Munch My Benson: A Law & Order: SVU Podcast

The Unit wrestles with the seamy underbelly of human trafficking, sweatshop labor, and sketchy lawyers in an episode that puts Huang to work. Along the way we're treated to a mail-order marriage-to-be having the lies it was built upon exposed, knock-off Birkin bags, and transport mix-ups to Rikers in a trip through Chinatown where DVDs are counterfeited, the mail-order bride world is getting a spruced-up business model, and Elliot thinks a single Chinese mother of two working in sweatshops would gladly leave her infant alone with her six-year-old sister in the apartment for days to chill with her new guy.<...

With a ripped-from-the-headlines story owing to none other than serial dosing rapist Bill Cosby, Adam and Josh covered the disgusting territory laid out in Episode 9 from Season 18, “Decline and Fall.” If you’re wanting to hear the most repugnant filth spewing forth from the septuagenarian warden from The Shawshank Redemption, being forced to imagine him engaging in coitus repeatedly, while having Prezbo’s biography recontextualized by an episode of Law & Order: SVU, this is the episode for you.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S...

When a Grandma Sheila dream segues into the case of a girl who has been Munchausen-by-proxied into a severe learning disability, you can guess that we caught a Michael Chernuchin episode. Eventually, the girl kills her bad mom with a hammer which causes bad Barba to rear his ugly head to intentionally force a mistrial to ensure that this episode was a waste for everyone involved, especially the viewers.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, Jaclyn O, Tony B, Drew D, Nicky R, Stuart, Jacqi B, N...

The bad dads they are a-comin'!

The Randomizer gifted us with another standout bad dads episode of Law & Order: SVU (S8E2 "Clock"), wherein a young, but not criminally young, girl with mosaic Turner's Syndrome concocts an elaborate scheme to run away from her Canada curious father and into the arms of her proto-pedo lover. Of course we have plenty to talk about including abhorrent British comedy troupes and Yankees games from the mid-Aughts. Munch Away!

Sources:

The basics about mosaic Turner Syndrome - MassGeneral for Children

The Krankies reveal tr...

Oh, a crossover episode. Great...

Picking up the crossover-y pieces from an episode of Law & Order: Proper, the Munchie Boys are left to deal with an SVU wherein most of the interesting developments happened outside of their purview. This one spends a lot of time lamenting the death of a one-time kidnapping victim from a seminal ep of SVU, but we're also left to wade through dirty cops, stolen spent rubbers, priest red herrings, and the harrowing world of exploited and abused immigrants. The legacy of this show is also put under the microscope, as the future of...

As always, SVU manages to make a heartbreaking story (S9E16 "Closet") of a man's loss of his husband, his career, his brain function, and his celebrity into fodder for the Munchmill. We discuss our least favorite Oscar winners, lament the demise of office culture, shine the spotlight on a particularly bad grandpa, and spend entirely too much time discussing a character that is never seen nor directly heard from in the episode. 

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, Jaclyn O, Tony...

This week, our hero, Millie Vizcarrondo and the team at Cold Case solve a series of murders and disappearances from the 1970s that closely mirror the real life story of the Boy In The Cardboard Box.

Wait, what? So this purports to be an SVU, but you'd be forgiven if you think you're watching the wrong series. We also dive deep on the late '70s New York City schools and just how quickly OG Battlestar Galactica got its merch into young Bronxite hands.

Sources:

Killing Of Joseph Augustus Zarelli - Wikipedia

This week’s entry into the annals of Munchstory—SVU, S21E5, “At Midnight In Manhattan”—sent Adam and Josh caroming between three different stories in a rare exercise in single-weekend, multi-case, mom-card trumping storytelling, heavily featuring Carisi and Kat learning the ropes on their respective new jobs. Along the way, they decry the misidentification of doors, lament casting miscues, weigh the virtues of manners in new environs, and work their way through the indignity of seeing a slew of rich men’s knees. So come for the shoe-shaming, and stay for the nap chat whilst getting your Munch on.

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Say it ain't so, Seven!

