TV Review: Law & Order: SVU - "Sugar"

Part of: Law & Order: The People's Plea

Warning: mild spoilers

The "synopsis" (of the first 10 minutes): A young woman's body is found stuffed inside a suitcase, and Stabler and Benson find a chief suspect in the victim's boyfriend, who claims he was on his boat; an uncooperative dating site CEO refuses to comment on the case.

What the synopsis DOESN'T tell you is that the body is found by a couple of geocachers. I had never heard of this hobby until watching this episode, and it turns out this GPS quest for ordinary items has a tendency to freak out the police in real life. A couple of masturbating jokes tickle the audience members who are 10 years old, and this episode is un. Der. Way.

Detective Benson In Front Of Emily Keefe On Computer ScreenGoing from seeking crap as treasure to seeking treasure in exchange for nookie, the suitcase-sized girl identified as Emily Keefe worked for a social networking site called tastysugar.com that matched up gold diggers with sugar daddies. So far the website doesn't exist yet in real life, although NBC's parent company owns the domain. And what kind of name is that? Isn't all sugar, by definition, tasty? Unless you burn it, I guess. Then it's just tasteless carbon. (tastelesscarbon.com, by the way, would make a great dating website for lonely scientists.)

The "uncooperative dating CEO" is the hip happenin' Vance Shepard (Eric McCormack of Will and Grace popularity). Shepard runs a fun, progressive Internet venture company who offers free meals and perks like, apparently, discounts on boob jobs to employees who want them. I've always wanted one of those!

Vance Shepard Is The CEO Who Wants You To Love HimYou're not gonna believe this, but Shepard had a pre-existing relationship with Keefe. But having just played a rousing game of office foosball with one of his high-moraled employees, he stonewalls Stabler and Benson about knowing anything about anything. (He can't even remember if he owns tastysugar.com. What a capitalist pioneer. That's just how successful he is!) Stabler is forced to go undercover on a hot date with Emily's "sugar baby BFF." Try putting that on a business card.

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Article Author: Matthew T. Sussman

Sussman is the founder and former editor of Blogcritics Sports. Twitter: @suss2hyphens

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Article comments

  • 1 - SpyBarbie

    Oct 01, 2009 at 3:47 am

    Nice recap! I agree with you about that ending being completely predictable - I saw it coming a mile away and I'm not the most observant person in the world either. But I did enjoy the humor (so I guess I'm 10?, lol), the interrogation scenes, the acting, I thought it was a solid episode overall.

    I miss Munch too, but fortunately he'll be in the next week's episode, 11.03 - Solitary.

  • 2 - KM

    Oct 01, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    I'm not impressed with the new ADA at all. She seems like she is being a hard ass just for the sake of it. I hope as the season progresses we will get to see her interact with Jack. He really needs to knock her down a few pegs.

  • 3 - WL

    Oct 03, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    Agree with KM. HATE the new ADA. She's all bluster and no substance. If they wanted a hard ass ADA character for the sake of conflict with the SVU squad, why don't they just bring back Kim Greylek? At least Michaela McManus was prettier.

  • 4 - SpyBarbie

    Oct 06, 2009 at 3:47 am

    I have to disagree with KM and WL. I, for one, am relieved Michaela McManus is gone - I thought her acting was very wooden and she didn't bring anything to the show. Her good looks did not make me cringe any less whenever she was on screen, I'm sorry to say. Sonya Paxton is a bitch, yes, but IMO Christine Lahti is a much more talented actress than McManus, and even though Paxton is not very likable, she's an interesting character, there's a reason for her behavior - so no, she's not a "hard ass just for the sake of it" - which they're slowly exploring on the show. That being said, even though I'm enjoying Lahti's arc, I'm counting the days till Stephanie March's return - IMO she's the best ADA SVU has ever had and I'd like for her to be the show's "regular" ADA. I hope they're able to secure SM for additional episodes after her 10 eps are up this season.

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