The New Season (2013)

[Doctor Hmmm?]

It's that (increasingly vague and amorphous) time of year again!

[ClarkKent_DC]

Richard Willis said:

In the latest episode of Big Bang Theory, Amy tells Sheldon that Indiana Jones is irrelevant to the outcome of Raiders of the Lost Ark because the Nazis would have found the ark and died whether or not he was in the story.Is this a new opinion? I couldn't find any other references to it.

Are you asking if this is a new opinion of Amy's or a new opinion outside of The Big Bang Theory?

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

ClarkKent_DC said:

ClarkKent_DC said:

Well, as promised, I watched the second episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. This one was more like the Law & Order of old, in that there was actually a trial. Oddly, Capt. Cragen was not in this episode, but Detective Munch was, acting as if he was the commander. When did that happen? Did he get a promotion to lieutenant or something?

Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) said:

I saw that episode as well, and I thought it was pretty good. I've never been a regular of this version of the show though. I do recall (last season maybe?) Munch had passed the Sergeant's exam and temporarily took over for Cragen. I noticed the absence of Cragen this episode as well, but saw him in the clip of next week's so he looks to be around.

Well, I've GOT to watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit next week -- Detective Munch retires!

I loved Munch on Homicide, but I've never much cared for him in SVU. He lost a lot of his character it seems. Still it is the end of an era. About 20 years playing the same role, and appearing in so many other series as the same character not even on the same network.  I liked the past week's seeing Cassidy get the spotlight. I liked him way back from the beginning.

I do wonder if this is the last season, or just the end for other characters. Cragen mentioned he will be seeing forced retirement soon. I could talk Law & Order all day.

[Richard Willis]

Is this a new opinion outside the context of the show? I did a Google search and all I found was a reference to the Big Bang Theory episode.

ClarkKent_DC said:

Are you asking if this is a new opinion of Amy's or a new opinion outside of The Big Bang Theory?

[Philip Portelli]

I saw Once Upon a Time In Wonderland yesterday and liked it well enough to watch it again next week. The leads are attractive, though realistically so. There's a conflicted White Rabbit, a feral Cheshire Cat, a sexy Red Queen and a roguish Knave of Hearts. And Alice has become Sarah Connor from the Terminator series!

Sayid from LOST is after Alice for some reason. Actually he's Jafar from Alladin and I miss the parrot!

Alice is looking for her ex-genie (?) boyfriend even though she has more chemistry with the complicated Knave.

The Mad Hatter is missing, presumably Disney is hoping for a Johnny Depp cameo. (And he does owe them for The Lone Ranger! Seriously, a dead bird as a hat!)

The time for tea parties are over!

[ClarkKent_DC]

ClarkKent_DC said:

Well, I've GOT to watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit next week -- Detective Munch retires!

Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) said:

I loved Munch on Homicide, but I've never much cared for him in SVU. He lost a lot of his character it seems. Still it is the end of an era. About 20 years playing the same role, and appearing in so many other series as the same character not even on the same network.  I liked the past week's seeing Cassidy get the spotlight. I liked him way back from the beginning.

I do wonder if this is the last season, or just the end for other characters. Cragen mentioned he will be seeing forced retirement soon. I could talk Law & Order all day.

It's the end of an era, all right. Richard Belzer played John Munch for seven years on Homicide: Life On the Street and 15 years on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which beats Kelsey Grammer, who did Frasier Crane for 10 years on Cheers and 10 more on Frasier, and James Arness, who was Marshal Matt Dillon for the whole 20-year run of Gunsmoke. 

Y'know, I think the fact SVU has been around for 15 years and counting puts it pretty high on the list of longest-running spinoffs, although The Simpsons, being the longest-running prime time show of any type (now in its 25th year, and guaranteed a 26th, would top the list.

I agree with you that Munch lost a little of his crispness over on SVU. Part of that is the Law & Order environment, where the characters are ciphers. They even forgot that Munch was born and raised in Baltimore (see here, from Wikipedia: "John Munch"). Munch was too vivid to be wasted that way. 

Some of the best moments were the Homicide: Life On the Street/Law & Order crossovers where Munch was paired with Lennie Briscoe. Man, they missed a bet when they didn't put those two in their own show! I could watch them together all day and night.

