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 121: She Comes from a Good Family, She Eats Legumes (S1E4 Hysteria)
In a return to randomness after last week's Munchies' Choice, the Munchie Boys were thrown back into the pre-historical realm of Season 1, where SVU was still trying to figure out what it was. "Hysteria" was the franchise's first foray into the world of serial rapists/killers and sex workers, and given what we've seen thus far in Season 1, it's fair to assume that these subjects are handled, ummm, indelicately.
Don’t worry, there’s also tons of weird stuff like improbable shoe detective work, random doctors prescribing self-administered hot meat injections, the trans/cis sex workers’ turf wars of this universe leading Adam to look into the history of Times Square, both the Def-Leppard-related and non-Dep Leppard-related past of the diagnosis of hysteria, and real-life Vice cops going down in brothel busts. This one is wild in the ways you want an SVU to be.
Episode 120: A Hostage Situation, but for the Viewers (S19E13 The Undiscovered Country)
When we asked our Patrons to select an episode for us to watch, we were asking for a choice as depraved and cruel as this, the episode that see beloved ADA Rafael Barba exit the show in ridiculous (and frankly, insulting) fashion. This episode has everything--if by 'everything' you mean bad acting, nonsensical writing, bizarre plot holes, and Phillip Winchester attempting to cry. Bad though this episode might be, we have so much to talk about including whether or not it's a good idea to rear a spite child, Adam's day at the museum, and the importance of a showrunner. Fans of our digressions should head over to Patreon to hear extensive deep dives into Japanese Onsen culture and minor league baseball.
Episode 119: No, Rollins Is a Tactile Detective (S19E18 Service)
Why does Rollins hate sex workers? Why is Wayne Knight only in this episode for two minutes? Why did they commit zero screen time to showing why the perp did what he did? Why did they rip this story from the headlines to inelegantly wedge trans rights into the final third of the show? We watched "Service" from Season 19, and ideally there would be answers to all of those questions, but the Season 19 qualifier is all you actually need to know. There may not be answers to your questions. Such is life in Season 19 of SVU.
Episode 118: They Weren’t Coming Back to Locutus (S21E20 The Things We Have To Lose)
We watched the impromptu finale of Season 21, which lost four episodes due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While that might not have mattered in most seasons of SVU, Season 21 was trying to do some things which definitely demanded resolution. Of course we talk about a whole range of ridiculous topics including early attempts at adding serialization to weekly procedurals, post-modern philosophy, and the Borg. Apologies for weird sound, particularly on Adam's track. He was having some software issues which hopefully have been resolved.
Episode 117: I Can’t Imagine What the S&P Call for This Episode Was Like (S7E6 Raw)
Sometimes an SVU really does the racism. Then there's S7E6 Raw, which for an unfathomable 20:51 unfurls bigotry at an astonishing rate--an average of once every 23 seconds. And it doesn't even start until past the 16-minute mark. They pack so much hate into this episode that it left Adam and Josh dumbfounded.
Episode 116: Paperboy Is Housing a Bird (S5E16 Home)
If one were to carve a Mount Rushmore of bad moms out of someone's holy mountain, Diane Venora's character from this SVU would certainly be on it. This lady sucks a lot. While we get deep into her antics, we also talk about Adam's sickness (spoiler alert: he shouldn't have gone to that Yankees game), Belizean airports, nonsexual hygge snuggling, trashcan chicken, and Kenny Rogers.
Episode 115: Give Someone Diabetes by Making Them Beer Bong Apple Juice for 15 Takes (S12E10 Rescue)
In a true whirling dervish of an episode that turns the audience around and around, we start at a "kick-ass loft party," careen into a sexual predator in an ambulance, and end up back where the B-plot started with Calvin courtesy of his mother filching jewelry from a different crime scene. "Rescue" (S12E10) takes us everywhere. Along the way, we touch on improbable sampling of large members, insane PowerPoint presentations, and the Duke faux sex thesis controversy. This one goes to some weird places.
Episode 114: Rollins Was About to Take a Tumble in the Back of a Hearse (S14E10 Presumed Guilty)
Sure, the bulk of this episode is a fairly by-the-numbers which-priest-was-the-pedo-and-which-was-merely-libidinous tale, but for a few delicious moments, we get to pull back the curtains and see what the Medical Examiner's office in the SVUniverse does on the rare night they let their hair down. This is a holiday party for the ages folks. It is the party that launched a thousand fan fiction stories. We also speculate on what Amaro and Rollins have, or have not, going on on Christmas Eve, among many other fun digressions.
Episode 113: You Can Really Tell that Dean Porter Wanted to Take Liv’s Basal Temperature with His Meat Thermometer (S11E6 Spooked)
Ever wonder what would happen when Benson, Stabler, and the Unit get tangled up in an investigation that sends them looking into the Gulf Cartel, the FBI, Los Zetas, the CIA, and Cuban revolutionaries? Well, wonder no longer because this time around we are diving in to Season 11, Episode 6 "Spooked" featuring Vincent Spano reprising the role of FBI Special Agent Dean Porter. It starts with the SVU version of the Wet Bandits finding a pair of staged corpses with a rape tree and some stolen implants in the back of a box truck and just gets stranger from there. It may not make sense, but “Spooked” is a helluva nonsensical fever dream.
