We are graced by the presence of Ms. Huppert. She has won 2 Cesar Awards (The Cannes version of an Oscar). Even more impressive is she has been nominated 16 times for a Cesar: 14 for Best Actress and 2 times for Best Supporting Actress. That is more than anyone in history. I think she is an absolutely brilliant actress; one of the best living French actresses, no doubt. The writing in this episode is bad. However, I love Ms. Huppert. She is A number 1!
15 Reviews
Losing mind
yazguloner5 July 2021
Excellent Episode--Hope Sharon Stone Comes Back!
ChargedFan30 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
***may contain spoilers, but tried very hard to avoid them***
The last part of this episode makes it among my top 10 of all episodes. As the other reviewer mentioned, the beginning was rather standard SVU fare--which is quite alright with me as I am a big fan of the show and have been since the first episode--but the last roughly 1/3 of the episode made it an edge-of-your-seat stunner! As a big fan of Tamarie Tunie's Melinda Warner, without giving away the ending, I'll just note that I was ecstatic about the much more significant and meatier role she had on this episode.
I've also been a fan of Sharon Stone's arc on the show--and while I knew this episode was scheduled to be her last of the season, I'm truly hoping she'll be back in the role next season. While my ultimate hope would be for Stephanie March to return (again) as ADA Alex Cabot, Sharon Stone has made the best replacement of any, in my humble opinion. I thought she played the role extremely capably, I really like her tough-as-nails persona (even when it's meant her being less than forthright with Benson and Stabler), and her character has provided an interesting plot development. The reveal at the end also helps explain her Jo Marlowe personality, which I think just makes her that much more interesting.
And finally, this turned into a great episode for Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson as well--again without giving spoilers, there was a strong deja vu moment (involving the original ADA) that really had me feeling for her character!
My only regret is that I hadn't taped this episode--how I'm waiting for it to show again Tuesday evening so I can tape it! The previews for this ep led me to believe I thought I knew what might be going to happen, but they managed to stun me with it! Fantastic episode!
The last part of this episode makes it among my top 10 of all episodes. As the other reviewer mentioned, the beginning was rather standard SVU fare--which is quite alright with me as I am a big fan of the show and have been since the first episode--but the last roughly 1/3 of the episode made it an edge-of-your-seat stunner! As a big fan of Tamarie Tunie's Melinda Warner, without giving away the ending, I'll just note that I was ecstatic about the much more significant and meatier role she had on this episode.
I've also been a fan of Sharon Stone's arc on the show--and while I knew this episode was scheduled to be her last of the season, I'm truly hoping she'll be back in the role next season. While my ultimate hope would be for Stephanie March to return (again) as ADA Alex Cabot, Sharon Stone has made the best replacement of any, in my humble opinion. I thought she played the role extremely capably, I really like her tough-as-nails persona (even when it's meant her being less than forthright with Benson and Stabler), and her character has provided an interesting plot development. The reveal at the end also helps explain her Jo Marlowe personality, which I think just makes her that much more interesting.
And finally, this turned into a great episode for Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson as well--again without giving spoilers, there was a strong deja vu moment (involving the original ADA) that really had me feeling for her character!
My only regret is that I hadn't taped this episode--how I'm waiting for it to show again Tuesday evening so I can tape it! The previews for this ep led me to believe I thought I knew what might be going to happen, but they managed to stun me with it! Fantastic episode!
Stunning season ender with great work from Stone and Huppert
garrard22 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Sharon Stone's four-week run on SVU comes to an end with "Shattered," a complex tale about abduction and parental rights.
French awarding-winner actress Isabelle Huppert also guests as the prime suspect in the kidnapping of her son. The recovery of the son, who is in custody of the woman's estranged husband, provides for about 2/3 of the drama; however, it's the final third that is most riveting, taking place in the autopsy room of Dr. Warner (Tamara Tunie). I It is there where Stone'c character, Olivia (Mariska Hargitay), Warner, and the husband are in mortal danger when the wife "conveniently" apprehends a gun from the young police officer who also happens to be in the room.
Because of the star power of Stone and Huppert, Ice-T (Finn) and Richard Belzer (Detective Munch) are pretty much given "walk-on" parts but that is understandable.
