User Reviews

Yet another Benson on a white horse episode. Now, here's a perfect example of how the show has crossed over into a pandering advocacy mode rather than being a procedural. A snarling Benson, in confronting the Snidely Whiplash life guard chief accused of rape and murder, declares in her best Clint Eastwood: "Men like you like so much, pretty soon they forget when they're doing it." Notice "men." Not "people," not " abusers," not "monsters" -- very specifically "men."

This is the sort of cheap rhetoric that has turned SVU into the worst form of pontificating pablum. Imagine if the police profiled others with Benson's vitriol. Imagine if she'd instead said, "________ like you . . ." Fill in the blank with the racial or ethnic group of your choice. We'd obviously say that a police officer -- a police captain! -- should not be investigating the public when she has such a strong, clearly biased point of view about who she's looking for as the criminals.

Yet, this is beyond SVU's capacity, and it shows the deep disconnect with reality. It's not a procedural anymore. It's a Lifetime movie. Yet the show keeps trying to position itself as some sort of defender of the weak. Good luck if you're some poor innocent guy falsely accused and you've got the Bensons of the world on your case -- or people who watch the Bensons of the world and are inspired by their bias.

The rest of the episode is equally knuckleheaded. Carisi, simultaneously the show's dopiest character and biggest suck up, does his usual pearl clutching over how horrible his fellow man and the system are. Ice T is given some dignity, but he's getting long in the tooth. I'm pretty sure I heard him grunt moving from one part of the room to another. Rollins is a short-timer, so she has very little to do with the show anymore these days. The new characters are entirely forgettable.