Law and Order: SVU Reviews GG

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.

“Military Justice” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.          

Although it’s a pretty limited criticism of the Coast Guard, it does suggest that there are more than a few “bad apples” in the Coast Guard (and, significantly, one of them is a senior officer). It also illustrates how the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of homophobia would have silenced any gay members of the military who were victims of hate crimes (a gay Coast Guard member who aided and abetted the rape was told to remain silent about it or he would be outed and expelled from the Coast Guard).

“Jersey Breakdown” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.         

There’s a lot about two aspects of private prisons. First, in this episode there’s a lot of corruption surrounding a private prison; there’s also a lot of stuff about how poorly in-mates at that private prison are treated.

“Betrayal’s Climax” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.  

The rape survivor is a white teenage girl in an inter-racial relationship with a Latino teenage boy.

“Girls Disappeared” Season 16. See this for a plot summary.   

There’s one bit that’s in conflict with anti-immigrant forces. Two detectives are talking about trafficked teenage minor girls and one says: “And these idiots in D.C. wanna send them back because they’re ‘terrorists bringing over Ebola’” (of the group that SVU freed in this episode at least one is an immigrant).

“American Disgrace” Season 16. See this for a plot summary.   

This is kind of about how a lot of white people react to black men hooking up with white women. Although the bad guy is identified as such only near the very end, he is a racist, so it is basically an anti-racist episode.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews X

 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)

“Sinn” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “A successful preacher (Tim Daly) is the prime suspect in the murder of a clandestine sexual partner (Kyle Bares), until his wife (Kathy Baker) provides detectives with a taped conversation.”

This is about homophobic Christians who are either gay or who change their mind about homosexuality.

“Impulsive” Season 9. Wikipedia summary is: “A statutory rape case against a high school teacher (Melissa Joan Hart) is filed after gonorrhea is discovered in one of her students (Kyle Gallner). The teacher tries to secretly have an abortion which angers her husband (Quincy Dunn-Baker) and gets her accused of destroying evidence. However, after observing the student more closely, the SVU realizes that he is a sex addict who hires prostitutes, photoshops scantily-clad women and masturbates with high frequency. He confesses to raping his teacher and is sent to a rehabilitation clinic. The situation changes gears when the student is raped by a much older sex offender (David Conley) exposing an ongoing problem at the clinic.”

At the end a privately run treatment center for sex criminals loses its contract with the state because of a rape by a staff person. The company, which also ran private prisons for the state, paid minimum wage, allowed guards to sleep during the night shift, and didn’t do any background checks for staff. The lack of background checks and the minimum wage pay checks are the result of greed. The minimum wage pay would likely have an effect on how seriously the night shift guards take their jobs (which is to keep everyone in the center safe).

“Savant” Season 9. Wikipedia summary is: “A government agent (Aidan Quinn) discovers that his daughter (Paulina Gerzon), who has Williams syndrome, is the only witness to the savage beating of his wife (Judy Kuhn). Even though the investigation is impeded by the man's superiors (Jayne Atkinson), Detectives Benson and Stabler and ADA Novak work with his daughter to reconstruct the night the beating took place. Her testimony is able to clear one suspect (Robert Clohessy), who also has a mentally challenged son and implicate his older son (Josh Barclay Caras).”

A very minor character not in conflict with the detectives criticizes people who oppose gay couples adopting children.

“Harm” Season 9. Wikipedia summary is: “The detectives investigate the fatal stabbing of a private school teacher (Elizabeth Morton), who had volunteered at a victim's rehabilitation center. The teacher had been working with an Iraqi man (Jarreth J. Merz) whose story helped uncover some military secrets. The investigation leads to a doctor (Elizabeth McGovern) who works for private military contractors focusing on interrogation techniques. Melinda Warner tries to have her medical license revoked for violating the Hippocratic Oath.”

First, there’s a minor thing at the beginning that’s sort of separate from the rest. Some rock band does a video where the band members are wearing the head part of a burqa, with only the eyes visible. I’m not sure what the lyrics are trying to say, but I felt like it was fairly offensive. I doubt they were expressing solidarity with both the muslim population and the female part of that population at the same time. Progressives should express solidarity with Muslim women, but should simultaneously be opposed to anti-Muslim bigotry and imperialism (my thoughts about the War on Terror in general are here, and my thoughts about invading Iraq are here).

The episode is largely about torture and medical ethics. The doctor at the heart of the scandal believes in using interrogation techniques that don’t cause any lasting physical or psychological damage and that includes ice baths and stress positions and psychological torture. The show is also criticizing the privatization of national security because the torture under examination was carried out not by employees of the US government but by private military contractors. I have more to say about the US use of torture in another post here. 

“Undercover” Season 9. Wikipedia summary is: “After a teenage girl (Shareeka Epps) is found raped in a community garden, Benson and Stabler find out that her mother (Daria Hardeman) is in a female correction facility. After the rape kit on the girl goes missing, the detectives realize that one of the corrections officers (Johnny Messner) at the facility is raping and brutalizing women. In order to find out who it is, Detective Benson goes undercover as a prisoner and is almost raped herself in the basement of the facility.”

The bad guy is a corrections officer.