French awarding-winner actress Isabelle Huppert also guests as the prime suspect in the kidnapping of her son. The recovery of the son, who is in custody of the woman's estranged husband, provides for about 2/3 of the drama; however, it's the final third that is most riveting, taking place in the autopsy room of Dr. Warner (Tamara Tunie). I It is there where Stone'c character, Olivia (Mariska Hargitay), Warner, and the husband are in mortal danger when the wife "conveniently" apprehends a gun from the young police officer who also happens to be in the room.
Because of the star power of Stone and Huppert, Ice-T (Finn) and Richard Belzer (Detective Munch) are pretty much given "walk-on" parts but that is understandable.
Worst Episode Ever
crazyjayboyblue30 November 2010
The only explanation I can create for this episode is that perhaps, just perhaps, it was intended as a farce for its viewers. The writing was horrible. The acting was worse than what one would expect to find in a first grade Christmas pageant. I can only hope Sharon Stone can successfully blame the directors for her performance. The plot was absurd. It was lack-luster, at best. It went round and round and round in circles. I felt as if the writers were only capable of writing one scene, then they decided to just continue redoing the same scene over and over and over again. The plot was so ridiculous, that the characters didn't even seem to follow their actual characters. It was if the actors decided to ab-lib in their own random characters for their own amusement. I am now seriously considering whether or not to continue watching the series. Maybe it's time they ended the show's run. I'm normally a fan, but after watching this episode I feel like I'M the victim!!!
Wow
jpineda-9768021 June 2022
Melodramatic shattering
TheLittleSongbird13 May 2022
What a shame! Season 11 actually started off quite promisingly, a lot more settled than the first quarter of Season 10, there were some big reservations but the first quarter was solid. From "Users" onwards, it was a good deal more hit and miss with four outstanding episodes ("Shadow" and "Disabled" especially) but also a pretty disappointing last period post-"Disabled". So a very flawed and uneven season but a watchable one, one that deserved a much better season finale.
"Shattered" really isn't a good or even worthy way of ending Season 11, sad that a season that started with promise ended with such melodramatic flatness and a strong contender for the worst episode of the season. Wasn't crazy about any of the four episodes with Jo Marlowe or the character herself, and not only does "Shattered" do nothing to convert me it epitomises everything that didn't work about them with the flaws being at their worst here.
None of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit's' episodes up to this point were irredeemable, and "Shattered" is no exception. It's solidly made visually and the music has presence while not over-emphasising.
Mariska Hargitay does steel and vulnerability expertly and Isabelle Huppert (the main reason to see the episode and the best thing about it) is intensely moving and gives one of the better supporting turns of the season. Great to see more of Warner and of Munch (both criminally under-utilised in Season 11, Munch near-wasted in fact).
However, considering that this was a season finale "Shattered" should have been much better. The story is rather thin and is also predictable from too few surprises, with a pace that lacks tautness and with a twist that to me didn't make sense, seeing as the motivations behind the crime are not delved into enough, and complicated the story. Tension and suspense are too little, things happen in a contrived and convenient fashion (like the sudden showing up at the morgue for a trivial reason) and the investigative work is like "how did these people get into the force" with no regard for rules. The dialogue is very overwrought, we're talking bad soap opera quality here, and clunky.
Worst of all are the final act and Sharon Stone. The final act is truly ridiculous as well as far too melodramatic, it also goes on foreover and could have ended at least 10 minutes earlier. Marlowe never worked as a character for me and while she is not as unprofessional as in her previous appearances she is still a character lacking in personality and that is annoying. Stone's acting as the character is once again a bad mix of cheesy overacting and reading the lines-like, she really over-eggs her corny and excessively melodramatic dialogue in the final act. Plus we have a big revelation that felt like it came out of nowhere at a point in the drama that was very misplaced and like a last minute attempt to give her some development and feel sorry for her.
Overall, not a good way to end a mixed season. 4/10.
"Shattered" really isn't a good or even worthy way of ending Season 11, sad that a season that started with promise ended with such melodramatic flatness and a strong contender for the worst episode of the season. Wasn't crazy about any of the four episodes with Jo Marlowe or the character herself, and not only does "Shattered" do nothing to convert me it epitomises everything that didn't work about them with the flaws being at their worst here.
None of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit's' episodes up to this point were irredeemable, and "Shattered" is no exception. It's solidly made visually and the music has presence while not over-emphasising.
Mariska Hargitay does steel and vulnerability expertly and Isabelle Huppert (the main reason to see the episode and the best thing about it) is intensely moving and gives one of the better supporting turns of the season. Great to see more of Warner and of Munch (both criminally under-utilised in Season 11, Munch near-wasted in fact).
