Agent Provocateur

I guess that a lot of people could have been in a far worse jackpot if young Madison Grace had not still had a pulse when she was found in an alley by a patrolman. She was still partially inside the suitcase in which she was dumped. Had she died given the evidence it would have been murder instead of statutory rape.

This underage girl snuck out of her uncle's apartment while he was busy entertaining some meat market acquaintance to meet her celebrity crush Shiloh Fernandez who is a current A list actor and who has a most protective agent in Patti Lupone.

As an antagonist he also has John Pankow a celebrity gossip-monger and 'journalist' who is looking to sensationalize the story however it comes out. And this particular story has no one looking real good even Madison Grace who is one airhead who changes her story so often I doubt that ADA Raul Esparza can even get a conviction when in the end the real story is told.

I also think that 'journalist' Pankow should do some time for how he got the story. Impersonating a cop is a crime no matter what your motive. But he'll skate as well.

Show business can really be dirty and the public is so gullible and manipulative.

I'm sorry, but a human adult cannot fit into a suitcase unless bones are broken. It is totally implausible that this girl, no matter how petite is going to emerge physically unscathed as far as her physical skeletal system is concerned after being stuffed into a suitcase. In fact, I'm not even sure that you could stuff an eight-year-old in a suitcase.

Also, the music that was being played in the opening scene, sounding like it was a music video, turned out to be completely gratuitous. It was a very insensitive editing move, IMO.

In the jail scene, wouldn't the LMZ guy recognize Fin and Carisi from when they originally met? Fin especially did not look that different.

Why does LMZ guy look behind him before sticking his fingers in the cage that he's leaning against, when he's doing it to try to act cool and nonchalant?

The undercurrent of Trumpy-type star worship here is what makes this episode chilling, specifically the girl and the Patti Lupone character. For this reason, the show is ahead of its time.

Despite there being a huge number of good and more episodes of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit', especially the earlier seasons, there are also a number of episodes of the show that did little for me on first watch. "Agent Provocateur" was one of those, though not one of the worst cases. The premise did not appeal to me at all to the point of being unsure whether to watch it again (having rewatched all the show's episodes, some more than once, over-time).

Some episodes of the show left me indifferent or less on first watch and still left me indifferent on rewatch or got marginally better or marginally worse. "Agent Provacateur" had a bit of all. It still leaves me indifferent and does little to make the premise more appealing, but it has to be said that there are things that are good that were more noticeable on rewatch (some not picked up at all). As well as things that came off worse, while finding more things that didn't work.

Am going to start with the good. It is a visually slick episode, typical for 'Criminal Intent' and the 'Law and Order' franchise, and one with the right amount of muted grit, the photography doesn't try to do anything too fancy or gimmicky while not being claustrophobic and keeping things simple. The music doesn't overbear with the theme tune still memorable.

The acting is also fine from all, Raul Esparza and Peter Scanavino coming off best due to having the best material. Other highlights are Barba in sassy mode and Fin and Carisi undercover in jail, Carisi is very funny in the episode and just love his unfiltered communication.

Unfortunately, there is a lot wrong here. The story is pretty much a mess. It is suspense free and very predictable from too few twists, and from doing nothing new with material that has little originality in the first place. It manages to make an unappealing premise even more so in execution from going too far on the sleaziness. Tonally it is unsure, the dark comedy like moments made the writing very strange and not always tasteful at times.

Really couldn't identify with or sympathise with with the victim, who comes over as too naive and untrustworthy. The pacing can be dull, especially in the second half which is not helped by the legal case being as flimsy as it is. Flimsy enough for it to be easily thrown out of court. The dialogue often is trite and the tautness and grit are not there.

In summary, very average at best episode and a lesser outing in a not bad season. 5/10.