[Richard Willis]

ClarkKent_DC said:

Some of the best moments were the Homicide: Life On the Street/Law & Order crossovers where Munch was paired with Lennie Briscoe. Man, they missed a bet when they didn't put those two in their own show! I could watch them together all day and night.

I was watching Homicide: Life On the Street from the beginning. I started watching Law & Order because of the crossovers. I loved both shows.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Here's an assessment of the season to date from The New York Times: "Fall TV Season Delivers a Mixed Bag in Prime Time"

[ClarkKent_DC]

Well, as promised, I watched Law & Order: Special Victims Unit this week. First, I watched the previous episode, which I hadn't planned on doing, but that was the one where we learned of Munch's plans. Unfortunately, to my chagrin, Munch wasn't even in it; Most of the episode followed a "ripped from the headlines" case -- although it wasn't advertised as such -- about a police officer who escorts a drunk woman home and rapes her in her apartment, while his partner waits for him in the car ... and goes back twice that night to do it again, faking 911 calls to justify returning to the site.

As for Munch, in the final scene, Captain Cragen talks to Detective Benson and -- after noting that he's looking at forced retirement in six months -- he tells her "Munch put in his papers."

Munch's finale begins at his retirement party at some swank restaurant, and he dresses well for the occasion, breaking out of his basic black for a white dinner jacket and Stacy Adams spectator shoes. There's a bit of good-natured ribbing from partner Fin Tutuola, who gives him a gift -- his various police shields from the NYPD and from Baltimore(!) in a frame.

Yes, they remembered Munch is from Baltimore -- they even had his brother (played by David Steinberg), two of his three ex-wives, Gwen (Carol Kane) and Billie Lou (Ellen McElduff), and his old partner from the Baltimore PD, Meldrick Lewis (!) (Clark Johnson).

The scene ended abruptly as Detective Benson and her partner got dragged into the case of the week, but after all that folderol, the episode ended with Captain Cragen leaving the office at the end of the day and encountering Munch cleaning out his desk. They exchange a few pleasantries, and Munch puts a plate in a box on his desk. There's a quick clip from his first appearance, on Homicide: Life on the Street (!), from the pilot episode, where his partner then, Detective Bolander, has been hectoring him about his failure to solve a hit-and-run accident. The clip shows Munch behind his desk, poring through a stack of Polaroid photos (remember those?), hearing Bolander derisively repeating "De-tec-tive Munch" over and over again. Then the phone rings, and we're jolted back to the present; Munch answers the phone and says, "Homicide -- er, SVU. Let me get you a real detective."

See the extended version of Munch's farewell roast at SVU Writers' Room: "The #FarewellMunch Roast Uncut" And here's a word from Richard Belzer himself in The Huffington Post: "Munch Madness"

[ClarkKent_DC]

Here are some remembrances of Munch, from BuzzFeed: "14 Perfect Detective Munch Moments That Prove Why We’ll Miss Him I...

And from Time.com, here are two nice clips, one from Homicide: Life on the Street where Munch, Bolander and Lewis ruminate on television programming (!), and the classic "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit" from Sesame Street: "Farewell, Detective Munch: Richard Belzer’s Cop Character Leaves SVU"

Enjoy!

[Richard Willis]

Thanks for these links. They really made me smile. It also makes me smile that Munch is going to work as an investigator for the District Attorney. Maybe we'll see him again one day.

ClarkKent_DC said:

Here are some remembrances of Munch, from BuzzFeed: "14 Perfect Detective Munch Moments That Prove Why We’ll Miss Him I...

And from Time.com, here are two nice clips, one from Homicide: Life on the Street where Munch, Bolander and Lewis ruminate on television programming (!), and the classic "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit" from Sesame Street: "Farewell, Detective Munch: Richard Belzer’s Cop Character Leaves SVU"

Enjoy!

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I missed the Farewell to Munch (I was at the movies), but I will definitely try to catch it in the not to distant future.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Richard Willis said:

Thanks for these links. They really made me smile. It also makes me smile that Munch is going to work as an investigator for the District Attorney. Maybe we'll see him again one day.

Thanks. I really get a charge out of the Homicide clip, especially as it is so prescient. Who would have believed in 1993 that they would bring back Hawaii Five-O?