Thursday, May 18, 2023

Law & Order Organized Crime “With Many Names” Discussion Topic - Season Finale




Here is the discussion topic for the season 3 finale of Law & Order Organized Crime, “With Many Names” which aired on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Please feel free to add any feedback you have about this episode in the comments!


My comments:

I’m not sure where to start on this one.  This half of the crossover with SVU moved very quickly and a lot happened, but some of this episode annoyed me greatly.  Despite my numerous annoyances, I think they actually put a cohesive crossover story together where most everyone was used at some point in both episodes.  

Annoyance #1: The Feds, SVU, and OC all were focused on catching the Shadowerk perp, which they’ve traced back to Dublin, Ohio. Why did they need to send Benson, Stabler, and so many people from their respective teams (Rollins too) to Ohio to chase this perp down?  If the Feds were involved, couldn’t the Feds get their own team of locals to do the legwork? I mean, we DO have Federal agents and police in Ohio.  I wonder how much that would cost to bring all those detectives from New York to Ohio? I’d be interested to hear what the standard procedure would be for either the Feds or the New York City police department on working a case where the perp is out of state. It felt unrealistic they would transport so many people from New York City to Ohio. 

Annoyance #2  Stereotypical perp: Kyle turned out to be the stereotypical mid-twenties guy living in Ohio in his mom’s attic (not the basement this time).  His mom was clueless that her own son had invaded her workplace’s network to run part of his hit list website.  Of course his mother, when confronted with the truth about him, still defended and protected him. This was all too cookie-cutter for me. Oh, I forgot, he tried to kill himself but lucky for him he got a nibble on his website,  and he managed to save his own life just in the nick of time!  

Annoyance #3: Benson and Stabler, on the hit list, decide to throw caution to the wind and go out in public for some food. *Amazingly* someone easily finds them and disables the Feds in their car and the whole restaurant with an irritating spray EXCEPT BENSON who equally *amazingly* sees the blinding mist coming at them and protects herself. But she gets shot in the left hip with shotgun pellets and falls to the ground along with Stabler.  He can’t see but she can and she *amazingly* uses the gun, while a blind Stabler holds it,  to shoot the attacker in the head.  Now how exactly did Benson get hit in the left hip with pellets and no one else – including Stabler who was right next to her – got hit with any pellets?  I thought they had a spray pattern and at that distance I can’t believe they would have only hit Benson. Any experts out there who can provide some technical insight would be appreciated.  

Annoyance # 4:  Horrible preparation for the takedown. Kyle’s mom eventually gives him up and they trace him to a cabin they have in the woods.  They all charge in, apparently without any  prior surveillance of the house or area to see if he’s even IN the house.  They also don’t realize the area is covered with trail cameras, which they may have noticed had they done advance scouting.  As they have no  idea where he is at, they are sitting ducks and  he shoots,  and Whelan is hit in the neck. They also have this huge team of agents on site but only one medic, and as Whelan lies bleeding and incapacitated,  he urges them to go to assist Kyle - who stabbed himself with a sword (!) – as they need him alive.  With the number of agents they had on site, they should have had a waiting ambulance with more than one medic.   If they would have prepped better, they could have nabbed Kyle without any loss of life. 

Annoyance #5 – Predictable:   Whelan asks Reyes to help him to die as he doesn’t want to live paralyzed.  Later, Whelan dies, and Reyes seems devastated but Whelan’s dad, who also arrived at the hospital, seemed stoic.  Yes, someone turned off the machine (probably his dad?) but it doesn’t matter who, we knew it was going to happen once Whelan begged for it. 

Annoyance #6 – Kyle caves in to Carisi – as long as they leave his mother alone.  That’s because men that age living in their mom’s attic always put  mom first. 

Annoyance #6: Corny:  The red box with the “Live, Love, Laugh” thing that Stabler removes the “e” so it says  “Liv, Love, Laugh”.  I also suppose we will see a lot of Benson’s  compass necklace from Stabler next season so it can “lead [her] to happiness”.  Note: Stabler says he will be on a new case and will be “gone for a while”; this is so we all understand why he won’t likely be visible at SVU or OC until the mid-season shows start.

Annoyance # 7 – with a question:    Were Whelan and Kyle in hospitals in Ohio or New York?  I can’t imagine they would transport them to New York in the shape they were in, but then suddenly Kyle is in the SVU precinct to shut down the web sites.  Which brings me to the annoyance – why did he have to come to New York and to SVU to shut down the web sites? If they were in such a hurry to get them taken down, I suspect he could have taken them down ANYWHERE.  Come to think of it, with all the computer experts out there, couldn’t someone have figured out how to block the sites? If Jet could add a virus to them to slow them down, why couldn’t she just find a way to SHUT them down? 

My wish for next season is they go back to the multi-story arcs.  The show works better for me when the investigation covers more than one or two episodes.  



Law & Order SVU “All Pain Is One Malady” Discussion Topic – Season Finale




Here is the discussion topic for the season 24 finale of Law & Order SVU “All Pain Is One Malady” which aired on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Please feel free to add any feedback you have about this episode in the comments!

