Allison Leotta's Blog, page 9
February 13, 2013
SVU Episode # 14-14: “Secrets Exhumed”
Finally, for a criminal mastermind, she sure made some stupid moves. First, inserting herself into the investigation. If she hadn’t been around, no one would have connected the dots – it was only her constant meddling and ex-boyfriend-hugging that caught SVU’s attention. Next, can you imagine a real 25-year-veteran FBI profiler confessing after five minutes of waiting for a soiled prisoner? No way. She knows how interrogations work. She would have shut up. Or turned off the videotape. Walked out of the room. Called a lawyer. But one thing that kick-ass, criminal genius, FBI Agent Marcia Gay Harden is NOT going to do is break down sobbing and confess to a crime she’s managed to cover up for the last quarter century.
What do you think SVU fans? How busy has Marcia Gay Harden been, between profiling, surviving rape, and whacking romantic rivals? When will every person on the planet have an iPad? And … cough… will SVU ever work in a scene with Nick in swimwear? Leave your comments.
February 6, 2013
SVU Episode # 14-13: Monster’s Legacy
What a charmer.
Michael Vick can’t be a PETA spokesperson; Paris Hilton can’t chair her local M.A.D.D. committee, and Mike Tyson had no business appearing on SVU.
Let the comments begin.
January 30, 2013
SVU Episode # 14-12: Criminal Hatred
The issue of whether the spousal privilege would apply in this case was an interesting one, and they got the law right. Spouses in New York cannot testify to a confidential communication from their spouse (in D.C., by contrast, the testifying spouse may decide whether or not s/he wishes to testify). The idea behind the marital privilege is that it strengthens the marital bond.
Same-sex marriage is now legal in New York, and although Jones and Clark were married in Massachusetts, NY recognizes marriages in other states. The timing was interesting – with the Massachusetts marriage happening before NY legalized it – but I think the judge decided correctly that NY would retroactively recognize the past ceremony. I thought the best shot Barba had was the online “church,” but I guess Happy Skies had all their papers in order. I also thought Barba and Olivia’s interaction on this was realistic. Although Olivia was leery of infringing of gay rights, Barba is the type of pit bull who would try any possible legal argument to nab a killer, larger policy considerations be damned.
What they got wrong:
Barba’s logic tonight was incomprehensible. The murder charge was the strongest one he had. Even if the jurors surmised the other victims were just enjoying “kinky sex games,” here was a corpse to disprove that. The hate-crime charge against an openly gay man, on the other hand, was such a big stretch. Homicide would be both easier to prove and carry a longer sentence.
Finally, I had laugh at the undercover work. SVU is always sending its detectives out as bait. A couple seasons ago, there was a hair-cutting fetishist loose in the city – so SVU sent Olivia to sit flipping her hair on a park bench, and the barber showed up a few minutes later, shears in hand. Last season, there was a rapist targeting blond women – so they sent golden-haired Amanda running through the park, where the rapist immediately popped out from behind a bush and attempted to rape her. Tonight’s strategy – of sending Nick and Ice-T into the gay bars hoping the bad guy would strike up a conversation - was just silly. Not that they wouldn’t get propositioned. They’d do great at Hotmale. But crime is far to random and sporadic to make this method feasible. That said . . . it did make for some fun TV.
What do you think SVU fans? Should gay defendants ever be charged under hate-crime laws? Is Barba smoking pot? And how plausible was Ice-T in his gay undercover mode? Leave your comments!
January 23, 2013
Win 2 Tickets to the Icing Smiles Gala
I’m giving away two tickets (normally $150), to one of my readers. If you’re interested, leave a comment here noting your favorite cake flavor. One reader’s name will be randomly drawn from a hat next Tuesday.
January 16, 2013
Need Inspiration? Take a Vacation.
Before we left, I searched for my PADI open-water-diver card and took my inability to find it as a sign. My scuba days were over. It’s hard enough to find time to shower, much less strap on an airtank and descend to the ocean floor.
But a funny thing happened in Jamaica. We visited a bar perched on high cliffs with a steep drop to the ocean. My family sipped fruity drinks and watched professional divers and few tourists leap from the cliffs. My husband, Mike, hasn’t found an adrenaline sport he doesn’t like, and took the plunge. Just watching him made me dizzy – but he made it back to shore with style.
After Mike dried off, my three-year-old boy asked me, “If you tried to jump, Mommy, they wouldn’t let you, right?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“They only let boys jump.”
I realized all the jumping tourists were men. That did it.
Assuring my kids that girls can do anything boys can, I stripped down to my bikini, went to the cliff edge, looked down, and blinked back my vertigo. Then I waved to my kids, took a deep breath, and jumped. The fall seemed to take a long time. The water was cold and hit my left side like a full-body spanking. But the rush of adrenaline was a fabulous step back in time, to the days when I did things just for the sheer fun of it. And the smile on my kids’ faces as they saw a “girl” (their mom!) emerge from the water was the best part.
That night, I did a little research. The diving shop could confirm my scuba creds online, even though I couldn’t find my card.
The next morning, I left my sons at the resort’s kids camp, feeling the usual mommy guilt at the drop-off.
But then Mike and I dove for the first time in six years. Under water is a magical world. Below are rainbow-colored fish; above, the sun shimmers on a surface that stretches as far as the eye can see. You can blow air bubbles in the water the way smokers blow smoke rings. There were moray eels, nurse sharks, and a stingray bigger than my car.
I climbed back onto the boat grinning like an idiot, walking like a duck in my fins, and feeling revived and awakened. My kids, meanwhile, had a fabulous time with Elmo and Cookie Monster. The mommy guilt receded a few notches. I went diving again the next day.
And what do you know? Two days later, reclining in a beach chair, I had my Big Idea. It was one of those epiphany moments – I literally bolted upright and gasped.
Fellow writers, you know what I mean. I can’t wait to get started.
I’m sure the idea came because I took a vacation, took the plunge (a few of them!), and just had some fun. Sometimes the mind needs to wander away from the usual, giving those ideas room to expand before rising to the surface.
Of course, your idea of a vacation may be different than mine. Maybe you like to ski, or cook, or canoe. Whatever you love – do it. Sometimes, a “vacation” can be as easy as taking an afternoon off and going for a hike or to a movie. It’s these moments of fun – with the computer turned off – that allow our minds to relax and our creative reservoirs to refill. Big Ideas are so much more likely to come when we’re not answering emails, choosing gifts for our kids’ teachers, or figuring out what the next dinner will be.
Finding the time can be hard, for working moms and anyone living in our whirlwind world. If you have to, schedule the time to be unscheduled. Ultimately, such “unproductive” time may be the most productive of all.
So take that vacation – and feel good about it!
January 9, 2013
SVU Episode #14-11: “Beautiful Frame”
It’s not uncommon for a rape victims to tell a false story on first telling – and for the prosecutor to have to dig deeper to find out the real story. Like Jessie, who had a controlling boyfriend, victims of sexual assault might have a host of reasons to prevaricate. The fact that a witness lied at first certainly hurts the case, but doesn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t assaulted. Often, convictions are secured even when the victim’s initial story wasn’t entirely truthful.
It’s true that Suffolk would lose a lot of pending cases and have to reopen many old cases if it turned out their CI lied and set someone up. The DA on tonight’s episode had a serious incentive to protect Provo.
“Queen for a Day” immunity is a real prosecutorial tool, although it’s not nearly as cool for the queen it sounds. The prosecutor signs a letter saying she won’t use the witness’s statements directly against him. She can still use the statements derivatively, though, and that’s important. Let’s say the haberdasher mentions he robbed a bank. Barba could follow up – say, pull the bank tapes and see the haberdasher holding up the teller – and then charge him with robbery. Queen for a Day isn’t full immunity. In some ways, it’s designed to protect the prosecutor more than the witness – so the witness can’t later say he was promised full immunity. In real life, the better course for the haberdasher would have been for his lawyer to give a proffer – saying what his client would say – and then getting full immunity for the haberdasher.
What they got wrong:
Olivia kept having intimate heart-to-hearts with Jessie in her jail cell. Bad cop, no donut. Jessie was a defendant in a murder case, represented by counsel. Olivia should never have talked to Jessie without Jessie’s lawyer present.
While the legal machinations were realistic, I was skeptical about Provo’s motive. To cover an extremely weak rape charge (an alcoholic, intoxicated victim, who told four different stories and left a booty-call on her assailant’s voicemail the night of the assault), he committed armed first-degree murder and tried to frame his lover by enlisting a bunch of criminals and daffy civilians to lie for him. Silly plan for such an evil genius, right?
What do you think, SVU fans? Could a CI go this terribly wrong? Will we be seeing more of ADA Pam James? And was I the only one looking at Barba’s hand to see if it was the one Olivia was holding on last week’s episode? Leave your comments!
January 3, 2013
SVU Episosde #14-10: Presumed Guilty
The primary suspect is Sam, Ice-T’s ex-brother-in-law, who’s found dazed at the scene. Sam swears he was just trying to pull the real assailants off the priest, but as a thrice-convicted parolee, his credibility is slim. Sam is arrested.
Here, folks, is where SVU’s involvement would have ended in real life. Two big reasons: (1) There’s no sex crime. Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal notwithstanding, it’s still not a crime for a priest to sit alone in a car with a girl. (2) Ice-T cannot investigate a crime where his family member is the prime suspect. Neither can any of buddies on the squad.
But this is SVU, and the night is young. Moving on…
Ice-T and his friends work to clear Sam’s name. They talk to the Monsignor at St. Horatio’s, who supervised Father Shay before the priest was suspiciously transferred many times. They question Father Shay himself, who is frustratingly vague and unforthcoming. They talk to Sofia’s mother, who swears that Father Shay is a really nice guy.
