User Reviews

I'm in shock! An episode that doesn't give Hargitay a soap box to spew her left wing views. Like a breath of fresh air.

The first Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode of 2019 did not disappoint, featuring a bizarre twist in trademark SVU style. This was definitely the best episode of Season 20 thus far. I didn't see the murder or identity twists coming at all, and I was shaken very deeply and brought to tears in the end.

I give "Plastic" a 10/10.

11/10 would watch again When I come across episodes like this, I just have to review it. It was amazingly written, I was genuinely shocked!

The way title for this episode fits so phenomenally, it just makes this that much better.

Young Willa Fitzgerald, dissheveled and somwhat out of it rings on doorbells n the middle of the night claiming she was raped. As it turns out not by just one perpetrator, but two.

The perps are Michael Feuerstein a plastic surgeon to the rich and girlfriend Alyssa Sutherland. They are a high powered celebrity couple, he's on many talk shows. Gives him some experience in handling interrogations. Mariska Hargitay and the rest of the squad don't believe him but a jury might.

Good story with great performances by the guest cast mentioned.

But it turns out he's a lot more than a rapist even a celebrity rapist..

On first watch, "Plastic" had some serious issues and was very uneven in terms of how the case is written but was a decent episode elevated by the guest support acting. It was a case of the guest support acting being better than the episode itself and also a case of being more appealing than the premise, which sounds a bit on the thin and sleazy side but wasn't either luckily. Was hoping that it would be similar or maybe even better on rewatch, after seeing episodes of shows overtime that went down in my estimations.

"Plastic" fared the same on rewatch, for pretty much the same reasons in regard to both strengths and flaws. Season 20 was not a great season, and while not a great episode and again very uneven in story execution "Plastic" fares better than a lot of the season's episodes and certainly better than most of those from the season's first half. While also not being one of the best, with it being a let down after the wonderful "Alta Kockers" and not being as good as that and "Dear Ben".

Beginning with the good things, the production values as ever are slick and 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. The regular cast are all fine, as is the cohesive team interaction and it was great that Olivia didn't annoy me as she did do too often since her promotion.

Even better is the guest turn, with a truly creepy Mark Feurstein dominating. Alyssa Sutherland is both unsettling and poignant in the second half. The script is thought provoking and punchy and not soapy. While the story was a long way from perfect, it did boast a tear inducing ending and a surprising twist.

However, "Plastic" does fall short in other areas. It is rather predictable on the whole, with it being too obvious too early who the perpetrator was in a case with too few suspects. Not everything felt necessary, everything with Ceci didn't add an awful lot and confused the story a bit.

Furthermore, there is some very sloppy legal and policing errors, especially the search warrant (the way it was conducted it most likely would have been deemed inadmissible at trial) and the murder charge. The pacing is uneven, taking a bit of time to get going and then tries to do too much in the final third.

Worth seeing, though falls well short of greatness. 6/10.

First part was solid material, but then something happened, writer changed maybe??

Like it was obsession to pinpoint that only man can invite ladies to bed, if you like threesome, entire squad will come after you. Twist? Seriously? Writer forgot to check the beginning?

20 episodes, can't hit every time, but even for a fan this one had more plots than plans.