Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Inheritance (2001) User Reviews

Nature or nurture or lack thereof

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 April 2013]

The violation of women takes center stage in this SVU episode as the squad investigates a series of rapes involving Asian women. This case gets real personal for both B.D. Wong and for Mariska Hargitay.

The investigation leads to the apprehension of Marcus Chong who is a mixed racial person and the child of a rapist. His mother raised him as Mariska's mother raised her, also fathered by a rapist.

Chong lived a horrible childhood as you can imagine. Not easy to love someone brought into the world the way he was. In fact his defense attorney is going to argue he was genetically programmed to be a rapist.

Nature or nurture or lack thereof. A problem for the jury to deal with and something Olivia Benson is thinking about deeply. Her informal therapy session with Dr. Huang is the highlight of this very good SVU episode.

Nature versus nurture

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 15 July 2020]

This was an example that held my attention even before it began and hearing about it on first watch. The subject is one of Season 3's heaviest therefore it would have been one of the most difficult to tackle, the heavier the subject the more challenging it would have been to tackle it. One does feel somewhat worried though too if they are one of those people that has always felt that the cases that begin to get personal for a team member tend to vary in execution.

Having said that, 'Special Victims Unit' did have some very good to outstanding episodes with "personal" cases. "Inheritance", a return to form after a little dip in the season quality-wise, is one of the most personal cases and is one of the best of the episodes to have that amount of emotional significance. It is one of Season 3's high points and one of its most emotional and relatable. Also consider "Inheritance" an early season high point for its emotional power mainly and how it managed to connect with me.

"Inheritance" boasts a powerful performance from Mariska Hargitay, who really pours out her soul to heart-breaking effect. BD Wong kept getting better with each episode and is suitably sympathetic in a case that also ends up meaning much to him. There is beautiful chemistry between Olivia and Huang, the latter himself showing himself to be remarkably balanced amidst such a difficult case.

A standout scene here is agreed the therapy scene dramatically, one of the most emotional ones of Season 3. It was very relatable to me actually, being somebody who has had to have therapy in the past and who found it very difficult.

Furthermore, "Inheritance's" case is also riveting and has a huge amount of poignant emotional impact throughout. It was amazing for the episode to deal with such a complicated and important to address subject, that will resonate with anybody even now, so compassionately and thoughtfully. We see to moving effect how it affects Olivia and how personal it gets for her and Huang without resorting to unprofessionalism. Had no problem with the slick production values, the unobtrusive music or the deliberate yet tight enough direction, and really appreciated the sincerity of the script.

Concluding, outstanding. 10/10