Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Strange Beauty (2012) User Reviews

Limit and Limitlessness of Ideals

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 23 July 2021]

It's one of those interesting, chilling stories that starts out as a criminal case and then turns mind-blowing.

It is also proof that the ideals in life come from one's life. Like two doctors who lost their alcoholic mothers in a traffic accident... They became doctors because of what happened to their mother. To help people...

Olivia also became a cop in her mother's and her own case and works at SVU.

They are, of course, very humanistic ideals. It is the best thing that can be done for the world.

So, does this idealism have a limit or no limit? There is some answer to that in this story.

Very strange episode

[marysammons-42220 · 6/10 · 28 December 2019]

This is one of the stranger episodes of SVU. Body modification isn't new but cutting off limbs? Turns out a wacko shrink is trying to make these woman like his mother who lost her leg in an accident. He gives you the creeps for sure. But the girl Jess? Who actually goes around with a wooden leg in this day and time? Maybe she can't afford a prosthetic?

Truly Weird

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 3 November 2013]

The SVU squad has investigated many a strange case in its run on television, but this episode has to rank among the truly weird that they have done.

Kelli Giddish witnesses a young girl abducted in a cab and the squad goes on the case. First one of her legs turns up in the Gowanus Canal with an identifying tattoo and later the rest of her. In between that the squad gets into the truly bizarre world of body modification.

I can't think of any one of us who wouldn't if they could modify a piece of our anatomy if they could. But cutting off a perfectly good limb isn't something we run across every day.

The investigation leads to a pair of brothers, a dentist and a psychiatrist who have some real family issues regarding limb amputation. That's all I'm about to say about this weird episode.

One hopes the SVU writers aren't running dry.

Very strange and far from a beauty

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 24 June 2022]

On first watch, which was when it first aired pretty much, "Strange Beauty" definitely stood out. Sadly not for the right reasons and not in a good way. It was one of only two episodes from Season 13 to do nothing for me on first watch, the other being "Learning Curve". Both coming over as having some good things but with such flawed storytelling and with too much of a tried too hard feel. Have said about being surprised by Season 13 on the whole, but it did have its disappointments.

"Strange Beauty" still a few rewatches later, having watched the whole show more than once over time through regular airings, is one of those disappointments. If there was a contender for the worst episode of Season 13, this would be a worthy winner (though it was a tough call between this and "Learning Curve", this gets the slight edge because at least that episode wasn't as uncomfortably weird). And it definitely replaces "Street Revenge" as the weirdest episode of the season and one of the weirdest in 'Special Victims Unit' history.

There are good things. The production values are still slick and suitably gritty (without being too heavy in it). The music is not too melodramatic and is not used too much, even not being too manipulative in revelations.

Acting from the regulars is dependably good and that Rollins is more interesting and more developed here than in her previous episodes and that Kelli Giddish is starting to relax were appreciated. The start intrigued.

However, a lot doesn't work. And not just doesn't quite, we're talking at all. The story is a big disorganised, borderline incoherent mess, due to trying to do too much in the second half and not doing enough of any of its elements. Elements that had some potential on paper but botched and excessively strange in execution. Calling the second half especially strange is an understatement with too much of an already weird turn in the plot in a jarring gear change being confusingly done. Everything with the body parts just perplexed me.

While the subject matter is disturbing and had the makings for a disturbing episode, the episode does overdo the squeamish factor to the point of gratuity. Too much of the dialogue is too forced and soapy and the pace is as erratic as the story, dull in the first half and choppy in the second. The supporting cast don't register that well in sketchily written roles, so they don't come over as memorable. It did feel to me too much like a 'Criminal Intent' episode except without the delving of the perpetrator's mind, which there isn't enough of due to too much emphasis on the shock value.

Summing up, really, really weird. 4/10.

Written by a 15-year-old?

[bkkaz · 2/10 · 14 February 2021]

In more recent years, so many SVU episodes seem like submissions to a high school creative writing class, with loopy psychobabble and soap opera dialogue. "Strange Beauty" is one of those episodes, a talky clunker that posits a childhood tragedy leads to a lifelong obsession that is extreme to the point of absurdity. The basic idea is good -- some lunatic is kidnapping women and sawing their leg off. When one of them turns up dead, it's up to the intrepid SVU team to enter the kooky world of body modification and dentistry. Don't worry, that will sorto f make sense if you watch the episode. What won't make as much sense is the underlying psychological platform upon which all this is based.