SVU has been pretty awful these past 10 years, to the degree that any semblance to reality the show once had is gone. There are any number of flaws. But let's start with the casting. The bland guy playing Ben Stone's son . . . I mean, seriously. Who would have thought Stone, who was not just a brilliant legal mind but a steady, moral character, would have such a muttonhead for a kid. Michael Moriarty was terrific. But this guy? The dopey opening with him after a threesome is just part of the silliness designed to prop up an actor and character who are so incredibly boring on their own, just letting them act as, you know, an attorney will never be enough. So they need to distract with silliness like this.
Of course, that all goes nowhere, too. It's just part of the dodge and hustle to disguise the poor writing. The rest of the episode is full of such silliness. You get the usual hillbilly family that believes killing things is just what life's all about. Nobody has to hunt for meat when there's already plenty of it at the store. They do it because they like the kill. And that becomes integral to the shallow examination of manhood that is at the center of the episode.
To counterbalance such, we have the usual Carisi whining. It doesn't help the actor already has a whiny face, but, man, Carisi is the most hormonal character the series has ever had, and that's even taking Michelle Hurd's relentlessly moody, unhappy character from Season One into consideration.
I wish there was more to talk about here, but there's not. It's another episode that wishes to make a message, so there's just the usual stacking on of pontification.
