User Reviews

It's a powerful performance from Shane E. Lyons that highlights this SVU episode about a 12 year old and a 14 year old who commit a murder, robbery, and rape of a terminally ill cancer patient. Lyons plays a poor pathetic kid who gets caught in a frightening jackpot.

Society and the criminal justice system establishes arbitrary ages where you deal with criminals and victims as adults and juveniles. You have to draw the lines drawn somewhere. But there are always exceptions.

12 year old Connor Paolo is ahead of his normal development. He's the leader and a budding sociopath. It takes the SVU squad sometime before they realize he's the leader.

And he's leading poor 14 year old Lyons into this horrible system. You look at him and how backward he is and you want to scream at the television just look at this kid.

Yet it's Paolo who is ticketed to juvenile court and Lyons tried as an adult. Stephanie March wants to plead him out, but her boss the Bureau Chief Judith Light is inexplicably hardnosed on the issue. It's the weakness of the episode, why is she not seeing what everyone else is?

Some real bad choices by Lyons's mother and the mandatory sentence laws put this kid in a frightening jackpot. This is a haunting episode from SVU.

Quite the opposite. The first half of Season 4 proved to be a more than solid one with almost all the episodes ranged from good to superb ("Chameleon" and "Dolls" being the standouts for me), with the only disappointment being "Disappearing Acts" as far as the previous eight episodes go. "Juvenile" was one of those episodes on first watch that left a big impression on me in that it made me very sad but also very livid, which 'Special Victims Unit' often did very well in doing but this case on first watch really stuck with me.

On multiple re-watches, done not just because of the emotional impact, Donnelly and the performance of Shane E Lyons but also to make more sense of the verdict, "Juvenile" still has that effect. It is not quite an outstanding overall episode, it nearly was though as most of the episode actually was a couple of shortcomings aside up to a certain point. A certain point that has always underwhelmed me. Overall, "Juvenile" is very good.

"Juvenile" has always struck me as an emotional episode, the legal-oriented portions are incredibly thought provoking and when at trial it really becomes hard-hitting. The procedural elements also intrigue and are realistic, with great chemistry between Stabler and Olivia like in little moments such as their reactions when put off by Warner's findings when eating. The first half does engage and is never too obvious, but it's the second half with its wide mix of emotions that elevates "Juvenile" to an even better level.

Absolutely loved Donnelly here and like her very much as a character, in all her appearances Judith Light played her so well. She has some great lines, especially the cat reference that makes one worried about them for a while after. The only thing that wasn't plausible about her here was how hard-nosed she was about whether the perpetrator should be tried as an adult which considering the evidence would not have been realistic. Lyons really wrenches the gut as Jeremy and it was hard to not feel for him. Stephanie March shines too, there are a number of times where she says nothing and just reacts to what another character says and does and tells so much with her face. It was clear that the case meant a lot to Cabot.

The script is intelligently and tightly crafted while it's a solidly made episode and hauntingly scored. The acting is very good, especially from Lyons and Light.

Connor Paolo less so, his performance could have had a good deal more subtlety and been less obvious. With the role being played so coldly, it makes one angrier about the outcome of the case.

Which was the Achilles heel of "Juvenile" for me. One of the few outcomes of early 'Special Victims Unit' that left me livid and questioning the competence of those involved, it didn't strike me as realistic on first watch and it still doesn't. Am aware that it does happen from time to time but still.

Bottom line, very good episode and superb for most of it until the for me infuriating ending. 8/10