Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Stolen (2001) User Reviews

When it comes to children, parents must be selfless

[labenji-12163 · 7/10 · 19 November 2020]

As far as this episode, it is a tragedy for all parties involved, but the father, while pitiable is acting selfishly -- his biological child is now a tween and completely bonded with his adoptive parents -- he should be seeking visitation rights, but not looking to uproot the child from his family and friends at this point in the child's life. He is also setting himself up to be resented by his son. I don't believe the courts had a choice, but the biological father did -- and he choose what made him for feel better and not what his son wanted.

As for the grand-parents, also selfish. Why in the world they thought they should be given custody of a 12 year old over the biological father or adoptive parents. Again, once they knew their grandson would be well taken care of by either adoptive or biological father, they should stepped in the background until custody was determined and then sought visitation

Coming at a price

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 25 June 2020]

There is so much to admire about the previous two seasons of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit', where even the weakest episodes were still decent and the best brilliant and classics of the whole 'Law and Order' franchise. The same can be said with Season 3 as well, which quality-wise is hardly inferior and for me actually it's the most consistent quality-wise between it and the Seasons 3 of the original 'Law and Order' and 'Criminal Intent'. "Repression" is very good" and "Wrath" is excellent.

So is "Stolen". It is one of the more emotional episodes of Season 3, with a very hard-hitting and sensitive subject tackled. It was great too to see Cragen get more prominence, which he didn't get enough of in the early seasons, and have less emphasis on Stabler and Olivia every now and again. Don't get me wrong, they are great characters but it is nice when there are episodes that focus on a different team member(s) and previous and succeeding episodes have been brilliant at this. Notably Season 2's "Manhunt", centered around Munch and Fin, and the episodes where we see a softer side to Munch ("Remorse" and especially "Legacy").

In "Stolen", the slick grit and the sharper and tighter visual look is still maintained, and equally had no problems with the generally understated and not too melodramatic music. Nor with the sympathetic but crisp direction or the strong performance all round. The standout here being Dann Florek in an authoritative and moving performance, that is up there among his best of the show.

Furthermore, "Stolen" is a wonderfully written episode. With tense exchanges between Cragen and Cabot (Stephanie March suitably icy) about how the case is conducted, how thoughtfully and poignantly done the courtroom scenes are and even some welcome dry humour from Munch. As well as a poignant reference to the original 'Law and Order's' Season 2 opener "Confession".

Plus the story is a powerful one and also very emotional. While the kidnapping case had tension and had a beautiful moment with Stabler and the baby, the whole Tyler custody battle plot is even more powerful and ends in a way that makes one feel sad and also angry.

Did feel though that the biological father is treated rather unfairly when he is not even the "villain", who should have been treated more harshly, of the story.

Bottom line, another excellent episode and anybody who likes Cragen will think no different. 9/10

A three way tug of war

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 8 July 2014]

Benson and Stabler take a back seat to their captain in this SVU episode. This one is Dann Florek's show and though he gets to close a very old case from his days as Captain in the 27th precinct on Law And Order prime, it comes at a high price for a pair of families.

It starts with a baby snatching from a department store. It was a crack head who snatched the infant to sell to a baby broker played by Bruce Altman. Altman has quite a racket going in adoptions though he does not kidnap the babies per se. But this one which he bought no questions asked leads to another from over a decade earlier. It was the late Sergeant Max Greevey's case from those early days of Law And Order though it was not an episode of that series.

A college student who had recently given birth was murdered and her baby snatched and sold to Altman. As Richard Belzer says to Florek he's on a mission. Before he's through there's a custody battle being waged between the now 12 year old's adopted parents, his birth grandparents and his biological father who never knew about him before.

How it comes out I dare not reveal, but it's an ongoing tragedy that started with the mother's murder and now a three way tug of war with three different parties all wanting to do the right thing.

Captain Craigin closes a case, but what a price.

Excellent, until that ending

[bettyegriffinunderwood · 8/10 · 13 April 2022]

An excellent episode, except for the way it ended...