Episode 112: Warner Always Checks the Junk at the Scene (S9E10 Snitch)
In the course of watching 112 episodes of SVU, few things have shocked us as much as seeing the writers of this show take a measured and nuanced approach to not one, but two decidedly problematic issues in polygamy and female genital mutilation. That these both appear in an episode that gives screen time to topics including "stop snitching" culture, tide charts, epilepsy, and one of Elliot Stabler's former flings means there was a whole lot to discuss. The true die hards will want to check out our Patreon for an extended history of the Biafran War from Adam, Josh going full on Rage Against The Machine, and the two of us nearly coming to blows over the availability of liquor stores in southern Utah. There is way too much fun/dumb stuff in this one folks!
Episode 111: Dylan McKay: Rapist (S10E1 Trials)
IT IS HERE! LUKE PERRY, Y'ALL.
Are you holding onto your butts? Are you ready to have Law & Order: Special Victims Unit lay waste to your childhood? To destroy the sacred bond you shared with THE heartthrob of the '90s? To see the profound damage said heartthrob did to the very recognizable women he violated after leaving the glamorous environs of Beverly Hills?
In what might be the stuntcastiest episode in SVU's storied history, Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) does some pretty bad things to Darlene Conner (Sara Gilbert), Carol Vecsey (Julie Bowen), and our collective innocence. This episode is what started this whole venture back when it little more than a bitchin' name. Yes, via this insane show, Dylan McKay rapes our youth.
Episode 110: It's Not A Gay Cowboy Orgy, Probably... (S11E18 Bedtime)
What this delightful episode of SVU (S11E18 Bedtime) lacks in terms of coherent three-act structure or thoughtful character development is more than made up for by the absolute cavalcade of bonkers plot lines and instantly recognizable famous people. Ann-Margaret justifiably won an Emmy for her turn as the perma-drunk Rita Wills. William Goddamn Atherton plays a petulant serial killer! Morgan Fairchild gets about 30 seconds of screen time! Liv and Elliot get propositioned for a threesome! Theres so much fun in this episode you're going to have to just dive in and revel in the madness.
Episode 109: Not Buffalonian, Ruffalonian (S15E16 Gridiron Soldier)
Loganville, Georgia comes to New York City as Rollins spearheads the investigation into a hot-shot college football recruit who comes to visit Hudson University. Of course, Hudson University does its thing, and her hometown hero is left irrevocably changed for the worse. We also dig a bit into Danny Pino and Kelli Giddish's pasts, explore the nature of Rollins's betting proclivities, and talk a little bit about Michael Sam.
Episode 108: How Long Is It Going to Take O'Halloran to Wash the Dumpster Off? (S5E20 Lowdown)
This week, The Randomizer selected "Lowdown," which features Fin's exquisite description of "down low" culture. Sadly, this episode goes so hard on inappropriate "humor" that Josh was forced to make a running count of things you wouldn't (and shouldn't) say on TV in 2022. As we break this down, you'll hear about the police riot on Adam's block, Kevin Brown's sinker, and the art of mise-en-scène. You won't, however, hear the nearly 50 minutes of wild digressions about dumplings, Kenny Rogers, Kelvin's muscle boys, and the Kinsey scale unless you subscribe to our Patreon.
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 105: Oh, They’ll Sexualize Anyone in a Really Terrible Way (S14E24 Her Negotiation)
The Randomizer decided that everyone needed to wallow in the darkness of the William Lewis Saga again, this time starting at the beginning with “Her Negotiation,” the season finale of Season 14 complete with cliffhanger leaving our hero Olivia Benson in a very dark place. This obviously means the Munchie Boys have to deal with fur-humping, Plein Air Painters, the life's work of Frederick Law Olmstead, and the shooting star that was Matt Harvey's early baseball career. Oh, and a pastiche serial killer drawing from some of the darkest imaginable sources.
Episode 104: Did You Put On Your Father's Underwear When You Wanted To Feel Special? (S1E5 Wanderlust)
Well, if you've ever seen a Season 1 SVU, you'll know that the show worked a little differently back then. If you see this episode from Season 1, you'll gain entrance to a world where things are fully upside down. Here we see tan lines in wildly improbably places, sex-positive waitstaff, disgraced pedophiles who blossom as well-intentioned tailors, train-obsessed teens, and, quite possibly, a travel writer with an unspeakably bizarre kink. As if that's not enough weird, we Munchers go even further off script and dive deep into tainted muskrats, Le Corbu furniture, impossible addresses, and the origins of the Garifuna people. Yeah, we go hard in this one people.
Episode 103: You Gotta Give People Some Cold Cucumber Water While You Rub Their Joint Down (S14E22 Poisoned Motive)
This week, The Munchie Boys tackle a Finisode preoccupied with unpacking Fin's history while an undercover with Narcotics, more than a decade after the fact. Rollins gets improbably shot, which leads to an unhealthy dose of police brutallity and metaphorical prison rape threats, but that's not nearly as shocking as some truly disturbing home-decor-driven revelations upon meeting a seemingly normal family with a secret left unspoken.