Okay, maybe I'm imagining things, but has anyone noticed how LAW & ORDER has reinvented itself style-wise this year? From the season opener onward, I've noticed new camera angles and movements that the series has never used before. The visual updates would probably be subtle, if we hadn't been watching the show one way for 17 years. I've seen some low-angle shots and slick pans, for instance, that I have never noticed before this season. Considering that ratings were down a bit last season and NBC banished the CRIMINAL INTENT spinoff to cable (though now it's back, at least temporarily), I can see where the producers may have wanted to spruce up the show, while not alienating its base audience. I'm generally not a fan of change for the sake of change, but the new style suits the series pretty well. Jeremy Sisto helps too.

Yeah, the show definitely seems a bit energized this season. I'm really liking it. I've also noticed that as the District Attorney, Sam Waterston seems to get more screen time per episode than Steven Hill, Dianne Wiest, and Fred Dalton Thompson had combined in the show's previous 16 seasons. In every episode thus far but one, Sam's had to bail out the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later Linus Roache. It's great to have Sam around, but McCoy seems to spend an inordinate amount of time on Michael Cutter damage control.

Sisto is certainly a huge improvement over the unconvincing hottie Green was teamed up with last season. The scripts are tighter so while we are still seeing some familiar themes and twists at least things are happening at a brisker, more unpredictable pace. Sam is energized and seems to be getting a kick out of adjusting the leash on the new guy. One thing that hasn't changed is some politically correct timidity. Rich white people into dog fighting and Christian fanatics stoning a loose woman to death. Really?

Aside from a few episodes dealing with Goren's ongoing breakdown CI had a dismal last season. The nadir in a series of hot topic episodes was a Crazy Astronaut story in which Erbe was made to utter the line; "Houston, we've got a problem". I hope she got a bonus for that. Anyway, this seasons more streamlined, straightforward stories have been a step up and while Logan's new partner seems out of place, I think that's the idea. "Wheeler, you are coming back aren't you?"

There was a thread here about the crazy bad start SVU had last year but it didn't stay that way. A challenging standout was the recent episode where not only did Munch have more than two lines, but he wound up sympathizing with the extreme outlook of some separatist orthodox Jews. Even someone who thinks legal porn is OK has to wonder what the internet is doing to children.

Dick Wolf is a driven man. If I had his bank I would buy an island and listen to the waves lap the shore while models served rum cocktails. He won't give up and network TV will have a gaping hole to fill if he ever does.

LAW & ORDER celebrated its 200th episode several years ago (have they passed 400 yet?) with a guest shot by Julia Roberts, who I believe was dating co-star Benjamin Bratt at the time. LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT celebrated its 200th this week with a guest spot by Robin Williams, whom I last remember doing dramatic episodic television on HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS way back when, about 1992 or so. It was a typically wonky SVU that really degenerates in its last act into a bizarre SAW ripoff, complete with master villain vanishing into thin air. I guarantee Williams will land an Emmy nomination, as voters love when bigtime movie stars deign to do a TV guest shot, but he basically played Dramatic Robin Williams as usual. At least he didn't do his John Wayne voice. First time ever?

I thought Williams was just OK, and it was one of the sillier SVU's in recent memory (though nowhere near as bad as the avatar atrocity with Kevin Tighe). When Williams was going into hysterics near the end, I thought "Well, it could be worse...at least he's not a guest on a talk show."

Did I see Munch in a large-scale pillow fight, or was it all a bad dream? Belzer gets barely any screen time these days, and THAT'S how he has to spend it?

It's starting to appear as if each SVU is a stand-alone story. Didn't Olivia endure a traumatic incident two episodes back? And then in the next episode, we find out she's been dating a newspaper publisher for six months?

Belz looked like he was having a good time in that pillow fight. Wonder how much of it was acting and how much was just delight at finally playing a scene somewhere other than the squadroom set.

I can't imagine any SVU being worse than that Kevin Tighe show, but the one with Erika Christensen as a tough homicide detective is very close, and her performance is unquestionably the worst I've ever seen on the series.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR 5/6 SVU episode "Trade"

That was easily the funniest SVU ending ever. Did the whole episode seem a little bizarre? It almost seemed like it was loaded with over-the-top, hard-boiled histrionics--Novak and her "you got funky sperm!" crack, and almost everything Stabler said seemed to come straight from Lennie Briscoe's list of rejected one-liners. And is it me, or did Mariska Hargitay give an odd pause after saying "You'd come and gone," almost like she was waiting for a non-existant laugh track to finish? Definitely one of the more ridiculous SVU's and it very often crossed the line into self-parody, but that ending was off the charts, as was Stephen Collins' completely hysterical reaction shot. And once again, a pivotal clue is found by zooming in on an image.

I'll always tune into this show, but I really hope I don't start doing it for the wrong reasons.

In the 200th episode of SVU they make the two leads look incompetent in order to introduce an unconvincing new character who threatens to return. In "Trade" ADA Novak blithely allows a murderer to wander off with a vague instruction that they be picked up before leaving the building. This results in two deaths. I realize that every character on the show has given mutiple reasons to be considered prospects for early retirement but this would be a spectacular scandal in real life. The ending of last weeks L&O, where ADA Cutter used his opponents warped psychology againt them, Capt Kirk style, was outrageous and funny but didn't sacrifice the integrity of a character. It isn't easy coming up with twists but the writers need to keep in mind that the characters are main reason viewers stick with a show.

I'm glad SVU didn't break the cardinal rule of filmmaking that states that anybody who falls off a rooftop is obliged to land on a parked car.

...thus setting off its alarm. :rolleyes:

"LAW & ORDER celebrated its 200th episode several years ago (have they passed 400 yet?)...."

Damn. And to think that I have never see one episode.

Me neither. I've seen bits and pieces of one or two episodes.