Law & Order SVU "Undercover Mother" Episode Discussion

learned:

* the acting was off in this one. like you had these scenes where the characters are supposed to be intense and the setting is supposed to be threatening and dangerous, but either the music cue doesn't come on in time or it's the wrong music or the actors are saying their lines like they're reading it off the script for the first time, the scenes hang there and go limp, no impact at all. you just see all throughout that this isn't real in any way, you see the stitches of this being a fake play, so there are no stakes at all.

* Lili Taylor was nicely understated in this one, i liked her brand of acting, it's almost all internal, not showy. there was no bombastic bawling of eyes out when she finally reunited with her daughter, it was temperate and maybe she was too full of stunned silence to explode. she imploded. it was so low-key in fact that when she gave that look, that nod of agreement when no one was watching her in that scene, i thought that was a tell to the audience and half-expected her to end up being in on the scam, a larger broader scam maybe, that that really wasn't her daughter, perhaps she was the real head undercover madam the whole time and was double-agenting the cops.

* Rollins: do you have to focus on that woman's big phat ass?
Carisi: whoa, whoa, i'm just getting into my undercover role. my role is of a man.
Liv: you think that's hot? wait till you see my butt later on.
Carisi: wait, what?
Liv: spoilers.
Rollins: i'm interested, too.

* pimp's head girl-organizer: aw man, why'd you have to do this on Super Bowl Sunday?
Carisi: i know, right? i want to see Beast Mode. nobody can stop Beast Mode, not the Patriots, not any group of men. Beast Mode will rush it into the end zone i'm predicting like three or four times, enough to win the game, that's obviously the game plan, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know this, everyone knows this.

* babysitter: you're all dolled up, Liv! never seen you like this before. you're hot! well, hotTER.
Liv: thanks. like my bodacious booty in these leather pants?
Ice-T: yeah mama i do, and i know asses.
Liv: better than your wife's?
Ice-T: i know this isn't pc to say, but yeah, yours is better. sorry, boo, but Liv is bae.

* Declan: i'm deadly serious, you got me?
pimp: sorry, dude, that accent, i can't take you seriously, i mean all i'm hearing is the Lucky Charms leprechaun.
Declan: whatever, i leave for Gotham tonight anyway, forget you.

* Barba: sorry?! that's it?! Liv, you're lucky you've got a nice ass.

* Melinda Warner: and now in my best Maury: Liv, that creep is your baby's father.
Liv: come on, writers, you should have made it Elliot Stabler's. you know it, you know it. you know that's what you really wanted to write.