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 169: Whoever Put This Smut on Her Computer Entered Through a Cyber Back Door (S10E21 Liberties)
Strange things are afoot this week, as this SVU starts with an ex stalking his former flame from Rhode Island to the Big City and catfishes a rando into raping her via a rape fantasy website and then takes a wild left turn when the judge presiding over the case becomes convinced the perp is his son who was kidnapped when he was three years old. To make things even weirder, he enlists none other than Elliot Stabler to handle the investigation into this cold case. There are huge leaps and ghost babies in the concrete in this one. Prepare yourself.
Episode 168: Elliot Gets a Monkey Text (S12E16 Spectacle)
A Season 12 SVU which opens with a smut film broadcast live on a college campus populated with computer science savants, hard-partying frat boys and greasy English children's soccer coaches sounds like a promising episode, no? Well, come along with the Munchie boys and see exactly where this goes awry.
Episode 155: King Sebastian and the Manual Release (S14E7 Vanity’s Bonfire)
You'd think that an SVU centered around Scott Bakula tricking his mistress into putting their love child up for adoption would lend itself to hours of Quantum Leap conversation wondering just how Ziggy and Al let this whole situation get this out of hand, and that definitely happens, but so does a dive into a pretty heinous guest star, who lived through some gnarly trauma and then doled out plenty herself.
Just as important though, this episode emphatically chides parents who have the temerity to try to parent AND use their cell phones at the same time, and makes you wonder how more parents aren't clocking clear pedos at the park. If you ever wanted to know how to artificially inseminate your significant other in the comfort of your own home, Adam tries to tell you while Josh derails the conversation. And both Adam and Josh cry during this episode for very different reasons.
Episode 122: Bikram Bong Rip Class (S16E22 Parents' Nightmare)
We see what happens when a bad mom and a dad with a ludicrously bad plan to snap her out of her bad mom-ness get together to ensure that their loving and sweet 8-year-old boy will suffer in the foster care system for the next 10 years of his life. Along the way we meet a lovable homeless man and an oft-interrupted yoga class, and we learn about Adam's hot life and Josh's cat-like reflexes. Munch away!
Episode 107: You Take Your Pension and Open up a Jet Ski Dealership (S15E2 Imprisoned Lives)
Well, we've got ourselves another Mo-Mo incident in Times Square... Needlessly picking up right from the smoldering wreckage of Liv freeing herself from her captor William Lewis, we get a stark ripped-from-the-headlines episode delving into the infamous Ariel Castro case. Kidnapping victims are held in cages in the basement and raped for decades, and Liv's PTSD is still very real. This episode dwells in darkness.
Episode 106: She’s Summoning the Monolith (S15E1 Surrender Benson)
When last week's episode ended with Olivia Benson being taken captive by über-psychopath William Lewis, we knew that we'd be going deep into the darkest hour of SVU's storied run this week. This is 43 full minutes of torture porn so bleak and visceral that it's honestly shocking it aired on network television. Please prepare yourself for how messed up this episode is. Thankfully, Josh and Adam munch it up by talking about a diverse range of European arthouse classics you wouldn't want to bring a date to, our coffeeshop orders, and whether or not Pizza Man exists within the Fur Humper Cinematic Universe. Oh, and lest we forget, Adam has an outlandishly bold theory which just might change the way you look at Olivia Benson forever. Enjoy!
Episode 102: Schizophrenic Pantene Commercial (S5E6 Coerced)
Wherein the Munchie boys dive into an episode that treats schizophrenia with an altogether un-SVU-like degree of nuance. Along the way, we wrestle with the consequences of our actions as we are forced to issue the very first Munch My Benson correction thanks to listener, Kara, who noted that Connie Nielsen's accent shenanigans were explained in the show, and in the SVU Fandom wiki page. Josh dog sits, Adam gets into a fight with pharmacy employees, and we go extremely deep on the munchiest of topics: the mechanics of Casey Novak's softball swing, window screen installation, the origins of the Albanian language, the many, many failings of CSU Burt Trevor, and a whole lot more.
Episode 89: They’re So Balls Deep in Starting Their Affair That Benson’s Able to Slip Their Tail with No Resistance (S15E20 Beast’s Obsession)
Having drawn the all-timer “Beast’s Obsession” (S15E20) this week, the Munchie boys reckon with the Unit reckoning with Sgt. Olivia Benson reckoning with an escaped William Lewis, in quite possibly the torture-porniest episode of SVU in its storied history. With one of the most infamous perps in the 23-year-and-counting history of the show heinously raping, disfiguring, and dropping bodies left and right, Adam and Josh are left to watch in horror as Liv is once again shown to only be able to have a sex life in which violence is a key component and as featured extras are ignominiously and exploitatively corpsed for what they hope was at least SAG scale. They also lament the end of two acting careers before they’d really been able to begin, as two very young females were put through the violently sexually inappropriate grinder to further the horrific legend of Liv’s biggest tormentor.
As always, Adam and Josh veer off course with reckless abandon, exploring such varied topics as the job prospects for audition-shy mandolinists in NYC, the proper placement of dream catchers, why this show is so clearly anti-Bang energy drink, whether it’s gauche to lay the groundwork for an extramarital affair while working a protection detail, and Adam’s personal bridge rankings and grocery store journey through New York. So strap in for a wild ride, as Liv goes is on the bullet train to hell and we're all passengers alongside her.
Episode 75: Amaro Nips Out on a Gurney (S16E23 Surrendering Noah)
The Randomizer has thrown the Munchies Boys into the deep end this week, thrusting them into the sixth staggered installment of a sex-trafficking saga centered around Noah’s father and a ragtag crew of severely traumatized sex workers—”Surrendering Noah” (SVU S16E23). Here, there’s a ton to unpack. How do they keep Baby Doe calm? Why did they slam Elliot at the end of the episode? Why did both Benson and Amaro think he’d be a good candidate for Sergeant? Buckle up, kiddos, it’s another wild ride, and this one has Nick Amaro riding off into the sunset after suiciding-by-cop Noah’s monster dad.
Episode 74: Butt Blood on a Calculator (S9E13 Unorthodox)
This week, the Randomizer (thanks, Flett) blessed us with an unforgettable episode of Law & Order SVU ("Unorthodox" S9E13). 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!
Episode 48: I Made This Kid With My Sperm (S3E3 Stolen)
After Adam tells of his travails in the recent Texas winter storm and ensuing power outages, the Munchie Boys get down to business, reckoning with the ghosts of series past while persevering through an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit featuring a robot child mimicking human emotion stuck in the strangest of custody battles in “Stolen” (S3E3). While dealing with a bonafide Cragenisode courtesy of his former partner Max Greevey’s cold case getting tossed in the microwave, Adam and Josh also dive into post-9/11 SVU credits, do some height detective work, walk the Appalachian Trail with Mark Sanford, and unearth a fictional Juris Doctor degree. They also follow up on last week’s promise to watch and talk about the late ‘90s truckin’ Swayze gem, Black Dog.
Episode 42: Whenever I Get Touched In An Unsafe Way, I Say Yes, Then I Make A Mess (S7E21 Web)
Where to begin? 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.