User Reviews

Joan Cusack is a phenomenal actress. Quite a different role from her infamous Addams Family Values character. Bailee Madison, the actress who played Mackenzie was also good. I recognized her from one of my favourite films, Just Go With It, and sitcom Trophy Wife. The ending was very heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. A very good episode overall.

A transcendental work of drama. Peter Strauss and Joan Cusack play a once-happy couple, now vague suspects in the recent disappearance of one child, then of the murder of another daughter a decade earlier. Thanks to a superb plot and especially their performances, the camera runs in the final two minutes without a whisper, only taking in the separate, stunned reaction shots, the scene too powerful for any words.

One of the intense, emotional episodes.

Lost life of the lost life...

The title of the episode was really fitting. Locum (placeholder)

Guest starring the star of Lost, the mysterious relationship of family and adopted Mckenzi ... gripping.

Season 12 was another very up and down season. It started off pretty brilliantly, with two of the four consecutive winners that began the season being two of the show's best in some time. So it was a real shame that it ended nowhere near as strongly as it started, the complete opposite in fact. On my first watch of "Locum", it was one of those that left quite a large impression on me. Namely down to the ending, the tension and Joan Cusack's performance.

My positive opinion of "Locum" still very much stands and it is an episode that has gotten better with each viewing. Everything that was so good about it on first watch still comes over wonderfully and even more so. "Locum" is a brilliant start to such a frustratingly inconsistent season and by far one of the best episodes from it, "Behave" and "Totem" also being major winners. Those three being three of not enough Seasons 8-12 episodes to have a classic early 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' feel.

"Locum" succeeds in every way. First and foremost, the production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. The direction is taut in the early stretches but suitably more accomodating in the calmer in comparison final act.

The script is lean with no fat and always thought provoking and complex emotionally. The story is a very powerful one, one that starts off with a lot of racing against time tension before taking an unexpected gut wrenching turn that will be a hard watch for any parent. The ending is both moving and heart-warming, as well as a masterpiece of character interaction and understated expression. Really appreciated too that there was no personal life drama that began to dominate too much around Season 7 and that it was all about the case and the supporting characters, like what much of early seasons 'Special Victims Unit' was like.

It is not just non stop tension or seriousness. There is some amusing humour that doesn't become juvenile or too jokey, primarily some nice adroit one liners. Loved that everybody played some sort of role in solving the case, with the characters that were starting to become underused (Munch) not being underused, and nobody comes over as wasted.

Mariska Hargitay stands out when it comes to the uniformly great acting of the regulars, especially at the end. Joan Cusack is absolutely tremendous in one of the best guest turns of Season 12 (along with Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Elizabeth Mitchell and especially Jeremy Irons), she is deranged but also heart-wrenching. Bailee Maddison is both cute and affecting in a way that is subtle.

Brilliant episode all in all. 10/10.

When young Bailee Madison disappears from the home of foster parents Peter Strauss and Joan Cusack the SVU squad gets brought in as it involves a child. This episode takes some unusual directions in the plot involving the disappearance of the couple's own natural daughter some years ago.

The squad of course gets into that case and with some fresh eyes looking at it discovers the truth. But the real issue here is the extraordinary over protectiveness that the parents especially Cusack displays. Not for nothing does Madison refer to her as my 'smother'. This woman is clearly unhinged, but why she is that way is for the detectives to investigate and you to watch the episode for.

Madison is quite good as the foster child who is a kind of victim here however the story comes out. So is Cusack.

More than SVU fans should appreciate this story.

L&O/SVU really doesn't portray women in a good light. All mothers are psychos cranked up to a million. Like off the scale mental cases who are ready willing and able to murder the entire planet to keep their baby close even if their baby is in the other room. On the one hand we have Olivia who, yeah, wants to kill all men. On the other we have Joan Crawford.

Cusak can not act to save her life. Absolutely terrible performance. Rest was great though. Young actress was lovely. Great premise. The multiple layers of this episode made it very interesting.