Law and Order: SVU Reviews V

 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)

“Venom” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “Tutuola's son Ken Randall (Ernest Waddell) calls Benson for help after he is picked up in an alley late at night. He claims that he was looking for a corpse after overhearing a man talk about murdering a woman and dumping her body. Although Tutuola and his ex-wife (LisaGay Hamilton) are sure that Ken is not a killer, they are puzzled about why he refuses to take a DNA test. Tutuola suspects that this has something to do with Ken's cousin, Darius Parker (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) who has a long criminal record. When Ken eventually submits his DNA, it reveals a shocking family connection. Darius confesses to having murdered the woman and her baby but he is clever enough to get this confession thrown out. He vows revenge upon the family that has been humiliating him for his entire life.”

At one point one of the detectives says: “Prisons are full of innocent people and we both know what color most of them are.”

“Fat” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “With Benson transferred to the Computer Crimes Unit, Stabler is temporarily partnered with Detective Lucius Blaine (Anthony Anderson). Blaine is first to arrive on the scene of a girl (Rooney Mara), who was brutally assaulted by two overweight teenage culprits (Wallace Little and Shahidah McIntosh). The suspects are later discovered to be the siblings of an older brother (Omar Benson Miller) who has diabetes and needs a wheelchair. The detectives find out that the victim, along with her friend (Billy Wheelan) were victimizing obese people and had surprising motives for doing so.?”

There’s a couple items worth noting.
1. A black detective says of a black family, “they have no reason to trust the law.”
2. A detective says that homosexuality is not a choice.

“Infiltrated” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “Casey Novak is forced to get Olivia Benson, still undercover with the FBI, to come back to New York to testify on behalf of a woman who was raped in a bank. While undercover with an Oregon environmental group, she and her group members (Maria Thayer and Chris Bowers) are injured by an overzealous deputy sheriff (Steven Rishard) and charged with assault. She is eventually released but is questioned about her group's involvement with a murder. She then sets out to clear her group's name and investigates the murdered man. Despite the efforts of his widow (Debra Jo Rupp) trying to shield her daughter from the truth, Benson learns that he was a pedophile with a room under his garage that he used for kidnapping. The local sheriff (Charles Martin Smith) finds two sets of prints at the scene, the murdered man's and those of a ten-year-old girl (Molly Camp) who went missing seven years ago. Benson's case agent (Vincent Spano) tells her that she is indeed spending time with harmless activists and that her undercover work is no longer needed. As she is still unaware of the urgency of Novak's case, she decides to stay and help the FBI find the missing girl. In the end, Benson finds the girl, who had developed Stockholm syndrome and makes it back to New York just in time to testify.”

Although it’s a little mixed, this episode is sort of environmentalist and sort of critical of police who use unnecessary force. It seems like the environmental group that Benson infiltrates is a little more militant than most environmental groups and yet Benson says that they don’t deserve the label “eco-terrorist.” She defends them while being interrogated by the cops or debriefed by her FBI case agent. She also got assaulted and arrested by a cop for no reason. This highlights such behavior by a lot of cops in the real world.

“Choreographed” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “The body of an attractive woman (Kristine Szabo) with a mysterious cause of death is discovered in Central Park. Detective Stabler begins the investigation by talking to the victim's husband (Chris Sarandon) as his friends (Bob Saget and Catherine Bell) pay a condolence visit. Stabler's investigation unravels a case of drugs, infidelity and an elaborate plot that impacts everyone involved in the troupe. Stabler also discovers that Detective Benson is back in town and she is assigned to be his partner once again.”

There’s a brief appearance by a gay character.

“Loophole” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “Stabler is injured by a drug-crazed suspect (Bill Goldberg) and Benson follows up on an anonymous letter which leads to an apparent child-pornography case and the testing of pesticides on unwitting apartment tenants. After arresting the landlord (Wayne Duvall), Olivia is exposed to the pesticide and develops medical symptoms similar to those exhibited by the victim (Marquis Rodriguez) and his mother (Karen Olivo). Despite the health risks, an official (Casey Siemaszko) informs the squad that this was done legally. Casey Novak eventually pursues the CEO (Ray Wise) of a pharmaceutical company and his lawyer (James Naughton) in order to challenge a controversial United States Environmental Protection Agency rule that allows intentional dosing of human beings in pesticide experiments.”

