'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' varied throughout its run in its portrayal of the main characters' personal life stories. The earlier seasons generally handled them very, very well, but too many of them started to get soapier and over-emphasised over the cases around Season 8 or so. Olivia is a great character, or at least she was in the early seasons (she's varied post-Stabler), but her personal life subplot is a continuation of the one seen in "Trophy", which didn't grab me so was nervous.
"Rescue" is not one of the best or worst episodes of Season 12. It is also not in either category when talking about 'Special Victims Unit' as a show. As far as Season 12 goes, it's around low middle. Not a terrible episode and watchable with some strong good things, but somewhat bland and disjointed and the balance didn't seem right. There were a small handful of episodes that feel like too much of two halves and "Rescue" is one of those.
There are good things here. The production values are typically slick with the right amount of grit, nothing is too fancy or too gimmicky. Nor is anything too static, drab or garish. The music is not too constant or emotionally manipulative, meanig not over-emphasising the emotion to make one think that's how we should be feeling. The direction has moments where it has enough alertness and breathing space.
Mariska Hargitay and Maria Bello both give great affecting performances, Hargitay in particular makes one feel sorry for Olivia expertly. Especially at the end. The case does start off very well and in an unsettling way.
However, the episode could have been a lot better, especially considering that there are many brilliant Olivia-centric episodes (i.e. "911"). It does feel like two episodes in one, or more like two stories in one, one marginally better than the two while not living to full potential. The case starts off creepy but there is not much memorable about it and the more it progressed the sillier and duller it got due to too little tension and because the teams professionalism goes out the window.
Furthermore, the ending for the case came over as ridiculous and contrived. Olivia's subplot fares worse, there is far too much of it and much of it is melodramatic soap opera that doesn't go very far a lot of the time, making it feel dragged out and lacking in variety. It was not interesting enough in "Trophy", though it is less shoe-horned in here, and to me it really did feel like one episode too far. The writing is bland and awkward.
In conclusion, watchable but didn't care for it all that much. 5/10.
"Rescue" is not one of the best or worst episodes of Season 12. It is also not in either category when talking about 'Special Victims Unit' as a show. As far as Season 12 goes, it's around low middle. Not a terrible episode and watchable with some strong good things, but somewhat bland and disjointed and the balance didn't seem right. There were a small handful of episodes that feel like too much of two halves and "Rescue" is one of those.
There are good things here. The production values are typically slick with the right amount of grit, nothing is too fancy or too gimmicky. Nor is anything too static, drab or garish. The music is not too constant or emotionally manipulative, meanig not over-emphasising the emotion to make one think that's how we should be feeling. The direction has moments where it has enough alertness and breathing space.
Mariska Hargitay and Maria Bello both give great affecting performances, Hargitay in particular makes one feel sorry for Olivia expertly. Especially at the end. The case does start off very well and in an unsettling way.
However, the episode could have been a lot better, especially considering that there are many brilliant Olivia-centric episodes (i.e. "911"). It does feel like two episodes in one, or more like two stories in one, one marginally better than the two while not living to full potential. The case starts off creepy but there is not much memorable about it and the more it progressed the sillier and duller it got due to too little tension and because the teams professionalism goes out the window.
Furthermore, the ending for the case came over as ridiculous and contrived. Olivia's subplot fares worse, there is far too much of it and much of it is melodramatic soap opera that doesn't go very far a lot of the time, making it feel dragged out and lacking in variety. It was not interesting enough in "Trophy", though it is less shoe-horned in here, and to me it really did feel like one episode too far. The writing is bland and awkward.
In conclusion, watchable but didn't care for it all that much. 5/10.