lurch394 Reviews

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Victims (2001) Season 2, Episode 13

Definite spoiler

[9/10 · 7 April 2024]

Eric Roberts' ex-cop: shoo-in for the murder?

Don't be so sure!

After reluctantly taking the case of a murdered rapist, Stabler reluctantly pursues the killer until he recognizes a kindred soul in Roberts' troubled suspect. No confession, but Elliott did extract information that leads him and Benson to the real killer.

Revenge is afoot, but too many people want it. One victim's girlfriend was infected with HIV from him. Angry neighbors don't want convicted rapists who have done their time in prison in their neighborhoods.

Ann Dowd, not yet Aunt Lydia, plays a therapist with a rape in her past and full-blown AIDS. I did not see it coming, testifying to the quality of writing at this stage of SVU.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Zone Rouge (2024) Season 25, Episode 5

Another Stray Taken In

[23 February 2024]

Shanna Sykes is the new George Huang. There is a precedent for embedded FBI agents, so it's a little too convenient, but Jordana Spiro feels like a good addition. It will also make sense once Curry leaves: IAB promotes them fast, so maybe Renee needs to feel like a detective rather than a cheese-eater (h/t Sipowicz and Blue).

So we've got an ad hoc SVU: Bruno too rich to want to work full-time, Curry only there temporarily, and an FBI liaison with a hair trigger (like Stabler and Amaro). I'm sure Stabler and Rollins will still drop in to make us miss them, but so far Benson's putting together a new team.

Who knows how much longer the show will last? When 60-year-old Mariska Hargitay is chasing suspects, I wonder if this is the new Barnaby Jones.

Law & Order: Organized Crime: The Last Supper (2024) Season 4, Episode 4

The family drama was better than protecting the witness

[5/10 · 13 February 2024]

Which supper was last? It could be either, but the Stabler family drama was more engaging than the protection of the witness and her bratty teenagers.

Learning that Randall turned in his father to IAB was understandable and maddening. Discovering that younger brother Joe Jr. Is up to something shady was a rare chance for Elliot and Randall to bond after physical conflict. Eli's anger at his father's disengagement from the family was believable.

As for guarding the witness, other commenters have already addressed that well. I'm wondering why the captain was involved when Bell answers to Lt. Brewster. Consistency, Wolf Productions!

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Duty to Report (2024) Season 25, Episode 4

Seriously? Benson taking in another stray?

[6/10 · 12 February 2024]

Yes, Manhattan SVU has too many "Y chromosomes" in addition to being shorthanded. And I liked Captain Curry from the beginning. I never liked Chief McGrath, but Serpico made him human, especially in this episode.

But come on! How could Benson bring in another captain? I don't care how many strings are pulled.

In addition, is Benson Kryptonite to her bosses? First Cragen, then Dodds, Garland, and finally McGrath. Unless Wolf and company bring in a new character, how about Alexandra Eames? I'm sure by now she could be a one-star chief or at least an inspector. Is Kathryn Erbe interested and available? Maybe St. Olivia should answer to a woman.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Tunnel Blind (2024) Season 25, Episode 1

Ben Seaver on Growing Pains: what a coinky-dink!

[8/10 · 21 January 2024]

After young Nicholas Carisi is baptized and the squad makes a half-hearted toast to the late John Munch, Liv just happens to see a kidnap victim who isn't in distress? Deus ex machina, anyone? After Chief McGrath orders her not to, Benson tells the distraught mother of the girl that there's a witness (her, of course).

When is Bruno going to be added to the cast? I would accept Churlish, too, though she's too much of a goody-two-shoes. Is Dick Wolf trying to save money, or he angling to add blonde Sloane from Bergen County? I agree with the earlier reviewer: she is not necessary.

On the whole, the canonization of St. Olivia continues space. This should be the last season: promote her, retire her, have her marry Stabler: just give Captain Benson a decent send-off. The reruns will live on. (Don't give Fin the squad: he was a reluctant sergeant.)

Bones: The Killer in the Concrete (2007) Season 2, Episode 18

Poco!

[9/10 · 9 August 2023]

I'll have to disagree with marcelfrancehd on this episode.

While Bones is an entertaining series, though not my favorite, incorporating Poco's "Keep On Tryin'" into the episode was masterful. There are enough of us Poconuts around to appreciate it. It does make sense than Bones's father would be the right age to be a Poco fan--and no doubt someone older in Booth's life was, too.

And calling Poco "indie" is hugely inaccurate: the band was founded in 1968 from the ashes of Buffalo Springfield, as was CSN (and Y: though Neil was in the Springfield, it took him a while to make it a quartet). The band was only moderately famous, but lumping it in with 1990s alternative rock (which I love) totally misses their place in the world.

Not too long after writing and singing lead vocals on this song, Timothy B. Schmit left Poco for The Eagles, replacing the late Randy Meisner (also Schmit's predecessor at Poco).

