Let’s Talk Television: the Stress is Overwhelming

I watch terrible television so you don’t have to.

New This Week

Death and Other Details (Tuesday, Hulu)

We’re halfway through the season and the mystery is getting complicated, maybe overly so. I like that Rufus (Mandy Patinkin) worked with Leila (Pardis Saremi) and Teddy (Angela Zhou) while Imogene (Violett Beane) worked with Sunil (Rahul Kohli) but it was also nerve-wracking. I’m paranoid that someone we and they start to like will be revealed to be the or a big bad.

I love learning the truth about Leila, she’s joined Imogene in the ‘characters for me’ list. But the financial maneuvering and Gossip Girl level behind-closed-doors shenanigans of the rest of the cast make me tired.

Chicago Med (Thursday, Peacock)

Hannah (Jessy Schram) and Ripley (Luke Mitchell) are speeding toward a hook-up after Hannah has yet another disastrous dating mishap (it involves a dick pic and potential STD). I’m not really sold on Ripley though. I think Hannah should hook up with Zola (Sophia Ali) instead.

Archer (Steven Weber) is back post-new-kidney and Sean (Luigi Sottile) got a new job as a recovery coach so he will no longer be working at the hospital. Archer and Zola immediately clash but Hannah reminds him that they initially clashed and now they’re besties so he backs off a little and honestly, I love the idea that grumpy Dean collects misfit doctors as pseudo daughters. It’s a cute dynamic, maybe a little unhealthy but not the way a romance would be. Anyway, I’m sure something else happened (knowing this show at least 5 things) but I’ve already forgotten.

Law & Order (Friday, Peacock)

Once again Samantha (Odelya Halevi) tries to convince Jack (Sam Waterston) and Nolan (Hugh Dancy) to care and once again she is shot down. Also this episode, last week’s episode, and the premiere could all have aired on SVU, which makes me think they don’t quite know what to do with OG. Or at least they don’t know how to write Sam/a woman without providing her a ‘special victim’ to fight for…and then the men tell her to stop it. I hate it actually.

Anyway, a rich guy whose family got him a job at a real estate firm was stealing drugs from the homes they showed, and when a coworker confronted him he killed her. But the only way to prove it is to give immunity to a witness under investigation for trafficking child pornography. Jack and Nolan agree, Sam argues that’s horrible, they ignore her and with the pedophile’s help they (barely) win the case. I hate it actually!

Maybe Name TBD (Tony Goldwyn) will break the Sam Deserves Better streak when he takes over for Jack, but based on Goldwyn’s previous roles I’m not expecting much.

Law & Order: SVU (Friday, Peacock)

Television shows aren’t supposed to be on for twenty-five years. TV wasn’t built for it. A book, film, or stage play has a beginning, middle, and end. TV only achieves those when it stops, and they are often messy. Any series “ending well” is a unicorn, and the longer it goes on the harder it is. The harder it is to tie up loose threads— because there are so many more of them —and the harder it is to connect the end to the beginning, to create an arc after the fact.

SVU’s biggest assets are Olivia Benson and Mariska Hargitay. They are the show. Full stop. It’s clear Mariska sees this series and character as her calling, her purpose, and I applaud that. But as long as Olivia is the beating heart of SVU, she can’t be anything else. There is a reason comic books reboot their characters every 5 to 15 years or so. Character growth is a consequence of storytelling but long-running open-ended serials require it to be incremental, when they don’t outright disavow it. Batman is the same person he was 85 years ago because we keep telling the same stories about him.

And look, I want Olivia Benson to have the longevity of Batman. I do. But it comes with a cost and that cost is Olivia Benson is traumatized and retraumatized forever. She never slows down, she never has enough, she never wins it all, and no compass, no matter how big and shiny and heartfelt, ever leads her to happiness or home.

This is easily the strongest episode of the season so far. The story was personal: the Chief’s daughter’s rape caused drama and chaos for her family, the rapist’s family, and our squad. Fin (Ice T) and Bruno (Kevin Kane) spent the episode trying to talk Olivia out of being involved for her protection, which seems to be a theme this year, enough to make me wonder if the protectiveness is building to something. Liv ignored them and instead reported McGrath (Terry Serpico) to IAB captain Curry (Aime Donna Kelly). The episode ends with McGrath on the way out and Curry joining SVU, providing three things Olivia needs. 1. Help because they are still/always short-staffed. 2. Another woman in the squad room because it is quite the all boys club at the moment. And 3. they are the same rank so Renee is a peer. An equal. Maybe even a partner.

Maddie Watch: The episode starts with Olivia’s EMDR therapy session (more on that below) but otherwise no Maddie.

Law & Order: Organized Crime (Friday, Peacock)

Organized Crime doesn’t have the baggage that SVU does. It’s almost the inverse, Elliot Stabler’s character growth is the whole point of OC. Elliot (Christopher Meloni) is textually the prodigal son and this episode builds on that tenfold. In a truly beautiful sequence that depicts two plots side by side, both building to an explosion, Elliot fails both of his families and both of his duties at the same time. On the dinner side Elliot and his entire family learn that Randall (Dean Norris) didn’t abandon his abused mother, he attempted to get her out of the abusive situation at the expense of his relationship to her and to Elliot. On the safe house side Ayanna (Danielle Moné Truitt), Jet (Ainsley Sieger), and Bashir (Abubakr Ali) are caught in the crossfire of Los Santos and Reyes (Rick Gonzalez) can’t get ahold of Elliot because Randall stole his cell. Once again this stupid show swings for high art and hits it.