***SPOILER ALERT***

I kept hoping the biological father would, in the closing minutes of the episode, change his mind and do what was best for the child: Generous visitation so he and his boys could get to know his son/their brother, with some kind of visitation worked out for the maternal grandparents as well. It would only do the child good to know that he has another father and half-siblings (and brothers his own age to boot), as well as another set of grandparents who all love him. I felt so badly for him and also for his adoptive parents, who were such good, loving people. In a twisted way, it reminded me of a child slave sold away from his parents. I can only hope that perhaps the father realized his son wouldn't be happy and returned custody to the parents who raised him, with the boy required to spend time with him and his grandparents...

Good but

[ChristianP96 · 8/10 · 20 August 2022]

Judge's ruling was insane. She certainly had the discretion to leave the child with his adoptive parents, and there was likely precedent for this exact situation. Taking him away from his family doesn't make any sense. Poorly written conclusion to an otherwise great episode.

a too deliberately constructed unhappy ending

[wdstarr-1 · 5/10 · 3 December 2020]

This is one of the few episodes from the early seasons that I have to call a loser. The problem is that the script so *deliberately* drives the story into an unhappy, if not actually tragic ending just for the sake of having such an ending. That both the boy's biological father *and* his maternal grandparents would be so incredibly selfish as to seek to tear him away from the only family he'd ever known already put a strain on credibility, but the family court judge's bewilderingly insane ruling, which completely disregarded the best interests of the child, just blew it completely out of the water.

Good Story, Poor Characters

[adamplace · 4/10 · 26 April 2021]

The initial mystery, a kidnapped child leading to an unscrupulous adoption lawyer and a murder-kidnapping from a dozen years ago, is a great idea for an SVU episode. My problem with it lies in the three groups of people all competing for custody of the kidnapped child. I found it not only unbelievable, but also unlikeable, that each of these people (the adoptive parents who were unaware of the kidnapping, the biological father who was unaware the child was ever born, and the biological maternal grandparents) would, within 24 hours of finding out the child's story, would so immediately turn into selfish, possessive narcissists.

The adoptive parents are the most understandably protective of their custody, but they irrationally turn angry at Capt. Cragen for, essentially, solving a kidnapping, simply because they're the beneficiaries of that kidnapping. I don't get it; a woman was murdered, and her child stolen and sold to them, and they think the police should have just said "no harm, no foul"? The biological father, without knowing anything other than that the kid has lived in a good home his whole life, wants to jump in and take full custody, for no other reason than he "would have been there" had he known? And the grandparents, just because they've bought and kept some gifts for a child they only met as a newborn, think they're owed some kind of instant gratification when the child is found, and (again) get irrationally angry at the police when they don't get it?

Sorry, I know these competing interests are written to create a conflict for dramatic purposes, but the fact that each of these people are written with such one-dimensional attitudes is so distracting and irritating that it makes the second half of the episode almost unwatchable. That being said, Dann Florek gives a great performance, as he always did anytime he was the focus of an episode. But this episode falls into the trap that so often affected L&O episodes from any of the series: one-dimensional guest characters whose only motivation seems to be to create enough conflict to stretch the story long enough to fill an hour of television. You'd see it with original L&O, anytime a judge would reach for an absurd reason to throw out evidence of a slam-dunk guilty verdict, and you see it here.

Yawn... booooring

[spunkins · 1/10 · 1 July 2023]

Even watching it at x4 speed this wasn't exciting and it still dragged.

Series one was excellent. Series two was still good, now it's getting boring. There is only so much rape and perversion that one can take. Binge watching this just makes you realise how smart and formulaic the whole series has become.

They find a victim, then after following up a number of false leads, the end is in sight and then a twisted ending with a sting in the tail.

I only started watching this because I wanted to see more of Munch, but he doesn't feature very much.

To be honest, all of the good characters were at the start of series one and then they slowly all got killed off.

I don't think that I can be bothered to finish watching anymore of this current series. I'm out.