However, considering that this was a season finale "Shattered" should have been much better. The story is rather thin and is also predictable from too few surprises, with a pace that lacks tautness and with a twist that to me didn't make sense, seeing as the motivations behind the crime are not delved into enough, and complicated the story. Tension and suspense are too little, things happen in a contrived and convenient fashion (like the sudden showing up at the morgue for a trivial reason) and the investigative work is like "how did these people get into the force" with no regard for rules. The dialogue is very overwrought, we're talking bad soap opera quality here, and clunky.
Worst of all are the final act and Sharon Stone. The final act is truly ridiculous as well as far too melodramatic, it also goes on foreover and could have ended at least 10 minutes earlier. Marlowe never worked as a character for me and while she is not as unprofessional as in her previous appearances she is still a character lacking in personality and that is annoying. Stone's acting as the character is once again a bad mix of cheesy overacting and reading the lines-like, she really over-eggs her corny and excessively melodramatic dialogue in the final act. Plus we have a big revelation that felt like it came out of nowhere at a point in the drama that was very misplaced and like a last minute attempt to give her some development and feel sorry for her.
Overall, not a good way to end a mixed season. 4/10.
Probably doesn't get worse than this... I hope so, anyway
AlienByChoice4 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Thank god for the Tivo, because I didn't have to suffer the cringe-worthiness of this episode in its entirety. The episode was so bad I don't know even where to start. The story was so ridiculous it made me wonder if there is a writers' strike in place and the studio had to hire a bunch of 12 year old kids to write a script. There was enough melodrama in this one episode to suffice for 10 episodes of Dynasty. The dialog was worthy of the Bold and the Beautiful, and the acting was not worthy of anything at all, really - it was just plain terrible. After a couple of impressive episodes, Stone's attempt at a melodrama made me feel sick. Isabelle Huppert didn't make it any better with her performance better suited for a French art-house film than a police procedural. If that wasn't bad enough, all of a sudden we were watching a procedural without the procedure. Rules and regulations were ignored as if they didn't exist. Let's have a closer look.
Spoilers ahead. A suspect isn't assigned a lawyer, and when she is suspected of being psychotic, police officers attempt to cure her to gain a confession! Like that is going to stack up in court. Stabler and Benson are going to take down a Green Beret (covert ops specialist) who is supposedly holding a kidnapped child. Of course, why shouldn't they. The appearance of the cop with the distraught dad in the morgue "because he wanted to come here" is so silly it left me speechless. Sophie then grabbed the cop's gun (by the way, when the cop reports it to Stabler he says "she's got my piece". REALLY, that's how a police officer reports that his sidearm was taken by a criminal?!). Anyway, she holds the gun against Marlowe's head, but she never loaded it. As far as I know, police don't carry around pistols with a bullet in the chamber. What's stopping Benson at this stage from shooting her is not very clear to me. Then we had Stabler doing a bit of John McClane in the ventilation ducts which just made me shake my head in disbelief.
But the twist and the final scene definitely take the cake. First, we had a twist that made no sense. The dad organized for the kid to be kidnapped so that mum won't take the kid away to China. What was he planning to do next, once the kid was taken? Obviously, the accident was not part of the plan, so what exactly was the plan then? Did the authors actually think it through? And then we got the grand finale with Stone holding the kid's body in her arms saying "Sophie, Nicholas needs you". Ladies and gentlemen, that scene was so embarrassingly bad I just laughed out loud.
My take on it is that with Law and Order being canceled, the spin-offs are heading that way too. And based on this particular episode - the sooner the better.
Spoilers ahead. A suspect isn't assigned a lawyer, and when she is suspected of being psychotic, police officers attempt to cure her to gain a confession! Like that is going to stack up in court. Stabler and Benson are going to take down a Green Beret (covert ops specialist) who is supposedly holding a kidnapped child. Of course, why shouldn't they. The appearance of the cop with the distraught dad in the morgue "because he wanted to come here" is so silly it left me speechless. Sophie then grabbed the cop's gun (by the way, when the cop reports it to Stabler he says "she's got my piece". REALLY, that's how a police officer reports that his sidearm was taken by a criminal?!). Anyway, she holds the gun against Marlowe's head, but she never loaded it. As far as I know, police don't carry around pistols with a bullet in the chamber. What's stopping Benson at this stage from shooting her is not very clear to me. Then we had Stabler doing a bit of John McClane in the ventilation ducts which just made me shake my head in disbelief.
