Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Beef (2010) User Reviews

Might make you a Vegan like Aaron Tveit

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 28 June 2013]

A young crusading journalist gets murdered and it's made to look like a sex crime. That's how SVU gets involved in this case, the young woman had the semen of two men recently intimate with her.

One of those men was a boyfriend played here by Aaron Tveit who has gained stardom due to Les Miserables. He's both a Buddhist and a Vegan and has an alibi. I couldn't really buy him as a suspect.

Where the squad finally zeroes in is a meatpacking plant which is the home of a popular Italian meatball product for which Lynn Cohen is both the matriarch and spokesperson for the company. Upton Sinclair had this place in mind when he wrote The Jungle over a hundred years ago. Nothing seems to have changed and no one of the mostly immigrant work force is going to rat out the management.

Watch this episode you'll now why Tveit is a Vegan.

Meat with Corn, Health and Activism

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 4 July 2021]

A story about the conflict between the meat industry and vegans, animal activists.

It was like watching a movie that was released.

Turns, Shocks, the story is all one. It was self-consistent.

Cruel facts about the meat industry... no comment.

Not enough meat to this episode

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 12 May 2022]

"Beef's" critical reception within the fandom is pretty polarising. Some found it entertaining in a campy sort of way. Others found it too preachy, a criticism that was not uncommon for Season 11 of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'. This episode left me very conflicted on previous viewings, with it having its moments while agreeing with the criticisms often cited against it. Did appreciate that it did try to cover a serious issue that is still relevant and something to be aware of.

My feelings of "Beef" are still conflicted. It is not a terrible episode, doesn't really do anything offensive and has its good things. It just left me, and always has left me, rather "ehh" and not as interested as hoped. The subject had a lot of potential, but the episode tries too hard with it while not doing enough with the case itself. So an episode regarding meat cleanliness with not enough meat to the material. There were quite a few common problems with Season 11 and "Beef" has most.

Am going to start with the good. It is a slickly made episode, with the editing being more refined than when the show first started and again intimate but never suffocating photography. The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key on the whole.

The acting from the regulars is fine. The running gag dog jokes were good fun.

However, "Beef" just felt lacking, not that memorable and is lacking in the subtlety department. The story tries to cram in too much, has too few twists and turns and the case just felt tired and dull. Absolutely agree with the lack of investigative work and too much reliance on baseless conclusion jumping without proof, unauthorised searches and sackable offense worthy behaviour towards suspects, a common issue with Season 11 and an annoying one.

Furthermore, the case also got lost amidst what the episode has to say about meat and its process, far too much emphasis on it and what is said is heavy handed in the extreme and very one-sided. The dialogue can sound awkward and has the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The supporting characters aren't interesting and the acting for them is as forgettable as the case. Aaron Tveit certainly went on to much better things that were much more in his comfort zone.

In summary, watchable but didn't quite do it for me. 5/10.

"Search warrant?" Never heard of it

[wdstarr-1 · 5/10 · 31 December 2020]

Gotta love an episode in which our heroes casually conduct two, count 'em two, separate warrantless searches: undercover Benson going through closed desk drawers in the meatpacking company's offices, and Munch snooping around in the little old lady's home (good luck getting that typewriter you found into evidence, John). Add to that the idea that a videotape cassette (ask your grandparents, kids) could be destroyed by somebody stomping on it and breaking the plastic case, and this episode doesn't come off as being very flattering to the writers.

And... I'm getting *really* tired of the detectives' almost sociopathic devotion to assuming that anybody who might, maybe, possibly, could be the killer is by definition guilty as sin, and coming after them in the interrogation room like they're the KGB trying to get secrets out of a captured spy. It's a repetitive and extremely dumb meme that makes the characters that we're (I think) supposed to admire look like jackasses. (And do they ever, *ever* apologize to anyone for subjecting them to all that crap only to later have their alibi check out?)

And by the way, why does everybody willingly go "downtown" with them to experience the joy of being stuck in a small room with two aggressive mooks with Ph.D.'s in person-on-person psychological warfare? Why do we never seem to see the cops' "Okay, you're coming with us" met with "No, actually I'm not"?

SVU treads in Michael Moore territory...unsuccessfully!

[garrard · 5/10 · 23 April 2010]

From the title of the episode to Benson (Marika Hargitay) going "undercover," this installment does try to mask that it's "preaching" about suspicious practices in the food, particularly meat, industry. The installment even makes a reference to film director Moore, known for his film exposes.

The murder at the beginning of the show is horrific enough but even more graphic are the film images that hammer into us, the viewers, the "fact" that something might be amiss in the food that we eat.

Even the revelation of the real killer's identity isn't too shocking and seems rather rushed, an occurrence that usually happens within the last five minutes of the show.

Like the beef in the title, this installment is kinda "tainted."

Pathetic Drivel

[gregorynewton5 · 2/10 · 13 February 2024]

I really like this series, and we've enjoyed binge-watching it over the last year or more. But this episode is awful. It's especially cartoonish during the suspect interviews - I've rarely seen this good show's resources used so poorly.

The writers seem to completely lose perspective when they attempt to make political points. It's bewildering to see a show that usually uses subtlety to tell some very complex stories go so overboard and melodramatic that it's laughable.

This series is at its best when it shows compassion for victims who are hurting in really terrible circumstances. All the show's lead characters have had wonderful moments interacting with guest star victims who are suffering, exhibiting a deep humanity and warmth. This was not that show.