The #42 Minutes
 |
| OMG this Blog...EXTRA! |
Bravo to the writers for going for empowerment rather than victim blaming, but I shouldn't have to "Bravo" for that. Not in 2017. And not in 2007. Or 1007.
But anyway.
Oh, before that there were 37 minutes and 10 seconds of show and also some commercials.
Random Ramble:
JULIE!!! LOOK WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH ALMOST SIX MINUTES!
SVU has done bullying before and they've done passed-out rape before, but this time they zeroed in on the right age. Since I commandeered the bottom floor of my townhouse and turned it into my office (hey, my husband has 2.5 offices in our home, I deserve ONE right?), I have had a magazine article entitled The Science of Mob Aggression taped to my wall.
Teenagers are a mob. They are a partially-developed-brain-prone-to-impulses-and-following-the-crowd mob and the ability to hide behind a digital wall only exacerbates an already innate characteristic. Teenagers will not change.
 |
| Not sure where OMB ends and MH begins. |
BUT! BUT! BUT! They CAN be redirected! They can be guided by caring adults to channel that natural tendency toward vicious groupthink into a "mob" favoring compassion over cruelty. But this would take a sustained, concerted, unyielding effort on the part of adults everywhere. I'm not terribly optimistic, but it can be done. I have no doubt that final scene could be recreated in real life. It NEEDS to be created in real life. Too many young lives have been ruined, cut short, or irrevocably derailed for us to ignore the devastating effects of bullying, harassment, violence, and sexual assault. Think of how many lives could be CHANGED if we all made an effort today to help at least ONE young child develop a sense of empathy.
The writers were sitting on a gold mine of a gripping, compelling episode and, sadly, the first 37:10 felt like they didn't quite know how to get to that end scene. Almost like they'd written it first and needed to fill in blanks. I was so bored for the first 37:10 I was TEXTING in addition to writing notes and occasionally Tweeting, but I was even bored with Twitter.
For the record, I never text during #SVU.
Never.
Not even during Eidteen.
But let's not dredge up the past.
I work with teenagers. The bullying, the constant, escalating cyberbullying these young people are capable of spewing was watered down and almost not even articulated because we had to interview Max and Andrew and arrest them in class and Max had to be beaten up and...
 |
| Poor baby--searching for a safe identity. |
Let's consider the following alternatives:
Option A: The actual rape is solved immediately. Barba this, Barba that, court, whatever, but the focus of the ep is actually on how quickly the cyberbullying fervor can catch on in schools, even among the meek and the seemingly marginal/indifferent populations and then have the trial center on whether or not this type of peer pressure qualifies as grounds for a type of temporary mental illness and acquittal.
Option B: Barba touched on an emerging debate: how responsible are schools for what their students text/disseminate online even outside of school hours? This would've been an interesting blurred line to navigate and could also have included new single mom BFFs Benson and Rollins in a more natural BFF scenario than what was written but more about that later.
Option C: As Rollins takes the lead, she flashes back to her teenagehood (who would play the teenage Rollins?), eventually culminating in the tattoo reveal in Mandy's new, scrubbed bedroom. She mentioned a "stupid thing." Why not connect the dots in her own traumatic past back to her formative years in Loganville?
Option D: Set Andrew's allocution earlier. Do people really think 15 year-olds would automatically hear "Everyone should know you were telling the truth" and then be like "Oh, okay, sorry Mandy." Doesn't happen that way. In real life there would be a cadre of nasty hater brats claiming his words were only to get out of more jail time. C'mon. SVU consults with doctors and lawyers and cops and shrinks. Ya'll can't get a teacher on your part-time payroll?
TIME FOR A TWITTER POLL!
Quotable:
"It's gonna be something we never saw coming." A little mom-banter results in OMB full disclosure about Sheila and thank gawwwwd PorterMama got a door shut in her face but can we get to the history already? Cuz I'm beyond annoyed. And also--so OBVIOUSLY Benson never saw Sheila coming because as Rollins so conveniently reminds us, Ellie said her parents were dead (but maybe her mom was just gone and the mom she knew was really a stepmom? Like maybe Sheila was in the Peace Corps combating HIV/AIDS in Africa for the past twenty years?). Dear Writers, remember we're smart! Please STOP REPEATING LINES WORD FOR WORD. Thank you. :-)
 |
| I'm sick of it too, Rollins. |
"Magical Thinking on my part...If I don't do anything about it, it will just go away."
Ummmmmm, this is very un-OMB-like. Also, Judge Linden's on your side, sister. And also...
"Trevor?" Has she called him Trevor before? And while we're at it--Andrew DRAKE? There are like a bazillion surnames from which to choose. IDK why I'm getting all hung up with names. Unless it's Ed.
ED!!!!!!
Oh fine.
When Rollins asked if everything was okay at home why couldn't Benson's line have been:
"Yes. Noah's there with Ed. They'll finish dinner without me." Sigh. Brushes hair to the side. "Yet again."
Rollins gives her a little knowing smirk like okayy, Tucker's back. And they go to work.
IT'S NOT THAT HARD, PEOPLE!
Wardrobe:
Love OMB in stripes and I also thought it was cute that she was coming from home and they were making her look like she'd dressed in a hurry but I'm pretty sure OMB dressed in a hurry is equivalent to me prepping for hours and also paying the makeup girl at Belk to do my face.
 |
| Damn they cute. |
I HEART OMB in a police jacket. Especially when hustling out of the SUV. But I wonder...does the hair go up before they leave the precinct? At a light? Oh, wait, cops don't stop at lights. Especially not on their way to a nasty apartment in Newark. I really should occupy my mind with more productive thoughts.What's that new ring on not-Benson's-ring-finger?
At the end she was wearing the necklace she was wearing at the end of Unholiest Alliance when Tucker grabbed her thigh just sayin.
Is It Next Wednesday, Yet?
 |
| Let's not ever do this again. Kay? |
For the love of God can we get Judge Linden to deny all of Sheila's motions and tell her to go the fuck back to the Granite State? Does anyone really think she can afford to pay a reputable shrink to contest what Lindstrom says? And also...LINDEN GAVE NOAH TO HER! But Lindstrom if you go all ethical and professional I will fucking kill you (is he even casted? Is Linden in the next ep? I need her to rule in OMB's favor and then Shelia will plead with her to at least let her see him and OMB has a big heart and we know where that goes.)
But don't let that kid outta your sight, Benson. FYI--he's the older, taller, moppier-haired version.
Sorry, this whole thing is:
A) aggravating
B) nonsensical
C) taking energy and creativity away from developing a more intriguing SVU-related story
D) NOT MAKING TUCKER COME BACK
Yes I'm into multiple choice lately and yes if Tucker comes back I'll just...well...I'm tired of making these speculative promises.
But I can't help it.
Captain Tucker is such a BabeSoda
No comments:
Post a Comment