Episode 166: Don’t Ever Compost Your Avocados (S1E10 Closure)
This week, we watched a Season 1 gem which, in spite of several characters not having names or jobs, was uncharacteristically grounded in the real world. SVU investigates a brutal home invasion rape where the victim is unable to correctly identify her assailant. Along the way, we see the genesis of Cassidenson, meet the wettest peeper in lower Manhattan, and learn about some brutal turn-of-the-century muffin murders. This one was so well received when it first aired that it earned its leading guest star, Tracy Pollan, an Emmy nomination, and led to an out of order Part 2, which we'll cover next week.
Episode 165: I’m Just Gonna Call Her Swimfan (S9E12 Signature)
Special Guest Star(?) Erika Christensen swoops in from outer spa—er, the FBI to help the Unit find a gruesome serial killer and his likely next victim. Of course, nothing is as it seems and Lake and Benson have to try to figure out what all is amiss in an effort to find said victim. And obviously, the entire time you watch this episode, you wish that this Special Agent Cooper was a better-known Special Agent Cooper and that this one was not making mistakes that Dale Cooper would never make. The weirdness of this SVU also forces Josh and Adam to reckon with what might be the darkest Second Unit shoot in this show’s illustrious history, gets Adam looking into his urban foraging options in Central Park, and diving into the case of The Toy-Box Killer.
Episode 164: Cragen Hand Play, Check (S1E20 Remorse)
In a first for Munch My Benson, we are rewatching an episode of SVU we covered in the first 10 episodes of the show. How will the intervening years have affected our opinion of this classic, Munch meets girl-who-is-also-victim, Munch falls for girl, girl gets blown up by a psychotic fan who just wanted to see her happy face? We also get deep into 1999's East Timor news and wonder whether the mafia has fallen so low that they're pumping gas along the NJ Turnpike.
Episode 163: Maybe They Could NOT Talk About Murder Weapons Up Butts in Front of His New Girlfriend? (S15E9 Rapist Anonymous)
Recovery is not going smoothly for Rollins this week, as she is unwittingly dragged into an all-caps MESSY ménage à quatre that ends up making her look like a dupe. Could be worse, though, she could be the guy who does a post-head header off a rooftop. Things get messy, but this is a Rollinsisode, so that should be expected. Does that excuse her going for Nate with that awful hat, though. That's a hard no.
Episode 162: Poor Dude Thinks He Prejacked a Kid (S23E13 If I Knew Then What I Know Now)
This week, SVU investigates the coldest of cold cases while dishing out hot servings of delicious Amanda Rollins fan-service content and heaping portions of Staten Island food. Rollisi come clean, Rolldhun never happens, and Benson meets two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, Jacob DeGrom.
Episode 161: Bring Mother Her Juice, She’s Parched (S12E18 Bully)
Luscious Grape Distributors--yup, that's the name--seems like a truly awful place to work, if its depiction in SVU's Season 12 gem "Bully" is any indication. As a harrowing journey into abusive workplaces for the first two-thirds of its runtime, the ep succeeds on its own. Then? Well, then there's a turn so shocking, so inventive, and so ingenious that it had Adam and Josh wanting to do a five-season oral history on the making of this single episode of television. This one's got bad bosses, bad moms, and bad coworkers all packed into one delightfully disgusting package.
Episode 160: The Hardest Core Of Hardcore BDSM Benslers (S10E22 Zebras)
The Munchies thought they were sending us down a dark and unprofessional path when they selected this haired-brained thriller of an SVU episode which begins with a dead Topekan tourist in Central Park, traverses a Lady From Shanghai-esque fun-house sequence in Coney Island, and tiptoes around all manner of Dale Stuckey-related content on its way to unceremoniously killing off one of Munch My Benson's favorite characters as a prelude to some kinky Liv and Elliot fan service. Little did they know, that we are just messed up enough to enjoy this wild, and very much not SVU, romp. Also, Adam suffers some very real life consequences from trying to record this episode in his bedroom.
Episode 159: He Feeds Off the Smirk of His Clients (S23E5 Fast Times @TheWheelhouse)
Late SVU gets down with influencer incubators this week, and we're treated to some pretty epic douchebros treating an up-and-coming TikToker very badly. This means there's timely pop music punctuating the cold open, some pretty brutal implementation of influencerese, and some odd Organized Crime storylines crossing over into this episode. It's a strange world we're stepping into this week, but that doesn't mean there's not plenty of Rollisi-related content to keep us going.
Episode 158: Her Screams of Agony Are One of the High Points of the Episode, Emotionally (S5E3 Mother)
Two dipshit wannabe writers on an uptown depravity tour lead the detectives at SVU into a truly outlandish world populated by avenging sister-moms and serial-rapists-made-good who are pushed back into serial raping by the heavy-handed approach of Stabler & Co. Along the way we learn about cleaning fish, proper wine breathing etiquette, and whether or not Ricardo from the Java Barn is the right guy to ask for illicit hard drugs. This episode revels in the early season insanity. Does it make sense? Does it have to?
Episode 157: I Don’t Think She’s a Val Gal (S19E11 Flight Risk)
Imagine a world in which pilots were quasi-celebrities before having performed some heroic feat. No really imagine it. Then imagine a world where the heroic feat they perform to make them even more famous could only have happened because 9/11 must not have happened and a pilot could be left alone in a cockpit, locking the entire flight crew out while she erratically turns the plane around because she doesn't want to be trapped in the cockpit with her rapist. Then imagine that this is all occurring at an airline with a retrograde hypersexualized ad campaign that harks back to the ads for which Dick Wolf was responsible in his ad man days. Because this SVU does all that.