First, there’s a moment where one of the detectives assures a victim’s mother that she’s not going to get in trouble with SVU for being an undocumented immigrant.

About 1/3 of the story is about something that’s not a sex crime. Some of the residents of an apartment building in a low-income and diverse neighborhood are used to test the effects of a new pesticide. Several people get really sick and it might be the cause of cancer in a little boy. The EPA, of George W. Bush’s administration, is also criticized by the detectives. The Tuskegee experiments, which involved Black men and Syphilis, are mentioned as another example of that sort of thing.

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews Q

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST. 

I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“The Cloud Minders” See this for a plot summary.

This episode is basically about privilege. You could also mention national oppression, but privilege seems more appropriate (“elitism” is also very accurate). At one point Spock says: “this troubled planet is a place of the most violent contrasts. Those who receive the rewards are totally separated from those who shoulder the burdens. It is not a wise leadership.” You could also use the phrase “environmental racism.”

There is a scene where torture is being used. Although Kirk and Spock make it very clear they and the Federation won’t stand for that, the planet which is witnessing the use of torture by the government is IN the Federation. The torture is stopped and Kirk ends up leaving the planet when he is ordered to.

So, it is largely about inequality. At the end it appears that progress is being made, and there are moves towards equality.

I give it one star out of five.

"The Savage Curtain” See this for a plot summary.

This episode contained a lot of political or at least sort of political stuff.

At the end, there is the question, from an alien culture’s point of view (without these concepts)- which is stronger, Good or Evil?

The alien concludes that both use the same methods, and achieve the same results. In the battle that the alien had just watched, as far as I could tell, the methods were largely the same, although one fourth of Kirk’s team tried to resolve the conflict non-violently and was killed by the other side. There’s a large amount of truth that in war, most methods are used by both sides. The majority of the time, I’d say there’s no problem with that- the problems arise with things like torture and intentionally killing innocent civilians. In response to a series of sectarian murders of Catholics in south Armagh, some republicans (likely the PIRA (now known simply as the IRA)) killed 10 innocent (and possibly ANTI-sectarian) Protestant civilians. That (the "Kingsmill Massacre") was incredibly wrong (it was also the sort of thing the IRA absolutely or almost absolutely never did (there may have been about 5 times when a much smaller number of people were killed in resprisals for the sectarian murders of Catholics, but even with that, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death)). As far as results go, there’s always or usually some (at the very least) large differences (I think you have a good idea of what I consider “Good” and what I consider “Evil,” so I won’t explain that here).

Some other items worth mentioning:

1) Lincoln. In general I have pretty good thoughts about Lincoln. I’m reading an article about how he was friendly to labor and got along via letters with Karl Marx. Although he wasn’t an abolitionist, he leaned in that direction for years before the Emancipation Proclamation- he often was critical of slavery and as President took some earlier steps in the direction of ending slavery.

2) There is one conversation involving Lincoln and Uhura which at first I thought was problematic in a racist way, but a friend convinced me it was was basically saying that the 23rd Century was more enlightened than the 19th Century.


I give it three stars out of five.

“All Our Yesterdays” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Turnabout Intruder” See this for a plot summary.

There are a few things I wanted to note in this review.

First, it’s said that there are no female Captains. Kirk doesn’t disagree with her on this, although we know that in ENT there was a female Captain. It seems likely that even though she was kind of wrong, there WAS a big problem with equality for women in StarFleet (looking at the main characters of all the series also suggests that problem, although it’s only a very serious problem if we assume that in the future women will be half of the military instead of a minority of it (I've been meaning to ask several women what they think about that, I might change my mind about that and assume that they WILL be about half))

There is one line that stands out- a woman says something about the “indignity of being a woman.” After looking at the definitions of the word “dignity,” I’m still not sure what she meant. It almost sounds as if she’s saying that women don’t deserve esteem or respect. I’ll be honest, I’m not as familiar with gender studies and feminist theory as I should be, but if that is what she’s saying, that’s obviously untrue, but beyond that statement I’m not sure what else to say.

