Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Jersey Breakdown (2014) User Reviews

Maximum Tension

[Dorjee_Wang · 9/10 · 28 October 2016]

If you think the last episode was great, this one is even better.

The SVU comes across an underage girl (played by Steffanie Scott), who's apparently raped in a strip club by a VIP. The owner of the club, Perry (played by Palminteri) refuses to give up the patron. Barba suspects court officials to be involved in the cover-up when the victim is arraigned in New Jersey for fraud and grand larceny as the judge denies bail. The victims gets transferred to a juvenile facility with history of unorthodox treatment of juveniles, and Rollins digs up info that directly links facility to Jersey ADA. To say this case was a tough one is putting it lightly. SVU then recruits the help of feds, in this case in the form of Connie Rubirosa (played by Alana De La Garza) who is now working with the feds as their prosecutor (she was one of the ADAs previously on Law & Order). As it seems the friendly feds have been looking at the owner for some time as well. When the judge ends up dead, the case begins to unfold.

There's some palpable tension in the squad room at the same time. Amaro's still living with Benson & Cassidy and is not very happy with his desk job and wants to get out more. Olivia's finding out that being the head of a squad isn't as easy Cragen made it look. Rollins having a hard time as she gone back to her old "habit" which causes her to lose punctuality much to the chagrin of Barbra, Amaro and Olivia. Amaro suspects this, and talks to Fin about it who tells him to focus on himself. To put it simply, the detectives all have been affected by the events of the past few episodes and it has put a lot of strain in their working relationship. By the end of the episode, Benson gets some unexpected news about Amaro. It is nice to see Rubirosa back, this time on SVU. Although I did intensely bemoan that Cutter wasn't the prosecutor in this case as I'd have preferred to see the tension between those two.

This is one episode that SVU fans should not miss. There's drama, there's lots of tension, there's "law" and there's "order". 9/10

Justice in New Jersey

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 22 January 2014]

The criminal justice system in New Jersey gets quite a going over in this SVU episode where their investigation of the rape of Stefanie Scott in a club in New York gets derailed when she's arrested in New York and transferred over to Hudson County in New Jersey where she's the suspect in a credit card fraud scheme. Stefanie late of Disney Channels The Ant Farm becomes more of a victim there than she was at the hands of a rapist in Chazz Palmantieri's club in New York where she was an underage stripper.

I have to say that Palmantieri is some piece of work himself. He's got a club in New Jersey which is part of the tie in with Scott's predicament. And he's got hooks right into the criminal justice system there.

For acting squad commander Mariska Hargitay it's a good thing she has a friendly federal prosecutor in Alana DeLa Garza late of the New York County District Attorney. Turns out they've been looking at Palmantieri for a while and this situation that SVU brings them is just what they need.

Nice to see DeLa Garza cooperating with the local PD for a change. She must remember all the battles she had when she was Sam Waterston's second chair.

Palmantieri has a judge in his pocket and it;s quite a story. Tune in to this one.

Nothing changes except what should be

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 5 August 2021]

A sex trafficking gang that employs underage girls and a strip club. From Perry Cannavaro (Chazz Palminteri) to dirty judges and prosecutors, the dark web is revealed. At the center of the story is the quiet young victim. The team and Barba struggle to get to the root of the problem for that young girl.

"Nothing changes except what should be." With phrases, quotes, and strong writing, we understand that Dan Florek (Cragen) delivered the flag (Svu) to the right person (Olivia Benson).

As a detail, Olivia is still at her old desk. But she is the boss now, she. Besides his own problems, the problems of the whole team are waiting for him. What an outlier and disobedient Nick Amaro is. These features also make him a good detective. He always hides the root cause of this situation. It is difficult to fill the partnership tradition in Olivia after Elliot. He wants to show Olivia that he will be as good a partner as Elliot. That's why it takes so much effort. He continues to push Olivia as well. This story deserves to be trusted.

Rollins, on the other hand, is shaken again in her life. She forgets her promise to Cragen and succumbs to her addiction. She also uses the patronage of teammates as an opportunity.

Masconi and Rubirosa performances are very good.

But, It flows fast. Some details should be repeated in the sections with official terms, legal concepts, legal rules. Since it is a technical language, the whole series and its process are not understood. Viewers often don't understand episodes for this reason. The technical language of the laws can be repeated by making the tension and importance of the subject felt.

Strong and powerful stories that I admire are stories that contain theatrical scenes that grasp this intensity.

A general review is also required.

Olivia, who becomes a sergeant and replaces Cragen, will have a hard time. However, it will also mature into its most beautiful form.

As a woman, we will witness the struggle between the rules of masculinity in the business world, especially in the world of men with guns. The symbolic man who initiates the start of this situation is William Lewis.

Ps. You'll applaud Olivia's cover-up response to the dirty prosecutor's statement accusing svu.

Soapy corruption

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 3 August 2022]

"Jersey Breakdown" didn't leave me that impressed on first watch when it first aired. It struck me as a well acted episode, lead and supporting, and showing the ugliness of the theme explored in an unflinching way. It also suffered from being too derivative, as a result of having a familiar premise and having nothing to make it stand out, and from being too personal drama dominant. It didn't strike me as a terrible episode, but just felt too bland and soapy.

My very conflicted to meh opinion on "Jersey Breakdown" is still pretty much the same, in overall reaction and for the same reasons positive and negative. Again, it is a watchable effort and is not terrible, but with the premise actually being an intriguing one despite its familiarity it could have been a lot better than it transpired. Season 15 was a very mixed bag of a season, with a fair share of episodes falling in both extremes of good and lacklustre at best and also plenty in between. "Jersey Breakdown" fits low down in the in between category.

Am going to begin with the good things. The acting from all the regulars is great with no exception. It is a case though of the supporting cast making an even bigger impression, Chazz Palminteri and particularly Stefanie Scott being terrific guest stars. Scott is very affecting and Palminteri proves again that he can do loathsome expertly.

Furthermore, as usual 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 ugliness of corruption is shown in an appropriately unflinching manner.

However, against all this, "Jersey Breakdown" could have been much better. There is too much focus on the team's personal life drama. It is fine if it concerns one character and not featuring prominently but doing it for most of the regulars and not at minimum is overkill. Especially Rollins. After the previous two seasons doing very well with him generally, Amaro's character writing this season was pretty patchy and this episode makes him borderline creepy. Did find the dialogue very soapy at times, especially with Amaro.

Despite the theme being done well in enough places, the case is very predictable and lacks tension and suspense with a particularly formulaic first third. Wasn't surprised by anything here. The corruption theme is not new territory for the show, it was done before notably in "Poison" and "Crush" (the latter having a quite unique ending). Watching this was like watching "Crush" times two except with a different corrupt character and different setting, with one of the oddest deaths in 'Special Victims Unit' history being the one slightly unique thing.

Overall, watchable but not particularly good. 5/10.