Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Control (2003) User Reviews

Benson doesn't believe

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 3 December 2013]

In the list of creepy perpetrators that the SVU squad has had to deal with Austin Pendleton in this episode has to rank in the top five. But the squad doesn't deal with him as a perpetrator but as a victim.

SVU gets called in by Transit Police and finds Pendleton with his unit whacked off with a sharp instrument. Later on when he books from the hospital in locating him they find he's been the stalker of several women, he kidnaps them, tortures them, puts them through 'marriage ceremony' and then lets them go. It's so bizarre that no one except Samantha Mathis reported him. And on the day she did a few years back Mariska Hargitay found her drunk and incoherent and didn't believe her.

Finding the torture chamber built under a synagogue made believers of the whole squad. And then other victims come forward and the mass of evidence piles up. And then Pendleton is found dead.

SVU looks at both Mathis and her mother fashion mogul Jacqueline Bisset. So what happened and who did it, for that you watch the show for.

As an added treat David Thornton shows up once again as smarmy criminal defense attorney and he's always a creep even when he's defending good people. But it's Pendleton's chamber of horrors and method of torture that will leave you gasping.

Creepy control

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 2 December 2020]

Have always had a thing for promising concepts, and "Control" epitomises that to a tee. The subject is a hard hitting and creepy one and not always easy to execute well, with potential dangers of being too sleazy. While the earlier seasons in my view are better, 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' has grown on me as there are some great mid-run/late episodes (as well as misfires). The show has varied though when it comes to mixing the case with personal life issues of a team member, with dangers of dominating too much or being overwrought.

That luckily was not the case with "Control". It is one of the best episodes of Season 5, the best since "Loss" perhaps, as well as one of the most shocking and poignant. It is interesting for being one of not many early season 'Special Victims Unit' where the killer is actually not the person one hates by the end of the episode, and a great job is done with Olivia's demons and how they tie in with the case (actually just about avoiding the potential traps that personal life subjects in 'Special Victims Unit' can fall into).

"Control" has so many great things, brilliant even, the best assets being so good that it didn't matter to me too much that it was relatively clear early on that there was more to the victim than what is initially seen. It is elevated enormously by the performances. Mariska Hargitay is very moving here, up there with one of her best performances of the season and Christopher Meloni has a lovely steely yet sympathetic chemistry with her. The supporting performances are every bit as excellent, Jacqueline Bissett and Samantha Mathis are powerful in their roles (especially Mathis with more to do and with the meatier role), Austin Pendleton always played a creep well and he is suitably loathsome here and David Thornton plays one of the smarmiest defense lawyers with relish.

Also thought that the script and story were top standard. The script is intelligent, tight and thought-provoking, Olivia's dilemma really hits hard and is poignant without being too sentimental and the opening and closing statements show how well balanced the writers are on this particular issues. Olivia is very well developed here, with more learnt about her, and it is always interesting when one sees a different side to her. She wasn't out of character in my view and her chemistry with Stabler is great, love them together.

She still has her steel but she has a vulnerability in how she reacts to the situation, shows her guilt from her past mistake when it becomes personal, which was handled poignantly without it being too over-dominant. The story is an emotionally powerful one and one is left shocked and creeped out when the motive for the initial crime is revealed, that chamber of horrors and the modus operandi agreed are likely to stay in the mind a long while after. The production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. The direction is sympathetic but also alert.

In summary, wonderful. 10/10

I Say Benson Did It!

[Ten-K · 10/10 · 9 May 2022]

I don't care what anybody says, Detective Benson capped that freak! Notice that Stabler didn't say Benson couldn't or wouldn't do it, he said, if she did it, she would have shot him. Very clever to switch methods! Not Guilty! And make Olvia Police Commissioner!