We also are reminded that with one crime as an exception, the death penalty is abolished in the Federation. Connected with that, we see something sort of close to a mutiny by some officers, including Chekov and Sulu. That’s fairly inspirational.

This is the last episode of the series, and apparently they didn’t feel like doing something special. Anyway, I give it three stars out of five.

Star Trek: Voyager Reviews Y

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

There are several episodes in VOY that involve the question of whether or not holograms are alive, and/or feature conflict between holograms and organic beings. I’m going to ignore that part of VOY, it’s a bit too philosophical, and comparing the maltreatment of holograms to the maltreatment of, for example, Black people, seems stupid. Although I kind of make an exception for The Doctor (it’s impossible to be a fan of ST and not do that) I lean towards saying that holograms are not life forms, but I don’t feel like going into it.

Unfortunately I am skipping 4 episodes which are on a DVD that doesn’t work. Hopefully soon the video store will have it fixed or replaced soon. Fortunately, the odds of those episodes containing something that I need in order to understand episodes after those four is very low.

“Juggernaut” See this for a plot summary.

Another environmental episode. There’s also an element of environmental racism.

I give it three stars out of five.

“Someone to Watch Over me” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out five.

“11:59” See this for a plot summary.

This is kind of a political episode. It touches on big capital pressuring small-business to sell so big business can build something new. If the small business(es) involved all agree to sell and the government doesn’t pressure them, that seems like most of the time it’s fine (exceptions would include historical structures (that was recently a really big deal in Dublin with a building used by republicans during the Easter Rising)).

An interesting, unique ST episode but I don’t like it much and am almost tempted to give just one star, but I’ll give it two (out of five).

“Relativity” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode, but one of my favorites. I give it four stars out of five.

Star Trek: Voyager Reviews U

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

There are several episodes in VOY that involve the question of whether or not holograms are alive, and/or feature conflict between holograms and organic beings. I’m going to ignore that part of VOY, it’s a bit too philosophical, and comparing the maltreatment of holograms to the maltreatment of, for example, Black people, seems stupid. Although I kind of make an exception for The Doctor (it’s impossible to be a fan of ST and not do that) I lean towards saying that holograms are not life forms, but I don’t feel like going into it.

“One” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Hope And Fear” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Night” See this for a plot summary.

A political episode about environmentalism and specifically environmental RACISM. There are some good lines about that especially the effect of profit-seeking on the environment.

I give it four stars out of five.

“Drone” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Extreme Risk” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode, but there’s one thing worth mentioning. I like the part about how B’Elanna deals with the death of the Maquis.

“In the Flesh” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews D

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Battle Lines” See this for a plot summary.

The main story here is not that political. It’s about a moon that’s a penal colony where the prisoners are divided into two warring camps and no one can die because some kind of tiny technology brings people back to life when they die. It is a harsh punishment for the prisoners, who frequently die and then come back to life. The prisoners are there because they were at war with each other on their home-planet and no one could mediate a peace, so they were sent to the planet as an example of what happens to such people. I’m not sure how helpful the story is in highlighting harsh treatment of prisoners in real life, but it might help with that, it’s raising that as an issue. It also illustrates how conflicts should not be resolved. It’s likely the government on their planet did not do everything it could to resolve the conflict.

There’s also the part where the Kai, Bajor’s religious leader, when it turns out that the technology means she can’t leave the penal colony, decides to try and stop the fighting between the two sides. That’s another example of how good Kai Opaka is compared to Kai Winn who is Kai almost the entire rest of the series. And as soon as Winn shows up, I develop an intense hatred for her- although I more or less like her being a part of the show, as infuriating as she is. I mention that because this episode lays the basis for Winn to become Kai.

I give it two stars out of five.


“The Storyteller” See this for a plot summary.

