Another Paternity Leave Installment, and this time we're going with one we DID. NOT. LIKE.

What do Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Knicks' great Allan Houston, and legendary Austin corpse defiler Laura Hall have in common? Well, they are but a small taste of the wild series of digressions the Munchie boys take as they review "Choice" (S5E7), an episode of SVU that features a host of recognizable actresses from the past. Small business owners and customer service professionals will be especially interested in Josh's excellent advice on how not to talk to your customers.

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and with an episode title like this, you know it was bound for a return to the public feed.

This week, the Randomizer blessed us with an unforgettable episode of Law & Order SVU (S9E13 Unorthodox). It starts with an absolute bang and then careens madly between isolationist ultra-orthodox Jewish sects and porn-addicted preteens. Of course, we Munchers go even further afield as we question the existence of an upper peninsula, rank our favorite ape films, and uncover the supernatural engine that powers Casey Novak's courtroom success. This is truly an episode worth savoring. Enjoy!

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and let's be honest, this one was always coming back in our temporary absence. It had to.

People, this episode of Law & Order SVU ("Strange Beauty" S13E22) is why we do this podcast. Steve from Sex and the City pays women for the pleasure of removing their left legs so that he can "appreciate" their "improved" bodies. If this doesn't make you stop what you're doing and ask, "WTF?” I don't know what will. This show manages to impugn dentistry, cab drivers, Sikhism, car services, pigeon handlers, bike mechanics and especially (like especially especially) psychiatry, and yet it treats the potentially fraught subject of extreme body modification with a reasoned and compassionate touch. We, of course, dive into a variety of strange diversions including superfund site freeganism, what Melinda Warner is truly "into," and what you can—and cannot—get away with in a storage unit. This one is for the ages, folks. Enjoy!

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we're turning to an episode where we spoke at length about an issue that's particularly germane to what's happening now.

This week’s selection is Law & Order: SVU’s swipe at the anti-vax movement—“Granting Immunity” (S16E19)—which puts the vulnerable Baby Doe in the path of a measles outbreak spawned by the casual dismissal of science by rich dick Tribeca parents who clearly know more than epidemiologists and have conspired to circumvent New York’s mandated vaccinations for all students. This leads the Munchie Boys to investigate just what started this anti-vax MMR-causes-autism nonsense that’s since metastasized in much more widespread and nefarious ways. Don’t worry, there’s also plenty of fun to be had, including (but not limited to) the virtues of Susie Essman, the horrors of opening montage music, the hilarious inappropriateness of filmed teenage sex parties, and the watercooler TV-watching habits of the dedicated detectives of the Special Victims Unit. Is this the scariest episode of SVU in Munchstory? Only one way to find out.

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and, yes, we're grabbing another wildly problematic episode pulled from the back catalog. As mentioned over the past couple of months, this has been behind the Patreon paywall for a while.

Where to begin with “Web” (S7E21)? Benson isn’t Stabler’s partner and is working in Computer Crimes. You’ve got the most aggressive sexualizing of a minor yet covered in the annals of Munch My Benson with Connor Paolo returning in one of the most insane episodes of SVU imaginable. There’s a shocking bout of TARU brutality. Kids are making mid-six-figures on their tween twink porn sites. Pedos are catfished. And the cold open's got the Molesto Muppets. This very episode was one of the handful Adam had in mind when the pod was a zygote in our hive-womb, and it DOES. NOT. DISAPPOINT.

Utter insanity abounds. Hold onto your butts, kiddos.

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we're grabbing another wildly problematic episode pulled from the back catalog. As mentioned over the past couple of months, this has been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. A few resourceful new Munchies have figured out a work-around where you can join as a free member and upgrade from there to a paid account which charges you for one month and unlocks the back catalog behind the respective tier of the paywall. After that first payment, you won't be charged again until we're dropping new content (which we'll warn everyone is coming), so if you want more of this it can be had, along with access to the fully uncut episodes from 100 to present and Movie Club episodes.

When proceedings kick off with a pooch gleefully dragging discarded afterbirth down the sidewalk, you know you’re in for something special. “Taboo” (S7E14) delivers on that opening promise, proffering some of the wildest, most disgusting things seen in the Munchie annals. As Adam and Josh frolic through the filth, they talk pseudocyesis, the history of Bellevue, bus fight Twitter, and the epidemic of incest in the U.S. And speaking of incest, wow, does this installment of SVU find a way to make something already SUPER disturbing mindblowingly revolting. This episode is so nuts, you’ll feel the Unit needs to interview you afterwards. Hold onto your butts coz this one is BONKERS.

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we're whipping one out that was ripped from the headlines...

