24 replies to this topic

[SnarklePuss]

Heavy on the guest stars! Elliott Gould, Buck Henry, Charles Grodin, Anthony Rapp ("Rent") and Raúl Esparza.

[wiishtrh]

Damn, where the hell is Munch? Haven't seen him since the flashback episode.

[AddiePray]

Damn, could that have dragged anymore Zzzzzzz

[floretbroccoli]

At least this ripped-from-the-headlines story (Horace Mann) made sense in an SVU context.

The opening kind of freaked me out. The teacher who committed suicide seemed to be played by James Whitmore, who died three years ago. And famously played a guy who hung himself in The Shawshank Redemption.

Anyone know who played him?

[Model Citizen]

Charles Grodin channeling Dick Cheney--strangely fascinating.

[Bunny LaJoya]

This episode was so preachy and boring. It was like... an informercial or something I don't know.

[Arjumand]

Anyone know who played him?

According to tv.com, Alvin Epstein.

[the board of governors guy whose son was a victim was] Charles Grodin channeling Dick Cheney--strangely fascinating.

That's exactly what I thought - and yelled at the screen every so often. Because I wasn't minding the episode, as at least they were investigating a sex crime, you know, their JOB, for once.

Then Dick Cheney (sorry, the character's actual name is gone from my brain) mentioned his son having gone to the school, and that was it for me. TALK TO THE SON, MORONS. I was sure they were going to take my ungentle hint, but then they didn't. Every time they met Darth Vader again, I was saying the same thing. The son! Dick Cheney's son, he is key! And they just went in these fruitless directions, and I just got frustrated.

Why are they being written as so unperceptive? Olivia, for one, has been dong this job for over a decade, and she still has to see the actual freaking picture of a guy she met earlier in the episode, and for him to have been an abuse victim, to come to the conclusion I, armchair detective, came to half an hour ago? For fuck's sake. Just to have the dramatic resolution in the pool house?

I would have loved it if after that first meeting with the Axis of Evil (seriously, a bit heavy-handed there, writers), Olivia would have said - "Wait, didn't that guy say his SON was at the school when all this abuse was happening? Why don't we ask his SON about his experiences?". This, in my Competent Detectives Utopia, would have been followed by some investigations, and we could still have had the heart-rending confrontation in the poolhouse (Do you love me NOW daddy?!).

But no. Ah, brave new world, where detectives don't detect. I still like the D.A., though. I like him a lot.

Edited by Arjumand, Nov 22, 2012 @ 2:26 PM.

[The Wild Sow]

Heavy on the guest stars! Elliott Gould, Buck Henry, Charles Grodin, Anthony Rapp ("Rent") and Raúl Esparza.

Ha ha ha, no wonder Mark (from Rent) hates dear old Mom & Dad -- Dad is Dick Cheney!

[marceline]

Ha ha ha, no wonder Mark (from Rent) hates dear old Mom & Dad -- Dad is Dick Cheney!

He was certainly living La Vie Boheme in that poolhouse.

Edited by marceline, Nov 22, 2012 @ 7:31 PM.

[diydude]

And I thought Kris Kringle initially walked through their door!

Agree, oh so obvious (from the first reference to him) that the son would break it wide open.

[Nycnftm]

Chalk this one up to one of the worst ever. One of very few you cant make it all the way through.

[MsCaitlin]

Charles Grodin channeling Dick Cheney--strangely fascinating.

So glad I'm not the only one that noticed this. Grodin not only looks ancient but he was so Cheney it freaked me out.

Knew there was shit going on with Mark From Rent as soon as he bailed on the abuse meeting in the first 10 minutes of the episode. Anthony Rapp seems to be reverse aging....he actually looks younger than the Season 5 ep where he played that doctor who's sister Jane Krakowski killed all the old ladies with air embolisms.

[Scorpiosrule]

This was so godawful.

Agree that Charles Grodin was eerily and scarily so Dick Cheney. Down to the facial expressions. Gave me the willies. I'm so glad that Midnight Run was on this weekend--because his accountant in that movie? That's Grodin for me. Funny, sarcastic, sweet.

And really, I hate, hate HATE this new ADA. He's better suited for prosecuting homicides NOT within the SVU purview--he hasn't a single iota, not a smidgen of empathy for victims of rape or sexual abuse. He's got no fucking business being in that office.

I have to also stop from rolling my eyes, because he'll always be that loser of an ADA from Criminal Intent, who had a thing for Alex, but lost that case and turned out to be a man who liked dressing up as a woman and who tried to frame Alex. Pathetic asshole there, intolerable douchecanoe asshole here.

[TD3000]

I have to also stop from rolling my eyes, because he'll always be that loser of an ADA from Criminal Intent, who had a thing for Alex, but lost that case and turned out to be a man who liked dressing up as a woman and who tried to frame Alex. Pathetic asshole there, intolerable douchecanoe asshole here.

Yeah, I can't stop seeing him as that character. Sometimes he can reign it in, but yeah, usually a bit to douchey for my taste.

Anyways, this is supposed to be a take off the Sandusky case right? Well, whatever it was, it wasn't all that good. Too disjointed.

[MsCaitlin]

Horace Mann school here in NYC actually. I think we saw a Jerry Sandusky based episode last season with Dan Laria (dad from the Wonder Years) as an abusive basketball coach.

