Untitled

Season 10 was actually a very solid season, with a vast majority of the episodes being good to outstanding. Albeit with one episode that was slightly above average, one that really went down in my estimations and also two that never clicked with me. It's not the consistently great quality that the too short Season 10 of 'Criminal Intent' was, but it is infinitely better than that for 'Special Victims Unit', which was a very slow starter, succeeded by moments of greatness in its mid period and then ended badly.

The slightly above average episode of Season 10 was this, "Untitled". It is not a bad episode, none of the season's episodes are, there are good things and it starts off well. It's just uneven and finishes a lot weaker than it started. Liked the idea, which was intriguing if quite strange, but the execution was inconsistent. Most episodes this season had one half being better than the other, and that is the case here but in a different way to the others.

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. The direction has enough momentum while not rushing. The writing in the first half entertains, intrigues and engages, with some snappy lines from Briscoe and Green. The artistic expression argument is handled very well.

Moreover, the story is very engaging in the first half, with enough twists to stop it from being too simple or too conventional without going overboard and confusing the drama. The character writing is on the most part very well done, if more the supporting characters this time than the leads. The regulars are all excellent and Bruce MacVittie unsettles in an interesting role where one is unsure what the outcome would be.

Personally didn't find the second half as strong. It does intrigue, but the pace loses its tautness, the script doesn't feel as focused or as tight and the case becomes thinner rather than more complex. Didn't really buy the defense argument, which was pretty bizarre (especially the excuse) and on the extreme side (to me the murder was too calculated and brutal for the argument that they were trying to make). There are definitely a lot more ridiculous and improbable defense arguments in the show's history (i.e. "Scoundrels", "Remand"), but this was an easily dismissable one and could have been explored more.

Also thought the ending was another rushed one and it was like the verdict had already been decided very early on without taking into account other possibilities.

Overall, above average if not great. 6/10.

Watching this episode instead of Andres Serrano and the 'Piss Christ' painting that was so controversial, I thought of that failed artist turned house painter who worked in Vienna in the last century, Adolph Hitler. If instead of turning to politics he decided to become a critic of his contemporaries and did what he did to artists and in this case art patron what the world would have missed had he limited the scope of his psychotic rage.

The murder victim is a rich young woman who patronizes budding artists and in this case her largess was directed at Steven Ogg who painted a work showing a woman with no hands. That offended Bruce MacVittie so he kills the victim and slices her hands off in the process.

It's free speech and artistic expression that are at issue here for Sam Waterston and Angie Harmon. Yet the very fact that the painting's offensiveness is being used by the defense as MacVittie's excuse for murder. Of course the hope is that the jury will deadlock finding at least one similarly minded puritan among the twelve.

MacVittie like Hitler was a struggling artist. What if some people had bought one or three of Adolph's works? The mind boggles.