Well, kids, we’ve got ourselves a very special Barbasode, complete with a super fun headline rip. This week’s episode of SVU? Season 15, Episode 8, “October Surprise.” The inspiration? Anthony Damn Weiner. Needless to say, there is TONS to talk about, like how likely is it that a mayoral candidate’s foot-jobbing side-piece would get shipped off to work for the Israeli Labor Party and how likely is it that said side-piece killed said political party? What would your Anthony Weiner alter ego name be? What should have won Best Picture in 1938? The answers to these and so many more burning questions can be had within the run of this installment.

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we we're digging into the back catalog for one we really didn't like... As mentioned over the past couple of months, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while.

For the 28th installment of Munch My Benson, the Randomizer forced Josh and Adam to watch an SVU that featured very little in the way of Law or Order but a whole lot of Mayhem. That's right folks, this episode, "Chasing Demons" (S19E14) brings SVU's favorite liability insurance pitchman, Dean Winters, back into the fold for 45 minutes of questionable acting choices. As ever, we digress. Does your mom's favorite SVU podcast feature spicy hot melon takes, comparative studies of European legal systems' wardrobes, or ruminations on the divine nature of the trinity? Didn't think so.

Did you know that Liv tells a suspect that she knows he “stabbed the Captain with a pickle?” That’s no typo. It’s in this beautiful episode of SVU. S12E5 “Wet” is truly one of the most balls-to-the-wall, front-to-back utterly insane episodes the Munchie Boys have embarked upon in a podcast brimming to the top with insane installments. Moving past its fantastic name, this one is centrally concerned with:

• SexProwl, a professionally conceived “YouTube of sex” wherein true douchebros have a following

• Soda being little more than poison for our youth

• Corporations trying to buy up our water supply and the dastardly tactics they’ll employ to meet their goals

• Fungi, which should never be used to hurt anyone

• The true horrors that inherited wealth wreak upon the rest of the world, namely bad performance art, unwarranted cocksurety, jewelry-related guilting, unloving guardianship, drug addiction, and the framing of innocent mycologists for murder

Seriously. Mushrooms, soda being poison, water rights, and horrible rich people. And it gives David Krumholtz a truly Krumholtzian role to jazz rant his way through. This is all a gift to humankind, and we’re glad to be here for it.

When proffered the box of “Pandora” (S4E15)—phrasing?—Josh and Adam were forced to deal with yet another episode of SVU wherein many children fell victim to an international cabal of pedos, complete with one getting to proudly espouse his party platform to the detectives of SVU and a network television audience. This one hurtles forward at breakneck speed, taking Elliot from New York to Prague and back before the final act has even started. Along the way, Adam and Josh marvel at the way that early SVU writers had no real concept of how computers and the internet worked, the defenestrations of Prague, the endless stream of actors who REALLY pass for pedos in the SVU stable, and the emergence of Zero Dark Stabler. We’ve said it many times previously, but the label definitely fits here—this one is wild.

Strap in for a wild ride, Munchies. This episode of SVU—”Ritual” (S5E14), featuring Emmy-winner Michael Emerson—starts in a park with an apparent ritual sacrifice and dives head first into the world of child slavery, complete with a Fin undercover op and possible Upper East Side blue-hair slave auctions. Along the way, Adam and Josh practice Santeria, lament the stolen Elgin Marbles, assess what jewelry screams slave owner, and wonder what Adam’s glasses being donned by a gruesome murderer means for him.

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and this time, we went with a super problematic episode. As mentioned over the past few weeks, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. New Munchies can't join as paying members until that's unpaused, but you can join as a free member and at least be kept abreast of pod news...

Well, we went a little long discussing "Unstable" the Season 11 premiere. Strap in for a wild ride through one of the most problematic episodes of SVU that the Munchie boys have covered. There are magical autistics, jaunty pimps, the worst of all bad cops who are bad, and plenty of weepy victims populating this insane romp which features quite possibly the best guest performance we've seen (Mahershala Ali)--at least as of 30 episodes in. Needless to say, we had a whole lot to talk about. Enjoy!

We've got another Paternity Leave Installment, and this time, we went with a fever dream of an ep from before the show knew what it was and definitely from before the show knew what the internet could do. As mentioned over the past few weeks, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. New Munchies can't join as paying members until that's unpaused, but you can join as a free member and at least be kept abreast of pod news...

Look, we don't expect Season 1 episodes of SVU to get all the details exactly right, but in “Chat Room” (S1E18) the show gets the basics of the internet so gloriously wrong that it actually conjures many, many things into existence that didn't exist yet. Catfishing? Yeah, SVU invented that. Revenge porn? That too, sadly. Bitcoin, ffs?! Yes, Dickwolf is/was/will be Satoshi Nakamoto. Along the way to all these discoveries, we learn that SVU is a baseball show, that there is no wiggle room on chicken, and discerning listeners will be enchanted by Josh's deliriously deep dive on celebrity ocelots. Folks, we always recommend that you watch the episode in question before you listen, but this time we mean it. Enjoy!

