Good episode. Better, more involved plot than most episodes over the last 3 years and avoided the self-righteous dialogue that dominates many episodes. Would have been better if they hadn't relied on patch of grass as a key clue. In the real world, blue grass and fescue will spread several feet a year. The patch would have been long gone in 17 years. This episode had smarter writing but hasn't made it to smart yet.
9 Reviews
The missing
TheLittleSongbird22 June 2023
"Missing" was one of those 'Law and Order' episodes on first watch that had a number of good things but did feel on the ordinary side and didn't stick in the mind long after. There are episodes of the show and the 'Law and Order' franchise in general that felt like this, but there are many on both counts where that type of episode on first watch fared better on rewatch and were better than remembered seeing it through older eyes.
On the most part, "Missing" is one of those episodes. It is not a great or perfect episode and is not as good as "Alta Kockers" and "Dear Ben" when talking about Season 20 episodes. But it is certainly much better than outings like "Mea Culpa" and "Part 33" and has a lot done right. The premise is not a new one and some of the execution does reflect that, but lack of innovation is not always immediately a bad thing depending on how everything else is executed and enough of "Missing" is an example of that.
The good things will be talked about first. The production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough while also taut. The story does grip and the script provokes a lot of thought.
Mariska Hargitay's performance here is one of her best of Season 20 and closer in spirit to the Olivia this reviewer fell in love with in the earlier seasons than the sanctimonious, biased, I'm always right boss she became when promoted. The supporting cast are very good, especially for Emerson. Really liked that there was an old SVU vibe to the storytelling and there were quite a number of surprising twists, including one character not being what they seemed.
For my tastes though, some of the characters do behave a bit too cluelessly, especially the perpetrator. Characters going into tense situations on their own is getting old and it's not realistic. Especially if they are ones chastising others in other episodes for doing the same thing or something not quite on the same level. Olivia though may have felt that she had something to prove and needed closure.
Perhaps it's a bit ordinary to begin with and the actress who plays Rowan tries too hard at times.
In conclusion, another good but not great episode. 7/10.
On the most part, "Missing" is one of those episodes. It is not a great or perfect episode and is not as good as "Alta Kockers" and "Dear Ben" when talking about Season 20 episodes. But it is certainly much better than outings like "Mea Culpa" and "Part 33" and has a lot done right. The premise is not a new one and some of the execution does reflect that, but lack of innovation is not always immediately a bad thing depending on how everything else is executed and enough of "Missing" is an example of that.
The good things will be talked about first. The production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough while also taut. The story does grip and the script provokes a lot of thought.
Mariska Hargitay's performance here is one of her best of Season 20 and closer in spirit to the Olivia this reviewer fell in love with in the earlier seasons than the sanctimonious, biased, I'm always right boss she became when promoted. The supporting cast are very good, especially for Emerson. Really liked that there was an old SVU vibe to the storytelling and there were quite a number of surprising twists, including one character not being what they seemed.
For my tastes though, some of the characters do behave a bit too cluelessly, especially the perpetrator. Characters going into tense situations on their own is getting old and it's not realistic. Especially if they are ones chastising others in other episodes for doing the same thing or something not quite on the same level. Olivia though may have felt that she had something to prove and needed closure.
Perhaps it's a bit ordinary to begin with and the actress who plays Rowan tries too hard at times.
In conclusion, another good but not great episode. 7/10.
Classic SVU
jyanes17 May 2019
The Changeling
bkoganbing9 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Two police officers respond to an auto accident scene after one of the drivers runs
away. When the trunk is popped they find a 6 year old girl wrapped in a blanket.
A special enough victim for SVU.
This episode has a lot of twists to it with some other kidnapping and a body of a child buried in a suspect's yard. In the end Mariska Hargitay realizes that some things have to work themselves out if they can.
The story has elements of the classic George C. Scott-Trish Van Devere-Melvyn Douglas film The Changeling. See if you don't agree.
A special enough victim for SVU.
