Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Depravity Standard (2015) User Reviews

Depravity in court

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 22 September 2022]

Season 17's "Depravity Standard" follows on from the events in Season 14's "Manhattan Vigil". My memories of the episode were not too great, loving the performances but disliking the pacing of the outcome and the character of Hassler. Speaking as someone who was mixed on "Manhattan Vigil", also a divisive episode within the fandom, so expectations were quite mixed before sitting down to watch this episode again as part of my whole show rewatch.

This was one of the episodes that was much better than remembered and turned out to be very impressive in many areas this time. Absolutely do not agree with the low rating, one of the biggest examples of lowly rated episodes of the show here that are not only not that bad but also to me good. Whether it adds anything new to what was said in "Manhattan Vigil" is up for debate but to me this was on rewatch a superior episode to that as there aren't as many contradictions or inconsistencies in continuity.

Is it perfect? No. Dodds comes over as bland.

Also found Hassler annoying, due to being too pushy in personality and indifferently acted. Did find the outcome of the case rushed still, the episode could have done with 5-10 minutes more or the conclusion happening earlier.

"Depravity Standard" has so many great things on the other hand. On a visual level, the episode is solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough without being leaden, while having enough momentum. The script is tight and thought provoking, with no rambling or overdone melodrama. Shining particularly in Barba's cutting one liners.

Carisi is amusing and there is a heartfelt final scene for Rollins, Kelli Giddish has come on massively since her first appearance. The story is always compelling and did shock and move me. The tension is plenty and chilling and emotionally it's poignant. Tom Sizemore is spine chilling. Actually didn't find Olivia that over-sanctimonious, something that was a frequent big problem in the later seasons, and do feel that other episodes before and since have done this a lot worse than here, her feelings towards Hassler are understandable.

Overall, very good and much better than expected. 8/10.

Lost Child: We Will Never Forget

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 9 January 2022]

Tragic cold file of Svu.. Hector Rodriguez's mother and her drama will always make you cry.

Tom Sizemore is simply amazing...

Carisi is preparing for her future role by working with Barba. They also have a tough lawyer in front of them.

Court scenes with allegations and defenses rise as they rise.

Good to see B. D. Wong on this old case.

Saved Only by Tom Sizemore's Performance

[bkkaz · 3/10 · 4 December 2021]

Tom Sizemore could easily be typecast as the sweaty, pasty-faced stump in any numbers of things. It's a tribute to his talent that he's able to play parts beyond his physical type. It's his twitchy, scheming performance that saves this episode, but for all the good he does in playing such a monster, that's all cancelled out by the relentless effort to make Benson look good at the end. It's sanctimonious pablum.

The old SVU had some real moral ambiguity. People made choices based on their emotions and prejudices and frequently were shown to be wrong. Sometimes they even faced consequences for their actions. With Benson, there are never any consequences. Even when she's wrong, she's right.

In this episode, she decides the bad guy, a pedophile named Hodda, is guilty. No real need for an investigation or trial because Benson is always right, right? When she threatens him to coerce a confession, it seems to finally come back to bite her. After all, if you watch SVU today, it's all about holding people accountable for their actions, regardless of their intentions and regardless of whether anyone else is culpable, too. In that universe, shouldn't Benson be held accountable for what she did? Nope. Benson will be forever above the law and beyond reproach, even if like any hypocrite, she engages in the same behavior she condemns. But might makes right, or in the case of Benson, writers who make sure the star always looks good.

A brave episode -- one true to the ethos the show preaches unrelentingly about -- would have resulted in Benson facing some repercussions. At minimum, demotion. The worst that happens is Huang correctly points out that despite her hubris, she's not omniscient. She does the standard eye roll and head shake that seems to happen enough times each episode now to have a drinking game.

Lazy writing

[mottazsharkawi2002 · 1/10 · 18 November 2015]

First of all let me start by saying that I love this show. I rate all its episodes at a very high standard, that is until this episode of-course. Continuing a story from an old episode is not something new but its not a bad thing, however, when this continuance adds nothing new and feels more like repetition that just goes on forever it feels more like lazy writing to me. The same characters (Hector's mother crying / disturbed officer that can taint the case / white's mother not wanting to involve her son) are there doing the same things they've done on the previous episode, same insinuations at trial (coarsened statements / questionable jury member / obsessed police officers about finishing the case / interrogations of previous members), it was just boring as hell. Not only that but to add salt to injury, White's mother didn't want to testify so as to make an excuse for this sorry state of an episode, she then changes her mind at the end (the writers' way of saying "you know what, we could have avoided all of this but we just wanted to get paid for an extra episode so why the hell not"). This was a useless episode that could have been avoided. The writers kept stating in the episode that the jury might be in a hurry and botch the trial because they wanted to get home for the holidays but it looked more like the writers are the ones who botched this episode cause they were in a hurry. PS: For the future its better not to have an episode at all than to have a bad one like this.

Decent episode ruined by misandrist pandering in the middle for no reason

[trainedwreck · 4/10 · 8 July 2016]

Started off decently enough until the writing for the defense attorney as a man-hating ball breaker basically happier to see a man disappointed than her own win in the case.

The writer clearly hates men and this series has enough problems without this blatant nonsense in it from a defense attorney already playing part of the villainy in the episode.

We get it NBC you like pandering to social justice issues, but have some tact.

Other than that the episode is alright, it has more court than investigation in it and Benson is whinier than usual and seems to have been written to forget her own flaws and the nature of trials and juries again but it's watchable beyond the awful inclusion of sex politics in an episode that has nothing to do with it.