How great was last night’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? The show is intended to be jarring, but “Father’s Shadow” wasn’t just disturbing, it had me and my friends sitting on the edge of our seats. What kept this one so interesting? The material’s always tough, but it was the great performances by regulars and guest actors alike that really made the episode.
Here’s the short list of my observations, in no particular order:
- It was a nice change to see the show tell its story in a non-linear way this week.
- I like Michael McKean, but every time I look at him, my brain always defaults to This Is Spinal Tap. Or The X-Files.
- Mariska Hargitay went for broke with this one. Again, after twelve years of playing the same character, I wouldn’t blame her for phoning it in, but she made Olivia’s feelings really come through for the audience (in particular, I loved the shocked look on her face at the end of the second act). This episode reminded me why she’s been nominated for so many awards in this role.
- It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Danny Pino. He played a great supporting role to Hargitay in this episode, and I have to admit that I started laughing when he was giving lip to Michael Cutter, because A) Cutter deserved it and B) Pino still has that perfect way of giving people attitude that he perfected on Cold Case.
- Speaking of Cutter, Linus Roache will always be my second-favorite Law & Order district attorney (behind Ben Daniels of Law & Order: UK), so I was thrilled to see him make a cameo. He can come back any time he wants, though selfishly, I’d prefer it if he were reunited with Alana de la Garza.
- Kudos to Miranda Lambert on her acting debut. She was pretty good for a first-timer, although with all the talk about her guest appearance, I sort of expected she’d be in more than two scenes. Oh well, we have The Voice to get our Miranda Lambert-on-NBC fix this season.
- And last but absolutely not least … the best thing about this episode, far and away, was Cameron Monaghan‘s performance as Eddie Sandow. Shameless is not going to look the same to me ever again. We watched Eddie go on one heck of an emotional roller coaster, ending in his complete disintegration, and Monaghan made it all completely believable, even when it was frustrating or appalling. In the end, I actually ended up feeling sorry for the guy, thinking about how much therapy he was going to need to deal with the fact that his father was a sexual predator who really didn’t give a damn about him. I found myself hoping he’d get help and be able to have a normal life someday. You don’t usually end up thinking about things like that when it comes to the antagonists in procedurals, so kudos to Monaghan for creating such a disturbing yet sympathetic character.
I’ll tell you just how good Monaghan was. Earlier in the day, I had posted my in-depth interview with Danny Pino, and Monaghan had tweeted me to tell me he thought it was great. When my friends showed up last night (as they do each Wednesday for what’s become an impromptu tradition of watching Ion’s Cold Case mini-marathon and then SVU), I told them about the tweet.
Near the episode’s end, I said, “It’s kind of funny that’s the same guy that was tweeting me earlier, wasn’t it?” My one friend turned to me and went, “No way. That can’t be the same guy.” He’d sucked us so completely into the role that it took us a moment to remember that he was acting.
We raised our glasses last night to Cameron Monaghan, Danny Pino and everyone else who made this episode such a great way to end our Cold Case party. Episodes like “Father’s Shadow” remind me of why I used to be a fan of SVU, and why I think I’m becoming a fan again.
Photo Credit: NBC
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Mariska is my weekly drops. In addition to talented she is beautiful. Who can resist those big black eyes.