Law and Order: SVU season 8 and Law and Order:CI Season 6

[Doozer61]

all reruns this week :stupidbaseball:

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

a friend of mine plays an iraqi war vet on the regular law and order tonight

 

[cell]

a month and a half ago daisy and i saw Christopher Meloni (or someone who REALLY REALLY looked like him) at my supermarket two days in a row.

 

[bono_212]

I went and saw The Prestige tonight, and before the movie started they were rollilng those E actor quotes, and one was from Mariska Hargitay...I don't remember exactly what she said but it was something about how a baby is definently worth it and itwill change your life for the better. However, I couldn't help but grumble to myself, yeah, and then you'll leave your tv show for six episodes, and cause the 8th season to be horrible for all the fans who are trying so desperately hard to enjoy it, and you'll be replaced by some overbearing widow who nobody really lieks, and are just ready for her to be gone...

Anyway...four more days

 

[VertigoGal]

omgz i'm watching the best episode, the one where alex cabot comes back from the dead to testify against liam connors. and the little boy is so cute.

can't wait for tuesday.

 

[bono_212]

omgz i'm watching the best episode, the one where alex cabot comes back from the dead to testify against liam connors. and the little boy is so cute.

can't wait for tuesday.

I NEVER GO TO SEE THAT ONE!!! I'm currently watching the one where Casey gets the crap beat out of her while Olivia goes to get coffee.

 

[VertigoGal]

oh yeah i watched that one too. its my homecoming night and I just watched a bunch of SVU

 

[IWasBored]

omgz i'm watching the best episode, the one where alex cabot comes back from the dead to testify against liam connors. and the little boy is so cute.

can't wait for tuesday.

as much as i hate the way usa airs totally random episodes in pretty much no real order, it was cool of them to do the one where she goes into witness protection and the one where she comes back to testify back to back.

that little kid was cool

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Spoiler Alert:














Dani and Stabler making out on today's SVU?!
I know Dani isn't popular around here, but I quite like her. I'd like to see Elliot with someone now that it looks like his wife isn't returning.
I can't see him with Olivia - too much like brothers and sisters imo

 

[bono_212]

IT WAS SOOOOO TERRIBLE AND NOW I'M SO SAD

But next weeks episode looks amazing !!!!!

However, I think that they're starting to write E&O stuff...I mean did you see the jealous gleam in Olivia's eye

I'm just mad because the people at NBC said Dani was only gonna be in 6 episodes...and now here she is...still pissing me off.

 

[Liesje]

oooo man, this is getting good! I've been waiting five years for some trashy scandal!

Dani + Elliot = perfect for each other.

 

[IWasBored]

i like how this whole romance thing is so badly done because they're pushed for time. everything about beck is so over the top and over dramatic due to this six episode time constraint that they forced these crazy mood swings. she's either "PEERP!!!! LET ME SMASH UR SKULLZ WIT MY COLLAPSABLE BATON OF DOOM!!!!!" or "oh my god i'm so vulnerable, my husband's killer blah blah, i'm having such a hard time dealing with this case because i'm fresh out of the warrants dept. blah blah :cries: let me brood with my inconsistent accent!" there is no in between. and true to that form, the scene where stabler kisses her comes out of nowhere.

but you know what was better? that scene in the bar right before it. were dick wolf and neal bear sitting in a room somewhere with the writers when they all of a sudden they realized that, holy crap! we've done essentially nothing to even imply that these characters might be interested in each other!

it's not subtle. it's just badly done. i'm all for having stabler sign the divorce papers and move on. but suddenly rebounding to temporary partner lady just because you were impressed with the way she interviewed a victim? that seems out of character to me. maybe i'm still too much of a newbie to know any better, but the one thing i got from stabler's epic, season-spanning collapse in season 7 was that he's quite resistant to change.

 

[IWasBored]

However, I think that they're starting to write E&O stuff...I mean did you see the jealous gleam in Olivia's eye

i thought it was "crap, my platonic friend who i've worked beside for 7 years doesn't need me or our completely professional relationship anymore. i must think of a quick lie to tell cragen before he sends in the paperwork."

 

[BluRmGrl]

Dani + Elliot =

I just don't like Dani... like IWB said, the character's just too over the top & inconsistent. Next week's show does look interesting though. The creepy little girl is Dakota Fanning's sister, right? What have they done, anyway - cornered the market on the 'freaky little girl' schtick?

