Countdown

The race against time sort of story has been frequently done on film and in television, so by the time 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit's' "Countdown" was made it was hardly innovative and has been seen many times since with varied success. Whether that actually matters or not is dependent on how though the story is executed, with it needing a lot of tension to work. So whether it is edge of the seat stuff or dull and too derivative.

"Countdown" is an example of the former luckily. One of the best episodes of Season 2 and of the show's early seasons. That the concept was not a new one was not a problem here at all in "Countdown", as the material actually felt very fresh, any turns in the plot not being too obvious, and had many moments where it chilled and surprised. It also didn't matter at all that the outcome was ever so slightly on the easy side, when the ending itself is still incredibly gripping and the killer makes a big impression here.

It starts off in a way that intrigues from the get go and already there is tension. Something that continues all the way through the episode, both in the events of the case and the team interaction, up to the nail-biting climax. The screen time for the killer is short, but the scare factor that he has means that a major impression was made. There are plenty of turns, meaning that nothing is too predictable, and the tension and suspense really sears in the latter parts when it becomes increasingly urgent.

Absolutely loved the team interaction, where one sees how the case affects the team personally (i.e. sleep deprivation) and how they act towards each other at work (snapping so easily, which does cause a bit of a shock), making the urgency in solving the case even more rootable than it already is. The writing delivers brilliantly on the tautness and edge, but does provide some welcome and genuinely amusing humour at the same time ("I'm not tipping all of you"). The acting all round is very good, regulars and supporting. The killer's acting is as creepy as one can get.

Have no issues with the production values, fitting the atmosphere very aptly. The music is not overused or over-bearing, the theme tune still being memorable. The direction avoids things from getting mundane or dull.

Summing up, brilliant. 10/10

Little Sophie Douglas escapes her abductor's van before he has the chance to kill her. A pattern emerges with Sophie's rape and kidnapping, and past unsolved killings with the same M.O. This guy likes to kidnap young girls, take pictures of them in various costumes, then throws a twisted "party" for them before he rapes and kills them. Time is running out as another young girl is believed to be held by the same perpetrator, and Sophie may hold the key to identifying her attacker.

This is another L&O SVU compelling episode, but of course has the same layout as all of the other episodes: Crime occurs, Benson and Stabler get emotionally involved as they try to solve the case, after a few bumps in the road, they catch their "perp," but of course, not without an unexpected twist.

By the way, you may recognize the little girl who plays Sophie Douglas from Desperate Housewives as Susan Mayer's daughter, Julie.

The escape of young Andrea Bowen from the back of a van starts the SVU squad on another case which turns into a hunt for a serial killer. This individual targets girls in the high single digit age range as victims and its Bowen's testimony that provides the squad with a pattern they can use to track him down.

In another episode it was mentioned that what may have brought Mariska Hargitay to SVU was her way with victims. That is shown to a high degree in her interrogation of Bowen held by the way against the will of Bowen's mother.

As for the arrest the mother of another victim not so lucky gives Christopher Meloni a picture of her daughter which happens to provide the clue that finally gives the killer an identity.

Nerves get very frayed on this SVU episode as the squad works almost without sleep for 72 hour to catch this loathsome creep.

Without giving away plot ruining spoilers, the squad figures out that their dealing with a serial killer(cold cases help them figure out that this wasn't a stranger snatch and grab like they originally thought)...The unsub spends 72 hours(about 3 days) with each victim before he/she kills them. So it ends up being a race against the clock episode, which makes it very exciting and drama filled, cause there's no time to waste.

They gotta figure out, The Who, how, what, why(youd rather not even wanna know the why... but the why could lead to The Who...so the cops gotta know why or speculate as to why) and then the where(once you know The Who, the where becomes a lot easier).

So the squad dives right in, and they Find a lot of these answers(partially anyway) out because they have a witness who got way....but without giving away spoilers....the victim is like 8 so she doesn't give them much of anything especially pertaining to the where, what, Who, why and how....and the mom cuts the interview short....so they gotta go back to the drawing board and pretty much start from scratch...

See, no spoilers... So go watch....

But as far as the episode, I love the race against the clock theme going on....and the speed, in which they have to move, in order to catch The unsub( cause to call him human just seems wrong) but the sad truth is there are people like him lurking around everywhere...

Anyways great episode. I love the mystery surrounding it. It's got like a cat and mouse feel to it. There another episode like this one too. I forget the season but the unsub leaves behind clues and hints on how to catch him. It's got that mysterious vibe, and leaving behind the whole "who done it" vibe in that episode too. I love when you don't know who the bad guy is, until the end...and during the show, they throw in the false leads....And Then pretty soon the whole audience is trying to figure out who really did it lol Yeah, Sometimes they make it too obvious but when it's done right, it's rewarding when you figure it, especially when the detectives in the show/movie were wrong...Anyways I'm way off topic lol great episode!