In yet another episode of SVU that casts aspersions on the non-NYC parts of the country, Warren Leight decides to sully the reputation of Matt Saracen by making him a stepfather who has been raping his stepdaughter, who wants to flush out their rape-baby. Given that she's from Ohio which had just passed a fetal heartbeat abortion bill, this means we've got ourselves a polemic episode where backwards Buckeye State laws butt heads with the Big Apple, something that SVU rarely does well.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Mu...

Well, we've got ourselves another Mo-Mo incident in Times Square...

Needlessly picking up right from the smoldering wreckage of Liv freeing herself from her captor William Lewis by way of bludgeoning her captor with an iron bar, we get a stark ripped-from-the-headlines episode delving into the infamous Ariel Castro case. Kidnapping victims are held in cages in the basement and raped for decades, and Liv's PTSD is still very real. This episode dwells in darkness. That doesn’t mean the Munchie Boys have to, though, as the discussion veers into off-brand Muppets knockoffs, the ineptitude of the Cleveland Po...

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Stabler ruined his marriage to bust up a cabal of international monkey smugglers? This week, we learn the answer to that question as we also see what happens when legendary rappers are eaten by hyenas, and bald bosses are hugged by sweet gibbons. This was a Munchies' Choice and boy oh boy did it not disappoint. There might not be an SVU case here, but we are not complaining.

Sources:

Ming Of Harlem - Wikipedia

Farmer Killed By Lion Forgot To Lock Cage - UPI
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When last week's episode ended with Olivia Benson being taken captive by über-psychopath William Lewis, we knew that we'd be going deep into the darkest hour of SVU's storied run this week. This is 43 full minutes of torture porn so bleak and visceral that it's honestly shocking it aired on network television. Please prepare yourself for how messed up this episode is. Thankfully, Josh and Adam munch it up by talking about a diverse range of European arthouse classics you wouldn't want to bring a date to, our coffeeshop orders, and whether or not Pizza Man exists within the Fur H...

When SVU dips its toes in the waters of cutting edge technology, things tend to age like fine milk.

What happens when NYPD's Special Victims Unit faces a suspect who would be more at home on Pretty Little Liars than in a world hewing closer to reality? The Munchie Boys found out the answer to that question this week while they endured an exasperating episode that found them trying to talk about anything other than this dreadful SVU. Why can Chris Diamantopolous do absolutely everything with computers? Because a supervillain from a comic book swooped into this world...

Apparently everyone needed to wallow in the darkness of the William Lewis Saga again, this time starting at the beginning...

The Randomizer decided that everyone needed to wallow in the darkness of the William Lewis Saga again, this time starting at the beginning with “Her Negotiation,” the season finale of Season 14 complete with cliffhanger leaving our hero Olivia Benson in a very dark place. This obviously means the Munchie Boys have to deal with fur-humping, Plein Air Painters, the life's work of Frederick Law Olmstead, and the shooting star that was Matt Harvey's early baseball career. Oh, and a pa...

When a flash-mob smash-and-grab robbery leads to a violent rape, the woke mind virus nearly derails what should be a cut-and-dry case. This preposterous episode features anti-vanism, brother-of-sister shaming, a LOT of hygienic liner talk, a police precinct overrun by social media mad teens, and a "having a Cameroonian brother means I can't ID my rapist" defense. Truly deranged stuff people! Enjoy!

Sorry about posting this late. There is a wild story to tell about this which will be included in Episode 260.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munc...

Ever wonder what would happen when Benson, Stabler, and the Unit get tangled up in an investigation that sends them looking into the Gulf Cartel, the FBI, Los Zetas, the CIA, and Cuban revolutionaries? Well, wonder no longer because this time around we are diving in to Season 11, Episode 6 "Spooked" featuring Vincent Spano reprising the role of FBI Special Agent Dean Porter. It starts with the SVU version of the Wet Bandits finding a pair of staged corpses with a rape tree and some stolen implants in the back of a box truck and just gets stranger from there. It...

