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#Law and Order: SVU Cartoonifies the Rolling Stone UVA Rape Debacle

Law and Order: SVU aired their take on the UVA rape case last night, in which a seemingly credible young woman says she was gang-raped by a hockey team at New York's fictional Hudson University. In the end—spoiler alert—her story (sort of) falls apart. In between, we got a mixture of smart observations about how rape allegations are handled in the media, and SVU's trademark corny, cringingly ham-handed and caricatured version of real events. Brace yourselves.

The episode begins with Detective Olivia Benson watching America's Worst Crimes, a super classy TV show which reenacts the young victim, Jane, getting gang-raped and interviews her in a room that is definitely not dark enough to hide her identity. The mayor's wife is watching the show too, and soon enough, the fictional NYPD is beating down the doors of AWC, trying to find the victim. (The real NYPD was so badly mishandling sexual assault cases that five years ago, then-police commissioner Ray Kelly had to convene a task force and pledge to start retraining officers. Victims and rape crisis counselors alike said the police routinely ignored or minimized rape complaints.)