The entire hour is riveting. Tension is high from the jump, both the characters and the audience see the explosions coming from miles away but we can’t swerve or look away. The crash is heartbreaking and absolutely nothing is resolved; Elliot in particular is in an awful place at the end. His family is a mess, his Sargent was shot, the task force is under new interim leadership, and he’s suspended for assaulting a minor. Randall is sticking around a bit to help with the first; they are teaming up to take care of Bernie (Ellen Burstyn) and figure out what’s up with Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter) and I cling to the hope that we get something with each of the kids if not the apology tour I would personally write. But I want to talk about the last.

First, there’s the history. Elliot’s ten-year absence was precipitated by his shooting a minor to protect his team. In the past couple of recaps, I said that SVU was dropping hints about it and now OC is making a direct parallel. Lucas (Isaac Arellanes) pulled a gun and shot at Elliot, just like Jenna did. Elliot reacted with force and got suspended. No one died this time. But especially on top of the dad stuff, which the suspension also parallels, it has to weigh on him. It certainly weighs on me.

But then there’s the Eli (Nicky Torchia) connection. Lucas is only a few years younger than Eli and they are both lanky with floppy dark hair and daddy issues, and it’s not the first time the show mirrored his real son with someone in the field. Early in the episode, Lucas asks Elliot if his “father hated him, too”, which is an incredibly heavy question for anyone but made exponentially worse with everything else going on. Elliot is the reason Lucas’s father is dead. Elliot is dealing with his own daddy issues, and it is all mixed up with his mother’s declining health and his brothers return. At the dinner, Eli complains to his father that he’s too busy with work to be present in his life and know what’s going on with him, which Randall also said and described it as behaving like their father. Then we all get confirmation that Joe Sr. was physically abusive and Randall witnessed it which makes that particular comparison even more horrible. Finally Lucas pulls a gun on Elliot and Elliot tries to keep it from happening but he puts him in the hospital. So Lucas is a complicated stand in for Jenna, Eli, and Elliot himself. And as with the prodigal son, Elliot is described textually as a lost cause. The layers are many, varied, and intricate.

But GOOD LORD, poor Becky (Kiaya Scott). Poor Maureen (Autumn Mirassou), Kathleen (Allison Sitko), Dickie (Jeffrey Scaperrotta), Lizzie (Kaitlyn Davidson), Eli, Joe Jr. and Carl (Adam Harper), too, to be witness to the Bernie-Randall-Elliot explosion but they were all at least aware of the potential for it. Becky, I’m certain, came to support Eli and whatever he told her she could not have been prepared for any of it. Get Becky a spa day and a trusted therapist immediately. And bless Kathleen for answering the phone.

Also Watching

A couple episodes of iZombie because Rahul Kohli is in Death and Other Details. And then I dyed my hair blonde. But otherwise nothing.

Mental Illness Sidebar

WORST. THERAPIST. EVER.

Immediately after Olivia’s therapy session, Dr. Lentz (Tricia Paoluccio) followed her out of her office and asked her to investigate the rape of a fifteen-year-old who’d disclosed to her. Shea (Grace Culwell) is a minor and Lentz is a mandatory reporter but there is a process! There are channels! I am also a mandatory reporter, I have to take the training annually, I know of what I speak! It is wildly inappropriate and absurd to approach your patient with confidential information about your minor patient whom you know you need to report but haven’t yet and say ‘hey, can you fix this for me? I know we are meeting because you are dealing with intermittent anxiety attacks and have decades of trauma to unpack and I literally just told you to work on yourself BUT I would like to use your skillset and btw, she’s your boss’s daughter and it’s the wrong district hope that doesn’t screw you over too much thanks bye’. WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?!

I cannot believe they found a way to make creepy Lindstrom the better option.

Anyway the list of people who need a therapeutic retreat—i.e. three days of intensive therapy plus an outlet (arts and crafts, dance, boxing, whatever) with no Lindstrom, no Lentz, and no the lady who Amanda accidentally got held hostage that one time —includes the entire Stabler family, everyone on the OC task force (yes, this means Elliot gets double therapy), Olivia, McGrath, Shea, Lucas and Kiki and their mom, Becky and Xander, Carisi just in case, and Samantha Maroun. Also me.

Ship of the Week

Once again the pickings are slim to none. There’s Sunil and Imogene but I’m scared of secrets. There’s the aforementioned Hannah and Mitch foreshadowing that I find super predictable and boring. There’s Olivia being cute about Elliot’s gift with her horrible therapist but the session ends before they talk about it. There’s Maureen and Carl or Eli and Becky. There’s Lucas’s sister Kiki (Isa Yamileth), who is the one to blow their cover and bring gunmen to the safe house, and her hapless boyfriend Xander (Austin Nedrow). None of these are viable options.

So, I’m going with Olivia and Renee Curry being flirty at the bar.

Show of the Week

Organized Crime by a wide margin. Art.

What are YOU watching?