This episode has a lot of twists to it with some other kidnapping and a body of a child buried in a suspect's yard. In the end Mariska Hargitay realizes that some things have to work themselves out if they can.
The story has elements of the classic George C. Scott-Trish Van Devere-Melvyn Douglas film The Changeling. See if you don't agree.
Missing
bobcobb30124 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Well, the opening scene certainly made me laugh, as did the cluelessness of the cops for acting like the guy who threw a punch was the victim for a moment, but the episode itself just got too off the original premise to keep me interested. That's been a problem with SVU for the last five or so seasons: they can't just stick to one idea every week.
I don't get it...
jmdarden-2510220 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
SVU has had plenty of nut job characters over the years but usually they are that way intentionally, to play the part of a crazy character. The mother of Emerson (or Kevin Brown depending on where you are in the storyline) is beyond that. She's missing some marbles or something and that exaggerated NY accent with some kind of speech impediment is almost unbearable to watch or listen to. Certainly not sharp enough to kidnap a 6 year old child from a nearby park and keep that under the radar for 17 years. I just don't get the point of inserting such a bimbo character when it could have been played out by someone much more interesting albeit a criminal. SVU has had dozens of great costars over the years - couldn't they find one here??
OK...WHAT WAS THAT???
siraljames27 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Sorry writers...this one is a "no pass". First of all...the circular logic made me dizzy. Second of all...it is ENTIRELY possible for a child to have different color eyes than their parents...Third...the kid was kidnapped at 6, not 3. A 6 year old would know that they were being kidnapped and would therefore NEVER forget being kidnapped. Fourth...NOBODY around this family recogized that they replaced their child?!! Fifth...Kevin's Sister knew the kidnappers, which means Kevin knew the kidnappers so once again, he would absolutely know that this woman took him and he would have asked for his Sister constantly throughout the years. WTH were ya'll thinking here?!!
Disappointing in many ways...
jendarden18 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I have no clue how this episode got an overall rating above 8. It could have been a decent episode but for the myriad of disappointing writing and production blunders. First, I could not agree more with a previous reviewer who commented on the mother: the exaggerated NY accent combined with some kind of speech impediment, all of which was distracting from what was a barely believeable story to begin with. Let me be absolutely clear, no offense meant in ANY WAY to persons with speech impediments. She "kidnaps" a boy who might pass as a replacement for her own son who died in an accident caused by his drunken parents yet nobody seems to miss the kidnapped "replacement" child. A teacher, a neighbor, ANYONE could easily tell the difference yet nobody seems to. A six year old kid (maybe not a 1 or 2 year old) would be old and astute enough to enough to know and realize that something was wrong, remember his sister and ailing mother, for sure. I could go on and on about the poor quality of the characters, the plot, the whole boring premise but enough said. I love L&O:SVU but this is by far one of the cheesiest, most poorly executed episodes I can remember. Booooo!!! SVU can and does produce MUCH MUCH better material!
Again?
starswithnolight15 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
So another "kidnapped one kid to replace another" where they muck it all up by taking FOREVER to get to the point. (They did this in one with Stabler where they faked a kidnap of a teenage girl and her online streamed assaults to get attention for a cold kidnapping case, in that one they decided to play fantastical magic with the characters ages) this one they make it an absolutely absurd play with a six year old not remembering his kidnapping.... but... they start the episode with a little girl being kidnapped and she's fully functional and her brain works just fine but we're supposed to believe this kid remembers NOTHING of his former life... but also Rollins "discovery" of the kids eye color.... both of my parents had brown eyes. My brother has blue eyes and I have green. We each turned up the recessive gene from either side. There is zero way this would have clued them into it being the same kid. But It's one of those plotlines they try to make so left turn it collapses in on itself. Infuriating. SVU has always been this way though. It can go from (in one season) a pinnacle of television production in every way (in season 20 I consider Alta Kockers one of the best episodes of the entire series) to this mess of Missing. But then immediately after this episode SVU started reaching out into a lala land from which it could never come back. But you could watch its fingers slip off the cliff in this one.
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