But the twist and the final scene definitely take the cake. First, we had a twist that made no sense. The dad organized for the kid to be kidnapped so that mum won't take the kid away to China. What was he planning to do next, once the kid was taken? Obviously, the accident was not part of the plan, so what exactly was the plan then? Did the authors actually think it through? And then we got the grand finale with Stone holding the kid's body in her arms saying "Sophie, Nicholas needs you". Ladies and gentlemen, that scene was so embarrassingly bad I just laughed out loud.
My take on it is that with Law and Order being canceled, the spin-offs are heading that way too. And based on this particular episode - the sooner the better.
I'm of two minds
alexandrajade27 October 2014
Warning: Spoilers
It's hard to peg a review score for this one.
The real meat and potatoes of the episode come in the last two acts, which take place in the morgue. The SVU cops have arrested a mother (played all but impeccably by French actress Isabelle Huppert) for events leading to the death of her son. How we get to that point is pretty basic Law & Order fare. You can fill in the blanks in the broad strokes.
The mom seems to think her son isn't dead, so Dr Huang suggests they go to the morgue to "make it real for her." Detective Benson and ADA Jo Marlowe are on hand with Dr Warner. As the scene appears to be reaching some kind of conclusion (though precisely what is well less than clear), the woman's estranged husband enters with a uniformed cop. She somehow gets his gun, shoots Warner in the abdomen (by accident) and spends the rest of the episode holding Benson, Marlowe, and the husband hostage (the beat cop slips away).
On the outside, Detective Stabler studies blueprints of the building and there's this very cool sequence where he infiltrates the morgue -- including stepping past some 'stiffs' in a freezer -- to enter the scene.
The resolution is that the dad is really the one who set the events of the episode in motion (Stabler actually gets a text informing him of this while he's crawling through an air duct, his vibrating phone leading to a wild shot his direction). A hallmark of the predictable (yet kind of nonsensical) SVU writing this season. I was originally going to rate this episode a 5, but I think that ending revelation knocks it down to a 4.
Other reviewers aren't wrong. There are holes in this plot you can drive a semi-truck through. The mom's seeming delusions and unimaginable pain are played expertly -- but it never really seems to be going anywhere.
But I do really love the high tension of the entire final act. Except for Marlowe. What does an ADA need to be there for? She accomplishes nothing and sure takes her time to do it.
And from a production point of view, Sharon Stone may have accounted for what's conspicuous by its absence in this story. For an episode with a prominent French guest star, how about a term borrowed from French -- this episode badly needed a dénouement.
Many (if not most) episodes of SVU have them. A dénouement (also called "falling action") for a TV episode is a 30-second (or so) scene at the very end to just tie up all the loose ends. And there were a few at the end of this episode -- most notably what happened to Warner (just have Benson say "the docs think she'll make it"), but also what charges the dad (and the mom) may face, what becomes of the mom, maybe even what happens to Marlowe.
But no. Sharon Stone's face time took care of that, most puzzlingly in a drawn-out speech about a radical mastectomy that turned off a never-seen and never-before-mentioned lover. Why.....do we care about that? So while I enjoyed being on pins-and-needles in those final few scenes, it sure took a lot of hoop-jumping to get there.
The real meat and potatoes of the episode come in the last two acts, which take place in the morgue. The SVU cops have arrested a mother (played all but impeccably by French actress Isabelle Huppert) for events leading to the death of her son. How we get to that point is pretty basic Law & Order fare. You can fill in the blanks in the broad strokes.
The mom seems to think her son isn't dead, so Dr Huang suggests they go to the morgue to "make it real for her." Detective Benson and ADA Jo Marlowe are on hand with Dr Warner. As the scene appears to be reaching some kind of conclusion (though precisely what is well less than clear), the woman's estranged husband enters with a uniformed cop. She somehow gets his gun, shoots Warner in the abdomen (by accident) and spends the rest of the episode holding Benson, Marlowe, and the husband hostage (the beat cop slips away).
On the outside, Detective Stabler studies blueprints of the building and there's this very cool sequence where he infiltrates the morgue -- including stepping past some 'stiffs' in a freezer -- to enter the scene.
