Now it’s official. Law & Order: SVU is on the crazy train, jumping tracks and stranding passengers in Nowheresville. Some of us (okay, mainly me) carped about Christine Lahti’s role as fill-in ADA Sonya Paxton from the beginning. When she wasn’t belittling Stabler (Christopher Meloni) she was sneering at Benson (Mariska Hargitay) or taunting suspects, all the while teary-eyed and callow. The character was inconsistent, insulting, and insufferable. Wednesday night we learned it was all, theoretically, because she’s a lush. Oh, let us rewind this one, because there was plenty to gnash at in this episode appropriately titled “Hammered.”
It started well, as anything guest-starring Scott Foley would. (I was a fan of The Unit until that, too, no longer pointed north.) Dalton Rindell (Foley) woke up on his bathroom floor, a gash on his forehead, blood on his walls, and a dead lady in his apartment. We soon learned that the lady was an abortion doctor (the episode’s red herring) and that she’d left a bar with Dalton after he suffered through a feral meeting of real-estate investors, pissed that he and his partner weren’t delivering on an apartment building they promised. Of course, Dalton remembered none of this, what with his killer hangover. All of which brings us to our Defense Issue of the Week: the altered brain chemistry of alcoholics. Now, I have no intention of wading into that morass (and I’m getting pretty tired of watching everyone in the squad room do it too—it’s so forced and false they way the “debate” every salient societal issue). My only criticism of the episode is that it set up Sonya’s exit in a ridiculous way.
There she was at the bar, waiting for Benson and Stabler, piously hammering at Dalton’s credibility while tossing back more than a few drinks. The irony was so thick it was smothering. Naturally, she stumbled into court the next morning, and rather than simply telling the judge she was ill—as any semi-competent lawyer would—she vowed to fight on with half her brain cells tied behind her back. Dalton came to his takes-one-to-know-one senses, and informed the court that she was drunk. Then, in what was truly a thrilling lapse in common courtroom procedure, the judge ordered Benson to give Sonya a Breathalyzer in open court. No, not in his chambers, where all such sensitive conversations usually take place—in open court! I ask you, faithful Coppers, what can the writers be thinking?
Christine Lahti is too good an actress to waste on ill-conceived characterization and bad plotting. It wasn’t fair to her, and it certainly wasn’t fair to us. It’s also a shame because Foley did some pretty nice work in that episode, only to be forced to play straight man to Lahti’s sad clown. The best we can say is that they’ve done well to rid us of ADA Sonya Paxton. At least for now.
Fortunately, not everything in the procedural universe was mishandled this week.
The more I watch Laurence Fishburne on CSI as Ray Langston, the more the guy grows on me. I really appreciated that the character didn’t jump into the fray and assume the shooter cop was racist, or that the shooting was racially motivated. He casts a scientist’s eye on things, rather than jumping to more visceral conclusions, unlike his own colleagues. The show needs someone with that kind of rational distance, especially with Grissom (William Petersen) gone. And by the way, should SVU need examples, this is how you do complicated characterization: Ultimately, did Officer Finn (Jack Blessing) have race-based animosity toward the people he swore to protect? Yep. Did those people exacerbate that tendency? Yep. Nicely done.
The Mentalist also came in with another solid episode that I really appreciated at the end. What’s fun about Jane (Simon Baker) is just how many tricks he’s got in his fake-psychic bag, one of which is the power of suggestion. During the episode I didn’t pick up on how carefully he planted the idea of a mole in the minds of the bikers. But man, did it pay off in the end when he went to set up biker boss McBride (Mark Pellegrino) as an informant. It’s a lovely little coda when, in the case of a bad guy eluding the law, he manages to make their lives hell anyway. Plus, it’s always a pleasure to see Third Watch’s Molly Price.
