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robhendrikx
Reviews
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Greed (2002)
Spousal privilege.
In this episodes two lovers plot a conspiracy against his wife and her husband. When the wronged spouses are called upon to testify, both of the accused hide gleefully behind their lawyers who claim spousal privilege. I think the show's legal advisors dropped the ball here.
Spousal privilege means a husband cannot be forced to testify against his wife (and vice versa). It does NOT mean he is not allowed to testify. Especially when the crime is committed against said spouse.
In the show the situation is resolved by the conspirators both being bigamists, being still married to each other, which renders their later marriages null and void. A weak and in my opinion unnecessary plot twist.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Disrobed (2000)
Surprise!
SVU never could hold a candle to the original series, or even some of its siblings. But the story lines were at least not as monotone in the early years as recently.
You know when sometimes writers want you to be surprised by what they think is a twist in the story?
Well here you can see the twist coming a mile away.
A man is found, shot dead in his car, one bullet in the head, one in the family jewels. This plot just screams at me: "It was a woman who shot him". Yet the detectives adhere to the old Hollywood adage that only men commit crimes. So it's only men they suspect and investigate.
Guess what: in the second half of the episode, the shooter turns out to be...a woman! Eureka!
Speaking about (bad) writing, I first saw Dann Florek (Cragen) in a couple of SVU episodes. My impression of him never went beyond "mweh". Then I purchased the first few seasons of the original Law & Order series, and low and behold, Cragen was suddenly a very credible character, well played by Florek. In that series he was replaced by lt. Anita van Buren.
The writing in SVU never came close to that of the original series. And many episodes dearly lack the "law" part.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Gone Baby Gone (2018)
So bad it's funny.
Wow, the great Mariska Hargitay egotrip has just taken the last step. It's now official: Olivia Benson is Queen of the Universe.
I never liked this show, but back in the days of Casey Novak, they at least pretended to play by the rules. In recent years this show (and many others) has adopted a vigilante justice policy. If a defendant is acquitted, either on a technicality or due to a lack of actual evidence, someone will conveniently shoot him (it's always a man) on the steps of the court house. The other day Barba actually said to Benson: "you should have shot him".
In this episode Benson goes ballistic when someone kidnaps her son. People are threatened, even more rules than usual are broken, the entire NYPD are after the kidnapper. Captain tells Benson she should not be involved in this case, being the victim. But does she listen? Hell, no, because Olivia Benson knows it all, is not afraid of anyone or anything and does not listen to even the best advice.
At several points during this episode I was laughing out loud, because I really could not take the plot seriously.
Of course Benson saves the day singlehandedly, her son returns home, and mommy Benson is surrounded by all her "friends", who also happen to be the people she works with, because that's what tv tells us: the only people you know are your colleagues. Rubbish!
Bull: Opening Up (2022)
It was rape.
A female president of a company slept with one of her employees. He then sues her for sexual herassment. Bull's team claim it wasn't herassment/rape because she didn't know he was her employee and the sex was consensual. Now, had the genders been reversed the president would have been convicted for rape faster than you can snap your fingers. And the outcome should have been the same here.
Because it doesn't matter if the boss knows the partner is an employee. What matters is, as Marisa points out early in the episode, that the employee knows the partner is his boss. This unequal relationship makes consensus impossible. She initiates sex and he can't refuse for fear of losing his job. Ergo: rape!
By the way, I figured out that the president's husband was the person pulling the strings after about ten minutes, so it's pretty lame that it took a team of clever people more than half an hour.