All in all, it gave Bones, her father, and Booth a level of personality most TV shows don't offer their characters.

FBI: Sisterhood (2023) Season 5, Episode 20

Maggie needs to chill out

[7/10 · 26 April 2023]

I have a relative who is in recovery, so I understand the fear and embarrassment. However, it is clear that Erin is savvy and good at improvising. Castile and Valentine needed to pull Maggie from the operation. And the idea of her going in Erin's place? The actresses don't look anything alike. That would have endangered the hostage. Her not wanting Erin to return to New York was selfish. Her sister is an adult and willing to take responsibility for herself. Maggie needs to let her live her life and stop seeing Erin as an extension of Maggie. And since when is Indianapolis without crime, drugs, and the rest of the temptations of American life?

Criminal Minds: Hope (2011) Season 7, Episode 8

Suspenseful but flawed

[7/10 · 15 November 2022]

The perpetrator was a major sicko but good at tricking the victim. The revelation of what happened to the victim's daughter was sad and gruesome. His attending Penelope's support group was diabolically effective. I could see the abduction coming a mile away, but I can see how the mother would have fallen for it.

The final takedown of the perpetrator was creative and effective, until he put down the gun and stepped away from his hostage. I can't cry any tears from the sicko, but I think some BAU members will be sent back for retraining. Luckily, they work in Quantico and can return to FBI boot camp.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Dead Ball (2022) Season 24, Episode 7

Pretty standard, but not getting the Brazilians right

[7/10 · 12 November 2022]

It's well done but like so many SVU episodes: powerful perp, lots of handlers, uncooperative witnesses, the 1PP brass being cowards. Worst for me were all the Spanish-speaking actors butchering Portuguese. Learn to say "feijoada" correctly, Ocampo!

Otherwise, I'm starting to like Muncy in her interplay with Velasco vis à vis football versus fútbol (futebol in Portuguese), although I doubt the NYPD would allow a colorblind officer to make detective. Saint Olivia still has more balls than Chief McGrath, who continues to seem like a kiss-up, kick-down boss. Idea: if they could bring back Barek from Criminal Intent as a lieutenant, bring back Eames as the new SVU chief. She made lieutenant before Olivia, so making her an inspector or one-star chief isn't a stretch. An Erbe-Hargitay conflict and alliance would be entertaining.

Ray Donovan: Hispes (2019) Season 7, Episode 4

Bridget is Ray's daughter

[8/10 · 12 July 2022]

Ray, temporarily without wheels, can't help the spoiled pop singer, so "Bridge" jumps into action with wigs. Maybe it's upbringing, watching her father in action, or DNA, but "Whiny Bridget" showed she has some moves.

Ray Donovan: Ellis Island (2018) Season 6, Episode 5

This may be more IMDb than the show

[8/10 · 7 July 2022]

Radulovich is listed as a sergeant when he's clearly wearing lieutenant's bars. He's McGrath's superior. Otherwise, good usual Donovan with Ray arranging things for the rich and powerful and Mickey developing another harebrained scheme bound to fail.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Faith (2002) Season 1, Episode 21

Reminscent of J.T. Leroy

[9/10 · 9 July 2020]

Literary fakes are fascinating, and L&O:CI has used them before, but never as well. This echoes the shadowy child prostitute J. T. Leroy, who turned out to be a hoax. Goren and Eames' chemistry is never better than in this episode when they double-team a professor and otherwise get into the search.

Hunter (1973 TV Movie)

Obscure. Unfortunately.

[8/10 · 1 January 2020]

I too still remember seeing this. Frequent Mission: Impossible guest star John Vernon played a government agent impersonating a subject, but not with a mask in this Bruce Geller production.

I always wondered if this was the basis for the short-lived series Hunter, starring James Franciscus and a pre-Dynasty, post-Big Valley Linda Evans.

Baby Snatcher (1992 TV Movie)

Not Believable

[3/10 · 3 January 2004]

It's been a decade since I saw this, but my ex-wife and I could not help but comment on how unbelievable the details were and how far both Veronica Hamel and Nancy McKeon had fallen. (Nancy seems to have recovered, at least.) In hindsight, it's a wonder this didn't damage Michael Madsen's career.

Who would believe that a divorced waitress with a child, pregnant by her married and not wealthy lover, would live in a single-family house and drive a late-model Volvo station wagon? That just shows how out of touch Hollywood people were with how ordinary people lived.

Final Justice (1984)

MST3K Does It Again

[22 May 2002]

The funniest parts of their spoof of this stinker of a movie?

The parade, which led to the "Goosio" skit.

The stripper who kept her back to the audience: "She's the Miles Davis of strippers!"

Joe Don in a crowd and the 'bots singing "Everybody's Talkin' At Me"!