Episode 236: We’re a Long Way from Bayside High (S3E7 Sacrifice)
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.
Episode 235: A Helicopter Parent of the Most Self-Defeating Order (S3E22 Competence)
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.
Episode 233: Nips Out and a Necktie (S20E9 Mea Culpa)
This week, ADA Peter Stone's fast and loose lifestyle during his younger days when he was still a baseball player comes screaming into the world of our SVUs. What happens when a main cast member is the lead suspect in the case the SVUs are investigating? Well, that largely depends on the showrunner and the according professionalism with which they execute the production of a television show. In this case, we're watching an episode from Season 20, and the results are... NOT GREAT, BOB.
Episode 232: She Banged Carlos Baldarama After A Long Day At The Office (S4E14 Mercy)
The discovery of a dead baby found in a cooler floating on the Hudson inspires SVU to JD Vance levels of state aggression towards pregnant people. They cast aspersions at every customer of a beloved uptown health food store then wantonly ruin the lives of every family member of every Hudson U student they can find. Sadly, after a fast-paced first act, this settles into a paint-by-numbers Tay-Sachs morality play for the second half.
Episode 231: Fashion Equals Bad (S1E3 …Or Just Look Like One)
When the dedicated detectives of Season 1 SVU wander into the world of fashion, you can't help but assume the worst is coming. And it is. Fashion is scary, children, and it's especially scary if you're a minor, as our vics find out. There's a ton of peripheral weirdness in this ep, and we discover yet another TV show that's in the larger SVUniverse.
Episode 230: Ace Ventura Level Transphobia (S4E21 Fallacy)
I know all there is to know about the SVU. I've had my share of the SVU. First there's a body, then there are slurs. And then, before you know where you are, you're saying Dick Wolf.
Once again, we meet a trans character who is placed in the middle of a brutal scene, and the usual ham-fisted SVU shenanigans ensue. Buckle up, kids!
Episode 229: It’s More of a Stain in Heaven (S3E23 Silence)
This one gets all up in the confessional, culminating in a no-holds-barred Catholic-off between Stabler and Father Michael Sweeney (Eric Stoltz--or is it Stolitz?). Red herrings and misdirects abound, and since we're watching an SVU dealing with the Catholic Church, you can assume that some priest were taking some liberties with parishioners of an underage variety. While this one might kick off with some jarring early-season transphobia, it also has a lot of wild fun stuff, and if you weren't paying attention to the priest's name, don't worry, Josh caught it.
Episode 227: No Good Has Ever Come from Snapping with a Chase (S20E20 The Good Girl)
A teen girl in a domestic disturbance call ends up being pregnant and unwilling to divulge much information about who provided the batter for the bun in her oven. While fighting off the urge to vomit, the Munchie Boys dive into the disgusting reality of what stepkid smut would have you believe is titillating but ABSOLUTELY is not. They also take up arms in a fight that must be waged, defending the honor of a state being unjustly impugned by a writers staff with wanton disregard for actual laws on the books.
Episode 226 - Inferno The Musical (S2E12 Secrets)
We all remember that great teacher from high school who would go the extra mile for all of their students. This episode of SVU presupposes that that exemplary educator is most likely a gang-bang addicted sex-club enthusiast on the side. This wild ride takes us from the heights of the pre-2.0 internet to the depths of "Dante's Inferno" and to every lurid second unit photo shoot in between. We need to give special mention to both art department who spared no depravities in their work for this episode, and for the outstanding quality of the background actors, who give (too much?) life to their wordless roles.
Episode 225: Soda (S12E11 Pop)
Stepdads can really be jerks, right? This episode of SVU definitely agrees with you. Your stepdad might be a one-of-a-kind A-hole, but I'm guessing he didn't get you into an underground fight club run by the white cabbie cabal where their adolescent children or charges throw down instead of them. This being Season 12, the episode careens all over the place, but it ends up with Elliot case-blocking Hardwicke in a prime Fatherly Stabler moment.
Episode 224: We Know Whether JD Vance Shaves, Or Not, In His Grindr Profile (S25E12 Marauder)
In our first brush with Season 25 of SVU, we are immediately thrown into a deep backstory flashback featuring a character hitherto unknown to Munch My Benson. If that wasn't jarring enough, a certain hit single from the seminal '90s album Pocket Full Of Kryptonite features heavily in said flashback, which obviously means the Munchie Boys have A LOT of reminiscing to do about Spin Doctors. In a shocking twist, Vice Presidential candidate--and couch lover--JD Vance might have made an appearance here as well. Lots to unpack folks.
