Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Maternal Instincts (2015) User Reviews

Rollins's sister

[mbhbrh · 7/10 · 7 September 2022]

I would've rated this higher, but Rollins's sister just makes me insane. I can't stand her or Rollins's mom.

And in this episode, I kinda didn't like Rollins much bc she wouldn't stand up for herself. At. All. Maybe bc she was pregnant, but I'd think setting records straight would be better for her blood pressure than trying to cover for/help or whatever she was doing for her sister. I'm baffled as to why she didn't just go right to Liv. She knows Kim's history.

Then we're left hanging. Allegedly her lawyer is working out something with the ADA but who knows. And Kim thinks he's going to propose (Insert eye roll).

I'm doing a series watch so maybe it'll be addressed in the next episode.

Trouble and Trouble's Mother: Everything Works Out in the End

[yazguloner · 7/10 · 30 December 2021]

As gripping as it is to watch Rollins' sister as bipolar, it's more frustrating.

The Bipolar Stabler was also better rendered. 10x3 Swing.

That's why it's the right decision for Rollins' new family members to join.

It's an average episode.

Ice T is very sweet, Mike Dodds is likeable and Mike Dodds quotes are great.

Benson looks great as always.

This section is one of the most impressive entrances with the concert stage. I wish the soundtrack information was shared...

Rollins Family Values

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 16 October 2016]

Prominent concert violinist Zach McGowan goes amuck in his birthday suit at a New York hotel. When the smoke clear he's accused of rape and he's been drugged having no memory of the incident.

The SVU squad of course catches the case but it gets compromised when Kelli Giddish's fugitive sister Lindsay Pulsipher gets involved in the case. Making matters worse is Rollins's mother Virginia Madsen up from Atlanta to help out her younger offspring. What's a mother to do? It's all one big mess. Good thing that SVU's new commander Lt. Olivia Benson keeps a cool head.

Also SVU gets another addition, Sgt. Andy Karl son of Chief Peter Gallagher. That sets up some future conflicts as it is not clear whether he's Mariska Hargitay's number 2 or a pipeline to his father.

Madsen and Pulsipher are really good. Especially Pulsipher, the picture of one spoiled brat grown up.

Stupidity is a weakness

[norareign · 2/10 · 13 November 2019]

I find all episodes involving Amanda Rollins' family so irritating. Her sister (and her mother) are worse than the sickos and psychos displayed on this program.

Ummm.....WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE FLUTIST?????

[Jothos · 2/10 · 19 July 2018]

Seriously, the whole time I'm watching this dam episode, I could care less about Rollins unbelievably annoying sister Kim! I just wanna know if the flutist really raped the violinist. Kinda would have been nice to finish THAT PART OF THE DAM STORY, HUH?! Then the episode just ends. No words on what happened with the violinist. Cuz he looked like he was innocent. So I thought "MAYBE it's a too be continued, even though it didn't say that at the end". So I looked up the actor that played the flutist.....NOPE, he's just in 1 dam episode of SVU. Yea dick wolf, ur a genius. Svu is great, but they let WAYYYYY too many things go u said, and it's dam irritating and annoying as crap. How many times you been watching the show, and someone says something to someone in the cast so obnoxious or horrible, and the person just stands there like an idiot, and doesn't let them have it and say anything back, and then they just cut to the next scene. I stopped watching cuz of that crap. Too many ANTI climactic scenes. Where someone should tell someone off with avengence, but instead let the moment pass by. Like Rollins never going off on her dumb a** sister Kim, and telling her how horrible she is. And her mom. Nah, she just lets the say horrible annoying crap, and then, onto the next scene. PLAY TO THE AUDIENCE MORE WOLF!! People WANT to see stuff like that! It's just such an incomplete feeling. But this episode could have been great, and instead took a stupid turn and focused on Rollins idiot UNINTERESTING sister and family, instead of the MORE INTERESTING case with the flutist and violinist that was going on. Bravo MORONS. :)

Why the hell is Rollins even a detective!?

