20 replies to this topic

[Jyn]

From TV Guide:

Police dive into an underground world of self-mutilation and ritual amputation while searching for a missing woman. When a cleanly severed leg is found, the detectives look for links between their current investigation and a possibly similar cold case. Starring: Mariska Hargitay (Det. Olivia Benson), Danny Pino (Det. Nick Amaro), Kelli Giddish (Det. Amanda Rollins), Ice T (Det. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola), and Dann Florek (Capt. Don Cragen). Guest Starring: Tamara Tunie (Medical Examiner Melinda Warner).

Wow, all the amputation and mutilation talk (plus actually seeing severed legs!) freaked me out and almost made me sick. And I really thought the brother who'd turn out to be the perp was Gene, not Hal. But man, Hal turned out to be a big ball of crazy. Even Olivia and Rollins looked sickened by him!

That whole scene when Hal was basically revealed to be Nina's killer was so "Goren's lengthy exposure of the perp scenes" in CI, but it was very well-acted. Mariska and Kelli played their double-team well very well.

Pretty decent episode, but I fail to see how it fell under "Special Victims."

[taiko]

The scene was seen as a sexual fetish perhaps.

[Chicken Wing]

No, they were involved at the beginning because Rollins saw a woman being kidnapped. Does the rest of the case fall under Special Victims? Nope. But that's pretty much how the majority of the episodes over the past five seasons have worked.

I pretty much checked out after the season premiere when I realized that I in fact was not going to enjoy the show without Meloni. I tuned it at the start of this episode because I suddenly had a hankering to hear the theme song again. And then I kept watching when I saw Constantine Maroulis in the guest star credits, heh.

Edited by Chicken Wing, May 17, 2012 @ 7:08 AM.

[HarleyJane]

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . Geez what a crashing bore and a ridiculous storyline. Once again it felt like it had 15 minutes of story that they sloooowly dragged into an hour. The fakey peg legs had me howling but other than that there was absolutely no entertainment value for me whatsoever. This show used to be really good at building intensity and suspense and having truly frightening perps but those days are long gone. It's really gotten painful to watch now. There was such wordy, slow, exposition in the big reveal of the Dr. I was bored to tears and only slightly amused myself by staring at what's happened to mariska's face.

Finale looks stupid , as it has for the last few years. I'm finally pulling the plug on this show and other than catching a few re-runs from the early years on USA I'm done watching.

[Angeltoes]

I was totally confused (probably because I was playing games on my phone while watching it). So the guy cut off women's legs because his mother lost her leg in an accident when he was a preteen? He thought he was helping them somehow?...this is where I got confused. Do people really want to look like elves?

[Irregardles]

The Benson/Rollins partnership should be permanent. Obviously for this one they teamed up so a crazy person could call them hot but boring, but I dig their vibe—it has a mentorship quality but there's also respect. They need to work up a rapport. Keep them together!

[marceline]

Ick. This veered into monkey basketball territory.

I couldn't help but laugh at the uniformed cops standing outside the storage unit like they were waiting in line at the sandwich shop all while watching this guy describe amputations. I wanted at least one of them to look horrified or sickened. (Actually I wanted one of them to say, "Fuck it. This is too much for me. I didn't sign up for this. I'm going into my brother's construction business." Then toss his badge at Rollins and walk away.)

The Benson/Rollins partnership should be permanent. Obviously for this one they teamed up so a crazy person could call them hot but boring, but I dig their vibe—it has a mentorship quality but there's also respect. They need to work up a rapport. Keep them together!

They are good together but I still perfer Rollins and Fin. They are so different from each other that they complement each other really well. Honestly I think both Kelli and Danny have turned out to be excellent additions to the show. They work well with all the cast members. It doesn't make up for losing Huang, Munch and Warner but at least the newbies are GOOD newbies. Not like D.A. Dead Eyes from a couple of seasons back.

Edited by marceline, May 17, 2012 @ 11:30 AM.

[AddiePray]

It doesn't make up for losing Huang, Munch and Warner

or Stabler, Cabot, Novak . . . or any courtroom action or really any action to speak of.

This was an incredibly stupid episode.

[gumboot]

This was an incredibly stupid episode.

Indeed. The sheer psychological dumbness of it - "His mom lost her leg! That's why he does it!" - was staggering.

[BruceMO]

So, what did Rollins tattoo say?

[ShortyMac]

So, what did Rollins tattoo say?

Her first name, Amanda. Pic: http://i45.tinypic.com/25i18pk.png

[Jyn]

AddiePray, I'm fine with Stabler being gone. I don't see him being any real loss to the show like the others you mentioned.