 

[bono_212]

Dani + Elliot =

I just don't like Dani... like IWB said, the character's just too over the top & inconsistent. Next week's show does look interesting though. The creepy little girl is Dakota Fanning's sister, right? What have they done, anyway - cornered the market on the 'freaky little girl' schtick?

I am in agreement with everything...including the Fanning sisters comment.

They built no sexual tension between dani and stabler whatsoever and now it's just like...why? what was the point of this? Just HAD to have stabler get with someone else? Why can't he just get back with his wife...I know I know, it's silly to hope for, but that's still what I wish would happen.

 

[Liesje]

I don't like Dani either, but I think she's WAY better for him than Olivia. Now that Dani's in the picture, it's more obvious how he and Olivia never would've worked out outside of the job.

This show has never been one of the top crime dramas anyway (as far as quality, not popularity), so I'm all for some cheesy scandal!!

 

[IWasBored]

I am in agreement with everything...including the Fanning sisters comment.

They built no sexual tension between dani and stabler whatsoever and now it's just like...why? what was the point of this? Just HAD to have stabler get with someone else? Why can't he just get back with his wife...I know I know, it's silly to hope for, but that's still what I wish would happen.

like i said before, i think it's a time crunch strategy. oooh, we've only got six episodes to establish a character and wait! we must hook her up with our newly single male lead character!

either have him go back with his wife or set him up with someone outside of the police force. or at the very least, outside of the unit. i know the point is that he's never anywhere other than work, so writing in an opportunity for him to meet anyone outside of work is impossible.

office romances

the reason i got so easily hooked on this show was because it lacked sleazy romances. i'm going to start to think i'm a jinx--after 7 years, the season i start watching is where they introduce this crap?

 

[Liesje]

the reason i got so easily hooked on this show was because it lacked sleazy romances. i'm going to start to think i'm a jinx--after 7 years, the season i start watching is where they introduce this crap?

It's been a loooooong time coming! I've been predicting a Benson/Stabler hookup for four years, nearly the start of the show. After that long, I'll take what I can get! Beck/Stabler rather than Benson/Stabler.....meh, close enough.

 

[IWasBored]

what? where? four years? i know i'm a newbie, but i have seen a lot of those episodes. and as for long time coming predictions...dreading is more like it. how could that not mess up the characters?

i forgot. this is the internet, and for some strange reason everyone online automatically assumes that every character on every show has to be interested romantically in one of the other main characters. no such thing as just friends. never.

of course, tv writers don't help this. they love to hook up pairings, or at the very least imply things. "feed the slashers" and such.

i'm never going to understand why caring about a friend/peer/colleague/police detective partner automatically means they should hook up.

 

[Doozer61]

It's been a loooooong time coming! I've been predicting a Benson/Stabler hookup for four years, nearly the start of the show. After that long, I'll take what I can get! Beck/Stabler rather than Benson/Stabler.....meh, close enough.

actually, i was always praying for a Benson/Cabot hook-up!

 

[Liesje]

i forgot. this is the internet, and for some strange reason everyone online automatically assumes that every character on every show has to be interested romantically in one of the other main characters. no such thing as just friends. never.

Yep, that was exactly my train of thought. "Regular" Law & Order is completely above all of this, and almost has this aura of prestige among crime dramas, so I figured that with SVU, it would go more mainstream and somewhere down the line, there would be a hookup. Stabler's relationship with his wife was rocky from the beginning. The divorce was obviously going to happen, and the next logical thing would be the Benson/Stabler hookup. I've accepted the fact that the writers of this show are going to give the mainstream what they want. I'm pleasantly surprised with the recent turn of events. For everyone who's called the Benson/Stabler hookup from the beginning, they did one over on us!

 

[Got Philk?]

My prediction though is they kiss, but it goes nowhere. Maybe even leads to Dani leaving the precinct and Benson completely back? I can't see L and O doing this. It's not right.

 

[VertigoGal]

yeah I'm with Lies. we all know SVU is deliciously umm outlandish (? not sure if that's the word I want) at times...that's why I love it so much. it's fun to watch.

Ive been so busy I havent been watching at all lately, but as much as I dislike Dani this kind of stuff is bound to happen and hopefully it will lead to her getting kicked out and Olivia making a dramatic return or something like Phil suggested.

scandal

 

[Liesje]

....a threesome?

 

[Doozer61]

she's coming back!

