Manipulated

My feelings on "Manipulated" have always been a bit conflicting. Have always found that there is a lot done well and that it starts off great, while also finding some drawbacks and that it doesn't end anywhere near as strongly. My feelings on Season 7 have been mixed, some fantastic episodes but some real misfires too. What "Manipulated" has going for it in order to see it is the concept, if you are a fan of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' and Rebecca DeMornay.

As indicated above, "Manipulated" is generally a very interesting and wildly entertaining episode. It is also a very odd one, some serious suspension of disbelief is needed when the truth is revealed for example. It's neither one of the best episodes of Season 7 or of 'Special Victims Unit' or one of the worst on both counts. It is though a big improvement over the previous episode "Taboo", which was one of the season's worst. Have seen a fair share of mixed reviews elsewhere and no wonder, "Manipulated" is not one of those episodes that will be universally loved.

Will start with what "Manipulated" does well, which is actually quite a lot despite what the above indicates. It is as ever shot with the right amount of intimacy without feeling too up close, even with a reliance of close up camerawork. That the editing has become increasingly tighter over-time is great too. The music isn't over-scored, manipulative or used too much. There is intimacy and tautness in the direction.

Enough of the script is thoughtful and also surprisingly funny, Stabler has some real hilarious corkers which was not unexpected for a character who was very intense in Seasons 6 and 7. "Manipulated" starts off very intriguingly with tension and entertainment value, loved the whole chemistry between the regulars, their exchanges and how they work. Everything with the responsible's state of mind and how they carried out the plan, the manipulation and how it unravels particularly intrigued. The regulars are all round excellent, especially Christopher Meloni and Diane Neal with the meatiest material. Chris Potter does very well too, and while views on DeMornay's performance were more mixed she seemed fine on the whole to me apart from the seizures.

Once the truth starts to emerge, "Manipulated" begins to get silly. Didn't mind that this was the sort of episode where the truth is not as much about the who (which is obvious a little too early) but more the how. This aspect did interest somewhat, especially the extent of the manipulation and how it all unravels, but much of the plotting later is also pretty improbable and excessively bizarre. Especially everything regarding the assassin, which stretched credibility and ridiculousness to breaking point to the point that it does not make sense.

Did think too that the twist was silly and the ending over the top.

In conclusion, interesting but quite odd. 7/10.

OK, so SVU's trademark plot twists but actually around a single point of origin. Sometimes there are just plot twists for their own sake but this is a good one. Everybody's a suspect!

Guest actors are great in this one! SVU does good sleuthing and TARU and Dr. Huang are icing on the cake (BD Wong is always good). Benson and Stabler are balanced in this...sometimes they lean too much into caricature. They are focused on the case in this one, not their personal lives.

Very satisfying episode.

The murder of two exotic pole dancers sends the SVU squad into action and in the course of the investigation it's found that one of them had a really interesting life. By day she was a rising star in the legal world, but by night she was doing the bumps, grinds, and twerks. What interesting hobbies some of his develop.

In that corporate world of the lawyer we discover that Chris Potter married to one of the founding partner's daughters is having one hot affair with the deceased. The founding partner's daughter is Rebecca DeMornay who is a paraplegic from a car accident. He's also her chief caregiver, but the accident has put a crimp in the sex life.

I have to say that the perpetrator is one special kind of sick. The hired killer in this case is a former mercenary played by Holt McCallany and he's one cool customer under interrogation.

The perpetrator is revealed in dramatic fashion in the last couple of minutes of the story. Quite a story the perpetrator has too.

because when it first came on the air and the ads said it was concentrating on sex crimes I really thought that the limitation would cause it to get old fast. Wow, was I ever wrong.

This episode starts out looking like a rape/murder investigation, but moves quickly to a lawyer who likes to pole dance by night, a suspect whose semen is not found on the body of the girl he was having an affair with, but IS found on the body of a friend of the dead girl that the suspect didn't even know, and the suspect could only have exited the second girl's apartment - a high rise - by being spiderman.

No, there is a logical explanation for everything, but it is interesting to watch everything unfold. I'd highly recommend this one as an example of just how good SVU can be.