Basically nothing political in this episode. However, it does contain a good story about Nog and Jake. Also, we see for the first time, Bashir’s attempts to be friends with O’Brien and the latter’s desire to not be friends. It’s a small part of how O’Brien is the most flawed main character in ST, which is a small part of why he’s my fourth favorite main character. As far as I can tell, Bashir isn’t so annoying that it justifies O’Brien’s attitude, and I consider him to be sort of a jerk towards Bashir until later on when they become friends.

We also see the first time when Ferengi “Rules of Acquisition” are used for good instead of evil. This happens MANY more times (including minor instances) throughout the series but it’s still made pretty clear in various ways that the Ferengi approach to economics is generally wrong- the Federation is still more or less socialist, there’s pro-labor stuff on the show and in various other ways it’s suggested that capitalism is flawed, Sisko frequently has to explain to Quark that his approach to business is unacceptable, and sometimes, even without someone being around to express disapproval, Ferengi say things that almost everyone would consider out of line. But it is neat when Ferengi values are used for good instead of evil.

Overall a good episode, although I don’t like the main story very much. I give it two of five stars.


“Progress” See this for a plot summary.

The main story is about forcibly relocating an inhabitant of a moon which is going to be exploited for it’s energy by Bajor. The last man living there refuses to leave and Kira has to find some way to get him to leave. She ends up burning down his house to force him to leave. This raises two issues.

First, in general kicking people off their land in order to develop an energy source. When I think of that happening to oppressed people, that’s horrible. I’ve got mixed feelings about it the rest of the time, depending on how environmental the energy development is- I’m very much in favor of shifting as quickly as possible to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, and the idea of kicking people off their land for coal mining or something is even more offensive. One last factor is whether or not the energy development involves private profit- the less it involves that, the better. So, there would be a spectrum between me being okay with it and being against it, and I’d be more likely to be against it.

Related to this is the issue of governments forcing people to give up their homes for private development. There are some exceptions when this is okay- when utilities need some land for their network of power lines or something like that; when it’s going to a non-profit organization (in one case after a local government finished developing some land they took, they had some space left over and gave it to Habitat for Humanity to build a home); some other exceptions I can’t remember. But we should have incredibly high standards for when the government says people have to give up their home for private development. People shouldn’t have to do that just so someone can build a shopping center and make a profit. I’d say something similar about when it’s a business instead of a home, likely a small business with space that a larger business wants.

In this episode, there is no oppression involved, it’s public sector energy development, and after you remove the population from the moon, the environmental issue probably doesn’t matter, the only environment damaged is that of the moon, it doesn’t affect anything else. With that in mind, the energy development will benefit tons of people. So, it seems okay.

(UPDATE 7/21/17 I can't believe I missed this earlier but I need to say the following about the paragraph above: there could be a problem with any WORKERS on the moon getting sick or something in which case they would have look at it again while the place is closed until it gets fixed- I might be a little too willing to trust environmental tech to deal with environmental problems but I imagine they could fix it and get it up an running again)

There’s a secondary story that I like, where Jake and Nog acquire a shipment of food and trading it for something else, and that for something else, until they finally get paid with money.

Overall a good episode, I give it two stars out of five.


“If Wishes Were Horses” See this for a plot summary.

This episode is mostly humor and character development, no politics.

One part of this episode highlights a part of the Sisko character that contributes a bit to him being tied with Janeway as my favorite Captain and my favorite character overall. That’s his interest in baseball. Baseball is one of the two sports I still have some interest in, the other being soccer, and I have a lot of fond memories of playing baseball for 4-5 years ending with 9th grade- most of that time I was very good. So, I like the baseball aspect of DS9.

The part where a walking, talking version of Dax that’s very attracted to Bashir appears is very funny.

There’s one brief bit of politics when Odo calls for attention from the “ladies and gentlemen,” and then adds “all androgynous creatures.” This is a suggestion that such people are a normal part of humanity’s sexual diversity, there’s nothing negative implied by his statement at all and considering ST’s general position on respecting differences, it’s clearly a statement against bigotry towards such people (ST still could have been much better on LGBT issues, but this is one of the times when they made the right suggestion about those issues).

Overall a good episode, I give it two out of five stars.