Crossover week tops Twitter trends and unites three shows

On Tuesday night, Chicago Fire, Law and Order: SVU and Chicago P.D., three shows created by genius-producer Dick Wolf, began on a journey through crossover-ville.  #CrossoverWeek was the top trend on Twitter from Tuesday evening through Wednesday night as thousands of viewers live-tweeted the shows.

Everything starts off in Chicago–in the last five minutes of Chicago Fire–when firefighter Kelly Severide finds a box of disturbing photos of children that a victim drops while she is saving him.  She calls the police and that’s when the crossover begins with Chicago P.D.  In reviewing the photos, Detective Erin Lindsay finds a picture of her brother who ran away to New York years ago. She soon calls Manhattan SVU, getting in contact with Detective Rollins and then travels to New York.

The SVU episode focuses on finding Lindsay’s brother, Teddy, who is participating in a prostitution ring in New York due to being forced into the industry as a runaway-teenager.  The detectives know that another boy, Henry, is in Teddy’s situation and they set out to save him.  Eventually, the detectives convince Teddy to help uncover the man who initially involved him in child pornography.

Key moments from the episode:

• Voight of Chicago PD pulls a nice “inner-unstable-Stabler” in the interview room and then Benson calls him to her office just as Captain Cragen used to do to Elliot
• Benson throws a grown man over her shoulder and onto the ground (Mariska Hargitay is 50-years-old, folks…well played!)
• Benson and Voight go undercover

Yeah, she rocks.

“Inner-unstable-Stabler” in progress…

At the end of the episode, the detectives in New York get a call from Chicago saying that the original victim who had the photographs and a Chicago police officer have been shot.  Chicago PD starts with Voight and Lindsay heading back to Chicago with Rollins, Amaro, and Benson soon following.

Eventually, after more interviewing and interrogating, Benson, Voight, and the rest of the gang nail the guy behind the pornography ring and rescue Henry!  Also, we see reconciliation between Lindsay and an at-first-resistant-Teddy.

Teddy and Lindsay

The SVU episode was by far the best of the series, but Dick Wolf might have made me a fan of Chicago P.D., too.  However, I had a very hard time getting into the characters in Chicago Fire and I can’t say I really enjoyed the show.  Nonetheless, a very complex crossover executed with precision and class.  Well done, Dick Wolf, Warren Leight, Julie Martin and everyone else responsible for this masterpiece!

Any thoughts on the crossover?  What were the best tweets you read?  Anyone else sensing a little chemistry between Benson and Voight? 🙂

 

“Glasgowman’s Wrath” is an unsettling success

SVU returned this week and, you guessed it, folks: another “ripped-from-the-headlines” case! Most seasons feature a few episodes that allude to real current events, but this season, week after week, viewers are seeing quite familiar plotlines on SVU.

“Glasgowman’s Wrath” was a startling episode from start to finish. In the first moments, we see the scene from the perspective of three young girls’ video camera as they prepare for “their mission.” They head to central park the night after Halloween to find “Glasgowman,” a frightening spirit that supposedly dwells in the woods. Soon enough, the camera ends up on the ground as the girls scream and run, shouting that Glasgowman is upon them.

The detectives find the youngest girl, Zoe, stabbed and bloodied in the park. Zoe tells the detectives that she was attacked by Glasgowman, a big guy with an eye patch. They set off to the park where they find a crazy homeless man, Charlie Dorsey, who matches her description. After a series of interviews where Carisi really connects with Dorsey, the detectives find the girls’ camera—and a bloody knife—in Dorsey’s woodland “house.” Over and over, Dorsey states that he did not harm the girls; he only found Zoe and saved her life.

Zoe hesitantly answers the detectives’ questions in the hospital

Charlie Dorsey: “Don’t threaten me with pills…treat me like a man.”

The detectives again interview Zoe, but she is hesitant to give more information about Glasgowman, fearing that he will kill Mia and Perry if she says too much. Finally she admits that she first heard of Glasgowman from Perry’s babysitter, Leslie. Rollins, Benson and Amaro then interview Leslie, who explains that he made up Glasgowman as a scary story for Perry. He has several elaborate drawings and maps on his wall that the detectives use to eventually find Mia and Perry, who are both near death.

