Season 24 is currently showing on terrestrial television in the UK, & Episode 8, A Better Person, is so overstuffed with TRA tropes it’s practically a parody. As previously discussed, SVU has been preaching to its audience about this for years.
In this episode, we have not one but TWO trans victims, the first murdered, the second fights off their attacker, so that the Court can be told trans people are attacked/raped/murdered more often & generally more vulnerable (than who?!). Evil Defence Attorney also (Evilly) suggests that the victim might retain [some of] their wrestling skills & knowledge, which we all know is impossible because “completely different physiology” & they were “a different person then”. This episode first aired in the US in mid-November 2022.
The murder victim had divorced parents who disagreed about their transition, one of whom endangered the prosecution of their murderer by hiding the fact of their gender ID & destroying evidence. The other was BFFs with their child (who told them everything) & spoke to them every night, encouraged them to “live their truth” & generally contrasted with parent one. Victim two had been totally rejected by their parents.
Victim One came out to their, er, actual best friend just before being murdered. He didn’t take it well, but showed “appropriate” levels of self-loathing on hearing the news of the murder 🙄
The reviews are interesting, especially the featured one that gave the episode 2/10:
Let's try this again
So my first review was deleted. I'm pretty sure I didn't break any of the rules. I've been watching SVU since it began in the 90s, on and off. After a great beginning it's had ups and downs over the years. There was a period of time in the 00s when it was too graphic. Some of the plots got recycled. But I kept watching it because it was so female-centric. Don't get me wrong; I love Ice-T and I loved Chris Meloni as Elliot Stabler, and Raul Esparza and even the Mayhem guy in the beginning. But even before Mariska Hargitay became the unequivocal star and Rollins became a regular the show was always feminist. It informed viewers and spoke up for victims. Unfortunately the show seems to have gone off the rails. This episode and one or two others have shown that it is no longer a feminist show. Thus I have stopped watching it for good.