 

[IWasBored]

Yep, that was exactly my train of thought. "Regular" Law & Order is completely above all of this, and almost has this aura of prestige among crime dramas, so I figured that with SVU, it would go more mainstream and somewhere down the line, there would be a hookup. Stabler's relationship with his wife was rocky from the beginning. The divorce was obviously going to happen, and the next logical thing would be the Benson/Stabler hookup. I've accepted the fact that the writers of this show are going to give the mainstream what they want. I'm pleasantly surprised with the recent turn of events. For everyone who's called the Benson/Stabler hookup from the beginning, they did one over on us!

i think you missed my point. and i think you're also misinterpreting the definition of mainstream. mainstream just means that a lot of people like it. what you've got is the definition of bad--drama for drama's sake. often this fits the definition of mainstream, but the entire law & order franchise is still as mainstream as it comes. clearly, large numbers of people must still watch the original if it's still on the air. it's like u2. they're good, but they're still multi-millionaires. if it's a square, it's a rectangle, but not all rectangles are squares. i think my metaphors are running away with themselves.

anyway.

temporary partner lady is gone! i thought the excessive drama was handled a lot better than i was expecting. they kissed, and she left. it was more like he didn't want her to leave not because of her specifically, but because stabler is just sick of people leaving him. what he told the preist in whichever season 7 episode that was. he felt like he kept losing people. if the writers were trying to convince anyone that he actually ever had a thing for beck, they did a lousy job. too bad they're still abusing the character left and right, though. did dick wolf wake up one day and realize that they forgot to stab him in season 7 when they shot, molested, beat up, and blew him up (technically that was season 8, but it was close enough)?


look--i can be a fangirl, too. stabler back in shirts & ties he looked like the philsbury doughboy last week.

 

[VertigoGal]

I may start watching again.

saw a rerun tonight (I only ever see reruns it seems like)...the one where Elliott goes to Prague to catch child rapist/pornographers or something. And they've got some sicko in a basement and Elliott's completely beating the guy to a pulp because "we're not in america anymore!" Anger management issues there.

 

[Liesje]

I may start watching again.

saw a rerun tonight (I only ever see reruns it seems like)...the one where Elliott goes to Prague to catch child rapist/pornographers or something. And they've got some sicko in a basement and Elliott's completely beating the guy to a pulp because "we're not in america anymore!" Anger management issues there.

Yah, Elliot has some major issues that don't come out very often. Like the shaken-baby episode where he admitted to slapping one of his babies and he was crying to Hoang (or however Wong's character's name is spelled).

Can't wait for Olivia to come back so her and Elliot can start making their babies


IWB, I think "regular" Law & Order is becoming a lot less mainstream. I don't know many people who loved L&O who watch the new ones from the past few seasons. Hell, I don't even make a point of it, now that Jerry Orbach is gone. I'm sure they've taken a HUGE hit and that's a major reason why they've gone to such lengths to promote SVU and CI. The only place to get decent Law & Order now is TBS. No one I know that likes SVU watches the real deal; some don't even know it exists! I remember L&O:Trial By Jury and LOVED that. That was really the only spinoff to even come close to the regular L&O, and it only lasted what, like one season? It's crazy how the whole thing evolves. It was all born of Homicide: Life on the Streets. I don't think we even owned a TV when that was running!

I still love the original series' the best because it's all about the cases at hand, there's not these cheesy attempts at character development. You don't really know anything about any of the characters because it doesn't matter. Right from the beginning, SVU was different in this respect. The pilot episode opened up the whole thing about Olivia and her mom, and the "don't pick the vic" yadda yadda. L&O has been running for 16 years and I still couldn't tell you if Jack McCoy is married. I don't really understand why the powers that be decided to include this relationship crap in SVU, but apparently the majority must eat it up since the show has been going strong ever since. Most of the younger crowd I know that watches SVU says regular L&O is "too boring" and is too focused on the courtroom and not enough on the characters' drama. Eh, no thanks!

 

[IWasBored]

I may start watching again.

saw a rerun tonight (I only ever see reruns it seems like)...the one where Elliott goes to Prague to catch child rapist/pornographers or something. And they've got some sicko in a basement and Elliott's completely beating the guy to a pulp because "we're not in america anymore!" Anger management issues there.

did you catch the little pop-up windows in the corner of your screen? stabler's anger issues = usa's theme that night. they had three re-runs, the prague one being the last, where he was supposed to lose it at some point. "tonight...stabler can't control his anger--and that's why we love him." i saw that commercial way too many times, i tell you.


the anger issues are one of the reasons i like the character.