On this last one I need your help. I confess that I don’t know how I should feel about the whole Ziva-drops-Mossad plot on NCIS. On one hand, I liked the tick-tock on what went down on the boat—that was solid stuff. But since Ziva (Cote de Pablo) didn’t actually do anything wrong, I don’t understand why it’s taken four episodes (and well into the fourth one) for her to spill. Why all the ominous be-careful-whose-side-you’re-on comments to Ducky (David McCallum)? I guess my issue is that she, herself, seemed to foment the idea that she’d committed some sort of unforgivable act on that boat, when she hadn’t. (What happened once she got to Somalia is perhaps a different story.) But can someone explain it to me? And tell me how you feel about this whole arc? I need help processing.
While you’re at it, tell me whether you’re into CSI: NY’s Compass Killer, liked Criminal Minds’ foray into pack behavior, or have high hopes for tonight’s Numb3rs, since it looks like an early Halloween episode. I think I like that show best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And hey—let’s be careful out there.
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omg!! that was Scott Foley..I couldn’t place him. I remember him from Felicity!! Nice piece, btw, Alynda.
oh I don’t know, as an attorney, I can tell you that probably most of us would indeed fight on with half our brain cells still sleeping it off!
I love Beat Cop. Finally, someone who loves procedurals (and L&O) as much as I do! But seriously … SVU has gone off the rails. Scott Foley was great, but the breathalyzer in open court was just beyond ridiculous. Although I can’t wait for the “ripped from the headlines” Jon & Kate episode of L&O tonight.
Oh right! Thanks for reminding me, Melissa!
I thought it was a good episode of SVU.
Actually, it was made clear from the get go that Lahti was in for only four episodes and Stephanie March, aka: ADA Alex Cabot, was supposed to return to her post. But I agree that the way the exit was handled was stupid. Plus, her role was no different than her character on Chicago Hope. Same character but just a lush.
I am glad someone called out SVU on that nonsense! My intelligence was so insulted that I almost swore to never watch the show again. But considering it is one of my wife’s shows that we are able to watch together, I didn’t delete it from the DVR. I don’t need SVU teaching me an after-school lesson that an alcoholic may be someone you least expect. And why do the writers and producers want us to hate all of the female prosecutors on this show?
I don’t think Ziva felt like she had done something wrong. It probably had more to do with the fact that she was still a Moosad agent and could nt break protocol by betraying her own government.
SVU last season was so-so. This year, with the time and day change and just the lack of cohesiveness between the characters and the storyline, well I find myself switiching the volume down while the show is on – shame, it once was a great show…
ever heart of torrents, try eztv.it they put up all the shows, the next day, or stream online, zshare, megavideo……
I haven’t been able to watch any of new SVU episodes until this one so I was confused about why Christine Lahti was there and why she was so horrible to everyone. After her first scene, I actually yelled out, “Oh my God!!! What the eff is her problem???” She was driving me absolutely nuts! I’m very relieved she’s gone. Can anyone explain why NBC doesn’t run full episodes of this show on their website? They only have those stupid two minute recaps. I don’t know how else to catch up on the episodes I missed. help please…
oops this was meant for you and heard not heart lol
yay! no, I haven’t heard of those. usually I use fancast or just watch from the network website. I guess I just assumed that they weren’t available anywhere since nbc was hiding them. thanks for your help!
Dick Wolfe wants all the extra $$ he can get from his shows, thus no L&O’s available on nbc.com. You can purchase them on iTunes for $2.99 (in HD).
At the moment SVU is re-run on a Saturday night, which is good for me because I can’t watch it in it’s new weekday timeslot.
I agree. I DVR the Sat. night re-run too. It’s a good thing it’s repeated because NO ONE would be watching it. Modern Family and Glee already on at 9pm Wed and only 2 shows can tape at once. If it was still on at 10p instead of that moron Jay Leno…people would still be able to watch the first run. SVU deserves better NBC.
SVU is starting to feel like a parade of guest stars rather than just being SVU. I couldn’t stand ADA Paxton. All she did was put people down, but crazy enough the writers in this episode made her an incompetant fool when the Discs of her presumtuous depiction of the murder was switched. Really the writers made an ADA of high intelect and stature THAT stupid in that one scene.
