The previous Season 12 episodes have been very hit and miss. The season started off brilliantly with four outstanding episodes in a row, due to dealing with difficult subjects intelligently and emotionally with a good deal of tension and a couple with the shock factor. "Behave" particularly stood out. It was from "Wet" onwards where the quality varied, though pretty much all the worst episodes of the season were in the second half, so pretty much post "Mask".
"Possessed" is another episode that is neither among the best or worst of the season. Other episodes of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' tackled bolder subjects and with even more edge and sensitivity than here, though "Possessed" is certainly not devoid of either. Other episodes at the same time had far less involving and even ridiculous stories and suffered from melodrama and some SVU members becoming less professional and likeable.
A lot is good here in "Possessed". The photography while very close up doesn't come over as too static or filmed play-like, while the production values are typically solid and have subtle atmosphere while not being drab and keeping things simple. When the music is used it is haunting and has a melancholic edge that is not overdone. The episode is sympathetically yet uncompromisingly directed.
Much of the script is tight and provokes a good deal of thought, not sugar coating the subject while not resorting to excessive shock value. The story is very disturbing and pulls no punches, has always given me the creeps. While all the regulars are great and Taryn Manning is affecting, the acting honours go to David Patrick Kelly, playing a truly malevolent creep with true malevolence.
On the other, "Possessed" is not perfect by all means. Hardwicke once again is very cold and calculating, seeming to not care for the victim and caring more about getting a result.
Furthermore, the ending is anti-climactic and ridiculously unrealistic, absolutely no way that what happens is how it was said to have happened so the outcome feels like a cheat.
Concluding, not great but well worth watching for particularly one performance. 7/10.
"Possessed" is another episode that is neither among the best or worst of the season. Other episodes of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' tackled bolder subjects and with even more edge and sensitivity than here, though "Possessed" is certainly not devoid of either. Other episodes at the same time had far less involving and even ridiculous stories and suffered from melodrama and some SVU members becoming less professional and likeable.
A lot is good here in "Possessed". The photography while very close up doesn't come over as too static or filmed play-like, while the production values are typically solid and have subtle atmosphere while not being drab and keeping things simple. When the music is used it is haunting and has a melancholic edge that is not overdone. The episode is sympathetically yet uncompromisingly directed.
Much of the script is tight and provokes a good deal of thought, not sugar coating the subject while not resorting to excessive shock value. The story is very disturbing and pulls no punches, has always given me the creeps. While all the regulars are great and Taryn Manning is affecting, the acting honours go to David Patrick Kelly, playing a truly malevolent creep with true malevolence.
On the other, "Possessed" is not perfect by all means. Hardwicke once again is very cold and calculating, seeming to not care for the victim and caring more about getting a result.
Furthermore, the ending is anti-climactic and ridiculously unrealistic, absolutely no way that what happens is how it was said to have happened so the outcome feels like a cheat.
Concluding, not great but well worth watching for particularly one performance. 7/10.
