Florida

This episode was the conclusion of several where Mariska Hargitay first learns she has a half brother, son of her rapist father and her dealings with him. As she learns the small town New Jersey police where their sex crimes detective Kim Delaney has made a career of trying to nail him for the rape of her sister.

Olivia crosses the line a lot here and if she didn't have the relationships she's built over the years with Dann Florek and Christopher Meloni her career would have been in the toilet. In fact her own belief in her brother is screwing her up mentally. She can't decide if indeed he's her father's son and like father like son or he's just someone who happens to be wrong place wrong time.

Mariska has her issues, but then so does Kim Delaney as the climax is a fugitive standoff with Olivia's brother Michael Weston.

Definitely an episode for Mariska Hargitay fans.

This is a very good episode. It closes off the storyline with Captain Millfield, while leaving the situation open for the character to come back in the future and develops the relationships of main characters. It has a personal meaning for me since the soporific drug Halcion is mentioned in connection with the death of Olivia's and Simon's father. This was a very popular sleeping medicine in the 1980s: my GP prescribed it to me, and I was very happy with its effects when I needed them. Unfortunately, in a very small percentage of patients it had serious unwanted side effects. These included depression, psychosis and suicidal ideation. As a result, Halcion was banned in the UK in 1991. This was too late for a friend of mine. He was prescribed it in the 80s because he was sleeping badly, and it worked for that. Unfortunately, his behaviour then became a bit weird, and he was eventually taken into a mental hospital. There, he was given good treatment (without Halcion) and recovered well, so was sent home. Guess what? He had difficulty sleeping, and since no one had told him not to he went back on the Halcion. Yup, you guessed it - after a couple of months he was back in the mental hospital. A couple of cycles of this and the psychosis got sufficiently ahead of the treatment: he killed himself.

This review is actually a critique of only one aspect of this episode, and that is the writing that reflects exceptionally poor police procedure--procedure that I can't believe would actually ever happen in the real world. So at one point early in the episode (this isn't really a spoiler), Olivia convinces her brother Simon, who is wanted by the feds, to meet her at a bookstore cafe. A federal agent goes with her and plans to take Simon into custody.

Naturally, as *always* happens in these poorly-written scenes, Simon begins to "smell a rat" and he bolts, running out of the bookstore to escape the trap Olivia has set for him. Some trap! The federal agent is nowhere in sight, and Simon escapes.

Now in the real world, that federal agent would've positioned himself near the front door, or at some other obvious site, making it more difficult for the target to just walk out of the place unimpeded. This is one of my "pet peeves" with these shows--"Hollywood writing" intrudes far too often. Just for the sake of drama, like an extended chase scene, the police do completely unrealistic things they would never do in real life. For me, this ruins the episode.

Memo to Hollywood writers--Have people do and say real things that real people would do in real-life situations. No one yells at a suspect when they're 50 yards away from him and only on one side of him. They wait until they have him surrounded, until they have his escape routes blocked off. That's just common sense. These police shows are the worst offenders for this kind of thing.

I suggest that if the writers, directors, and producers would exhibit more common sense in their scripts and productions, their audiences would show their appreciation by viewing more often.

"Florida" continues the personal life subplot of Olivia's that was explored so powerfully in "Philadelphia", but with a new case that is even more personal and directly related. On first watch, the episode did grab my attention and had many good things. At the same time, it didn't wow me over and a few things frustrated when they shouldn't have done. So more one of those appreciated but didn't love it episodes on first watch, which is not too bad a position to be in but could have been better.

Some 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' episodes (and those of the original 'Law and Order' and 'Criminal Intent' as well) were better on rewatch. Others were still very good and more. Others went down in my estimations. Others have always left me conflicted. And there are other episodes that didn't do much for me and still don't. My feelings on "Florida" are pretty much the same on rewatch, in terms of appreciating it but not being totally enamoured with it.

Many good things can be seen in "Florida". Mariska Hargitay is absolutely outstanding here and gives some of her best acting of the show in this episode, when Olivia completely loses it Hargitay's acting is unflinchingly frightening and heart-wrenching. Michael Weston and Kim Delaney are similarly excellent, the chemistry between Hargitay and Weston electrifies at its best.

Enough of the story is interesting and has the right amount of tension. The twists are many and you know something is good when you are constantly uncertain as to whether Simon is guilty or innocent. The truth was not foreseeable at all and still has the shock factor. Enough of the script is thought-provoking and tight. "Florida" is a slickly made episode, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started (never was it a problem but it got more fluid with each episode up to this stage). The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key on the whole.

However, there are some noticeable flaws here. The police work is truly sloppy and ridiculous as well as entirely unrealistic. Especially agreed in the bookstore scene, common sense really goes out of the window. The more personal life-oriented content is on the melodramatic side, some of it reiterating stuff we already know.

Also thought there was no need for Porter, who felt out of place here. The ending is bland and too stretched out, the suspense not being there.

On the whole, decent but not great. 6/10.

Never liked this story line of Olivia and her brother, or Stabler's family issues. Way too personal on ongoing drama that I can do without.