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siraljames
Reviews
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Good Girl (2019)
Sickening Father Figure and COME ON GET REAL REVIEWERS
GREAT WRITING! Ok...the StepFather was sick and his attorney even sicker...I wish they would do an episode where the Defense Attorneys kid gets violated by the client during the course of the trial.
Then we would get to see some turnabout for the ATTORNEYS for whom enough money erased all of their moral fiber...if they have any. NOW HAVING SAID THAT: There are way too many reviewers on here mad about the Age-Law thing. Of course a TV SHOW is not going to give us REAL statutes concerning states and legal ages of consent and marriage...that would just be fuel for Predators to take victims to those states...It was phony on purpose...How is that not immediately understood when watching a fictional program? They would never give criminals all kinds of legal ammo...think about it.
Cold Case: Hitchhiker (2003)
DANNY IS A DIRTY COP
On all of these Procedural shows they insert a bad cop in the mix who they allow to do good things on a lot of episodes to throw us off...In later seasons Danny had his mother's mugger killed...shamelessly, too...the dude was already paying for his crime....Yes, it was his mother, but if you're that mad, do the crime yourself. He set the dude up like a coward. Any cop who justifies murder is a dirty cop because that means he will murder again if he feels justified and then hide behind his badge. In this episode he forces a false confession and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. Sad. Came out of the room very satisfied with using his power to terrorize an old man...Got MAD at the thought that they had a lead on another suspect. He wanted to send the old man up for murder after he threatened to make sure the man never saw his son again..mI never liked his character. This incident in Season 1 had me fully prepared for all the dirty copping he did going forward. A narcissist. He is written VERY well!!! Developed well too!!! And the cousin in this episode...he was a complete idiot. Who asks somebody to help them rob a Casino?!!! Not a bank...not a gas station...not a convenience store...a CASINO...with cameras and security EVERYWHERE?!!
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Missing (2019)
OK...WHAT WAS THAT???
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?!!
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Gone Baby Gone (2018)
SHIELDS SHINES!!!
Brook Shields absolutely jumps off the screen reminding us what an AWESOME and sadly underrated actress she has always been. What I liked about these episodes is how it highlights the tendency adults have in making a child nothing more than a cookie. Both Sheila and Olivia were more concerned with possession than they were with welfare. Olivia was initially completely dismissive of the fact that despite what she thought, Noah had biological family (something she probably would have discovered had she not used her job connections to circumvent the adoption process and basically get an immediate adoption). Sheila was completely dismissive of the fact that Noah's norm was Olivia as his mother. Is Olivia protective of Noah because she loves Noah or because she just wants a child so bad (which would explain why she wouldn't have done like a normal citizen and gone through the formal adoption process)? Is Sheila just trying to keep her lone family member in her family or is she trying to use Noah to right her wrongs with Ellie? Both of these adults had ulterior motives. That's what made the episodes so intriguing. Both exhibited genuine love for Noah; but he comes off as nothing but a prize to both. GREAT WRITING IN THESE!!! Only reason a 9 instead of 10...It was too obvious who was behind the kidnapping.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Turmoil (2009)
THIS IS DICKIE'S EPISODE
Dickie's character is developed to perfection in this episode. Elliot, as usual, is an a-hole of the first order and it costs his son's best friend his life. What amazes me is that Elliot acted like he had no idea why Dickie would stay out all night mourning his best friend whose funeral he can't attend because his father's ability to antagonize the wrong people really shined in this episode. Elliot's apology at the end was so nonchalant and robotic. Dude...your son's best friend is dead and he can't go to the funeral because of you...that's all you got is a barely audible "I'm sorry"?!! I was rooting for Dickie to get his papers signed and get out of the house (not that his Mother would have gone for it...lol)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Sugar (2009)
HORRIBLE ENDING
So...a father tries to take the fall for his daughter...and the writers reward him by having that same daughter plunge scissors into her father's neck because HER dumb a** got caught?!! So...the psycho b**** couldn't plunge the scissors in her own neck?!! And the journey to that point was no circus...As usual the squad is clueless all the way until just before the end and powerless to stop the real perp from killing somebody else RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM...Were the writers trying to paint the detectives as incompetent? Because they certainly come off that way a lot. Most of the time they have beaten up, intimidated, ruined the reputations of, gotten fired or gotten killed the wrong people...It is very possible to write 40 minutes of them trying to convict the RIGHT person...