Another Paternity Leave Installment is here, and this one could ruin your childhood.

When The Wonder Years ended almost 30 years ago, no one could have imagined the incredibly dark turn that Kevin Arnold's life would take. Yes, Mr. Arnold's death, Paul's going to Harvard, and Winnie to a long and successful career on the Hallmark Channel were all disturbing outcomes, but this is much worse. This SVU shows little Kevin Arnold beating, raping, and then re-victimizing women across the Upper West Side. This obviously provides tons of fodder for the Munch mill as we dig into a really great episode of television. We talk Jeopardy! prep, our favorite lawyer lover plot twists, and Josh takes us on a particularly unexpected trip through the shenanigans of the Warwick R.I. city council. Enjoy!

Another week, another Adam's Paternity Leave release. This time we're got doing something a little different. As we told you last week, this is a Patricia Charbonneau podcast. This has never been released to the general public. It’s always been an episode that only our full-fledged Munchies on Patreon could listen to. This should give you an idea of what else we offer once a month...

Frequent SVU director Helen Shaver stars opposite Munchie Boys’ fave (and guest star in last week's episode that was dropped) Patricia Charbonneau in this gorgeous, groundbreaking Donna Dietch (who directed 3 SVUs herself) film from 1985, Desert Hearts. Come get cozy with us in the Divorce Capital of the World, Reno, Nevada, and lose yourself in this fantastic flick.

Another week, another Adam's Paternity Leave release, this time we've got the one, the only Patricia Charbonneau, about whom this podcast is centrally concerned. As mentioned last week, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. New Munchies can't join as paying members until that's unpaused, but you can join as a free member and at least be kept abreast of pod news...

When questions like “If I die, and there’s a hot tub, can I be made a saint?” get posed, you know things got weird. This installment in Munchstory has Adam and Josh covering “Streetwise” (S9E11) like a blanket on a mattress—or a society doucher, apparently. This episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has it all. Mae Whitman going from glitz to gutter and back again. STUNTS! Adam Beach. A bum family complete with a pretty messianic cult leader dad who isn’t afraid to go big. True Munchies will enjoy the diversions through high society, defunct Swedish automotive companies, the conditions necessary for beatification and the Christianization of the Welsh, defunct NYC music institutions, the nature of paintball, and much, much more.

Another week, another Adam's Paternity Leave release, this time we've got some of the best acting we've seen in MMB history...

The Munchie Boys watched a helluva SVU featuring Oscar-nominee Stephen Rea in a truly spectacular guest performance in an episode featuring a slew of great acting and seriously interesting direction. This week’s installment was “Solitary” (S11E3), and it’s one of the most existentially introspective and unique shows that has fallen into our laps. And of course, judging by the title of this week’s episode, other weirder stuff also got discussed, including Elliot’s extramarital dip into formicophilia, a roach and its wrangler getting jobbed out of residuals, tide charts and greater New York water temperatures, and narrowly averted wartime disasters. If we’re talking about how lots of people should have won Emmys for this episode, it’s a special one.

While Adam is on paternity leave, check out this banger:

Thomas Jefferson once declared coffee “the favorite drink of the civilized world,” but the wild world of coffee trading on display in Season 9, Episode 18, “Trade” would seem to imply that it’s also the favorite drink of loaded scumbag fathers who look eerily like the pater familias in the Christian-propaganda family dramedy 7th Heaven. It’s rare to have an episode of SVU with as much gold as this, but in the O’Halloraniest episode in Early Munchstory, the world of coffee trading yields a veritable mother lode for Adam and Josh to ingest. Whether it was the complete lack of understanding as to how to coffee trade actually works or the jaw-dropping shocks delivered at every turn, this glorious wildly inappropriate pun fest delivers the goods. Strap yourselves in and get ready for a jolt because Reverend Camden was let loose, and the ensuing havoc knows no bounds.

What happens when Zack Morris turns up gut-shot in an alley behind a gay bar with multitudinous loads found in his person when he's examined at the hospital? Utter insanity, that's what. Not to be outdone, a young Elizabeth Banks pops up as his adult film star wife, and we go to set where she's about to treat some workmen pretty well. This is a wild one. What a time to be alive.

In an unprecedented turn in the annals of Munch My Benson history, this installment of SVU from Season 3 is simultaneously the standard bearer for representation of a marginalized and underrepresented subset of our population and one of the starkest examples of why it's always best to choose an actor who's a representative of that segment of the population. When given the choice to cast two characters with Down syndrome, they chose an accomplished actress with Down syndrome and an actor who'd later be the top-billed star of prestige dramas for her love interest. The results were something that needs to be seen to be believed.