Gone

"Gone" is one of those "ripped from the headlines" sort of stories. A type of story that the 'Law and Order' franchise often did well at when it did them, the original 'Law and Order' in its prime was particularly good at this. In this case, it is based on the Natalee Holloway case and made at the time where the case was quite fresh and feelings still raw. With it being quite closely indebted, those familiar with that case will find "Gone" a hard watch.

Actually knew about that case a long time after it happened and when the episode was aired and produced. After a big quality slump and a very up and down quality throughout the first half of Season 7, "Gone" shows that 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' still had greatness in it and not gone completely down the drain. To me, "Gone" is one of the best Season 7 episodes and the best 'Special Victims Unit' episode since "Raw". There are a few goofs, with the fourteenth ammendment one being particularly sloppy, but they weren't enough to bring down a fantastic episode.

So much is brilliant here. The production values are typically slick with the right amount of grit, nothing is too fancy or too gimmicky. Nor is anything too static, drab or garish. The music is not too constant or emotionally manipulative, meanig not over-emphasising the emotion to make one think that's how we should be feeling.

The script is intelligent and tautly structured, especially in the legal scenes in the increasingly desperate search for the prime witness. Despite being so faithfully based on a very emotionally raw case, it didn't feel in a way exploitative or quite too soon. The story is always absorbing and beautifully paced, really liked the increasing tension when things quickly fall apart and seeing Novak so involved was moving to see and not done too melodramatically. She's not out of character, she has shown a softer side more than once before such as in Season 6's "Night".

People may not like that not everything is fully resolved but in my view this was not a problem and was more tasteful that way. All the regular characters are well written, especially Novak and Donnelly. The only reservation being the underuse of Olivia, which to me didn't affect "Gone's" quality. Two of the three suspects are truly nasty and arrogant, appropriately so. All the performances are very good to outstanding, even from Fred Dalton Thompson who usually leaves me indifferent. Diane Neal is very moving here.

In summary, fantastic and one of the season's best. 10/10.

This episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last minute. I don't want to give away any details that would make this comment a spoiler, but I will say that I really enjoyed this episode. It was well-written and obviously the acting was terrific - as always. The only bad thing about this episode was that Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay, one of my favorite actresses) was barely present. Since it focused more on the court scenes than the actual police work, I guess she and Elliot had a break this week!

I started watching Special Victims Unit several years ago and have been hooked ever since. My husband and I used to watch it together, but we don't have time to do that now. Still, we've seen most episodes, but I wanted to watch them all again so recently I started at the beginning and thanks to Netflix, I started with season one and I'm now on season 7. Too bad I didn't think to start writing reviews when I was on season one!

Sonya :)

Three Preppy punks are arrested for the murder of a young Canadian high school student on a trip to New York City. The only problem that Diane Neal has is that she doesn't have a body. But she makes the calculated decision to arrest these kids and in fact one of them is caught before he can board a private plane to Brazil.

So now SVU has to play catch up and hope they can find a body or some more evidence of murder before Neal finishes her case.

The three kids, Teddy Eck, Paul David Story, and Harry Zittel are three prime specimens of arrogance and privilege no doubt learned from their parents. You should see the length they go to cheat justice.

A good story with a most satisfactory ending.

It is told, what will happen and the consequences if the law cannot protect. At the center of the story is the assistant prosecutor Casey Novak (Diane Neal).

The iceberg explains the reasons why law could not protect it. Failure to provide protection to the witness, the perpetrator being rich and powerful, bribery, irregularity, connivance, etc.

Unfortunately a realistic desperation.