[sagittarius-5 · 4/10 · 26 September 2019]

I love SVU but every episode with Rollins's sister makes me so mad I'm literally screaming at the screen! and Rollins is such a pushover when it comes to Kim it's ridiculous, and she's supposed to be a good detective? Yet she is easier fooled than a 5 year old! and she does nothing throughout the episode to defend herself and respond when both her mother and Kim treat her unfairly and horribly, has she completely forgotten what Kim did to her the last time she was in town? and she says nothing when Kim lashes at her for getting her arrested nor her mother too? COMMON! and how come Rollins gets endless chances with her boss when she's clearly breaking the law!?? She let a fugitive go, she lied to Benson but she faces no repercussions at all for all of that? let's not even talk about the episode with the whole gambling situation, and she even acts like it's no big deal and they shouldn't be getting all worked up about it!? Wow... Rollins has shown again and again that she's not a solid detective and when she gets going she lies and doesn't listen to anything her squad tells her, like with the episode where her sister framed her for murder... I've watched this before of course since it's an old episode but I just watched it again tonight and I was so furious about the whole thing I had to write a review. If I were in that situation, sibling or not, I'd lose my god damn mind if my sister after everything she did had the nerve to call me out on getting her in trouble!! Her sister is clearly a sociopath but she still keeps defending her like she's a child that's just being defiant! From the start, I've never liked Amanda's character. Man do I miss the old SVU gang! Stabler had his flaws but he wasn't a batting my eyelashes while speaking with my Atlanta accent idiot!

Instinct

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 22 September 2022]

'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' really did vary when it came to showing the detectives' personal lives. It did well with Stabler and Olivia in the early seasons, where there was some powerful storytelling that furthered their character development. Too many personal life stories however did come over as melodramatic and was focused upon too much, doing so while overshadowing the case, especially in the latter seasons.

Amanda Rollins has come on a long way since she was first introduced in Season 13, where it took until Season 14 for her to get some proper development and sadly that development wasn't particularly promising to begin with. Her personal life stories have varied wildly, more so than most of the SVU (only Olivia's have been more inconsistent), with her gambling and past job subplots being interesting but her dysfunctional family stuff never clicked. And it doesn't click here in the first below average episode of Season 17 "Maternal Instincts", which is also a lesser effort of the season.

"Maternal Instincts" isn't all bad. There are good things. The production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The regulars are very good, with Kelli Giddish standing out.

Virginia Madsen also hits hard in her performance. Rollins' development was appreciated. The episode did start promisingly with a very intriguing opening.

On the other hand, there are too many shortcomings here in "Maternal Instincts" for me to recommend it. All the Rollins dysfunctional family stuff is poorly handled and that was always the case whenever her family life was explored. There is far too much of the subplot, which is full of overripe dialogue, soapy and tension free melodrama, truly obnoxious over-acting from Lindsay Pulsipher and was just not interesting. Kim is one of those characters that is impossible to engage with or invest in, her manipulation is too overt and there is just something off about her from the very start. What always strained credulity when any episode with Kim happens is how easily naiive Rollins is, which is overkill here.

This subplot is so dominant that the case was completely overshadowed, actually forgot what the story was meant to be about which is not a good sign. It is a case that is very thin and predictable as well as completely lacking in tension. The ending is abrupt and too loose end filled, while also not being a surprise, while the characters are underdeveloped and one dimensional and it was impossible to care for any of them. The supporting cast that are part of the main case do competently but nobody stands out because of their material being so forgettable.

Concluding, disappointing. 4/10.

Unbelievable

[mariarammstein · 1/10 · 18 January 2023]

These episodes are highly obnoxious and just plain bad: badly acted (the flutist, the mom, the sister, Rollins herself). It's a waste of an episode, a waste of a storyline and a waste of time.

The storyline is very far fetched - they arrest people for less - and Rollins' gullibility is annoying. The actress that plays Rollin's mother thinks she is on Golden Girls, and the actress that plays the sister isn't even fit for an after-school special.

I like to watch this series in spite of its predictability, but this is an episode you can skip without missing a beat, and an insult of sorts to its audience.