Episode 223: Why Don’t They Have Someone Sexily Peel off a CPAP? (S24E15 King Of The Moon)
There are strange eps of the longest running primetime drama in TV history, but none come close to matching what happens this week. To say that the last 4 minutes of this Law & Order: Special Victims Unit are unlike any moment in the show's 25+ years of existence would be an obscene understatement. Guest star Bradley Whitford goes for it in ways that you simply are not prepared to see.
Episode 222 - Speaking Of Stereotypes (S17E13 Forty-One Witnesses)
The rape of a woman just outside her apartment building frays the social fabric of New York, when so many of her neighbors saw something happen, but none of them took action to help or even notify the police. This being a season 17 SVU, one can't help but notice the racism bubbling very close to the surface in the portrayal of the 3 bad teens who assaulted her, and of the urbane Lower Manhattanites who refused to notice a damsel in distress. We, of course, were more interested in which East Village coffeeshops allow the open sale of ketamine inside during business hours, and why Adam never visited during his time there. We also meet a magical drunk man on the witness stand, and a Carisi unlike any we've seen before.
Episode 221: Can Credits Just Roll in Very Slo-Mo? (S20E2 Man Down)
Picking up where we left off in MMB 219, we had a SUPER bad dad who was just found not guilty of ummm, SAing his son to show him what a real man is. The Munchie Boys were left to wonder what fresh hell awaited them upon returning to this foul ground in a second part that seemed unnecessary, and this one did not disappoint in terms of exceeding their already low expectations. There are bad episodes of SVU, and then there's this week's installment, which achieves lows hitherto reached only once before.
Episode 220: Carmy's Cum To Jesus Moment (S11E21 Torch)
For our 220th episode, the Munchies voted and selected a wild Season 11 SVU which sees the unit inexplicably called to investigate an arson leading them first to suspect streaming TV's It Boy, Jeremy Allen White, who is sporting the most disgusting zit makeup ever imagined, before the investigation shifts to a grief-stricken dad. This one marks the first appearance of Sharon Stone as Jo Marlowe, and makes the savvy Munchie wonder if Benson has seamlessly shifted from BenBot to JoLivia in the few episodes since Cabot left for the Congo.
Episode 219: His Pecs Were Unleashed (S20E1 Man Up)
There are bad dads, and then there’s the one played by Dylan Walsh in the two-parter to kick off Season 20 of Law & Order: SVU. Be prepared for some gnarly stuff. Also, be prepared to watch the seasoned detectives on this unit have no idea how to investigate crimes they’ve been investigating for decades. At least we get some pretty hawt Stone action in the cold open…
Episode 218: They Don’t Whip Out That Stamp for No One (S12E7 Trophy)
This Season 12er takes us on a wild ride from unionizing dry cleaners, to piss-wielding nurses who just need an early-morning quickie, to militant environmentalists, and finally to the first installment of the Calvin Arliss saga which might have spared us all from the horrors of Baby Boy Doe, but for the fact of a clearly non-legally binding guardianship document. So many wild things happen in this one before it devolves into a weird template for later SVU character development.
Episode 217: Always Be Brewing (S2E17 Folly)
This week's installment really takes the Munchie Boys on a wild ride, starting with a working boy stumble-crashing a wedding in his boxers, dipping its toes in the water with Finnish furniture design and Altoona-style pizza, and finishing with a perp stroking Elliot's hand asking if he's going to protect them. Along the way, we take a voyage through high-end gigolo culture, the world of political donors and ambassadorial appointments, and one of the most extreme instances of folie à deux imaginable for a married couple. This is a classic early season journey where we're a pinball flicked between weird plot points in a way that's truly refreshing after spending so much time in late-season SVU.
Episode 216: She’s Just Kim Novak-ing Bailee Madison (S12E1 Locum)
When an overprotective mom has a second daughter disappear, only to be accused of smothering the second daughter and murdering the first, you know SVU is going to be involved. This one features an aggressively weepy Joan Cusack and some seriously sassy kid work from Bailee Madison. Watch as the entire world gaslights this mom into insanity while she's right about what happened all along. Oh, Liv also turns down a date for no good reason.
Episode 215: God, I Miss Neal Baer (S23E6 The Five Hundredth Episode)
Cold Case comes in with a cold case, and Olivia's ancient history comes screaming into this week's big-round-numbered installment of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The old friends who join us this week are a welcome sight. Olivia's personal relationship with an older man alluded to in prior episodes, however, was much less welcome, as everyone around her tells her what she needs to hear while she bafflingly ignores their advice and is a real jerk to an old partner in the process.