Leslie’s maps

The detectives find a dead cat and more bloody knives with Mia and Perry but struggle to find out what actually happened to the girls. At the hospital, the doctor reports that Perry’s wounds are from just hours before, not matching with the girls’ story that they had been attacked the previous night. As if that’s not enough, the fingerprints found on all of the knives match Perry and no one else.

Benson’s shock to find out about the DNA evidence

Soon, the detectives separate the girls for interrogation. Mia immediately turns on Perry, saying it was all her idea and that she had stabbed Zoe. Perry then tells a frightening tale of her dreams of Glasgowman, saying he made her do everything.

Perry spins her yarn

The girls go to court where the judge lets Mia off the hook and sends Perry to Creedmore Psychiatric Center. Nothing seems out of the ordinary until the detectives, Mia, Perry and their mothers enter the court’s elevator to leave. As the episode closes, Carisi catches Mia and Zoe linking pinkies behind their backs. Absolutely chilling.

What…what…what???

Carisi #spymode

Two thumbs up on this exiting plot! And you know what, that Carisi is really growing on me 🙂

What do you think really happened that night in the woods? Any thoughts on Detective Carisi’s performance?  

SVU’s headliner cases continue with “Pornstar’s Requiem”

It looks like SVU is on a role with these “ripped-from-the-headlines” cases, so why not add one more to the pile? This week, the detectives investigated the rape case of college-freshman Evie Barnes, a character representing Duke University freshman Belle Knox. Knox got in to the porn industry to foot the bill for her education, and last year, a fellow classmate outed her, making the story national news. Fortunately, Knox’s story did not take the downhill turn that Barnes’ does in the episode.

All cases are “fictional,” huh? Well, at least partially I guess…

SVU takes on the Elliot Rodger case

Online this summer, you may have seen a sun-streaked video thumbnail of Elliot Rodger, a boy in his mid-20s who went on a killing spree near the University of California, Santa Barbara. Leaving behind his video and lengthy manuscript, Rodger murdered six people and injured 13 more before taking his own life.

So what did SVU do? It took the Rodger case’s major storyline and turned it in to the best “ripped-from-the-headlines” case yet!

SVU investigates another celebrity…and Noah’s in the ER

Remember last week’s “ripped-from-the-headlines” case? Well, SVU came back with another one this week, but in my opinion this one turned out better…though it was all too similar to several past episodes. “Producer’s Backend” begins with a car crash where Detective Amaro, still working the beat, comes across drunk celebrity Tansley Evans. Evans accuses Amaro of sexually assaulting her during her arrest, as if Amaro isn’t in enough trouble as it is. After reviewing dashboard-cam—and a lot of strangely persistent remarks from Rollins to Benson about getting Amaro back—Lt. Tucker finds that Amaro’s arrest procedure was flawless.

Dashboard-cam

Lt. Tucker as he miraculously declares that Amaro can return to SVU

Twists and turns lead to a surprise ending in “American Disgrace”

SVU writers returned to their classic script writing this week for Season 16’s second episode, “American Disgrace.” Following season trends, the detectives investigate a “ripped-from-the-headlines” case, this time involving basketball phenom, Shakir Wilkins.

At first, everything seems cut and dry: several young women accuse Wilkins of rape, the company he represents–Orion Bay–fires him, and the trial begins. Orion Bauer, owner of the Orion Bay company, expresses his sadness and surprise in Wilkins’s foul play. Soon though, the tables turn as one of the victims admits to Rollins and Barba that she was paid off to say that Wilkins raped her. Slowly, the other women come clean, too.

The “girls disappeared” and so did my ability to follow the plot

SVU Season 16 premiered three nights ago, and I am not sure I would classify it as an episode to remember. Now, as a superfan, there are very few SVU episodes that I give a less-than-five-star review, but “Girls Disappeared” was not a touchdown, per se. Maybe I am still coming off of the rapid-fire excitement that we saw over and over last season, but one thing is for sure: I expected more of the Season 16 opener.