Fine dining is hell, apparently. If you don't believe The Bear, I guess you could turn to this SVU for further evidence, but that might be giving it more credit than it's due.

Here, we watch as Not Gordon Ramsey throws temper tantrums in his terribly named fine dining effort, pushing questionably sourced prawns, screaming at his runners, and sexually assaulting his waitstaff. This guy is a real a-hole, but he keeps shaking the charges, which leads the Unit to working with--or is it against--the Brooklyn ADA who really dug Stone's pickoff move. One look at which season...

Sometimes an SVU really does the racism. Then there's S7E6 Raw, which for an unfathomable 20:51 unfurls bigotry at an astonishing rate--an average of once every 23 seconds. And it doesn't even start until past the 16-minute mark. They pack so much hate into this episode that it left Adam and Josh dumbfounded.

We've also got Marcia Gay Harden back which means: a) bodies will drop, b) Stabler will get hurt, and c) maximum Foghorn Leghorning. This episode does the racism with such reckless abandon that you'd be hard-pressed to come up with an episode of television (network or...

The host of a wannabe TCAP ('To Catch A Predator') takes the law into her own hands in an attempt to track down the serial killer that abducted her sister 18 years ago. In talking about the guest stars, Josh pulls a trick no-one saw coming, and we wax poetic about 'Staten Island Shore,' the show we wish we had been watching instead. At least Sonya Paxton gets written off the show here, so that's cool.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, Jaclyn O, Amy Z, T...

While we felt like the title of SVU Season 8 Episode 22 "Screwed" was a little on the nose, it did provide ample ground for the usual Munchie business. We brainstorm a potential series of extreme #Beachhead fanfic, Adam casts his dog's voice actor, and Josh proposes an elaborate conspiracy by the showrunners against their own cast members. Enjoy!

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, Jaclyn O, Amy Z, Tony B, Drew D, Nicky R, Stuart, Jacqi B, Natalie T, Robyn S, Sean M, J...

Fin and the Unit get sucked into a rap beef that wouldn't put Kendrick Lamar and Drake to shame. As apparently has to be the case, Fin knows one of the rappers in question, going way back to his childhood with "Snake" Anderson. SVU brings in a big gun in Snoop Dogg and recognizable other talent of color in Orlando Jones and Amber Stevens West, but this is Season 20 SVU, so hoping that any of these three actors' talent was put to good use would be foolish. Little makes sense in this week's episode, and Fin probably commits a felony...

If you were expecting a nuanced take on the damage that prisons cause to those inside coming from in "Escape" (S5E11), you might be disappointed. In this SVU, two cons (Stephen Lang and Michael K. Williams) buy their way out of the joint, galavant around the town in drag, and take Olivia Benson to the Jersey Shore. We meet one of Liv's former paramours, decide whether or not unfortunate early '00s fashion choices were the result of America's imperialist adventures overseas, and listen as Adam summons an ancient one.

Music:

Divorcio Suave...

When the son of an influential right winger is found beaten to death and drenched in semen, red herrings abound until we learn the shocking truth.

That truth is that the munchies are in the throes of a full on Cassidissance. Our boy mayhem keeps his head throughout this season 1 attempt to tackle the time honored debate as to whether a criminal's nature causes them to commit heinous acts, or whether the terrible environment they were nurtured in is more to blame. I'm not sure the philosophy works, but theres plenty of fun to be had nonetheless.
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On this week's Munch My Benson, we wonder openly if the world would be a better place if the two leading actors from a certain 1985 Peace Corps comedy had a little less chemistry. While we certainly do break down this Season 12 stinker ("Delinquent") from the dark days just before Meloni left SVU, we go hard on the digressions in this one folks, so get ready for the only SVU podcast brave enough to incorporate Dolph Lundgren's Japanese bonafides, Finnish art house darling Aki Kaurismäki, and radical fecal gymnastics in a single episode.

Music:

D...