SVU has been in serious decline since last season. The writing (always soapy, never a strong suit) has become utterly slothful, producing one “ripped-from-the-headlines” story after another.
I think Ziva was reluctant to tell the others what happened on the Damocles because her Mossad colleague had killed the Marine and she worried that it would be held against her, especially since she was trying to become an NCIS agent.
Maybe you can help me, Alynda: How could Ziva become an agent for NCIS without being a naturalized citizen? Are we supposed to believe she applied for citizenship even though she was technically employed by Mossad for the past four years and actually moved back to Israel? I can handwave a lot when it comes to a TV show, but I’m having a hard time with this one.
I hadn’t even thought of that, Lisa. Excellent point. I think we’re supposed to smile and nod at that one, because no, I don’t think she renounced Israeli citizenship (or has any intention of doing so). Just because a woman has daddy issues, doesn’t mean she’s dropping her homeland.
They did mention her citizenship briefly. I am sure that a government intelligence agency could expediate the process for someone becoming a citizen by talking with immigration.
McGee did mention that her becoming an official agent is “conditional upon her becoming an official citizen”, and I don’t know how they worked around that one in the end. Maybe we will find out about that one in the next few episodes.
As for the other issue: Ziva did assist in killing the entire crew of the Damocles, and lost one of her fellow Mossad officers in the process. While she was under orders to “take everyone”, and so technically hadn’t done anything wrong, I for one understand that she still felt guilty/responsible for all those deaths – even if they were of bad guys bringing supplies to a terrorist cell.
And from a purely technical point of view, it took this long for her to talk about it because:
a) nobody really questioned what happened to the Damocles until Cryer’s body turned up somewhere where it was not supposed to be if the “went down in a storm” story was true. And Ziva had been forced to perpetuate the storm cover-up in her report about it, i.e. wasn’t allowed to tell them what really happened because….
b) (to quote Vance) “if she talked about Mossad operations, she would be in violation of Israeli law”. Ziva pointed that out at the start of the first interrogation with Vance, but he pushed her into talking about it anyway.
I think that because of the killings, and the fact that she had had to lie to/keep information from the rest of the team about what had really happened on that ship, she felt that she didn’t deserve to have them on her side – even if Mossad had forced her hand.
Finally, I think she didn‘t want to make the admission she finally made to Gibbs in the end (to him or to herself): that she had volunteered to go into the lion’s den (Saleem’s hide-out) on her own, with no intention of living through it….
Just my two cents on this.
I agree Christine Lahti was unbearable- her character was too nasty and obnoxious, but also, the actress’ awful plastic surgery was far too distracting for me. Christine Lahti- what have you done to yourself? She looks like Bea Arthur with a brunette wig on!
Plastic surgery for Lahti ? C’est impossible! After all she’s the voice over on the L’oreal skin care products ads . I guess they really really work well …maybe too well, even!! Mariska please take note: cosmetics , Yes. cosmectic surgery, No . Spend the moey on a nice vacation and you will better , longer.
uh, money , not moey …
anyone else notice the ship was called Damocles… as in the sword of Damocles. nice reference, NCIS writers.
You’re so right, Alynda. I was so excited about Christine Lahti, but what the hell are the writers doing? I started noticing last season how the show would have the most outrageous twists at the end. It’s really starting to irritate me. Ugh.
IIRC there was a first season L&O episode where Stone ordered a defendant to perform a reflex test to show that he was drunk while testifying in the courtroom.
I don’t doubt it, Matt, but that was a defendant testifying. Calling one of the officers of the court on the carpet like that could potentially be grounds for a mistrial. Hopefully one of you Coppers with a law degree can explain it to the rest of us.
No drunk lawyers? Next time you go on youtube search for lawyer shows up in court drunk. He got a breathalyzer right in the middle of the courtroom. Real life.
Maybe that’s where they got the idea, Andy. Still think it’s dumb.