[Crys Loch]

Oh, this episode was horrible. The slipshod shortcuts and assumptions just created the impression that everything was made up and nothing made sense. I can't remember who said it, Doc. Warner, Olivia or Rollins, but when one of them suggested that tattoos and piercings were like a gateway drug, I laughed. So my tats are just gonna lead me to the 'harder' stuff, huh? Was that our public service message for the episode? We haven't had one in a while.

I actually liked the party scene but that's because I like any time Rollins and Fin work together. No matter how bad the ep., I find these two together enjoyable to watch. Actually, the body as art and expression Scene is complex, varied and more fun than scary. As an outsider who's been let in a few times, I'll testify as a witness. I'm not sure what the show was trying to say about it. I'm not even sure they know. I think they were just trying to use the 'freak' factor.

The end scene with Olivia and Rollins trying to get the doctor to confess just didn't work for me. I almost laughed at the look Rollins shot Olivia as if to say, "slow down and back up, confronting him is scaring him off'. They're making Rollins into some sort of 'profiler and perp whisperer', but never explained any of it well enough to pass my bs meter. Instead the whole thing was just a long drawn out mess of "but my mom... and aren't they beautiful?"

Another wtf shortcut- I've known a lot of addicts and I haven't known anyone who would let someone cut off their leg for some cash. Where did he find these super rare, so very desperate? Did he advertise in the Back Pages of the Village Voice? That whole bit, just not plausible. "I'd sell my mother" or "I'd give my right arm" are just sayings, people. It's like the writers had no sense of reality at all this ep.

And one last nitpick, from the episode description- is there a time when a severed leg isn't 'clear'? I think the missing word there is "surgically" as in "clearly surgically severed leg". At least I hope so.

[hannahsweetie]

The only part of this episode I liked was the beginning with Rollins and her ex-captain - it started to open up who Rollins is, and I'd like to see more backstory for her. The rest, yawn.

David Eigenberg is a good actor but I just can't help but think "Steve!" any time he appears in anything. I can't even remember the character's name in this episode, he was Dr. Steve to me as soon as he popped up.

[Josette]

And one last nitpick, from the episode description- is there a time when a severed leg isn't 'clear'? .

It says cleanly severed.

[Crys Loch]

It says cleanly severed.

Opps. See it now, thanks. Still almost missed it when it was pointed out. Don't tell my wife I need glasses.

[Scorpiosrule]

So, I decided to watch this this morning before offically starting work, and lo and behold, I fell asleep during the last 20 minutes. I think it was around the time they questioned Dentist Bright, who said he was gay...and then...nothing. I think I heard Olivia then talking to Pychologist Bright in a psuedo-seduction voice?

Then the woman who waters our plants came in and I woke up.

What a thrill.

But I must say: I wonder if I should be offended that they all called that taxi driver killer "The Sikh"? Did they know it was an Indian man who was kidnapping these women and killing them?

Wonder how this would have rolled over had they said "Oh, it must be the...Irish..or Jamaican...or Polish...or" whatever other ethnicity one would like to insert.

Or maybe I'm just too sensitive.

Edited by Scorpiosrule, May 25, 2012 @ 4:37 PM.

[BruceMO]

Well, there is a very distinctive dress and grooming code to being an adult Sikh male. The facial hair and turban is a religious requirement. Therefore, if they had a witness who described that, I think it would be reasonable to describe him as "The Sikh".

[Scorpiosrule]

Well, there is a very distinctive dress and grooming code to being an adult Sikh male. The facial hair and turban is a religious requirement. Therefore, if they had a witness who described that, I think it would be reasonable to describe him as "The Sikh".

Oh, without a doubt, but I can't remember if any of the detectives said that a witness did indeed describe him as such; if they did, then, my bad.

[BruceMO]

Oh, without a doubt, but I can't remember if any of the detectives said that a witness did indeed describe him as such; if they did, then, my bad.
0

Oh, I don't know whether they did on screen or not. I think we can assume that they did whether it was on screen or off screen.

[HalfwayThere]

I'm finally catching up on last season - I feel obligated to start watching the show again as a throw-away Cabot line last season inspired the thesis I'm working on now - and watched this tonight. I've seen a ton of SVU and have worked in courts/with crime victims/etc. and generally have a strong stomach for such things, but this one really freaked me out to the point where I'm having trouble sleeping.

It was generally boring and dragged forever (although I love Fin/Rollins together) but I don't even know - the ending monologue really just disturbed me and just the whole idea that someone would forcibly cut women's legs off. I've been watching SVU marathons when I'm having trouble sleeping for years (to the point where I find the opening narration almost soothing) and I can't figure out why I'm having this extreme of a reaction.

Maybe my subconscious is just reacting to how bad this show has gotten...

Edited by HalfwayThere, Sep 20, 2012 @ 11:06 PM.