In yet another hysterical installment from this show, a young woman has the temerity to venture to the big city from her idyllic suburban life and immediately pays the price for that transgression. This being Law & Order: SVU, that price makes her a special victim. Here, a topsharking for hire--don't worry, we didn't know what that meant either--goes sideways real fast because Warren Leight's New York is teeming with monsters, and that's especially true at Wild Yaks shows. Don't worry, though, because Connecticutians do not get off scot-free here. The Big Apple may be scary, but the Constitution State is...

The Munchie Boys tackled a tough one this week, as Stabler is forced to investigate the murder of an admittedly odious perp he'd locked up previously. If ever there were an episode that wallowed in the "you can't choose your victims" edict, it's this one. "Victims" also has some pretty big names in it to go along with some pretty rough pre-9/11 fashion and a Guardian Angels storyline that gives Adam a bit to talk about.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, J...

For our first ever Season 27 episode of SVU, we caught a fun ripped-from-the-headlines story that manages to do the impossible. This tale of a serial doula-duper whose escalating fraud eventually lands her in the lap of our heroes has a twist I never saw coming. Michele Fazekas and her writing room have managed to make Olivia Benson seem fresh and interesting. It's good stuff and leaves me optimistic about the direction the show is headed.

Sources:

Brantford Doula Defrauder Gets Prison For Breaching Probation - The Brantford Expositor

The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby...

What happens when an accent choice derails an SVU where the initial crime is wrapped up in an open-and-shut murder at minute 19 and becomes a bizarre cold-case-cum-morality-play sans benefit of flashback? Well, the Randomizer selected “Persona” (Season 10, Episode 8), so Adam and Josh found out the hard way. For far from the first time in the run of Munch My Benson, a foreign-born actor plays fast and loose with a wavering accent. This time, the offender was two-time Oscar-nominee Brenda Blethyn, whose presence pulls a certain big gun down from the bench to settle a 34-year-old score. Along the way, the ques...

With the Unit and Liv in some serious transitional waters, IAB Lieutenant Ed Tucker comes in and muddies those waters up something fierce as he draws Liv's new roommate/boyfriend Brian Cassidy into an undercover sting for the Rat Squad to earn him a gold star and re-entry to the hallowed halls of the proper NYPD. Of course, this being the Warren Leight years, Benson and her relationship are put through the ringer, as the 12th Precinct is as dirty as it gets and Cassidy gets caught up in some pretty dicey stuff with a scuzzy cop and his sad...

This week the Munchie boys watched “Counselor, It’s Chinatown” (S21E7) a wildly inappropriate Law and Order: SVU which has Josh and Adam careen from such wildly disparate topics as: Is noted scumbag Chris D'Elia is a cardigan guy? Which professions suffered most during the Chinese Cultural Revolution? And, does the NYPD have an undercover dog requisition service? We'll rub and tug our way to the bottom of these and many, many more questions. Sadly, due to climate change, there is a lot of Max on this one.

Sources:

Massage Parlors with 'Happy Ending...

This week the Munchies chose an episode in which Adam "Gamergate" Baldwin introduces us to everyone's favorite ADA, Raphael Barba. Rollins, Munch, and Amaro start a book club about the hottest new chic-bondage-lit sensation, Twenty-Five Acts, whose author turns out not to be the author which doesn't prevent her from being raped by a terrible talk show host, who shockingly is not a cabinet member in our current administration. As the pièce-de-résistance, Barba engages in a little inculpatory choke play to guarantee his first high-profile conviction as a member of the unit.

Music:

Divorcio Su...

After Adam tells of his travails in the Texas winter storm and ensuing power outages, the Munchie Boys get down to business, reckoning with the ghost of series past while persevering through an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit featuring a robot child mimicking human emotion stuck in the strangest of custody battles in “Stolen” (S3E3). While dealing with a bonafide Cragenisode courtesy of his former partner Max Greevey’s cold case getting tossed in the microwave, Adam and Josh also dive into post-9/11 SVU credits, do some height detective work, walk the Appalachian Trail with Mark Sanford, and un...

