User Reviews

There should have been more Richard Thomas in this. It is almost as good as his first guest spot on SVU. The beginning was meh...it's him in the last 20 minutes that riveted my attention. But we all know that's typical of L&O series...grabs ya at the end. If the rest had been better written 10 out of 10.

Kerry Butler is visiting New York City from Edmondton and is found by some kids in a rowboat in the East River just off Gracie Mansion. That certainly gets Mayor Bloomberg's attention and the SVU squad is called in. No doubt she had sex and now she's in a coma with her husband Richard Thomas racing into New York with their two young sons.

Apparently what Butler wanted to do is be a swinger and in Edmondton, she gets little chance of that. As the squad retraces her steps it's clear she got caught up in a fast crowd. The question is will she live to regret it as well as who put her in that condition.

Richard Thomas who was the All American John Boy Walton plays a John Boy type husband who is concerned for his wife and the effect all this will have on their kids as well as his relationship which looks like it's heading for the toilet. Thomas dominates this episode and he fills the part out well. Definitely something for those who remember the Waltons.

It's a sad story. The narrative is essentially peaceful.

What draws my attention is that the funny characters come together in this episode.

Ranjit Chowdhry (Hotel manager) and Max Baker (rope guy) perform very well. So is Russell Saylor (charley landry). All interesting and original.

The penultimate episode of Season 14 "Brief Interlude" has garnered mixed reviews online, more mixed to positive here but fans elsewhere did not think too highly of it. On first watch, it to be perfectly honest didn't do an awful lot for me while not considering it one of the season's (an uneven one) worst episodes. The ending saved it, but to me on first watch the episode seemed bland and over-stretched and even most of the acting struck me as flat.

My very conflicted to fairly negative feelings on first viewing haven't changed all that much unfortunately. "Brief Interlude" isn't an awful episode and there are far worse ones of the season, but it really could have been so much better. Especially considering that the season did have glimpses of brilliance in four or so episodes and the premise didn't sound too bad. Somehow though, the execution just didn't fully ignite, and this is being said with regret.

"Brief Interlude" has good things. It is a visually slick episode, typical for 'Special Victims Unit' (or at least up to this point) and the 'Law and Order' franchise, and one with the right amount of muted grit, the photography doesn't try to do anything too fancy or gimmicky while not being claustrophobic and keeping things simple. The music doesn't overbear with the theme tune still memorable.

Am usually not a fan of Richard Thomas, but both his guest supporting turns on 'Special Victims Unit' really impressed me (one of them being completely against type). He is better in Season 1's "Scourge", one of the best guest turns in one of that season's best episodes, but here he is affecting. Especially at the end, which is incredibly touching and is what saves the episode primarily. The truth was also unexpected and different, though on first viewing the perpetrator's motive seemed trivial (not so much now).

However, there are too many drawbacks. The regulars are not on form, pretty much all of them coming over as tired (even Mariska Hargitay), and the same applies with their chemistry. Thomas' performance here is the only one that did much for me. Too much of the dialogue is bland, too talky and tends to over-explain and state the blatantly obvious.

Too much of the story is dull in momentum, due to being too thin for the length (this could have been done in half an hour quite easily) and scenes early on being over-stretched. When it comes to the surprises, only the truth shocks. Everything else is been there done that. Really did not like Olivia here, coming over as too rude and aggressive for no real reason.

Overall, watchable but not much more than that. 5/10.

This is America, so when a blond tourist is apparently beaten and raped, SVU springs into action. And to emphasize this, Benson goes off on the Indian American hotel owner while using his computer. Having watched the Law and Order franchise since the start, it's pretty easy to track how deferential the police are to "their own kind" and rough and uncourteous to "the foreigners." But at least this episode is before the series goes full woke. Benson isn't quite as pontificating and nauseatingly social justice-y as she will be in just a few short years.

This episode starts out strong at a party and then seems to drag for a good half hour before starting to focus a bit more on the actual mystery. In the meantime, SVU is doing extra special do-gooding because the victim is a blond. Oh, and Canadian, though I'm not sure that's as important as her being a blond. The blond meantime has some secrets of her own that, of course, she gets away with because as a blond, nobody would ever suspect her of doing anything wrong (and if she was, would ignore them).

There's the usual schtick. Amaro looks irritated, Rollins looks dorkily confused, Cragen -- his voice getting hoarse -- continues to float toward retirement, and Ice-T does his usual roll off the couch and give 10 minutes of dialogue.

This is not a topnotch episode, in part because while it seems to center on technology -- the Web and podcasts and so on -- it doesn't really do anything with them. The case really comes down to some rather ordinary jealousy, subterfuge, and control situations.