Law & Order:Special Victims Unit - Closet (Season 9)

Homosexuality is a funny old topic. We pretend that we are all comfortable with it, and there's nothing wrong with it really, but deep down so many people still have a problem with it. A friend of mine who has had two close gay friends confessed recently that he hopes his son doesn't grow up to be gay. I find that quite entertaining, but not having a gay son I guess I really don't know how I'd react. I'd hope that I was comfortable with it, but frankly I just don't know.
The Special Victims Unit spends a lot of its time dealing with homosexuals and presenting a comfortable "we don't judge you" attitude, but when Stabler's kid's sports hero turns out to be gay, it's curious that he is quick to defend the image of straight hero to Benson. It's always fun when a L&O detective takes a different line to their partners.

Meanwhile, we get homosexuality in sports heroes, a common enough thing as Lake points out, though Tutuola accurately responds, only after they've finished playing. I remember a time when the only sports star who was openly gay was Martina Navratalova, and there were some problems there. However, as time goes on there are apparently more, but I have to admit that I can't think of a single one - though that may be more to do with the fact that I have no interest in sports rather than any particular failing of society.

Having tickled this issue, the case goes to court where a second theme is introduced and Beverly D'Angelo returns to the series as a defence lawyer to prove that her client was not guilty of the murder crime because of his injuries incurred by football over the years. Much is made of the damage that is done to sports players by the sports that they play and football (along with boxing of course, say hello Rocky!) is one of the ones that comes under heavy fire. The film "Any Given Sunday" used it as a pivot for the plot, and now SVU is taking on the mantle. The question here, though, is similar to the other ones posed by the L&O programmes - when does something cease to be a person's responsibility and become the responsibility of something else. It may very well be true that our suspect was not in control of his action thanks to playing football, but he was the one that chose to play the game in the first place, fully cogniscient of the injuries he might incur. I find it difficult to give sympathy to these situations. It's a bit like someone killing because he was driven to starvation, after having given all his food and money away. You make a decision and you have to deal with the consequences, even if those consequences occur a little further down the line and a little outside the box that you think you are in.

Meanwhile, it was nice to see the entire nine members of the SVU cast appear this week, with Meloni and Hargitay proving that they are the masters of the "sideways stance, angled head" look. Ice-T clearly is keeping the short hair that he gained from last week's episode (weird to see him without that pony tail), but I'm beginning to think that either Munch or Lake should go...two is overkill, and Munch is really doing bollocks all at the moment.

"A"