While I have always been compelled to read about, watch or examine stories where the conflict centers on children and psychopathy, when I saw there was a Law and Order SVU episode on this exact topic, I was immediately excited to watch it. Although psychopathy is generally viewed as a taboo subject, when mixed with children the idea of cunning and callous, neurologically impaired beings trapped in small bodies is highly riveting to ponder. However, much to my dismay, while this episode had a strong narrative and character development, there were a multitude of flaws worth addressing.
First, the actor who plays Henry demonstrates an inconsistent character in terms of mood, aggression and manipulation. While I think Ethan Cutkosky did an excellent jobs at points throughout the episode conveying superficial charm, rage, manipulation of adults and silent scheming, there were times his performance didn't quite seem convincing as a full-blown psychopath. I think if you compare his performance as a child psychopath to Kevin in "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (2011), you would agree that Kevin is more consistently off and violent, while Henry is more seemingly normal yet arbitrarily violent.
Second, it isn't quite clear why Henry would've called the cops after he set his apartment on fire, locked his sister in his room and his mother in the laundry room. If he wanted to kill his family members, why did he want to be caught so quickly? And, if his parents owned a multi-million dollar apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side with a contemporary renovated interior, why were there no fire alarms?
Finally, in the scene where Nick Amaro tries to persuade Henry to release his neighbor and hand over the gun he had stolen, there is a point where Henry maniacally suggests that if he shot the detective standing in front of him, blood would gush out of his head. It doesn't make sense that Nick didn't think of a way to get the weapon from Henry during this scene through hasty persuasion, or pounce on and cuff him in the midst of his threats.
On bright side, there were many strong aspects of this episode. The dialogue, character development of Henry's parents, the other detectives, Dr. Huang, the pacing and the set design were all incredibly done. Henry's parents denial was realistic and convincing. The most convincing scenes were Dr. Huang's evaluation of Henry as well as Henry's creepily seductive behavior towards Rollins. The amount of drama, suspense and plausible excitement incorporated throughout this episode was undoubtedly well done.
While Cutkosky's final hugging interaction with his father masking his blank, psychopathic staring was flawless, perhaps if another actor had played Henry and been asked to convey more eeriness and deception through cunning actions and sly smirks, the role of the 10-year-old child psychopath would've been more realistic and complete.
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