatments to cure HIV. They search for more families that have been influenced by him and are led to a particular family whose younger daughter died of AIDS, which calls the mother (Paula Malcomson) and son (Aidan Mitchell) into question.”

The AIDS denialist believes that Black people who disagree with him are biased because they’re (allegedly) related to a lot of people who died of AIDS in America or Africa. The ADA questioning him in court criticizes him for that.

“Babes” Season 10. Wikipedia summary is: “The investigation into the burning death of a homeless teenager leads Stabler and Munch to a Catholic high school where a senior (Philip Ettinger) admits to the crime. He confesses because he thought his sister was raped by the man, when in truth, his sister (Brittany Robertson) and her friends made a pregnancy pact and willingly had sex to become pregnant. One of those friends (Jessica Varley) is later found dead in an apparent suicide after being harassed online by an angry mother (Debi Mazar). Greylek files a case against her which comes dangerously close to violating the first amendment, but it is eventually discovered that the girl was murdered by her boyfriend (Jesse McCartney) out of jealousy.”

A small part of this is about violence towards homeless people. Such violence is sickening. Homeless people are vulnerable and many are sort of defenseless. Even though a minority of homeless people are sex offenders, I think the main reason they (homeless people) get physically attacked is that the perpetrators think they’ll get away with it because a lot of people just don’t care about homeless people. A lot of young people who engage in that violence have been influenced by people who blame the victims of capitalism- people who believe that the homeless are lazy and responsible for being in that horrible situation. But these same people don’t want full employment because if everyone had a job where would they find strike-breakers? These people are also insensitive to the role that mental illness plays in people becoming homeless (and after that happens, the stress and anxiety and depression of being homeless just makes those disabilities worse).