The Scene of the Crime (Episode Summary): A young woman named Michelle Thompson (Samira Wiley – Orange is the New Black) wants to recant her childhood testimony that her father (Glenn Plummer – Speed) raped her. She seeks the counsel of Innocence Project ace attorney Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) to free her father. Ellis must go head-to-head with the powerful DA (Robert Sean Leonard – House) that put his client away originally and is hellbent on keeping him in jail. Ellis heads to the SVU to aid his cause, which leads to a brief return of Captain Cragen (Dann Florek).
The Lead Investigator (Favorite Performance): Any time Andre Braugher is on screen he owns every single word he utters. Braugher has done amazing work recently in the world of comedy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In fact, he might be one of the funniest actors in the sitcom realm as we speak. Don’t believe me? Look the B99 episode centered around the mobile game Kwazy Kupcakes – you’ll thank me later. Getting back to SVU though, Braugher has done an absolutely amazing job in his limited recurring role as the crusading attorney Ellis. His chemistry with Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is dynamite. Last week we talked about how Benson and Voight from Chicago P.D. would make a great onscreen team (particularly a romantic one), but if this writer had his druthers, teaming Benson and Ellis full time would make for great television. In this episode Braugher once again owned every single scene with the subtle (and sometimes not-so subtle) dramatic weight he carries with him.
The Devil in the Details (The Little Thing You Loved): Despite being hyped as a major event, the return of Captain Cragen was brief, and uneventful. Yet, at the same time it was a nice little moment. Florek was in a handful of scenes for a brief period of time, and while nothing earth-shattering happened, it was nice to see him back in the SVU office.
Objection, Your Honor! (The Worst Part): Why can’t they leave well enough alone? The episode had a lot of nice twists and turns, a well-acted legal tango between Braugher and Robert Sean Leonard’s character and a strong, emotional performance from Samira Wiley. However, SVU had to overcomplicate things, which seems to be an SVU trait this season. They made Wiley’s character waffle and flip-fop an unnecessary amount of times within the last few minutes of the episode. So now, we have to wonder – did her father actually rape her? Our final shot of Wiley’s character hugging her father, but staring at Olivia with tears running down her eyes was a nice dramatic shot, but it was too much. Can’t an SVU episode end cleanly? We’ve had too many episodes end with a court victory marred by things like this, and it really killed what was as strong episode.
The Debriefing (Thoughts on the Episode): Outside of the aforementioned overcomplicating of the ending, ‘Perverted Justice’ was actually a really good episode, and the praise needs to be heaped on the shoulders of the guest stars. Andre Braugher is amazing – he could stand in my living room and read a Chinese take-out menu and it’d be an award-winning performance. Robert Sean Leonard was a really nice addition to the episode, and it’d be great to see him return to the series on a recurring role. Samira Wiley was fantastic – taking a role doomed to be overacted, and played it gracefully. Yet, isn’t it sad that the regular cast of SVU really didn’t matter in this episode? Or for that matter last episode? Sadly, that ending really did the episode in.
Perverted Justice Rating: 6.5 out of 10
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Bill Bodkin is the Owner, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Pop-Break. Most importantly, however, he is the proud father of a beautiful daughter, Sophie. He is beyond excited that Pop-Break will be six years old in 2015 as this site has come a long, long way from the day he launched in it in his bachelor pad at the Jersey Shore. He can be read every Monday for the Happy Mondays Interview Series as well as his weekly reviews on Law & Order: SVU, Mad Men and Hannibal. His goal, once again, is to write 500 stories this year (a goal he accomplished in 2014). He is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Journalism & English. Follow him on Twitter: @PopBreakDotCom
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