On first watch, "Users" did very little for me. While appreciating the performances, the story just felt heavy handed and one-sided (criticisms not given out with pleasure). There was hope seeing it for the first time in a long time, with it being one of few episodes up to this point of the show's run to make me reluctant in re-watching it, that "Users" would be one of a number of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' episodes that fared a lot better on re-watch.
Alas that wasn't to be. "Users" still doesn't do it for me, and my basic opinion pretty much stands in terms of what was good and what was bad about the episode. The subject is a tough one and that it was tackled is appreciated definitely, but "Users" could have done more with it and handled it a lot better and tactfully than it did. Do not agree with it being rated higher than the previous episode "Spooked", which was actually a very good episode in my view and the best of the previous episodes.
"Users" does have good things. Can't fault the slick production values, understated enough music or the direction. Did think too that the episode did start very intriguingly and unsettlingly, with some nice taut thoughtful writing.
The performances are near-uniformly strong. The SVU are all excellently performed, but it is the supporting cast that are even better. Ryan Kelley gives a moving performance as the one character worth rooting for at the end of the day despite his flaws. James Frain plays a monstrous sleazebag to scary effect.
Was however less keen on BD Wong. Wong usually performs Huang with calm authority beautifully, but here he didn't seem comfortable and his more emotional parts come over as overwrought. Didn't care for how Huang was written here too, with the writers continuing to show him as the completely different seeming person seen in "Hardwired". Although difficult cases do bring the worst out of people, Huang has dealt with more difficult cases than this and been much more collected. Here he is rather sanctimonious and aggressive and to me it felt out of character, plus Huang never behaved with such unprofessionalism before when he was usually by the book.
Moreover, the story generally didn't grab me. It could have done with a lot more tension and the second half could have been less rushed feeling. Its take on drugs is very preachy and another case of the writers making it too clear what side of the issue they are on when in Seasons 1-6 particularly there was more than one side shown. The portrayal of the internet was one-sided and over-generalised, it is known to be dangerous but it doesn't apply to all or everything that happens online, certainly not the irredeemably bad portrayal seen here. Some sloppy research regarding Hepatitis C as well. The ending makes one feel talked down to and too much goes on in the second half with the turns revealed at dizzying effect, making it come over as not always easy to follow.
Not a terrible episode by all means, but didn't work for me and in the lower half of Season 11. 5/10.
