User Reviews

Andrew Divoff is, as always, delightfully creepy. He is such a fun villain-actor, he has this way of making his characters appear to enjoy doing evil things. If anyone ever makes a remake of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) he will be my choice for the role of Hannibal Lecter.

The "goof" for this episode is inaccurate!! Just a little side note, whenever you end up in the ER for an emergency where you CAN NOT answer questions (such in this episode; Stabler was shot and in and out of consciousness, so obviously unable to speak to them) an ER Doctor will ALWAYS ask for O Neg blood! Why? O Negative is the ONLY blood type that is "universal" meaning NO MATTER WHAT BLOOD TYPE YOU ARE you may receive O Negative blood! (However, just to add.. O Negative blood types may ONLY receive O Neg blood). So therefor, yes, the character, Stabler, is said to have A Blood type, however, this is NOT a goof in the show, all ER dr's will call for O Neg blood and clearly I've explained why! :)

Other than that, LOVEEE this show!! Have seen every episode to date! It's my favorite show on TV and one of the very, very few I'd give a 10/10!

Season 10 was not very good at all in its first quarter (pre-"Persona", which was when the season started to pick up), with the only episode to be above good being "Swing". "Wildlife" did nothing for me on first watch, just found it far too strange, silly and confusing. It sounded interesting on paper but another case of "too many cooks", felt that way as well with "Babes", except that in the case of "Wildlife" it was throughout most of the episode rather than the second half.

"Wildlife" still leaves me indifferent, with my reservations being the same. There are episodes of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit', and of the 'Law and Order' franchise, that didn't do much for me on first watch but fared better on rewatches. For some marginally, for some a lot (Season 5's "Poison" for example grew on me a lot). Sadly that is not the case with "Wildlife", 'Special Victims Unit' was no stranger to complex and strange episodes but very few of the previous episodes went too far on both in the way "Wildlife" does. This didn't feel like 'Special Victims Unit' somehow.

There are good things. The photography while very close up doesn't come over as too static or filmed play-like, while the production values are typically solid and have subtle atmosphere while not being drab and keeping things simple. When the music is used it is haunting and has a melancholic edge that is not overdone.

Also thought that the regular performances were very good, all things considered. Especially Christopher Meloni, while Andrew Divoff is chilling in the one supporting turn that properly stands out. The episode does start intriguingly.

However, "Wildlife" goes downhill significantly too early and never recovers. With it being primarily ruined by the complete mess that is the story. It is over-stuffed with too much going on and too many underdeveloped ideas, meaning it becomes confusing and at times strange. It also feels badly rushed and chaotic in structure, the suspense level is next to zero and it does get excessively silly at points, especially the ending.

Moreover, there are too many characters and only Divoff's is interesting. And even he becomes inept at one stage. The script is simplistic and heavy handed and also hated how unsympathetic how Olivia and especially Kathy were towards Stabler when he was merely doing his job.

Concluding, rather odd episode and one of the weakest of a generally disappointing Season 10. This is not me hating every episode of 'Special Victims Unit' just to say, actually like to love many of the show early and mid years episodes and even the later seasons (though the show has not felt the same for a long time) had episodes that were brilliant. This just didn't do it for me. 4/10.

The SVU squad has gotten into some wild issues and situations in the course of investigations of sex crimes, but this episode may yet have been the biggest stretch in the history of the show.

The murder of a model who was raped before her death leads the squad into an exotic animal smuggling. The model as it turns out was a courier who apparently wanted out and she was given out in the only way it happens.

The head of this operation is a Russian played by Andrew Divoff who is one scary dude. He dominates the episode.

Exotic animals are a hobby indulged in by people with some strange tastes. I had a neighbor who kept an alligator and a variety of tropical snakes and a poisonous breed from South America bit him and nearly killed him several years ago.

Somehow I think that other cops would have taken over from SVU in real life.