Info Wars

This episode covers a range of what is happening politically nowadays. Pretty impressive what they chose to include. Well done, as usual. It doesn't glorify either 'side'. It shows the mess of the landscape. It was also good to see Kim from Better Call Saul.

Ridiculous, offensive and just awful. I wish I hadn't wasted my time. A horrible and obvious political statement that is completely shameful. They use the term "pundit," but then I must ask, what is the writer....? 🤔 Munch would be condemning them all for hating a victim for free speech.

Law And Order franchise's Hudson University is the scene of a speech by provocative right wing speaker Rhee Seehorn who makes Annie Coulter look like Mary Poppins. Some Alt Right neo Nazis show up in solidarity and some left wing radical types protest her. A riot ensues and Seehorn leaves and seeks shelter. But when she's found by campus security she's just been sodomized with the pole of a protest sign.

This is a frightening episode not for the characterizations of some of the people, but for the fact that we've become so polarized that a woman like Seehorn is far more interested in using this crime to further her cause than to actually get justice.

Adam Zastrow who was seen with the picket sign during the riot is arrested and he's defended by Kurt Fuller a Bill Kunstler type lawyer. But there's good and sufficient reason to believe that right wing yahoo Jonathan Judge Russo might also be the perpetrator as the case develops.

You've got to love Rhee Seehorn. A bit of Ann Coulter, a bit of Kelly Anne Conway and you've got the kind of blond ice princess the current right wing seems to just love. She reminds me a bit of my former boss at Crime Victims Board Joanie Cusack of Staten Island. Surprised she hasn't gone for a job at the Trump White House, she'd fit right in.

Our finely crafted jury trial system with its careful rules is supposed to be a search for truth. It's anything but in this SVU story.

Good Lord, everyone in this episode was so overly stereotyped. What awful dreck. Whomever wrote this episode should be relegated to writing teletubby episodes after this. I love this show but this is just too much. No-one on either side is this ridiculous. We all knew where it was going from the beginning.

Have always appreciated and admired anything that deals with tough and controversial subjects, regardless of how they're executed. The subject matter for "Info Wars" is one of the toughest and 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' has proven many times that it can do uncompromising, harrowing and moving very well, which are things that for me are associated for me to work properly. In fact, it in its prime was one of its main interest points and one of the major things that was particularly admirable for me.

The subject in "Info Wars" could have been executed better. That sounds as if it was a bad episode, that is not the case in any way. Quite the opposite. "Info Wars" is a long way from being one of the best episodes of Season 19 or one of the best episodes of 'Special Victims Unit', despite having one of the more appealing subject matters of the season, but there were episodes of a generally disappointing Season 19 that had a lot of good things and that was the case here.

"Info Wars" has a lot of things that are good. The best thing about it is the uniformly strong acting, especially from Mariska Hargitay and Raul Esparza (the latter in his penultimate appearance as a regular). 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. The script is intelligent and lean with not many signs of fat.

Moreover, this reviewer really loved how Barba summed up the trial, which was very apt. The most apt he has been all season actually. The case is tight and intriguing on the whole. The topic is an interesting one that exposes the extreme fanatical views of both sides, some of it making for some suitably uncomfortable listening. And yes, Barba is his usual sassy and commanding self.

On the other hand, for my tastes "Info Wars" is a bit too heavy handed, while both sides are seen as heavily flawed and fanatical there were times where one side was more so than the other to a quite extreme level. Didn't like how unsympathetic and judgemental Olivia was towards the accuser when this is more an attitude she has for perpetrators. Maybe the writers were addressing what fans were saying about her jumping to conclusions too often and always believing the victims without knowing the whole picture, but somehow this felt out of character for her.

Did feel too that the outcome had a rather unresolved feel, but that is a little more understandable due to the prosecution case being weak.

All in all, above average if unexceptional. 6/10.