SVU, I love you

I do watch a great deal of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. I have no interest in the original or Criminal Intent.

But something bothered me in an episode I saw last night. It was one of the more twisty ones with the plot doubling back on itself. The first twist was that the dead body ( a teenage boy) was thought to be a woman's son. She had reported him missing a decade before and was wrongly convinced that it was a sexual felon recently released from prison who nabbed him. There was no evidence that this was the case and the police dismissed her. The teenager is found in the same neighborhood as the felon and she identifies the boy as her son. She weeps thinking that he was alive and being tortured by the felon all this time.

Except she is wrong. The boy isn't her son. Right after she identifies him, someone else comes in and identifies him as a friend.

The case goes from there and never goes back to her.

That's what bothered me. I mean, I don't blame the show. They were trying to tell a story, that was a twist and they left it at that. There is only so much drama you can pack into an hour. But there's this woman, living under a delusion for ten years that this man killed her son.

No on tries to correct her or protect the sex offender. I'm not saying that a sex offender deserves protection. It is clearly stated that he raped a young boy and I don't have any sympathy for him. I just wonder about this woman. Clearly, she has suffered and has spent her life channeling her guilt into hounding this man.

Why couldn't they have spared two lines to make sure she got some help that she needed?

I know, I know, I'm taking television too personally again, but I think what we watch is very often a reflection on our culture. This woman was gravely ill. She was losing her life fighting against someone that may have had nothing to do with her son's disappearance. But she wasn't dangerous so we can't spend the time on her.

Food for thought?

Catch you on the flipside,
CGL