 

[IWasBored]

dr. huang. i think. i'm too lazy to google.

IWB, I think "regular" Law & Order is becoming a lot less mainstream. I don't know many people who loved L&O who watch the new ones from the past few seasons. Hell, I don't even make a point of it, now that Jerry Orbach is gone. I'm sure they've taken a HUGE hit and that's a major reason why they've gone to such lengths to promote SVU and CI. The only place to get decent Law & Order now is TBS. No one I know that likes SVU watches the real deal; some don't even know it exists! I remember L&O:Trial By Jury and LOVED that. That was really the only spinoff to even come close to the regular L&O, and it only lasted what, like one season? It's crazy how the whole thing evolves. It was all born of Homicide: Life on the Streets. I don't think we even owned a TV when that was running!

I still love the original series' the best because it's all about the cases at hand, there's not these cheesy attempts at character development. You don't really know anything about any of the characters because it doesn't matter. Right from the beginning, SVU was different in this respect. The pilot episode opened up the whole thing about Olivia and her mom, and the "don't pick the vic" yadda yadda. L&O has been running for 16 years and I still couldn't tell you if Jack McCoy is married. I don't really understand why the powers that be decided to include this relationship crap in SVU, but apparently the majority must eat it up since the show has been going strong ever since. Most of the younger crowd I know that watches SVU says regular L&O is "too boring" and is too focused on the courtroom and not enough on the characters' drama. Eh, no thanks!

you said it yourself, svu is a spin-off. it's not supposed to mirror the original series because it's supposed to be something different. also, as you said, on day one they introduced a lot more personal character histories that the original didn't have. they're supposed to be different shows, or that's what the producers and people on the dvd special features claim. sometimes they're not the most trustworthy sources on those behind the scenes things because they spend a lot of time tooting their own horns ("our show was the first to do...blah blah" and so on). but according to mouth of the actual horses, the point of svu from the beginning was to be more concerned with the characters, to do something different with a spin-off, rather than use the exact same forumla. CI is also a completely different animal (side note: i porbably said i hated criminal intent somewhere in some previous posts, but i've changed my opinion). if you were speaking in regard to the CSIs, i might be more inclined to agree with you.

also, like you said, regular law and order has been on for freaking forever. therefore they must have some mainstream audience still, or at this point it's like the tenured professor who has long lost the plot, but the university (nbc in this case) keeps him around out of habit/respect/whatever. it's not necessarily mainstream vs. non-mainstream, it's apples and oranges, with the cast changes in the original one just being one more factor. the powers that be just targeted a different audience (like you said, a younger crowd, although i'm speaking in hypotheticals since everyone i know away from the internet watches less TV than i do, and i don't always know the ages of the posters i see online). doesn't mean that they have to blow things completely out of proportion and make svu a complete soap opera just because they have some character development. what i don't get is how you're so pro-benson/stabler, and in the same breath denounce the show's quality for the same reason. in my opinion, the svu episodes that i've seen are of a higher caliber because they balance the character drama with the storyline, and do so without creating messy, continuous sideplots that muddy up the actual crime plot. the only example i can think of is house, because that's pretty much the only other thing i watch on tv. sure, i love the show, but for november sweeps both this season and last, they brought in so much character crap that it completely overshadowed the medicine (which was faulty anyway).

so all you're saying is that you like regular law & order better because you don't give a rat's ass about character development. i had this conversation with my mom when i was in 6th grade. i thought michael crichton was the greatest author to ever write a book because i was far more interested in plot than any character drama, especially if said drama contained any romance. ten years later i don't agree anymore, and i like some character development in with the plotline. i like to know that i can tell one lawyer or one detective from another, which i can do in svu--whereas in the original they're all just dudes in suits. if you don't want to bother keeping up with benson's personal life, or care that cragen was an alcoholic (although, they mentioned that in one of the first regular law & order episodes, so it's not like they're completely void of character development), then that's your thing. in 6th grade i probably would have agreed with you. but that's just a matter of personal opinion, not a statement of quality TV programming.

someone on another site mentioned something about mccoy being married a couple times and having several flings with ADAs. i don't know, i've only seen a handful of regular l&o, on TNT rather than TBS, though. TBS seems more concerned with airing the king of queens and other vomit-inducing sitcom re-runs.

homicide: life on the streets, i remember seeing commercials for that when i was little. i know that was one of like 6 different shows where belzer played munch, but that's about it. netflix keeps reccomending it.