The resolution is that the dad is really the one who set the events of the episode in motion (Stabler actually gets a text informing him of this while he's crawling through an air duct, his vibrating phone leading to a wild shot his direction). A hallmark of the predictable (yet kind of nonsensical) SVU writing this season. I was originally going to rate this episode a 5, but I think that ending revelation knocks it down to a 4.
Other reviewers aren't wrong. There are holes in this plot you can drive a semi-truck through. The mom's seeming delusions and unimaginable pain are played expertly -- but it never really seems to be going anywhere.
But I do really love the high tension of the entire final act. Except for Marlowe. What does an ADA need to be there for? She accomplishes nothing and sure takes her time to do it.
And from a production point of view, Sharon Stone may have accounted for what's conspicuous by its absence in this story. For an episode with a prominent French guest star, how about a term borrowed from French -- this episode badly needed a dénouement.
Many (if not most) episodes of SVU have them. A dénouement (also called "falling action") for a TV episode is a 30-second (or so) scene at the very end to just tie up all the loose ends. And there were a few at the end of this episode -- most notably what happened to Warner (just have Benson say "the docs think she'll make it"), but also what charges the dad (and the mom) may face, what becomes of the mom, maybe even what happens to Marlowe.
But no. Sharon Stone's face time took care of that, most puzzlingly in a drawn-out speech about a radical mastectomy that turned off a never-seen and never-before-mentioned lover. Why.....do we care about that? So while I enjoyed being on pins-and-needles in those final few scenes, it sure took a lot of hoop-jumping to get there.
Horrible all around
patrickphair20 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The story made no sense and the writing was so bad it was actually offensive, like when Sharon Stone told the French woman that she could "can can" away. Stone was way over the top and not in a good way. When she appears with the dead boy draped over her arms it is just
too much.
Gave one star because of the wonderful Tamara Tunie. She always nails it.
Gave one star because of the wonderful Tamara Tunie. She always nails it.
The worst SVU episode I've seen!
tarumirella21 July 2021
Wow.... I would 0/10 if I could.
eyjaxmoo12 October 2021
A Push toward a breakdown
bkoganbing18 December 2012
This was one of the strangest SVU episodes ever filmed. And with one of the strangest perpetrators ever taken down by Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni.
This starts out as a custodial kidnapping and cops in real life and here are reluctant to get in the middle of those. In this case though the video of a kidnapping gets them involved. French actress Isabelle Huppert is the mother and she's an anthropology professor and leads an Auntie Mame type existence. But Auntie Mame wasn't married at least when started out and she did not have a husband who objected to her high flying ways in D.W. Moffett.
Huppert was something else in this show, but the character was a bit too crazy for my taste. The investigation shows her being pushed into a breakdown and personally I don't think she needed all that much help. It ends in tragedy all around.
Not one of the better SVU shows.
This starts out as a custodial kidnapping and cops in real life and here are reluctant to get in the middle of those. In this case though the video of a kidnapping gets them involved. French actress Isabelle Huppert is the mother and she's an anthropology professor and leads an Auntie Mame type existence. But Auntie Mame wasn't married at least when started out and she did not have a husband who objected to her high flying ways in D.W. Moffett.
Huppert was something else in this show, but the character was a bit too crazy for my taste. The investigation shows her being pushed into a breakdown and personally I don't think she needed all that much help. It ends in tragedy all around.
Not one of the better SVU shows.
I am Woman- Watch me Emote!!!
gring06 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
What a disappointment.My wife and I resumed our watching of SVU as we've just moved to Germany from China (I should point out that the necklace is obviously from the Mosuo in Hunan province, not Tibetan), and the first couple of episodes were well done compared to the way things had been going. But this was nonsense. Over-the-top melodrama, music and lines with a crazed French woman who happens to have a doctorate and is provided with the funds from prestigious organisations to travel the world researching tribes.I kept looking at my watch to see when it would turn out that this woman- crazed, sociopathic to the point of semi-autistic,capable of murdering people and hiring others to help her kidnap her child to take with her to China to live with tribes (it was hard enough for me to live eight years in Peking)- was actually innocent and it was the husband who came up with the idea of kidnapping the child independent of the wife and beat her to it. It wasn't until the final act where one male (child) is dead, the man himself laid low by a blow from a passionate femme fatale straight out from Medea, another shot but able to direct another to make inch cuts into her, and the final one declaring that her mastectomy made her stronger that I saw where it was going. www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com
very unrealistic
mttiro4 March 2018
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