special victims unit-related stories
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 12:30PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Law and Order, Casting, Reality-Free
"You always made me feel safe, John."
Perfect. Beautiful. That line was delivered by Carol Kane to Richard Belzer on last night's season finale of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. A bit of history. Kane played Gwen Munch, the conspiracy-minded ex-wife of Belzer's Detective John Munch. The last time the two of them played those roles was more than a decade ago, not even on the same show.
When last Detective Munch fans saw the pairing, it was in 1997 on
Homicide: Life on the Street. And they picked one hell of an episode to bring her back. Fans of Belzer know he was having fun with the black helicopter crowd before he brought that particular obsession to his character, and last night's episode was tailor-made for him, even if he wasn't really in the forefront of the plot.
Continue reading Carol Kane and Richard Belzer - Together again on Law & Order: SVU
Posted May 19th 2009 6:08PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Law and Order, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
I figured they would do this, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. It seems pretty likely that
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is going to outlast the parent that spawned it (because let's face it, sex sells!). Still, it was nice of
NBC to renew Law & Order for a 20th season, allowing Dick Wolf to match
Gunsmoke at twenty seasons.
Of course, now he's going to be angling to surpass the series next year. Even more ambitious would be a push to outdo
Gunsmoke in episodes. With word coming down that
L&O got a 16 episode commitment, it's just falling further and further behind.
Continue reading Law & Order matches Gunsmoke's longevity record, sort of
Posted Apr 4th 2009 8:19AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Law and Order, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
This doesn't come as a surprise, does it?
NBC has ordered an 11th season of Law & Order: SVU. It isn't a surprise because of all the shows on NBC's roster – not including
ER, which just had a celebrated swan song – are struggling in the ratings.
Law & Order SVU is the lone exception, still drawing nearly 10 million viewers and at least keeping NBC challenging in the Tuesday night ratings.
It's not as strong as it once was, but what show is on NBC? It would have been network hari-kari to let
SVU hit the road.
Continue reading NBC commits to more Law & Order: SVU
Posted Mar 18th 2008 8:43PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Law and Order, Celebrities, Casting
It feels like a sweeps moment -- a big name star guesting on a long-running show. But it's not set for sweeps. It is, however, a special occasion and a reason to do something festive. So, on April 29,
Robin Williams will make a guest appearance on Law & Order: SVU in part to celebrate the 200th episode of the intense NBC crime drama.
The Oscar-winning actor (for
Good Will Hunting) is no stranger to television, as we all know. Till the day he dies, he'll be Mork. Na-noo, na-noo. As an alien from the planet Ork, Robin Williams was catapulted from obscure comic actor to overnight sensation thanks to the Garry Marshall sitcom
Mork & Mindy. It was the beginning of a stellar career.
Continue reading Robin Williams to guest on SVU
Posted Aug 11th 2007 12:31PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Law and Order, Video, Web
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.
Continue reading Cynthia Nixon to guest star in SVU season premiere -- VIDEO
Posted May 23rd 2007 12:31PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: OpEd, Law and Order, Episode Reviews
(
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.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Screwed (season finale)
Posted May 16th 2007 11:37AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: OpEd, Law and Order, Episode Reviews
(
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.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Pretend
Posted May 9th 2007 1:14PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: OpEd, Law and Order, Episode Reviews
(
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.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Annihilated
Posted May 2nd 2007 12:04PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Law and Order, Episode Reviews
(
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.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Florida
Posted Apr 4th 2007 10:19AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Law and Order, Episode Reviews
(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.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Responsible
Posted Mar 28th 2007 6:39PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, Law and Order
(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).
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Sin
Posted Feb 28th 2007 7:28PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, Law and Order
(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.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Philadelphia
Posted Feb 21st 2007 3:09PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, Law and Order
(
S08E15) Even though the disclaimer at the beginning of this episode said "The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event", we all know who L&O writers are taking a shot at here. It's Nancy "Everyone is Always Guilty" Grace of CNN. A few months back, she
verbally attacked a mother on air and suggested the mother was the reason her child was missing. The mother committed suicide the next day.
In this episode, the baby disappeared from his crib as the mother (Laura) and boyfriend were playing charades with their friends. The mother immediately blamed her ex-husband, a gambler and alcoholic... and apparently a drug dealer. Stabler chases the ex-husband to the (Hudson?) river where the guy tosses a bag into the water. Stabler goes after it, assuming the baby is inside. But there's cocaine in it and the guy doesn't have a clue where his baby is.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Haystack
Posted Feb 14th 2007 1:49PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, Law and Order
(
S08E14) Just like last week, this episode took a complete turn a little more than halfway through. I felt pretty unhappy with the ending because, once again, it seemed rushed. An entire murder investigation was wrapped up extremely quickly and then another storyline was opened with Elliot and his wife- all in the last 25 minutes of the show.
The episode started out like any other. A father (Cary Elwes) and his son arrive at his estranged wife's house to find someone inside. The mother is dead, the father gets whacked on the head with a vase and the boy runs for his life. It turns out the family may have the mob after them, but that lead dries up quickly. Then the father remembers seeing his daughter in the house and the investigation quickly turns to her. She was on drugs that made her violent and she had a violent relationship with her mother. The case pretty much seems wrapped up until tests come back to reveal that the urine in the toilet that proved the daughter was high on drugs, did not belong to her. It was a man's - probably her boyfriend.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Dependent
Posted Feb 7th 2007 1:38PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, Law and Order
(
S01E13) How about that opening sequence? Before the credits, the entire cast gets to take a shot at a
locomotive big guy on PCP. He throws Elliot through a window, knocks out a kid getting off the elevator and even takes a taser shot to the gut from Olivia before Fin takes him out with a chair to the back of the head. Anyway, the entire action sequence was a pretty elaborate way to write Christopher Meloni out of this week's script.
And, how unusual was this episode? The first 40 minutes had us thinking the detectives were investigating their usual child porn case, but then suddenly Olivia passes out?!? That's when the episode takes a turn from child porn to a much headier subject of chemical companies testing their products on humans. Wha? It took me a little while to catch up with the detectives as they spouted out their theories on why people in a low-income apartment building were being gassed. For a while there, I thought the theory was hair-brained and another of Det. Munch's theories. But it just kept going.
Continue reading Law & Order SVU: Loophole
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