And then they talk to the guy whose fingerprints are on the priest’s car door – Enrique, who says his sister, Angelica, was molested by Father Shay a decade ago. Enrique admits he beat up the priest when he saw him in a similar position in the car with Sofia. Sam was just the Good Samaritan who pulled Enrique off.
The detectives try to get Sam released from jail based on Enrique’s confession, but the stubborn ADA refuses to let him out, wryly noting that Enrique’s statement was obtained by Sam’s brother-in-law.
Finally, the detectives talk to Angelica herself. She says that Father Shay didn’t molest her – it was actually his supervisor, the Monsignor! Not only did the Monsignor rape her to “exorcise her demons,” he then forced her to have an abortion. Angelica’s stupid brother Enrique beat up the wrong priest.
Father Shay didn’t molest anyone. But . . . he did have an affair with Sofia’s mom. Sofia is actually his biological daughter, which is why he was so squirrely about the whole thing. This is one messed up parish.
By now, it’s Christmas Eve. Ice-T rushes to a judge’s home and gets the judge to sign papers releasing Sam. If only the detectives worked so quickly to arrest the Monsignor! Nick gets an arrest warrant for the Monsignor, but arrives at the judge’s house some time after Ice. We’re treated to another holiday montage: children singing in a choir, Ice-T sitting Norman-Rockwell-style for Christmas dinner with Sam, and Nick waiting outside the Cathedral with a warrant to arrest the Monsignor.
Too late.
We should have known, right? It’s been – what? – fifty minutes and hardly any blood. Holidays, schmolidays, this is still SVU.
Angelica storms into the holy night mass, draws out a big shiny revolver, and blasts several holes in the Monsignor’s chest. He dies, moaning and bleeding onto the marble floor.
Merry Christmas!
Olivia, thankfully, missed the holiday drama. She’s on a plane to take the first vacation I’ve seen her take in the last three seasons. She tells Nick she’s going with “a friend” – but we only see a glimpse of that friend’s mysterious hand, which set the Internet ablaze with speculation. Olivia smiles coyly at its owner’s face – which is offscreen – and the plane smoothly hits cruising altitude.
I hope she has a good vacation. She’s certainly earned it.
Verdict: B-
What they got right:
It’s true, only the most junior ADAs get stuck with court duty on holidays weekends.
What they got wrong:
Most of the episodes this season have featured cases the SVU squad shouldn’t be investigating. Detectives can’t investigate their relative’s cases. What juror could believe Ice-T when he said he obtained Enrique’s confession? Ice had a clear incentive to lie: to get his brother-in-law off. As soon as Sam was arrested, the entire SVU squad should have been walled off the case. (Not to mention the whole no-sex-crime part.)
As a writer, I understand the urge to make the case be about a main character’s relative. It ups the stakes, and makes things personal, and that’s what dramatic writing is all about. But this plot twist can’t happen in real life, and although I’m willing to suspend some disbelief, the fact that it happens every Wednesday night is making me throw a lot of popcorn at the TV.
The ADA got a lot wrong, even for a rookie on his first holiday assignment. The most glaring problem was that, at the detention hearing, he didn’t turn over Enrique’s confession. Major mistake, one for which he could get disbarred! At the detention hearing, Ice-T ran in and handed the ADA the confession. The ADA scoffed, then turned to the judge and argued to keep Sam in jail. In real life, a prosecutor is obligated to turn over Brady material – that is, evidence that the defendant didn’t commit the crime charged. This is especially important at a detention hearing, where the defendant’s very liberty is at stake. For all his self-righteousness, this ADA made one of the most serious errors a prosecutor can make.
Moreover, even after it was clear that Sam was only a Good Samaritan who stopped the real assailants, the ADA kept pressing charges against Sam, arguing that touching anyone else violated Sam’s probation. The ADA was wrong. There is a legal doctrine called “defense of others” – which is like “self-defense,” except when you’re saving someone’s life besides your own. Sam was legally allowed to pull the crazed Enrique off Father Shay. If touching someone violated Sam’s probation, that was something the Probation Board should take up – not the criminal courts.
What do you think, SVU fans? Have we reached the point where a priest alone in a car with a kid is automatically “presumed guilty”? Is this the world’s worst diocese? And who do you think is the owner of that mystery hand? Leave your comments!
December 31, 2012
New Year’s Resolutions – for writers and their protagonists
Maybe I should do that too. Perhaps some deep breathing would help me keep my calm with the kid/pet interactions? I could even tote the tots to mommy-kiddo yoga. Perhaps more downward dogs would lead to less swordplay with dogs?
This year, I resolve, the quiet will last ‘til at least 4:00 pm tomorrow.
What do you think? What’s the best New Year’s resolution you’ve ever made? Are you making one this year – and what is it? If you write – what would your protagonist resolve? Leave your comments.
Most importantly, have a very happy new year!