Episode 156: There's Bear Goatse, and She Goes All the Way Up (S4E10 Resilience)
When television's Harry Bosch (technically Titus Welliver) started firing blanks a few years ago, the strangest thing happened. Instead of happily raising the large brood of children he already had, he chose to pimp out first his wife, then his nanny, and finally his own daughter in a bizarre cult-like scheme to rear as many children as possible. Obviously, things went off the rails, or in the case of his daughter, nearly on to them when she attempts to throw herself in front of the N train starting this week's SVU in motion. Along the way Adam tells you all about applying for pre-K in New York, and we wonder whether or not NYPD could conceivably plant evidence beneath two feet of concrete under your townhouse.
BONUS EPISODE: Matthew Wilson, Creator of SVU: The RPG
The Munchie Boys sat down for a delightful chat with Matthew Wilson, creator of the positively sublime game SVU: The RPG, diving into the background and inspiration for the only video game you should all be spending your time playing.
You can find the game at: https://svuroleplay.com/
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 154: Sniffing Cold Pies Lasciviously (S16E20 Daydream Believer)
Wherein we meet a terrifyingly gross Greg Yates for the first time and are forced to dive deep into the One Chicago Universe. Along the way, we speculate about the lives we will live once we become avid Chicago Fire fans, whether or not it's worth your time smelling a cold pie, why it's sad when hardened cops can't unlock a Camry, and, of course, the answer to the question every Munchie will have upon watching this megasode: exactly how many times did Greg Yates cum during that trial?
Episode 153: Make ‘Em Space Communists That Are Waiting for Sentient Dolphins to Come Impregnate Us (S4E24 Perfect)
Another SVU, another bizarre cult. This time around, a certifiable quack of the cloning-will-save-humankind-from-the-depleting-ozone-layer variety has an entire organization hornswoggling teen girls with low self-esteem into becoming his own personal baby factories. Don't worry, it's not just non-sexual sex cult action we're dealing with this time around. No, we've got police brandishing their weapons and running hilariously, accents that spin you around, and surprising restraint from a cult leader who seems much more interested in playing God than hide the salami. Of course, talk of claims of human cloning took Adam down a strange rabbit hole into the Raëlians, and there are some wildly unexpected revelations with regards to this week’s guest stars, so there’s a ton of munchy weirdness afoot this week.
Alt episode title this week? Her Mouth Is a Melting Pot.
Episode 152: I Gave Your Mom a Guardian Ad Litem End-Around (S5E19 Sick)
In an episode Adam already covered on his guestisode of the These Are Their Stories Pod, we watched a preposterous reimagining of the various Michael Jackson sexual abuse allegations in which an uber-wealthy toy mogul lures children into his low-rent pirate-themed sex lair to dress them up in precious pajamas and have his way with them. Was it fun? Yes, absolutely. Did it feature enough lemur? Sadly, no.
Episode 151.1 - The We Biffed Sabrina Getting Arrested for Getting an Abortion Addendum with Special Guest Isabel (S9E3 Impulsive)
Sometimes Adam and Josh are idiots. In this instance, they glossed over a PRETTY MAJOR plot point in S9E3 Impulsive because they were bored with how SVU generally deals with abortion, totally missing the VERY PROBLEMATIC moment where the Unit essentially arrests Sabrina the Teenage Witch for aborting her rapist's baby. Thankfully, our Munchie Isabel was there to hold us to account in this bonus convo.
Episode 151: This Is Basically SVU’s Rashomon (S9E3 Impulsive)
This installment of SVU pits very recognizable teacher against an also recognizable student in a he-said-she-gonorrhea'd-me/she-said-he-raped-me exercise in who can we believe for the Unit and the audience. Sure, the teacher is Sabrina/Clarissa, but if we know anything about this show, it's hard to believe the potentially stuntcasted. And, yeah, the kid is basically known for playing quiet lunatics, but they can't both have done it, right? This one's fun AND strains credulity in all the best ways.
Episode 150: He Sucks Off His Own Carpet (S20E5 Accredo)
This week we meet a sex cult based in a mansion located north of Manhattan, so you know we are getting deep into a NXIVM-based, ripped-from-the-headlines SVU. Along the way, we talk knife handling, record collections, elite-level badminton, and extremely high-end security cameras. Also, Rollins is extremely pregnant (again), and this perp can smell the Al Pollack inside of her.
Episode 149: He’s Basically the Gentrifying Rapist (S17E19 Sheltered Outcasts)
Sonny Carisi gets down and dirty with some pretty gnarly dudes in this week's SVU, which sends dearest Dominick undercover into a shelter populated by paroled sex offenders. One (or more?) of these parolees appears to be raping neighborhood women and the Unit has to figure out who's doing it before Carisi gets beaten to a pulp by meathead vigilantes. Luckily Michael Rapaport is around to save Carisi's bacon once, but is he the guy? This mostly effective episode leaves Carisi wondering aloud if maybe the sex offender registry is unfair when compared to say a murderer who gets out and doesn't have to tell a soul that they cut off someone's head with a dull machete.