User Reviews

Generally thought that Season 19 was not a particularly good season with a minority group of exceptions. 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' had run out of ideas and been hit and miss long before Season 19 came into fruition, but by this point in general the show did feel well past its sell by date. Still have given it a very fair chance due to loving so many of the show's early seasons episode, at its best 'Special Victims Unit' was outstanding but when it was bad man it was bad.

As far as Season 19 goes, "Gone Fishin" is not bad at all and fares favourably in comparison to most of the episodes from the season. It is a promising start to it and shows signs that, despite a few big flaws, that with the right execution that Season 19 could actually be pretty decent after all and really did wish that that was the case. Alas that was not to be but as said the season did have some good episodes and "Gone Fishin" is one of them, though it itself could have been better.

Much is good. Visually it 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 acting from all the regulars is very good, particularly Raul Esparza bringing his usual class and sass, as are the guest turns of Amy Smart and Peter Jacobson.

Furthermore, "Gone Fishin" benefits a lot from a punchy and thought provoking script and a mostly compelling and tense story. It was nice to see a bigger role for Fin (who has been underused for too long) in the better faring subplot. The Olivia and Noah storyline filled me with dread on paper, but didn't dominate too much and wasn't too melodramatic. The scene between Olivia and the teacher was particularly well done. It was nice to see everybody play a big role and mostly in character.

Not everything about "Gone Fishin" worked on the other hand. Cassidy is completely unnecessary and is more annoying than interesting, liked him in his earlier appearances but a good deal less now. Olivia's sanctimonious-ness and bias has been tiring for some time and am again sick of seeing it again, which has really made her go down in my estimations from a role model to somebody not recognisable from the early seasons.

Did think too that not everything came over as realistic, namely the defense attorney allowing his client's witness to be in the room and also how easily and quickly and easily the wife's change of heart towards her husband was.

Overall, pretty decent if not great. 7/10.

I felt that the underlying storyline of interest this season is actually Benson's personal life. However, in this episode the arrival of Cassidy and his accusations serves only to cloud the hard truth of the script. Fin Tutuola kidnapped a suspect in another country and had him shipped back to the good ole USA for trial, without (apparently) realising that the act was completely illegal, and opened him up to criminal prosecution in the other country. Has nothing percolated through those American brain cells in half a century or more? That this behaviour is exactly that which has caused the US to *become* (and it has been a gradual process) execrated by a large swathe of the world. The US is not the world's policeman, and the policies followed by the US Government (I don't say "ethics") are not necessarily applicable to all states everywhere. The American invasion of the British Commonwealth country of Grenada was one of the obvious points of interference. OK, the new government was overtly Marxist, but what was the character of the government they were overthrowing? Only the local population could know. Given the complete ignorance of most Americans of anything outside their county (that's "county", not "country"!), I don't believe that any view of the situation in Grenada from the US was valid. The Reagan administration had a letter requesting help from the OECS - yeah! I'm afraid I'm a bit sceptical about the amount of effort it would have taken the American Government to persuade that out of the OECS! There are other points of illustration, such as the Bay of Pigs operation, but the real red flag (gosh, is that somehow both significant and ironic?) must surely be Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It is now clear that in its support of the Shah of Iran the US triggered huge anti-American feeling in that area, and probably led (paradoxically) to the birth of Al-Qaeda under CIA midwifery. Hmmm... got somewhat sidetracked from the original intention of this review, which is "Sympathy for Olivia" and "Fin done Bad!"

A great start to an amazing season with a very original and interesting storyline never seen before on SVU. Great ending to the episode to bring continuity to season 19, which was a key element that was lost in the previous season.

William Lewis has a predator in his confidence. His self-confidence with Olivia, the crew, and the three victims swells even more when he's not witnessed against himself.

These are their stories, this time expanding. Olivia and Noah's relationship is more challenging and more detailed.

We will watch working mothers and mother police stories through Olivia and Rollins.

Carla plays impressively. It deeply feels the trauma of the victims who touched our hearts in Svu. In season eighteen it seemed to break away from it...it was like a puzzle.

Barba's charisma and Cassidy's charisma are a delight to watch.

All this time we have seen Olivia do a lot of things, both good and bad, but one thing she never was is stupid. She has dealt with minute details on hundreds of cases but can't remember a few hours back when she YANKED Noah out of traffic. Seems like a real stretch.

The rest of the episode is a good one. Fin dressed as a tourist is a bonus!