What if Carl from Shameless was a homicidal maniac in training? That's the question this episode of SVU poses, and it's the one the Munchie Boys have to wrestle with here. They are also forced to wonder if psychopathy is endemic to a privileged youth and if waffles are the breakfast of choice for youngsters with an unquenchable bloodlust, so this one definitely trods into some weird turf.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, Jaclyn O, Amy Z, Diana R, Tony B, D...

Elliot meets another father of a daughter, only the other father's daughter just died in an alley having just been sodomized and humiliated, meaning there's some sympathy pain for Stabes to experience. These fathers are both on a tear, and it's hard to say who does more damage in this one. Needless to say, if Stabler’s getting reprimanded by Cabot for helping a suspect, things are topsy-turvy in Dadland. Of course, this being Munch My Benson means there are tangents, including what kind of bets a college kid could have made to dig himself a $5K hole on the 2003 Su...

This week's episode starts with a mutilated corpse found in the Hudson then heads out on a wild ride from amateur porn shoots to borderline psychotic astronomy fans. We also learn the deep mystery behind Dickie Stabler's name, and we see Elliot's faith in his boyhood heroes get shattered like the glass display case into which he throws Big Dick Finley (James 'Fucking' Brolin). Lots to see here folks. Lots.

Sources:

A History of Space Sickness: How to Avoid Throwing Up When There is No ‘Up’ - Space Centre UK

Music:

Divorcio Suav...

In this exercise in somewhat effective stunt-casting, Stabler gets pitted against his untethered analog, a rage-fueled annihilator of tween girls played by erstwhile star actor Matthew Modine. Yes, this week, the Munchie Boys took on “Rage” (SVU S6E17). In a structurally odd episode that pits rager against rager in a ticking-clock, nearly locked-room scenario until it suddenly isn’t and renders much of what preceded moot, Stabler tries to nab the one who got away while confronting his own anger management issues. Don’t worry, there’s also talk of malodorous food PsyOps, truly pornographic whistling, edging, the nature of the San...

How bad can a foot fetish get? Pretty bad, apparently...

The Tibetan Freedom Movement, haute couture boots, Green Card marriages, and extreme foot fetishism all collide in this classic grab-bag installment of SVU. A couch ends up being at the center of the action in this episode, which we'll all assume got the sitting Vice President of the United States all hot and bothered. We also have a stealthy very bad mom in the mix, which makes us question everything about small business owners.

Sources:

Criminal Responsibility of the Frontal Lobe Syndrome...

This week, The Munchie Boys tackle a Finisode preoccupied with unpacking Fin's history while an undercover with Narcotics, more than a decade after the fact. Rollins gets improbably shot, which leads to an unhealthy dose of police brutallity and metaphorical prison rape threats, but that's not nearly as shocking as some truly disturbing home-decor-driven revelations upon meeting a seemingly normal family with a secret left unspoken.

Alexandra Eames also pops up in this episode, which means there’s a little bit of Criminal Intent’s history to deal with, and there are a ton of guest stars with SUPE...

This week, the randomizer gifted us with the full Season 1, Sex Crimes, experience.

Were there wildly salacious, sexual details? Check. Was there an unnecessary amount of esoteric racism? Obviously. Was there a heavily featured banana in a butt? Yes there was. We also get whisked along on Adam's memory lane as he waxed poetic about his time on Brighton Beach.

Music:

Divorcio Suave - “Munchy Business”

Thanks to our gracious Munchies on Patreon: Jeremy S, Jaclyn O, Amy Z, Diana R, Tony B, Drew D, Nicky R, Stuart, Jacqi B, Natalie T, Roby...

For Father’s Day, the Randomizer decided to troll dads everywhere with a tale of woe and trauma that sure makes one father look AWFUL. We watched "Redemption In Her Corner" (S21E13) this week. Don’t worry though because plenty of other people get some stink on them too because this is Law & Order: SVU, after all. As per usual, Adam and Josh go down innumerable rabbit holes—trying to figure out just what Liv’s birthday actually is, wondering what Barba was doing in Iowa investigating election fraud for primaries that don’t exist, the origins of the boxing for...