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)
“Criminal Hatred” Season 14. See this for a summary.
It’s about a gay man who attacks men who are married to women but also like men. They are closeted and reluctant to work with the police because they’ll be outed in front of their families. It’s just one more reason to fight homophobia.
“Secrets Exhumed” Season 14. See this for a summary.
This episode is about an FBI agent who murdered a romantic rival and blamed it on the suspect in a string of rape-murders.
“Funny Valentine” Season 14. See this for a plot summary.
In 2010 the Supreme Court of the United States decided in favor of the plaintiffs in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, saying that when it comes to political financing corporations are people. The ADA, a main character, says something implying that it was a ridiculous decision. Although I’m not real familiar with the issue, it is ridiculous to treat corporations as people. One of the best bumper-stickers I’ve seen says “I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.”
“American Tragedy” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.
About a black teenager who is racially profiled by a rich white woman who shoots him dead. Her lawyer tried to conflate that with the search that the police were conducting for a rapist who matched the description of the teenager. I’m not super positive about the (relatively acceptable) stop and frisking of Black men who match a certain description (in this case, hoodie and baseball hat, young, tall) in a certain area, but as the detective played by Ice-T (who has criticized white officers for being racist at least a few times) says, that stop and frisk operation was different than shooting someone- although stop and frisk could result in someone innocent being shot, the white woman was pretty quick to shoot the teen when he was still at least 5 feet away. She wasn’t on trial for suspecting him as SVU would have, she was on trial for shooting him when he was still at least 5 feet away. In multiple ways it emerges that the woman is a racist and the ADA for SVU prosecutes her for a homicide. It could be a lot more critical of stop and frisk (that is, that practice in general), but overall it’s an anti-racist episode.
“Internal Affairs” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.
This is about SVU helping Internal Affairs go after a cop who is raping women. Actually, the entire precinct is corrupt and that’s exposed by IA and SVU.
