This was such an improvement over the most recent SVU (not the Robin Williams one, but the one with the father/son/lawyer/gold digger). That was easily one of the worst episodes that I have ever seen in any L&O franchise, and it just stuck out as being so poorly written.

great, more Eliot trainwreck

although the arresting office was funny "sure you don't want to listen to your dad?"

meh. i like personal stuff in these shows, but when they are in the background. not the foreground. the only exception was liv's brother's story-line last year.

I like the personal stuff usually, but I was bored with this one.

Count me in as bored as hell also. But the daughter did look pretty in the bra and panties.

Holy shit, that's Stephanie March. Alex Cabot is back!

I know it's only supposed to be for 6 episodes, but please, please, please, let it be more. March was just that much better than either of her successors.

Typical SVU episode. They start investigating a pedophile and wind up going after a toy company for lead poisoning...

How did they explain her coming out of witness protection?

The drug lord she testified against died in prison andthe guy who tried to kill her was extradited to Ireland. According to the show, she's actually been out of witness protection for 3 years.

Now, Stephanie... Please don't hint about a possible lesbian relationship between Alex and Det. Benson, not even as a joke. My head almost exploded.

There would be all sorts of explosions if they did that.

I dont know what it is about Stephanie March, but I think she is jsut so insanely hot, that Mariska looks sorta "meh" to me now. Maybe its the way her glasses are usually a little crooked on her face.

I think they need to bring her back and get rid of the new bitch they got.

Back when I first heard that Jack McCoy was being promoted to D.A. I thought it would have very cool to have Cabot step in as the lead D.A. Linus Roach is fine but I think that would have been a very interesting change for the show: Jack as the D.A. with two female ADA's (Cabot & De La Garza) working for him.

Most fans of this show know that about one out of every 10 episodes this show fires on all cylinders and hits an episode out of the park with great acting, a topical (not necessarily ripped from the headlines) storyline and solid direction and production design. These are the episodes that leave you tearing up at the end or spending an extra hour rethinking them while you try to get to sleep that night.

This episode COULD have been one of them had it not been for the mealy-mouthed simpering acting stylings of TERENCE HOWARD!!!

The ever-lovely Diane Neal returned as D.A. Casey Novak (which was surprising enough considering I believe the show dumped her for not losing weight) and they managed to tie her character's history with a particular judge into a fascinating case about rape and racism. The weak link in this was the head-scratching decision by Dick Wolf to force Terence Howard's completely unbelievable character into the storyline as a link to Law and Order: LA. Even the supporting cast who had only five or ten minutes of screen time acted circles around his ass! Hell, the girl playing the white rape victim facing her accused black rapist at the end of the show was better moment than anything Terence Howard brought to the whole series so far!

It was difficult enough to accept that in trying to 'fix' L&O: LA they reversed everything good about the show, killing off charismatic Skeet Ulrich and moving Alfred Molina out of the position of D.A where he shined. One can only assume this was done to try to make Terence Howard look better as the show's other D.A.

Being an LA resident and fan of the L&O procedural shows I feel obligated to watch L&O: LA but why the hell are they making it so difficult to care? I will force myself to sit through next weeks 2hour reboot and hope for the best but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep Terence Howard off SVU!

Hopefully he ends up learning how to act from Molina or there is a sequel to Hustle & Flow (the only thing I've seen him in where he wasn't awful) and we are rid of him but given the fact that he is stuck doing T.V. doesnt offer much hope. Obviously movie producers have figured out how one-note an actor he is and now we are stuck with him!

By djariya at 2011-11-03

Synopsis for "Scorched Earth"



Out: Chris Meloni (Stabler)

In: Kelli Giddish (Chase), Danny Pino (Cold Case)

I'm jumping in on SVU this season after the major change they made. I've only seen a handful of episodes. Loved Law and Order: LA last year and this is now the final show of the franchise.

Preview:

<iframe id="NBC Video Widget" width="512" height="347" src="http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=1351591" frameborder="0"></iframe>

I haven't kept up on this show for quite sometime. Why'd Meloni leave? How'd they get rid of Stabler? Why add a new cop instead of giving Munch and Tutuola more screentime?

Except for Law and Order: UK.

I'm actually digging that show, despite the recycled scripts.

I like it too. As a bonus, my memory is bad enough that I can't remember the old ones well enough to spoil the new ones.

I do think it's sad that Ben Daniels left. I think he was the best one from the original cast. Still nice to see cast members from Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica.

Why did Ben Daniels leave L&O:UK? He was great on that show.

Money.

Adding Giddish and Pino is probably an attempt for the show to get some younger new viewers.

Thanks for the answers. So did they write out Stabler already or will they just mention it in an off-handed manner in this episode (like how they wrote of Dennis Farina from regular L&O)?

I have no idea. Tune in to find out.

Pfft. I go to your threads so I don't have to watch the shows.

ugh...Danny Pino I could not stand him on Cold Case and is the reason I quit watching it before it was canceled... I will give this a couple of episodes and see how it is.

I'm looking forward to this as they seemed to have gotten rid of the shitty show writers of the past few years.

Also there's this

FYI, Warren Leight, who worked on Lights Out on FX, is the new showrunner for SVU this season. He previously worked on Criminal Intent.

I'm pretty much an SVU newbie and have some familiarity with Benson and Stabler and the lawyers. Is pretty much every episode of this series self contained? That will help me jumping in tonight.