Episode 96: You Could Make the Pant Legs Ten Feet Wide, and You'd Still See Those Ass Cheeks Cutting Through the Fabric (S12E20 Totem)
Sometimes life gives you lemons, and sometimes--if you happen to be on Season 12 of SVU--life gives you three days’ worth of legendary caulkhead, Jeremy Irons. It is a testament to the bizarre universe this often beautifully odd show inhabits that they chose to use that time to have him unpack the psychological trauma borne by two sisters who were repeatedly spoon-raped by their own mother. Yeah, this episode goes there, then turns around, and goes back for more. We, of course, use this absolutely depraved premise as a springboard into discussions of Josh's car troubles, Adam's isolation, the poor woman's Glenn Close, the rich man's Bryan Brown, and, obviously, our plans to ride out armageddon. As always, rate and review the podcast, and keep on munching.
Episode 86: How Many Times Were Her Feet In That Cum? (S12E23 Delinquent)
On this week's Munch My Benson, we wonder openly if the world would be a better place if the two leading actors from a certain 1985 Peace Corps comedy had a little less chemistry. While we certainly do break down this Season 12 stinker ("Delinquent") from the dark days just before Meloni left SVU, we go hard on the digressions in this one folks, so get ready for the only SVU podcast brave enough to incorporate Dolph Lundgren's Japanese bonafides, Finnish art house darling Aki Kaurismäki, and radical fecal gymnastics in a single episode.
Episode 85: The Whole Second Half of This Episode Basically Is Stabler Can’t Give Everyone a Ticket to the Gun Show (S12E13 Mask)
Super famous Oscar-, Emmy-, and Tony-winning actor Jeremy Irons sashays through this week’s wonderfully messed up episode of SVU, attempting to reckon with his out-of-control Cape Cod Summer o’ Sex two decades prior. Of course, if it comes up in the course of an investigation on this program, you know the effects are still being felt of his indiscriminate adulterous boning of everything that moved in Falmouth, and this time, they’ve gotten his daughter and her lover attacked.
This gleeful voyage into the world of sexual addiction is fertile ground for plenty of discussion about such subjects as: parsing the paradoxical simultaneous adoration of Tony Blair and loathing of George W. Bush, tattoo critique, teen boys having pervdar, the strange ol’ days of Spice, summers on the Cape (and the corresponding nighttime water temps), the Kamadeva, and the broad, beautiful spectrum of paraphilias. Turns out, there’s tons of fun to be had when Jeremy Irons is a recovering sex addict trying to get his addiction codified in the DSM-5.
Episode 77: Given the Genital Geometry, We Don’t Know That It Wasn’t the Poop Chute (S18E10 Motherly Love)
When the Randomizer selects a late-season SVU, there is often a concern that sets in that we might not be getting the best of the insanity that SVU has to offer. That concern was UNFOUNDED with regards to “Motherly Love” (S18E10)—which is a banger in every sense of the word. After having seen nearly 500 episodes of SVU and recorded 77 episodes of a podcast about the show, it’s safe to say that the Munchie Boys have been subjected to some unimaginably shocking things, yet this one still dropped their jaws with its brazen impropriety.
So listen as Adam and Josh revel in a truly disturbing exploration of motherhood in its darkest form. This episode is as good an exemplar as any when trying to describe why this podcast exists.
Episode 60: Spidey Sense, but for Sex Crimes (S21E13 Redemption in Her Corner)
For Father’s Day, the Randomizer decided to troll dads everywhere with a tale of woe and trauma that sure makes one father look AWFUL. We watched Redemption in Her Corner (S21E13). Don’t worry though because plenty of other people get some stink on them too because this is Law & Order: SVU, after all. As per usual, Adam and Josh go down innumerable rabbit holes—trying to figure out just what Liv’s birthday actually is, wondering what Barba was doing in Iowa investigating election fraud for primaries that don’t exist, the origins of the boxing for fitness craze, and the origins of Italian soups. Fathers everywhere should listen to remind them that there are a lot of bad dads out there, and they should work to make sure they’re not one of them.
Episode 58: I Think We Can Assume Cassidy Is So Dumb That He Tries to Golf at a Disc Golf Course (S19E1 Gone Fishin’)
What happens when a new showrunner takes over Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and doesn’t understand the characters at all? Or how SVU tells stories? Well, the Randomizer selected “Gone Fishin’” (Season 19, Episode 1), so the Munchie Boys found out the hard way. Fin kidnaps a perp who absconded to Cuba? Dean Winters and Peter Jacobson coexist in an episode where Jacobson isn’t Bart Ganzel, Cassidy’s pimp employer from the Cragen waking up with a corpse in his bed three-part saga, challenging the strength of the space-time continuum? How ridiculous can a soundstage set that’s supposed to pass for Cuba get? The answers to these and so many other befuddling questions lie within the confines of this installment of Munch My Benson.
Episode 49: A Hooker’s Chips and Donuts (S7E9 Rockabye)
Another week another problematic turn from the heinous minds at Law & Order: SVU. This time we are watching "Rockabye" (S7E9), an episode which upsets Max, poses numerous questions about the cutlery skills of a mid-Atlantic runaway sex worker, and forces Josh to make highly problematic threats against Billy Chenowith's awful Dad.