Let’s Take It from the Top
This was originally written by Josh Duggan and published at the previous incarnation of Munch My Benson back on November 17, 2009. It was covering the pilot episode, “Payback,” which we covered back in podcast Episode 1 - Dickwolf Being Dickwolf.
Seeing as though we have just begun to explore the boundless avenues that this SVU blog is sure to take us down, I thought it might be both instructive and interesting to revisit the first episode of the series. As Munch My Benson has just taken to the air, I think it is especially apropos to take a trip a visit to where our beloved series first took flight eleven [ed: Crazy that it’s still going more than eleven years later] long (and fruitful) years ago.
Without further ado, let us begin.
The first thing that strikes me is, how the hell am I going to fix this aspect ratio? I am streaming this to my television via this new Netflix/PS3 Instant Queue [ed: Dated 2009 tech talk? How fitting.] interface which has worked very well so far, but this is the first thing that I've watched that was filmed in the original full-screen television 4:3 ratio, and the stretching makes me want to cry. Luckily I outsmarted this shit and changed it on the television itself. Josh - 1, technology - 0. Kurt Vonnegut would be proud.
Back to the show, Mariska Hargitay looks pretty good in that sepia tint in 1999 in the opening credits. Especially striking early on is the fact that despite the fact that this episode is a decade old, the fashion isn't disgustingly out of date. I guess that's the nature of a cop show versus really any other show. Cops aren't wearing weird outfits ever. They've dressed the same since the beginning of time.
As we get to know each of the characters (I totally didn't remember Mikey Gavin from Rescue Me having been in the show), it is kind of amusing how joke-y this episode has been through the first two scenes. Almost every scene is punctuated by a joke at the end, and the entire cast is in on the fun. In the third scene featuring Stabler on the witness stand in court, the defendant leaps from his seat, whips out his dong, and calls Stabler a "putz head," whatever the hell that is.
The first good shot of younger Benson, and I have to say, "Wow." Jackie, you are on crack because Mariska Hargitay is one stunning woman. The wife of the victim is none other than Tina Benko, or Kath Perry from Brotherhood. The years have been kind to her, as she looks better now than then.
It is evident early on what a difference Ice-T makes. Dean Winters as Det. Cassidy seems to not fit well with the rest of the cast. While each of the other characters are surely finding their footing within the construct of the new show, Cassidy does not fit tonally with the rest of the characters. Fin is sorely absent.
At the 20-minute mark, we get the first surprise. The castrated murder victim turns out to have been fleeing a war crimes tribunal, having led an ethnic cleansing campaign in which he raped 67 women. Benson does not seem pleased to find this out and then proceeds to anger the widow at the home when confronting her about not having been truthful.
This seems to be solidifying Benson and Stabler as the two excitable entities on the unit. Oddly, Stabler is the voice of reason, calming down Benson. The 27-minute mark hits and we've got out first pseudo-celebrity guest star in the form of Mili Avital*. It is kind of weird to me that she simply fell off the face of the earth. She had just been the female lead in a Schwimmer star vehicle.
*She was the love interest in the late 90s Rom-com "Kissing A Fool" featuring Jason Lee as the likable friend to David Schwimmer's jackass heel. The weird thing about that movie is that none other than faux-memoirist James Frey wrote the screenplay. Fitting, I suppose.
Stabler busts out a cellphone to rival Zack Morris' nearly a decade earlier. HUGE.
Before the first episode has moved to its last act, the audience discovers that Detective Olivia Benson the product of her mother having been raped, adding rich levels of pathos to our female detective. Having established earlier that the Special Victims Unit is a unit that its detectives volunteer for, this makes Benson's desire to be on the squad all the more interesting, and her disdain for the victim that much more pertinent.
As the episode moves toward its conclusion, it strikes me as particularly odd that this early on, they decided that they were going to get the audience questioning whether or not Benson could cut it on the unit because of her personal background. By the time the episode is over, Cragen is telling Olivia that she has just used her get out of jail free card and there's only one in the deck. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but it seems odd.
Before the episode is out, we do get an ADA Abbie Carmichael appearance, which makes me wonder two things: First, when the hell am I going to get my Baywatch Nights Blu-ray release? Second, what the hell happened to Mr. Abbie Carmichael? One last things, it seems that the Law & Order re-invention and abandonment of the half cop procedural, half court format led to the producers not knowing how to handle the courtroom scenes out of that context. Stylistically, the scene in court is oddly shot and in too intimate a courtroom. It is completely off-putting, and the evolution was clearly necessary.