It looked to me like when Benson finally came into the courtroom to administer the breathalyzer, the courtroom was empty. I assumed they cleared the room, but I suppose it wouldn’t matter, since the judge asked for Benson and the breathalyzer in open court. But at least the results would just be known to the judge, defendant, defendant’s lawyer, Benson and the ADA.
The original CSI remains compelling because the writers, producers and directors never take the easy way out. Sometimes there are no neat endings, and yes, gruesome deaths are gruesome – so are autopsies. The visual style also remains compelling.
Don’t know if The Good Wife counts as a procedural – but I really enjoy the way the show explores the grey area of justice. Too many shows do the “right and wrong”, but seeking out the clash between justice and the legal system has always been interesting.
DanOregon – am in complete agreement with you re: CSI and The Good Wife. After all these years, CSI has never failed to entertain. And, it was so nice to see Without a Trace’s Enrique (Danny!) Murciano and True Blood’s Adina (Tara’s mum!) Porter on last night (how we miss WAT and love TB!). The Good Wife is intriguing, too. Loved that TB’s Chris (Andy!) Bauer played an attorney this week.
@DanOregon: I completely agree. CSI never disappoints, even after all these years. It was nice to see Without a Trace’s Enrique (Danny!) Murciano and True Blood’s Adina (Tara’s mum!) Porter on Thursday (how we miss WAT and love TB!). Nice casting.
The Good Wife is indeed intriquing. It was also a hoot to see TB’s Chris (Andy!) Bauer this week as an attorney.
I’m still enjoying CSI very much (although I do miss Grissom). I’ve liked LF’s character from the beginning. I liked that he was brought in as a CSI-1 and that Catherine was promoted. I think any other show would have cast him as the boss and that would have been wrong. I loved on his first day when he had that huge kit full of powders because he just wanted to get it right!
what no Criminal Minds or FlashForward???? Two of the best shows on tv right now!!!
I would assume that Ziva felt guilty because she knew that Mossad had slaughtered the passengers on the boat. She did not but her companion did. Her father was the one that ordered it and she followed orders. In her mind she was guilty that’s why she told Tony that it was justified after her asked why she came there knowing she would die.
I think she was involved in killing the crew, but not the Marine.
I agree, Lahti’s character was less than likable but it doesn’t matter, Stephanie March, for me, is and has been the only SUV PA that fits. I was afraid she was gone again. Glad she’ll return.
Glad Lahti’s gone. Ironically I haven’t seen an actor ham it up that much since Mandy Patankin was on Chicago Hope, with Lahti.
@Jess – I loved the freighter name too.
Alynda, can you put your finger more on what’s not working for you in this NCIS plot? Here’s my ten cents. The “be careful whose side your on” comments/plot of leaving Mossad have been building since the introduction of Michael last season, if not before, and this season isn’t a new story, but a continuation. I think they’ve been laying Ziva’s story out as a pretty straightforward ‘how do you serve two masters’ scenario, and it makes sense to me that it took so long for her to talk about what happened after leaving NCIS in that context (they could have reasonably held her reveal back until mid-season). She left NCIS because she felt betrayed (by Tony and by extension NCIS/Gibbs) in order to return to someone who she knew but wouldn’t admit had betrayed her in the past (Eli David/Mossad), who then deliberately put her in a situation that required resurrecting areas of her character, ethics, and instincts she’d been trying to suppress or alter while with NCIS, and then, after she’d done that, winding up in a situation in which she knew there was no way she could return to her father with the job unfinished (even though the operation should have been aborted after Ben-Gidon got shot), Mossad apparently burnt her (the ultimate spy betrayal) and left her to die. Muddy the waters with the family loyalty factor and I’d say she’s pretty well acquainted with the dangers of the confusion of not knowing whose side you’re on, or whose side you *should* be on, and the dangers associated with being on the “wrong” side – and the prospect of a civilian like Ducky (i.e. someone who doesn’t *need* to be involved) winding up on the “wrong” side for her sake probably scares the crap out of her. And Eli’s psychologically abused her pretty badly to boot, so her comments to Ducky made sense to me. And if the only bad thing Eli David/Mossad did to her was abandon her in Somalia, well, shouldn’t that be enough to make someone break ties? I don’t think she was so reluctant to talk because of her actions on the Damocles, but because of the series of events and emotional state that led her there, and the self-admissions regarding her treatment by Eli and Mossad that such a discussion would bring up. It seems to me that usually when she’s afraid to talk about something, it’s because she’s afraid of admitting how its affected her personally. It’s not actions that are important to her, but the feelings and motives behind them. And we all know how much Ziva looooves talking about her feelings!
