Wednesday, July 16, 2008

SVU Marathons Hijack My Life

It happens every weekend, almost without fail.

I will plan my quality time with TV. There’s the hours allotted to a lovely slow wake up lounging in front of my roommates orgasmically large plasma TV.

On the couch I usually view DVR’d programs that I’ve been looking forward to. I get oh-so-comfy as I rub the sleep from my eyes. After my scheduled programs have completed, that’s when I take a gander at the channel listing.

And that’s when they get me.

It’s either USA Networks, Bravo, or TNT that is airing them,

And you can never have just one after you watch them.

That’s right folks,

Law & Order marathons.

I can take about two hours of plain old Law & Order.

I will go about 4 episodes deep of Criminal Intent (To be honest, I find most of the Criminal Intent marathons run short for me because they have a heavy hand on rotating in the same episodes. This is most likely because there are some episodes that are really not worth repeating of Criminal Intent, and it’s a young show. In a couple of years though, I’ll probably be able to take more episodes. That Vincent Dinafrio* is a trip!)

Special Victims Unit though, it takes hold of me.

I have spent entire 24 hour periods watching this show. Sometimes I don’t even mean to keep watching, they just keep coming and every story is more fucked up than Maury Povich’s wildest guests on crime sprees.

Not only is the story telling compelling, but it’s the only one of the Law & Order that really gets you committed to the characters. Since they deal with the most horrific crimes, they get background stories. It’s not as invasive as cop shows such as NYPD Blue, but you have a good idea the reasons they take on the sex crimes.

The best cop on the cast is the most experienced NBC police officer, Detective Munch, from the Baltimore unit in Homicide, otherwise known as Richard Belzer. His ability to attach himself from the crime and have witty jabs and off kilter conspiracy theories is always a refreshing injection into their dark stories.

But let's be honest, when it comes down to it, the best part has to be this guy:

No comments: