Law and Order: SVU - Fat
(S07E19) Anthony Anderson has been playing a lot of heavy characters these past two years, and I'm not talking
about his wait weight. Ba-Da-Dum! Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Seriously, Anderson is known for his comedic roles in television shows such as All About the Andersons and movies like Scary Movie 3 (and 4) and Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (hilarious scene). I mean, he was in Kangaroo Jack for crying out loud. However, we have seen Anderson's serious side over the past two years. Last year and this, he portrayed villain Antwon Mitchell on the FX show The Shield. On this episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit he portrays Lucius Blaine, Elliot Stabler's (Chris Meloni) replacement partner.
Wait, where's Stabler's original partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay)? Well, jump on through and we'll catch you up.
At the end of the last original episode (lovingly reviewed by the beautiful Anna Johns), Benson asked Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) to be reassigned. In this episode, she has been relocated to the Computer Crimes division, where she plays an integral part to the investigation. So, enter Detective Blaine from the SVU precinct in Queens.
Stabler takes an immediate dislike to Blaine and his tactics. And, why not? Blaine is loud, confrontational, and willing to bend the rules to get the information he needs. Sound familiar? Could it be, hmmm, Stabler? Why, yes it is; Cragen assigned Blaine to be his partner to show him a mirror image of himself.
It worked to calm Stabler down, to some extent. Actually, what calmed the detective down was punching Blaine in the face after a remark about Benson that he didn't appreciate. After that little tiff, things seemed to smooth down a bit. In fact, the whole dynamic of the partnership changed as Stabler took on Olivia's role as the calm detective while Blaine played the heavy. It made for a breath of fresh air.
While Stabler and Blaine worked out their issues, there was an actual case to solve. It involved the assault and rape of prestigious teenage piano player Jessica Delay (played by Tricia Mara) by a brother and sister who were angry about a beating their adult brother allegedly received from Delay and her friend. However, that wasn't the real story. It actually had two levels; on the one level the brother and sister, and the adult brother who was beaten up, were all obese. It was not only a case of prejudice due to them being African-American, but also because they were fat.
On another level it was about a girl who was overweight herself in the past. That girl was Delay. In a deft display of interrogation by Blaine and Stabler that reminded me of detectives Goren and Eames on sister show Criminal Intent, they managed to get the girl to admit the crime and her hatred of fat people.
In all this was a good episode that touched on a lot of issues. We even got to see a bit of Detective Benson in this episode as she discovered a website that showed a photo of the man getting beaten up and comments being made by the teenage girl. The only things missing from this episode were Detectives Munch and Tutuola (Richard Belzer and Ice-T). Other than one or two episodes this season, they haven't been around too much. In fact, it's been all Benson and Stabler this season. Hopefully that will change as the season comes to an end. See you next week.

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