As for the citizenship issue, I’ll give ‘em a pass on this one, because NCIS is usually the tightest show on the air. I doubt she’d have been granted citizenship while still working for Mossad, so the writers probably ran out of options. Can you imagine how much us fans would complain if Ziva wasn’t around for the next three seasons because she was waiting for her immigration papers to clear?
So…don’t watch it any more. I still like it.
I liked Criminal Minds this week, although it’s kind of ruined The Dead Weather for me, since everytime I hear Treat Me Like Your Mother (the song played during the video of the killing) I will just think of people getting beaten to death. So thanks for that, CM.
And also, Flashforward is not a procedural.
elly, nice summary
What KP said.
Ditto, Elly!
Hm… while I wasn’t a fan of Lahti’s character, either, I did like that it reminded Olivia of her past and her mother – the scene at the end of the ep was pretty powerful, without Mariska even having to say a word (seriously, why do people complain about Mariska getting nommed for an Emmy? She’s *good*). I like that Alex (Steph March) is coming back, although I’m a bit more partial to Casey (Diane Neal) because it was during her tenture as ADA that I really started watching SVU. I would love to see SVU harken back to the days of seasons 7 and 8 – those were my favorites! Good storylines, a close partnership b/w El and Liv (bordering on that um-how-close-are-they-really? dynamic that I love with the two of them), and guest stars here and there, but not every week. And then, when the guest stars came, they were woven into the storyline (like Marcia Gay Harden) and really became their characters, instead of bigger-than-life cartoons of themselves. I’m still invested, of course, but I really want a terrific ep of SVU…maybe November sweeps?
I never really liked Casey so I’m glad that Alex is coming back. Did you ever see the episode where Diane Neal was actually one of the defendants?
Yes!! It’s so strange–she’s part of a group of women who raped a male stripper.
What Ziva said to Ducky was be careful how close you get to her because it seems to her that those that get close to her end up dieing(Rivkin,Ari and the Guy she fell for in the “Dead man walking” episode to name a few). I think she feels cursed or unlucky to those she cares about.
It wasn’t what happend on the boat that really bothered Ziva, it was what she did after she got into Somalia that has been haunting her. She was following her father’s orders, something she never questioned in the past, but now after working at NCIS for several years she is not longer the assassin she was trained to be. She has finally come to gripes with the fact that her father isn’t a bad guy, she is no longer the assassin she used to be and for the first time she is willing to let all of that go and embrace the family she has at NCIS. It is a beautiful storyline that has been a long time coming, I am glad that now we can finally move past it and go back to the episodic procedural we all know and love.
I mean her father isn’t a GOOD guy, (don’t know how bad guy got in there)
I agree with Jim, Ziva is feeling depresses with the deaths she has endured, her brother, her lover and a friend who saved her life. Plus the conflict with father/daughter emotions — which get tangled up with loyalty to country, religion and boss. I thought it was well done for the limited time format. But I will be happy to move on.
I agree with everything you’ve posted. The TPTB on SVU were doing the same crazy thing for years now! At first, I thought it’s just a matter of a bad writing for one episode, but then I started to question my self why in hell would I waste my time on show like this? It’s became all about silly, shallow plots and twists. I love Lahti. When I read somewhere that she’s guesting on SVU I just KNEW they wouldn’t do her any justice, and make her another woman with emotional problem, just like they always do to the women in that show.
What a waste for a great actress!