Law & Order: SVU: Drama or Comedy? (Lost, Law & Order, show)

[lovemaine]

What has happened to this show? I used to enjoy it, but it's almost unwatchable now. In one recent episode: A woman was mauled to death by a tiger in NYC, a suspect was eaten by hyenas in his NY apt., and best of all, a moneky was being smuggled inside a basketball. The reason given for the monkey being smuggled into the US: So that his bones could be made into expensive chopsticks. HUH?!? Anyone else think this show has turned into a mess this season??

[Buckeye in SC]

I'm a little more concerned about the trend the past couple seasons to dig more into Elliott & Olivia's personal lives a la the approach they've taken on Criminal Intent w/Goren. I think the thing that enable L & O (original) to last so long is they focused mainly on the case at hand and didn't have all these underlying issues of the detectives personal lives.

As to the storylines themselves, I think they are kind of running out of actual 'sex crimes' so they are trying to get creative, after all, this is like the 8th or 9th season. I would like to see them get back to more 'realistic' story-lines though.

[lovemaine]

I agree, the show was much better when it focused on actual cases and not personal lives. I think the whole storyline with Stabler's rocky marriage is bogging the show down. It seems to me that the show has gotten sloppy the past few seasons. The episode I mentioned in my original post was a "jump-the-shark" episode, at least to me. Oh well, at least there are still other Law & Orders to fill the gap.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by lovemaine

What has happened to this show? I used to enjoy it, but it's almost unwatchable now. In one recent episode: A woman was mauled to death by a tiger in NYC, a suspect was eaten by hyenas in his NY apt., and best of all, a moneky was being smuggled inside a basketball. The reason given for the monkey being smuggled into the US: So that his bones could be made into expensive chopsticks. HUH?!? Anyone else think this show has turned into a mess this season??

Well. I would say those victims are special...

Obviously, one of the show's producers is dating a zookeeper.

[danameless]

One thing that annoys me about the show is how they bring Stabler's family into storylines are different points and different seasons, for no reason. I remember watching it and his daughter was like 8yrs old, and then the next time they had her on a show, she was like 18 and arrested for drunk driving!

[lovemaine]

Originally Posted by danameless

One thing that annoys me about the show is how they bring Stabler's family into storylines are different points and different seasons, for no reason. I remember watching it and his daughter was like 8yrs old, and then the next time they had her on a show, she was like 18 and arrested for drunk driving!

That irritates me too! Doesn't he have about 5 kids now? On a cop's salary, in NYC???

[maciesmom]

I've been noticing that they seem to have certain episodes that focus on one of the main characters (esp women) seemingly to spotlight them I assume for Emmy nominations...I find that demeaning to me as a viewer and just plain annoying. It's so obvious.

[annika08]

Originally Posted by Buckeye in SC

I'm a little more concerned about the trend the past couple seasons to dig more into Elliott & Olivia's personal lives a la the approach they've taken on Criminal Intent w/Goren. I think the thing that enable L & O (original) to last so long is they focused mainly on the case at hand and didn't have all these underlying issues of the detectives personal lives.

As to the storylines themselves, I think they are kind of running out of actual 'sex crimes' so they are trying to get creative, after all, this is like the 8th or 9th season. I would like to see them get back to more 'realistic' story-lines though.

That's exactly why I stopped watching the show (and I used to love it!). I got tired of the focus on Elliot's seperation with his wife. The cincher for me was when they brought in Connie Nielsen and she did that horrible supposed Danish accent...haven't watched the show since.

CI was okay until they had detectives...I don't know...Chris Noth and the red-haired chick...I turned it off after that. No chemistry and she was really lousy IMO.

It seems with SVU and CI that the cases are secondary to the personal lives of the detectives...which, as Buckeye pointed out, is what makes the original LO the only redemable one of the series now.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by lovemaine

The reason given for the monkey being smuggled into the US: So that his bones could be made into expensive chopsticks. HUH?!? Anyone else think this show has turned into a mess this season??

What I don't understand is why they didn't just kill the monkey and make the chopsticks outside of the U.S. and then just smuggle in chopsticks, which would have been about 10000000000000 times easier than a live monkey?

The plausability there is what killed it for me.

[eevee]

another issue w/ SVU is that, w/ all these back stories, it's losing the stand alone quality that the original L&O has. I think that's one reason why the show has lasted as long as it has. at this point, I've lost track of the drama in Elliot's life (last live episode I saw, he was still dealing w/ anger management issues and a daughter got busted for a DUI or something), but now I wouldn't even know if he's been remarried, how many kids he has now, or even if he's a freaking grandfather now! all this back story for Olivia and Elliot makes it harder to take each SVU episode as a stand alone episode b/c the back story provides too much of a frame for the episodes, or gets brought up in later episodes. if they continue down this path, this show is going to be as hard to follow as LOST! (lord knows, they've got the parental issues going!)

even w/ all the major cast shake ups, the original is still going and is still good (I never bothered w/ CI, and yeah, the red haired girl did annoy me; I preferred the blond detective and Goren (sp) more)