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Trade (2008)
ALMOST PERFECT TIL THE END
This episode is so good that you can watch it right to the end before it turns horrible...Just like with "Sugar", the writers decided to shock the viewer in the worst way. Why does the innocent accused have to die? We go through this whole episode thinking PJ is at best a co-conspirator and at worst a murderer only to learn he is completely innocent, but then he ends up dying a horrible terrorizing death (just like in "Sugar"). How about we see some justice for the victim. Send the murderer to prison or let them kill their own selves! This episode was in no way made any better than it already had been for 40 minutes...Torturing PJ (by making him get smashed into the ground at 1000 miles per hour) or his father (by making him watch his son get killed after everything they had just been through together) was just plain sadistic writing. The ending killed the episode for me. Still, it rates a 9 because the worst part of the episode only constituted about 20 seconds run time, if that.
The Twilight Zone (2019)
Not the Greatest But NOWHERE Near as Bad As Some Would Want It To Be
Jordan Peele and Company did the best that they could do. That's all that ANY of us are required to do with what we have. I wonder what the dissenters would do in their place considering most of them probably have never even written a skit, let alone a TV series. Every episode follows the basic "Message In A Bottle" format of all of its predecessors. The only issue immediately recognizable is that most of the messages are already out here.
To their credit, the new series kicked off with a BANGER premiere episode.
There aren't too many life lessons left to be told at this point, and the ones left are the ones that the majority does not want to see or hear because they dredge up accountability. The acting is great in most cases and good in the others (never average or bad). How anyone would expect the new TZ episodes to be on par with the seminal episodes that were literally groundbreaking is beyond me...the ground is already broken. Just enjoy the entertainment and drop the expectation of deepness. One thing is for certain, although the messages are old they are still quite relevant and if you can't get anything out of them, you most likely don't want to. Perhaps the major issues that people have with this incarnation have more to do with context than content. Take Taraji Henson's episode for instance. I would imagine many people took issue with that one considering how many in America alone are the real life incarnation of the antagonist. There was absolutely nothing fantastical about that one, save the fact that none of us can rewind the tape of life to avoid its predatory monsters. Not my favorite incarnation of this show but then again, I never expected it to be. I got what I expected. Good acting, GREAT directing and more than adequate writing. If you want the original quality, you should watch the original series. Serling was the LONE undeniable genius at this genre. Why would anybody expect someone to top him or even match him? That's just plain silly.
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (2016)
THE DEFINITIVE BILLIE HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE
I fell in love with Billie Holiday in 1985 while researching her life for a project in 3rd Grade. Up to that point, I thought Billie Holiday's life was what I saw every year when they used to run "Lady Sings The Blues" every year on TV. I don't even know that I had seen any real pictures of her (remember this was the Pre-Internet and the Card Catalog era). When you wanted to learn about somebody back then, you had to do RESEARCH in the library, so you didn't waste time...I found everything I could on her and my 8 year old brain absorbed her image from the pics and the sound of her voice from the records the library had in storage...From that day to this (some 35 years later) Lady remains for me the MOTHER of all improvising singers to come after her. I have never seen ANY documentary, any movie (especially that horribly inaccurate LSB), or any impersonation (save Marla Gibbs' turn at Crazy He Calls me which is the ONLY other time I literally heard Lady come back to life through a singer) that did what this production has done! Kudos to the writers, producers, staff and especially to Audra and Mr. Becton who somehow transport the viewer into the lap of the late Great Billie Holiday. It isn't an impersonation show...it's borderline seance. It is PERFECT. And done with a great deal of respect and reverence for its subject even in the face of being unapologetically honest from every possible perspective of anyone involved in the story. If you (like me) were never blessed to see Lady onstage live...and I have searched unsuccessfully for live video footage of Lady in a club setting all my life...this is IT.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Demons (2005)
Idiocy
In a series of 20 seasons full of excellent episodes, one must wonder who was responsible for this travesty. This has got to rank as the most contrived storyline ever. So...we just don't give a damn about the initial rape victim??? We'd rather play pretend-rapist and traumitize an innocent young girl for life and then say "You were never really in danger, I just wanted to prove I was right about this guy"??? And again...back to the top...We just refuse to find out who raped the young lady from the beginning of the episode? Isn't the episode about HER rape??? Dumb.