[gumboot]

I thought the son looked like Bill Gates!

Better than last week's episode, which admittedly isn't a ringing endorsement.

[kirinan]

I liked it. I read the New York Times Magazine article on the Horace Mann situation when it originally came out, so it was sort of fascinating to see it come to life. This for sure wasn't the best episode of the season, but as gumboot says, it was better than last week's. Considering the last thing I probably saw Charles Grodin in was Dave, with Kevin Kline, color me shocked to see him turn into Dick Cheney. I feel old.

I was also happy to see Barba back. I personally like the character, as prickly and crabby and douchey as he can be. Which I realize puts me in the minority, but then me liking the whole post-Meloni SVU is sort of a me-against-the-world thing anyway. I just know I'm along for the ride as long as Danny Pino's on board, and the rest of the characters are a bonus because I like them all, especially Fin and Munch (who's been way too absent recently).

[Kel Varnsen]

I have been liking most of the episodes this season but this one was so boring. Plus I couldn't help but wonder how actual victims who have been assaulted recently (within the show I mean) would feel that the SVU was spending a ton of time on resources on a case where pretty much all the actual perpetrators are dead (or senile) and all of the victims seem to be old enough where the statute of limitations has passed. It is not like you can charge the school, so why all the effort. It is also interesting that kirinan mentioned this is based on a real case that was investigated by the NY Times. If all they wanted to do was call attention to the problem and get an apology, why not just have SVU leak the information to the media?

Also I was a bit surprised that one day the squad room is so busy that a person coming into confess to something can't even talk to a police officer. But the next few weeks after that it is so slow that 4 detectives can investigate a case where they essentially have no one to charge with anything, and no victims who can take the stand and accuse anyone of anything.

[zoemi]

I had to log in just to say, holy crap, that was Charles Grodin??

[Christie L]

Last week had me worried. But this was good. Even though I wanted to bang the detectives heads together for not figuring out sooner that the son had been molested, too.

I had to log in just to say, holy crap, that was Charles Grodin??

Thank you! I kept thinking the voice was familiar. But I was saying, "Who is this old dude?" The last things I remember seeing him in are Beethoven and Seems Like Old Times. But I was proud of myself when I immediately recognized his "son" from Adventures in Babysitting. Yeah, I'm old.

[txhorns79]

I thought this episode was all over the place. It started strong, but then kind of fell apart as it went along because crusty old board member whose son was secretly abused seemed too much like a cartoon rather than a person.

Also, the storyline with Elliot Gould was just a hot mess of mixed messages. Were we supposed to be reviled by the fact that he was a high school teacher bedding his students, or think what he did was okay or forgivable because the one "victim" we saw, saw the entire thing as a life affirming story about his own coming out of the closet?

[NMdum1]

Survey the group here? Does it bother you that the resolution is more Truth and Reconciliation as apposed to a traditional Law and Order story where somebody actually goes to jail? If it does then it doesn't surprise me if you might have found it boring.

Yes, the crusty board-member with the abused son was a cliche, but I don't think this matters. I suspect they were trying to ask us about what our own definition of justice was, whether we only considered it by the narrow definition of bad man gets caught = goes to jail for a long time or whether justice also means a lot of well-intentioned, devoted to their cause to the expense of everything else, sort of people painfully taking responsibility for what they didn't want to see or acknowledge but what they might have been sub- or semi-consciously aware of and facing the harsh truths and whatever consequences that may come with it. Being British and given what's happening with our dear state broadcaster at present, that approach actually rang surprisingly true, despite the obvious cliches.

In that sense it was a different kind of episode, there were no legal hijinks to pull to send somebody to prison and the one person who actually admitted to any kind of direct wrong-doing (Elliot Gould's character) became pathetic, small and destroyed. Hot mess that he was, there's something really kind of sad and pathetic (assuming he's being honest and I don't think there's a reason to doubt him), about going from being totally sure about what you think happened and then having the consequences of those events, that you thought were perfectly okay, thrown back at you and shown to be really not. And it was interesting that he ended up being a means to an end a the Grand Jury rather than the villain thrown into jail, which is different.

I liked where they were trying go and what they were trying to achieve, without necessarily liking exactly the route they took to get there.

PS - I totally didn't get that it really was Charles Grodin for a little while thinking "I know that voice, where do I know that voice?", last time I remember seeing him in anything was one of those Beethoven movies. Wow, somebody's changed....

[ITCJon]

Now that Anthony Rapp has ditched the bleached blond hair he had for RENT, his natural red hair makes him look like he did as a teenager in ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING.

[lindseysaunt]

Ha ha ha! This episode re-aired last night and I had to come on here to make sure it was not just me who thought Charles Grodin was channeling Dick Cheney. Alas, I was not the only one! Oddly (or not) I think he was almost having fun with the role.

I have not watched new episodes of SVU in awhile so this was my first exposure to the new ADA. I found him sort of fascinating but yeah, not really the most empathetic sort to be prosecuting Special Victims cases. Maybe he'll improve.

Didn't think this ep was terrible but some aspects were a little too painful/awkard or something.

[Rockville]

The school this episode is based on just "apologized for decades of sexual abuse." See story. It has a link to the school's statement.