Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Ace (2010) User Reviews

What a collection of sleaze

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 27 February 2020]

This SVU story maybe has the biggest collection of sleazy characters in one story. Of course that does not include ADA Sharon Stone who gets to prosecute these people.

Rapist Robert Mouzakas is the first. His kick is raping pregnant women and one of the women he has raped is a Bulgarian tourist who is really here to sell off her baby. That leads to the big investigation where baby broker Gordana Rashovich is killed by someone looking to silence potential witnesses.

The biggest sleaze of all is Pasha Lychnikoff the head of the racket who is brimming with confidence that he's murderously tying up the loose ends. Naturally he's represented by Delaney Williams, SVU's number one guest criminal shyster.

It's a great story, but what a collection.

SVU is hitting 2 for 2 with Sharon Stone

[garrard · 9/10 · 6 May 2010]

"Ace" is the second of the four-episode arc with guest star Sharon Stone. Like the previous installment, Miss Stone's "movie star" presence does not interfere with the members of the regular cast and she is a great compliment to them. The tension that Stone's character brought in the first ep extends to this one, not just between her and Stabler (Chris Meloni) and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) but it now includes the Captain (Dan Florek) as well.

The story involves baby-selling, a ruthless and heartless "trafficker" of little innocents, and a most unusual use of the justice system.

Broadway and film star Kate Nelligan is featured as a judge that assists Stone in that pursuit of justice with a twist.

"Ace" is most definitely an appropriate title because SVU is certainly holding a handful of them with the addition of Stone.

The Strongest Cards You Have Are The Ones You Haven't Played

[wrenleung · 10/10 · 23 April 2020]

Jo Marlowe (Sharon Stone) overacts a bit but I really like her character. Unfortunately, she doesn't blend with the rest of the cast as well as Cabot and Novak did because everyone scene Marlowe is in, it's all about her. Anyway, this episode was awesome. I enjoyed the plot twist at the end.

Common Playing Cards

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 4 July 2021]

A mafia and crime story worthy of Chris Meloni's new series Law and Order: Organized Crime. I think it would be a suitable episode for the future style of the series.

Sharon Stone adds a dramatic energy

[enchantmentsllc · 10/10 · 3 February 2019]

I really enjoy this series with all of the wonderful professional guest actors from film, stage, television and its decades long run proves it's quality. As far as those who wish to slam quality acting like Ms. Stone, perhaps when you are nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress your opinion will have value. Until then not so much. Peace.

Not really an ace episode

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 13 May 2022]

Lets get a confession out of the way, the character of Jo Marlowe never did it for me as a character. Found her both annoying and flat, with an even more exaggerated mix of Greylek and Paxton (actually know fellow fans that began to appreciate Paxton after encountering Marlowe for the first time), as well as poorly written and acted. So expectations were immediately lowered when deciding to re-watch "Ace", despite the story sounding interesting on paper.

"Ace" didn't strike me as a great, or even particularly good, episode on first watch. It still on second re-watch is an episode that could have been much better and does nothing to change my mind on Marlowe. It is an improvement over the very lacklustre previous episode "Torch", at least this episode feels more like a 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' episode, but as far as Season 11 episodes it is somewhere around low middle with just about enough to avoid it from being one of the worst. Not a terrible episode, just not great.

It is slick looking and has a nice gritty atmosphere. The music doesn't over-emphasise the emotions and isn't overused. There is some alert and sympathetic direction in the first half and some nice tension in it in some of the second.

The regulars all do a fine job and Pasha Lychnikov is one creepy sleaze. Loved Stabler and Olivia together and their big scene lives up to the hype it got prior to the episode's airing. Delaney Williams is not one to mess with and any prosecution witness would be freaked out being cross examined by Buchanan with his brutal courtroom tactics. Cragen was brilliant, so good to have an underused character shine the most he's done this season with his dressing down of Marlowe.

Who unfortunately is as intolerable as in "Torch", she really unbalanced that episode and her corny dialogue, Sharon Stone's cheesy and flat acting and her lack of professionalism stick out like a sore thumb. It never felt like she fitted on her brief stint and never connected with the rest of the team. The dialogue is uneven, gritty and thoughtful in the first half but very out of place corny and akward with Marlowe.

Furthermore, the story is uneven too. The first half feels more like 'Special Victims Unit', whereas the second half while compelling enough feels too much like a different story entirely and one that feels like formulaic territory on the latter seasons of the original 'Law and Order'. One that did leave me distracted by Marlowe and truly improbable legalities that didn't strike me as legal.

Concluding, a long way from terrible but it really isn't 'Special Victims Unit' at its best. 6/10.

Sharon Stone ruins every scene she is in

[queen_of_anarchy · 1/10 · 22 July 2010]

The other reviewer seems to hold the opinion that Ms Stone is some sort of acting wonder. The truth is SHE IS AWFUL!!!!!!!!! Her extreme over-acting even makes Ice-T look like De Niro. Every scene she appears in she validates every other actor - I never realised that they were SO good until I saw how terrible she was. I have always admired the acting range of Chris Meloni who I have loved in Oz (& that hilarious episode of Scrubs he was in) - a very diverse actor & I remember Mariska Hargitay who shined in a brief moment in a Seinfeld episode - she acts the pants off Stone. My favourite scene in the show is where the character of Petrov asks, regarding Stone's character, "Who's this whore?" - terribly acted but great line. Either give it away Shaz or take your measured breathy tones to a soap because, frankly, you stink.

The rating of 1 is for Stone. The rest of them get 6.

Not one of the more memorable ones

[MagicMagicHoarderDance · 5/10 · 17 February 2024]

Season 10 and 11 of SVU are where the series started getting goofier and more overtly political, and this episode takes the cake for it. The pacing is poor, about a third of the story is taken up by a secret testimony from a character who just sits there and talks (very little of what he has to say is interesting or engaging), and the ending is overdramatic and saccharine. The acting from the usual cast is good as always, the soundtrack is well-written but not particularly noteworthy, and the cinematography is quite good. Other than that, it's all downhill from there.

The main villain is this walking, talking Soviet-esque stereotype who looks like an imploding Elon Musk and is about as complex and deep an antagonist as that. When he's not winking at the arresting officers and making silly comments, he's making weird faces for no apparent reason. The show also has this bizarre subplot with a witness to a crime and his name is "Flossy" (he's a hobo who lives in his own car and likes to clean his teeth in front of other people). I don't really get it, whether this was stuck into the show as some sort of humor shtick or if it was just a strange way to fill airtime. It was annoying and wholly unnecessary, although the actor who plays "Flossy" does a decent job.

Then there's the social commentary on "anchor babies" (infants of illegal immigrants born on American soil and thus granted automatic citizenship). The episode approaches the topic with an entirely one-sided progressive absolutism that comes across as sanctimonious and fails to address the very real harm done to women and children as a result of the "anchor babies" issue. One man is even called a "racist" in the episode for criticizing the issue, despite the fact that the pregnant woman in question is whiter than an albino polar bear. Picking an actress with perfect teeth, a wide smile like she just won the lottery and styled hair might not have been the best choice if the show's goal was to make people sympathetic with struggling immigrant mothers. SVU has always leaned more towards the liberal side but still always, generally speaking, managed to effectively illustrate that there are multiple legitimate sides to every political issue. Not so here, an unfortunate trend that comes to follow the entirety of the series going forward from these last couple of seasons.

This entire episode was weird, wrapped up way too cleanly and perfectly to be real, and its sociopolitical commentary is problematic at best. The absurdly implausible end reveal is the cherry on top.