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Law & Order: SVU on NBC

NBC may be saving money by abdicating its final hour of programming to Jay Leno, but the move has wreaked havoc on the rest of the network’s prime-time schedule.  With no 10 o’clock timeslot, adult-oriented shows like Law & Order: SVU (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. ET) have been airing regularly at 8 p.m., in the heart of Family Hour.  On the night of December 7, while ABC spread Yuletide cheer with the classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town, NBC reveled in mayhem and fear with a particularly gruesome rerun of Law & Order: SVU (originally aired 11/11/08).  For extreme violence, strong sexual content, and foul language, Law & Order: SVU has been named the Worst TV Show of the Week.

The episode opens with a couple eating at restaurant when a man on fire crosses the street toward them.  He collapses and dies.  The medical examiner on the scene, Dr. Melinda Warner, explains the extent of his injuries: “He's missing a few things more valuable than his wallet.”  Warner lifts the sheet and directs Detective Munch and Stabler’s attention to the man’s missing genitalia.

Munch quips, “Yeah, uh, goodbye family jewels.”

“They get burned off?” Stabler asks.

“No, there would be remnants.  I'd say it's a chop job,” Warner pronounces.

Munch and Stabler follow the blood trail to where they suspect the attack originated.  Stabler says, “I'd say this is where he lost his boys.”

Munch notes, “Smoldering on the ground.  Looks like he was lit up over here by this car.”

Stabler states the obvious: “Castrated, then immolated.  Whoever did it wanted this guy to suffer.”

Later, in Warner’s lab, she shows the detectives close-up photos of the lethal injuries: “Puncture wounds match the scalpel you found.  More than a dozen deep ones to his groin, abdomen, and thigh.” 

Stabler chimes in, “Sloppy attack. Emotional.”

Warner concurs, “Exactly.  The excised genitals show the same kind of ragged hacking.” 

The body is identified as a schizophrenic, homeless young man.  The primary suspects are a group of troublemakers that attack homeless people and post the videos on the Internet.  The detectives watch a video that depicts masked teenagers assaulting a defenseless homeless person with a baseball bat. Eventually, the trail leads to a high school student with an axe to grind with the young victim.  Alec explains, “Then he punched me, grabbed for the scalpel.  I started to stab him.” 

Munch points out, “In the genitals.  That was no accident.”

“It just got out of control,” says the student.   

Stabler adds, “You were in control enough when you set him on fire.” 

Alec contends, “I only did what my Dad would have done.  He would have been proud of me.”

Munch replies, “I'd like to meet the old man who gives his kid a pat on the back for doing something like that.”

“Yeah, well he's not around anymore.  But if he found out what Josh did...”

Stabler asks, “Yeah, what did he do?”

“He raped my sister and got her pregnant,” Alec states, “That's why I cut his balls off.” 

As it turns out Alec’s sister had consensual sex as part of a pact with three of her friends to become teen mothers.  In a convoluted mish-mash of multiple stories ripped from the headlines, Alec’s mother targets the ringleader of the girls, Fidelia, and cyber-bullies her into committing suicide.  Fidelia’s father and Stabler kick her door in and find her hanging from the ceiling with a noose around her neck. 

Evidently, NBC’s idea of “Family Hour” is to watch families disintegrate.  Families where the daughter gets pregnant as part of an insanely misguided pact, where the son castrates and immolates the boy that impregnated his sister as revenge, and where the mother goads a pregnant teenager to commit suicide.  The Leno gambit may help NBC’s bottom line…but not before it hits rock bottom. 

For extreme violence, strong sexual content, and foul language, Law & Order: SVU has been named the Worst TV Show of the Week.

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