Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Friending Emily (2012) User Reviews

Little sister Kim arrives

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 22 July 2020]

Young adolescent Catherine Missal goes missing from a fraternity party she shouldn't have been in the first place at. The whole squad is mobilized for this case and they bring in the FBI and a hacker looking to cut his sentence for a crime he committed.

But Kelli Giddish has her own problems when her out of control little sister arrives played by Lindsay Pulsipher. This comes when Rollins i trying to get her gambling problem under control. Another addict to a wild life she doesn't need.

As for the crime, young Ms. Missal falls in the hands of a realcreepy spciopath Chris Coy. The SVU squad traces Missal through the lives of Coy's other victims and there are many.

Pulsipher makes several more appearances causing no end of grief for Giddish.

Searching for suspense

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 12 July 2022]

'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' really did vary when it came to showing the detectives' personal lives. It did well with Stabler and Olivia in the early seasons, where there was some powerful storytelling that furthered their character development. Too many personal life stories however did come over as melodramatic and was focused upon too much, doing so while overshadowing the case, especially in the latter seasons.

"Friending Emily" focuses upon the personal life of Amanda Rollins, something that was needed as she was a pretty underdeveloped character in Season 13. Rollins' personal life dramas was hit and miss for me, the gambling story was on the whole done very well indeed and was illuminating, but the dysfunctional family stuff never worked for me. And it doesn't here. With "Friending Emily", we have our first average or less episode of Season 14 and one of the season's weakest episodes.

There are good things. The production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The regulars are very good, with Kelli Giddish beginning to hit her stride.

Chris Coy also registers memorably in a truly creepy turn, a case of a great guest performance that deserved a better episode. Rollins' development was appreciated.

Unfortunately though, her subplot is poorly handled and that was always the case whenever her family life was explored. There is far too much of the subplot, which is full of overripe dialogue, soapy and tension free melodrama, truly obnoxious over-acting from Lindsay Pulsipher and was just not interesting. Kim is one of those characters that is impossible to engage with or invest in, her manipulation is too overt and there is just something off about her from the very start. What always strained credulity when any episode with Kim happens is how easily naiive Rollins is.

Also found the case far too thin in content and pedestrian in pace, as well as being riddled with predictability and completely lacking in tension. The outcome is easily foreseeable far too early, which takes away from the suspense, and all the characters are underdeveloped and one dimensional. While liking Amaro in Season 13, Season 14 really overdid his hot headed-ness and his development has been too reminiscent of Stabler 2.0. There is a lack of chemistry between the SVU and the dialogue is trite and overripe.

Overall, not a good episode. 4/10.

Pedestrian

[bkkaz · 2/10 · 15 April 2021]

This is right about the time when the writing on SVU got really banal and soap opera-y. It starts with the introduction of Rollins' sociopath sister, an entirely unappealing character who exemplifies "trash" to the point of stereotype and makes Rollins dorky when it comes to her family. It's hard to fathom how Rollins could qualify to work in a "special victims unit" when her street smarts concerning her own sister, who practically screams every scene "I'm a horrible manipulative monster," are nonexistent. The general plot of the episode -- concerning a kidnapped and abused young woman who then acts as bait to kidnap and abuse other young women -- has been done before on SVU, but this time around, there's little complexity. The bad guy is a creep (because how could he not be) with no dimension; his enabler somehow devoid of the capacity to doubt his lies that no one bothered to look for her. It's one of those episodes where the characters are twisted toward the outcome and message. SVU episodes would continue this trend, with little exception for the next 10 years or so, as they became more preachy.