My comments:  

As far as season finales go, this was a decent episode and a good set-up for the other half of the crossover with the Law & Order Organized Crime episode “With Many Names.”  While the SVU “crime of the week” was a bit thin, it did provide a good setup for the OC segment. 

It looks like many fans get their wish as Muncy was offered a job with the DEA – and at the end of the crossover OC episode, she’s leaving the SVU office with her belongings. (I was cheering inside.)  Hopefully this really is the last we see of her. (Note: several entertainment news sources later confirmed Molly Burnett has left the series.)  “Professor” Rollins (that still makes me laugh a bit) provided her expertise in this episode and also in the following OC episode.  We know Amanda is not really happy in the new job – she hasn’t shared her feelings with Carisi – and many wonder if this is just a tease for Kelli Giddish’s return to the show.   Is it a case of  regret that they dropped Kelli and now want her back?  Unless she comes cheap, I don’t see it happening.  It seems the Law & Order brand - along with a lot of other TV shows these days - is more about cutting costs rather than quality.   Maybe if we are lucky they will keep Detective Bruno, and Detective Churlish too (even though fans appear split on the latter). 

In the middle of the SVU and the Feds chasing down the “Shadowerk” website perp, there was an overlapping case of a man who was sexually assaulting various people, including a previous rape victim, and  a young man. This perp did not relate to the Shadowerk website and the case was solved quickly – maybe too quickly for the real world. 

Chief McGrath continues to be the stereotypical cartoonish hot-head “just get it done” boss. Of course this means he will eventually look like a fool and will be bested by the more cautious Benson.    The problem with McGrath is that he is too focused on the short-term win of nabbing the people using Shadowerk and not so much on the person running the site.  He seems like the kind of guy who is more worried about his own job and his standing in the One PP pecking order than in the actual crimes or their victims.   Benson, working steadily with the Feds, finally manage to nab someone that they think is running the site…but they’ll soon find he’s only a cog in the machine.  

There was a lot of Benson/Stabler interaction in this episode, making way for the faster paced Organized Crime finale which followed.  The reason: they're doubly motivated as both Benson and Stabler are now on the Shadowerk website hit list and now there is extra motivation to shut down the site.  

The one thing about Benson and Stabler: there’s no denying that these two continue to have a chemistry together that is missing from their individual shows.  I wish there was a way to bring them back together.  As Organized Crime is a mid-season, short-order series next season, we may have to wait a while to see them together again. 

Law & Order “Open Wounds” Discussion Topic – Season Finale




Here is the discussion topic for the season 22 finale of Law & Order “Open Wounds” which aired on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Please feel free to add any feedback you have about this episode in the comments!


My comments: A solid episode which not only featured a conflict for Nolan Price, but also a conflict between Jack and his daughter Rebecca (played by Sam Waterston’s daughter Elisabeth Waterston). 

Nolan, likely not realizing he was suffering from PTSD from the subway shooting incident (from the episode  “Camouflage”), struggles with trying a murder case against a man who was also a victim – and a hero – in another  mass shooting incident.   Complicating matters is the attorney for the defendant is Jack McCoy’s daughter.  McCoy does his best to distance himself to avoid any appearances of being partial to his daughter, but in doing so he puts Price in the thick of it, and Price is obviously struggling with trying the man for murder.  Eventually Jack gives Price some leeway to negotiate with Rebecca,  but Rebecca, just as bullheaded and driven as her father, refuses to budge, thinking she can get her client cleared.   When he’s found guilty, she’s clearly not happy with her father and likely there will continue to be a rift between the two.  In this case, I think Jack did the right thing – there really is no excuse for murder, and even heroes have to pay the price (no pun intended). 



Law & Order SVU “All Pain Is One Malady” Photos – Season Finale

Here are advance photos for the season 24 finale of Law & Order SVU “All Pain Is One Malady” which will air on Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 9 PM ET on NBC. (This is a crossover event with Law & Order Organized Crime.)

The photos feature Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, Peter Scanavino, Octavio Pisano, Molly Burnett, Chris Meloni, Kelli Giddish, Ainsley Seiger, Brent Antonello, Rick Gonzalez, Terry Serpico as Chief McGrath, Jasmine Batchelor as Officer Tonie Churlish, Francois Battiste as Agent McCrary, Kadia Saraf as U.S. Attorney Anya Avital, Cisco Lopez as Manny Lopez, Mariel Suarez as Martina Lopez, and Kevin Kane as Det. Terry Bruno.
































Photos by: Peter Kramer/NBC and Ralph Bavaro/NBC 
2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Law & Order Organized Crime “With Many Names” Photos Season Finale

Here are advance photos for the season 3 finale of Law & Order Organized Crime, “With Many Names” which will air on Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 10 PM ET on NBC. (This is a crossover event with Law & Order SVU.)

The photos feature Chris Meloni, Danielle Moné Truitt, Ainsley Seiger, Brent Antonello, Rick Gonzalez, Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, Octavio Pisano, Molly Burnett, Kelli Giddish, Jasmine Batchelor as Officer Tonie Churlish, Terry Serpico as Chief McGrath, Francois Battiste as Agent McCrary, and Jacob Saxton as FBI Field Supervisor.




























Photos by: Peter Kramer/NBC 
2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC