TVSquad

There's a reason why when you watch The Mentalist, there are always subtle close ups of Simon Baker's eyes or of his mouth when he's talking. The producers know he's hot and they know women are watching. Between him, the cast of Friday Night Lights, and a whole other list of DILF's, there's a lot of male eye-candy on TV right now. But what about the women? Of course television is filled with hot chicks, but who do other women like to watch?

There are certain female characters who, when you watch them, you just want to hang out with. Either you think she'd be a good friend, or exciting to have around, or maybe you just kind of want to be her. This, my friends, is a Girl Crush. Here is my list of Top Ten TV Girl Crushes.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW SEASON OF SVU!!!!

The big news about the season premiere of NBC's Law & Order: SVU is not that it is the show's 9th season, or the fact that Cynthia Nixon guest-stars in a pretty chilling role. The big news is that Mariska Hargitay cut her hair! How could she? Frankly, I loved her long locks.

But, I guess that she didn't, and they seem to be back to pre-season 7 length (don't ask me how I know this). Plus, even after the events of last season's finale, her character Olivia Benson still seems to be partnered with Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). From the promo you'll see after the jump, they'll need to work very closely together.

(S08E22) Was it me, or was there just too much happening in this episode? "Screwed" was a culmination of not just this entire season, but of the entire series. And we're left, once again, to wonder whether the SVU squad is going to be disseminated.

The episode starred Ludacris, reprising his role as Det. Tutuola's stepson, Darius, from a March 2006 episode. But, despite the stellar acting job from Ludacris, it wasn't about him at all. In fact, his alleged crime wasn't even the center of the story (I stopped trying to remember the Ludacris episode when I realized that it didn't matter). Instead, Ludacris was the tool the writers used to pick apart all the mistakes the SVU detectives have made over the years and leave us hanging about their fate. The detectives were the ones on trial.

(S08E21) I hate it when the promos ruin an episode. It's hard to tell whether this episode of SVU was a good one because I knew from the promos that the girlfriend was a "black widow". It took a really, really long time for the story to unfold and I felt impatient because I wanted to see the evil side of this girl.

(S08E20) Usually I would say that if Elliot Stabler gets naked, it's gonna be a great episode. I wouldn't call it "great", but it was "good". It's surprising, really, because the topic was incredibly emotional. A man killed his wife and children because his lies were getting out of hand. It's a believable premise because we've seen it played out too many times in the news media (even though L&O didn't promote this one as "ripped from the headlines").

The episode was Elliot-centric, which usually means his family is somehow involved. It was. He saw a man who was bored with his life in Staten Island, so he started making up a new life for himself complete with a fiance who thought he was a CIA agent. Of course, it imploded and, as Dr. Wong said, family killers are so narcissistic that they can't live with the shame of being caught in their lies.

(S08E19) This was the best episode this season, hands down. Det. Olivia Benson's entire world came crashing down around her. Her entire motivation for being an SVU detective was brought into question. There was an awful lot revealed in this episode about Benson's past.

The writers and Mariska Hargitay did a spectacular job convincing me that she had completely lost her mind. Det. Benson appeared to be blindly helping her brother evade the law because she couldn't believe that he was a rapist, just like their father. After the last episode with Simon, I fully believed that he was guilty and I thought she did too.

(S08E18) Okay, I loved the dog owners in this episode. Their priorities were completely skewed. They found a dead teen-ager in their bed, but they were more disturbed by the fact that their dog hadn't been walked while they were on vacation.

This episode was about a subject they love over at SVU: drunk, rich kids. This time, though, the kids aren't the worst of the worst. The real bad guy is a young mother who wants teen-age boys to think she's hot and for her daughter to be popular with her classmates. She buys the kids alcohol and medicates her daughter's problems with alcohol.

(S08E17) The writers of this episode were out to stick it to the right-wing Evangelicals, weren't they? They wrote an emotional script about the subject that gets so many people riled up: homosexuality!

Tim Daly seemed a little detached from his central role in this episode, playing Jeb Curtis, a reverend at New Souls Church in Long Island. I think his character was based on real-life Evangelical minister Ted Haggard, who admitted to doing meth and having affairs with men. Of course, Haggard never killed anyone to cover up his sins (at least not that we know of).

(S08E16) For the most part, I really enjoyed this episode. I liked how the two storylines intertwined- with Liv's search for her brother having an impact on her ability to do her job. What I didn't like was the third storyline of Olivia and Elliot being "too close" and the threat of splitting them up. That's a tired story. They already broke up last season when Mariska Hargitay's pregnancy became too obvious to hide, so Olivia ditched Elliot for after she realized they were too close.

I spent most of this episode being pissed off at Olivia for allowing Elliot to drag himself into her mess. She was way over the line in doing kinship DNA testing in the police database and in stalking her half-brother. Liv had to keep telling lies to cover for her screw ups and Elliot backed her up. Obviously they are "too close" because they're now supporting each other's extra curricular activities.

Lead actors Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have both agreed to stick around on Law & Order: SVU for two more seasons. It seems that money did the talking. Variety is reporting that both actors received about a $6.5 million raise for each year season. The publication says Hargitay is going to receive approximately $300,000-$340,000 per episode, pushing her up among the highest-paid female actors on television. Looks like baby August gets to go to private school!

Both actors had a hell of a lot of bargaining power in their contract negotiations. That show delivers consistently strong ratings for NBC and it absolutely would not be the same without Dets. Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler (Think: The X-Files without Mulder and Scully). Let's hope the network gives an incentive to keep Richard Belzer around, too.

SVU is currently in season 8, which means we're guaranteed seasons 9 and 10, which is exactly how long the sexual tension will last.

(S08E11) Boy howdy, things sure are tense between Dets. Benson and Stabler. I thought their issues were in the past, but they never really can be, can they? Stabler immediately pushed Benson's buttons in this episode when he suggested that a man who is addicted to drugs and alcohol isn't technically abusive. Of course, Benson grew up with an alcoholic mother and she knows that abuse comes in many forms. Stabler knows that too, dammit, but he feels an obligation to side with the man in a nasty divorce case because his own divorce isn't going too well.

Now to the story: A woman, Valerie (Michael Michele), accuses her soon-to-be ex-husband of raping her. But it all seems fishy because she and her husband, Miles (Blair Underwood), are going through a nasty, nasty divorce. Their daughter, Tessa (Tiffany Evans), is in the middle of it.

(S08E10) This episode was all about Elliot's concern about growing apart from his daughters. The beginning of the episode shows Elliot in church with his fractured family and his middle child hating him very much. He is tipped off to an investigation from his priest, who heard the confession of a man dying of lung cancer. He won't tell Elliot what the confession was, but he suggests Elliot visits the man, named Judson Tierney (played by Brian Dennehy).

My first Festivus wish list for the upcoming year. Well, I did type up a Festivus wish list last year, but the only people who heard it were my wife and kids, who had no idea what I was talking about. In fact, I could swear my wife mumbled something like 'You need professional help' under her breath while I was expressing my wish that Barney the dinosaur be run over by a semi-truck. I ignored the statement, of course. I mean, I've been going to therapy for years. Five days a week. Twice a day. Plus, there are the drugs that curb my rage everytime I see that Mac-PC commercial. Sure, the drugs make me see visions of Rush Limbaugh in a thong, but they even my emotions out. For some reason, Rush in a thong seems to sooth me. It's either that or the sleeping pills, not too sure.

Anyway, I'm overwhelmed with emotion, yet highly medicated, as I type this up. So, if you see tear marks on this post please forgive me. Then again, if you see tear marks on this post you may want to talk to my therapist.

If I learned anything from last year's wish list, it's this: Be Careful What You Wish For. Last year, I asked the Festivus fairy for a Kate/Sawyer hook-up on Lost. The producers were kind enough to squeeze it in during the very last new episode this year, but it wasn't exactly gratifying. It was weird, because Sawyer was a little too pathetic to have much sex appeal in that episode. This year, I'm only asking for a little sex and violence.

Here's this year's wish list:

• A freakin' Emmy for Battlestar Galactica Who does Ron Moore have to screw to get a nomination for Best Drama? The writing on this series is so damn smart and the characters are so brilliantly complicated! The themes are deep and meaningful and the storylines are thought-provoking. For that matter...

(S08E09) I can't decide what I liked better about this episode-- Bob Saget or the return of Mariska Hargitay. Det. Olivia Benson comfortably slipped back in to being Det. Elliot Stabler's partner without much fanfare. No fanfare, really. She barely got a "Welcome Back" from Elliot. Casey was cold toward her, even though Olivia came back in time to help her get a conviction on a rape case. I think Det. Munch gave her the warmest reception. All these police types: bottling up their emotions! Sheesh!