Episode 79: Tons of Cut Dudes in This Episode, and We Don’t Get to See Any of It (S19E21 Guardian)
The Munchie Boys faced down a stark depiction of hard-scrabble life in the projects in Guardian (Season 19, Episode 21). As this is Chernuchin’s special brand of SVU, nuance is nowhere to be seen, and stereotypes nearly exclusively populate this world. But don’t think that just because this episode centers around a brother who’s pimped out his mother and sister that there aren’t the typical diversions, including a diatribe on French roast, a dive into the Five Percent Nation and its influence on ‘90s hip-hop and preservation of New York in 1968, and a brief discussion about the grotesque miscarriage of justice that was the arrest and conviction of the Central Park Five. It’s just another wild week in Munchland.
Episode 19: Nothing Screams Cancun Spring Break Like Moose Antlers (S9E18 Trade)
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. In the O’Halloraniest SVU in Munchstory, Adam and Josh hit the mother lode. When a father knocking up his son's fianceé is far from the most shocking aspect of the episode, you know you've struck gold. This glorious, wildly inappropriate pun fest delivers the goods and then some. Along the way, we examine the dodgy tax haven that is Liechtenstein, marvel at the suspension of the laws of physics, wish we were on the second unit shooting this installment, and get incensed about the show's misunderstanding as to how the coffee trade actually works. Strap yourselves in, and get ready for a jolt because Reverend Camden was let loose, and the ensuing havoc knows no bounds.