Post by Dragonfly on Jan 9, 2014 16:03:29 GMT -5
I'm a fan of SVU, and am not ashamed to admit it. I've stuck through the show through some lean times - the departure of Stabler, the insane ADA turnover rate, that episode where Mom from Futurama ended up being the villain (not joking either) - but their latest story arc is too much, even for me. It's not compelling, interesting or even remotely believable. It's torture porn suitable for a broadcast network.
The story line in a nutshell: The detectives nab a guy supposedly trying to expose himself in Central Park. He seems normal to everyone at first, but the cops quickly figure out that he's a violent sociopath capable of really horrible acts. (The audience knew it from the beginning - the first thing we see him do burn some poor guy's hand on a griddle.) He also has this weird superpower of forcing otherwise smart women (doctors, lawyers, etc) to think with their crotches instead of their heads. The only two women in the entire show that seems to be immune to his powers are Rollins and Olivia. He ends up doing something really, really horrible to an older woman, but gets acquitted due to some bullshit involving his lawyer that made no sense. It pisses Olivia off, who swears she's going to be the one to take him down. She doesn't. Instead, he breaks into her apartment, tortures her and takes her on a four-day marathon of hideousness. By the end of the episode, Olivia and the audience witnessed everything from full-on torture scenes to murder to several scenes of implied rape. The episode ends with Olivia nearly beating him to death with an iron bedpost. That leads us to last night's episode, which will be in a spoiler tag for obvious reasons.
So yeah... torture porn. Nothing said "fun Wednesday evening" quite like watching Olivia Benson struggle in horror as Liev Schreiber's brother tortures an old woman and shoot a traffic cop. Besides that, it bugs me how incredibly stupid everyone outside the physical SVU squad acts when they get near this guy. His first lawyer, for example, refused to believe any of it until she witnessed him brutalize her family. The judge (a man this time) let him get away with things that ordinarily would have gotten him drug out of court. They even had a scene were he and Olivia ride in a crowded elevator together. He's wasn't being escorted. He wasn't with his lawyer. It was just him, his victim and a bunch of strangers together. Come on!
Maybe it's me, but I honestly don't get the appeal to this story, aside from the "surprise" return of Stabler that is bound to happen in the season finale. Even this, it's wasted on this horribly bullshit. If I want the Joker, I'll watch/read Batman. If I want torture porn, I'll watch Saw. I don't want either when I watch SVU.[/font][/spoiler]
The story line in a nutshell: The detectives nab a guy supposedly trying to expose himself in Central Park. He seems normal to everyone at first, but the cops quickly figure out that he's a violent sociopath capable of really horrible acts. (The audience knew it from the beginning - the first thing we see him do burn some poor guy's hand on a griddle.) He also has this weird superpower of forcing otherwise smart women (doctors, lawyers, etc) to think with their crotches instead of their heads. The only two women in the entire show that seems to be immune to his powers are Rollins and Olivia. He ends up doing something really, really horrible to an older woman, but gets acquitted due to some bullshit involving his lawyer that made no sense. It pisses Olivia off, who swears she's going to be the one to take him down. She doesn't. Instead, he breaks into her apartment, tortures her and takes her on a four-day marathon of hideousness. By the end of the episode, Olivia and the audience witnessed everything from full-on torture scenes to murder to several scenes of implied rape. The episode ends with Olivia nearly beating him to death with an iron bedpost. That leads us to last night's episode, which will be in a spoiler tag for obvious reasons.
{Spoiler}He uses his superpower to avoid the worst of his charges. This isn't conjecture, either. They outright tell you this at least three times that he subtly convinced the forewoman that he's innocent. Not only does the mostly female jury find him not guilty on the assault and attempted rape, they claim that Olivia was guilty of misconduct even though that little nugget isn't relevant to the case. He said throughout the trial that Olivia must have wanted it, and the world's horniest jury agreed with him. The episode ends with SVU's answer to The Joker being wheeled on a prison gurney to the infirmary, with a (female) doctor telling him that he's going to be alright. It ends four months later, with him looking direct at the camera. It's implied that he's either going to do something horrible to her or he used his powers to make her go full-on "Harley Quinn."
So yeah... torture porn. Nothing said "fun Wednesday evening" quite like watching Olivia Benson struggle in horror as Liev Schreiber's brother tortures an old woman and shoot a traffic cop. Besides that, it bugs me how incredibly stupid everyone outside the physical SVU squad acts when they get near this guy. His first lawyer, for example, refused to believe any of it until she witnessed him brutalize her family. The judge (a man this time) let him get away with things that ordinarily would have gotten him drug out of court. They even had a scene were he and Olivia ride in a crowded elevator together. He's wasn't being escorted. He wasn't with his lawyer. It was just him, his victim and a bunch of strangers together. Come on!
Maybe it's me, but I honestly don't get the appeal to this story, aside from the "surprise" return of Stabler that is bound to happen in the season finale. Even this, it's wasted on this horribly bullshit. If I want the Joker, I'll watch/read Batman. If I want torture porn, I'll watch Saw. I don't want either when I watch SVU.[/font][/spoiler]
