User Reviews

An avalanche of disaster for a woman in the male world around games played for profit, petty calculations.

The writing and performans is impressive.

A novel has been written in my country that fits this chapter. "What's blame with Fatma Rose?" is the name of the novel. Its esteemed author is Vedat Türkali.

The plot is this: An innocent village girl in the countryside is gang-raped by three of her 4 friends. But she is married to her rapist according to village and provincial traditions.

"Branded" was one of those moderately liked it but not loved it kind of episodes on first watch. To me, a lot of good things stood out but part of me also found it uneven and frustrating. As said more than once, there have been a lot of re-watches of all the episodes of the show over-time, with the franchise being regular night viewings and there have been a number of re-assessing of opinions where my opinion on certain episodes have changed.

There are also episodes where my feelings are pretty much the same, and "Branded" is one of them and this is meant in a mostly quite good way if with room for improvement. There are a lot of very good to great things and it is an improvement on the disappointing previous episode "Wet", but it is still nowhere near close to the outstanding quality of Season 12's first four instalments. It still strikes me as uneven and frustrating, but there are far worse episodes in the season (as well as of course a lot better).

Good things first. It visually is well made, especially the intimate photography. It looks stylish and slick with a more refined look than when 'Special Victims Unit' first started all the way back in 1999, while maintaining the show's grit. The music doesn't overbear and is not overused. The direction keeps things moving well while letting the drama breathe, the legal scenes particularly. The character of Jill Hardwicke makes a promising start, showing more competence and personality than Marlowe and particularly Graylek. The acting is very good from all the regulars.

Likewise with the support, with Bess Rous expertly bringing out pathos and intense rage. The script is tightly structured, made me think and as usual had an uncompromising edge. It also flows very naturally and doesn't feel rambling, sleazy or over-dramatic. The story is disturbing and compelling with a good deal of tension in the second half, especially when Camille becomes increasingly anguished. Appreciated once again that it was the case and the supporting characters focused primarily on and not the main characters' personal lives that was creeping in too much Season 8 onwards. The perpetrator is a very interesting one with a hard hitting back-story, their actions are uncondable and should have been treated more seriously but this is a case of the victims being more hatable.

Having said all that, there was room for improvement. "Branded" does have some loose ends, a big one being failing to explain the significance of the objects used for the branding. After being impressed by the SVU working more as a cohesive team and seeing very little unprofessionalism in the previous five Season 12 episodes, Stabler's confidentiality breach infuriates and should have been dealt with more seriously.

Olivia is a great character, but here she comes over as bit pushy and lecturing. It also didn't seem realistic that the perpetrator got in nowhere near as much trouble as deserved even with their past or that the victims quite quickly didn't seem that traumatised.

Not essential 'Special Victims Unit' but worth a look. 6/10.

The SVU squad gets called in when two men are both branded and sexually assaulted and a third friend looks good to be the next victim. Benson and Stabler set up to catch the perpetrator in the act and it turns out to be Bess Rous who has history with them. They deny it of course, but it's some history, she was gang raped by them while they were her counselors at summer camp.

Which gains her sympathy from Olivia as Rous became pregnant as a juvenile and gave up her baby for adoption. Of course the squad led by Olivia wants new ADA Melissa Sagemiller to prosecute the three men, but the statute of limitations has run out and she was caught in the act of assaulting one of them.

Mariska Hargitay goes to work for the defense here and let's say justice is served in this episode. Kudos go to Bess Rous for her performance as a victim with long pent up emotions.