Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Gambler's Fallacy (2014) User Reviews

Hit Bottom and the Probability of Salvation

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 6 August 2021]

At the center of Rolins is the story. And it's the best story about Rolins. Its performance is great. You will watch it holding your breath until the end. A story like a movie is presented in 40 minutes. It is great with both heavy theatrical encounters and events.

Rolins gambling addiction is an event in Amanda's eyes that she will pay to pay off her debts. However, she will realize that this is not so easy when she falls on the avalanche of accumulating snowballs.

15s 12e Clare Wilson (Stefanie Scott) detective Rollins meets at the casino and they turn each other in to the bosses. They aren't different from eachother. Neither of them used the chance given to them to recover.

They use it to solve their debt money problems with the same problem. One gambles, one serves. This is just hope for they.

Everything turns out to be a nightmare when Amanda is found out to be a cop at the casino. You won't believe what Amanda did next.

She is now a dirty cop as she faces many incidents such as clearing traffic tickets, persuading a juror, stealing evidence.

When she tries to escape, she is threatened by the men in her internal affairs. She has to do as the bosses say, like prey caught in a cobweb.

At the price of all this, an innocent woman will also be raped. The irony is that a pregnant woman ordered the rape and a svu detective was used as a threat in this case. The scene in home which Amanda enters the scene as Detective Rolins and the response of the victims is striking.

Amanda is like a cat tangled in tangles as she tries to get rid of her spider web.

In fact, she is lucky to encounter good angels (Fin and ?).

Amanda's dialogues with Olivia, Nick's skepticism, Fin's support... There are striking moments with every scene.

Donal Logue (Declan O'Rourke) performance is excellent. So does Sherry Saum (Sondra Vaughn).

Lothaire Bluteau (Anton Nadari) is an impressive charisma with his performance and tone in his brief role.

We will watch Fernanda Andrade (Beatriz Amarante) in the next series in 2020.

Smashes Through . . .

[lfreepartner · 10/10 · 12 December 2020]

. . . ROCK BOTTOM!

If you've been there, this episode is real.

Rollins goes down on a thug! In order to keep gambling!?

YES!

This is the most accurate depiction of addiction I have seen outside of real life.

This isn't Archie Bunker doing speed one week, wigging out, being hospitalized and going back to normal in two episodes.

Nor is it saying there is an answer just around the corner with the help of rehab, friendship, counsel and your Higher Power. The addict, be it nicotine, alcohol, uppers, downers, opiates or gambling took way more than 12 steps. Nobody's immune. Even Scotty Valens of "Cold Case" raided a medicine cabinet, but Rollins hit the "baby-in-the-dumpster" point.

Her classic TV dubious rosy escape is far from anything real, but if you've ever been there (an addict), it's happy as can be.

(No longer do Rollins/Amaro equal Barbi/Ken)

The evils of gambling

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 4 August 2022]

Have really appreciated that Season 15 made a big effort in developing Rollins more and making her more interesting. This did vary, it did a great job with exploring her past with her previous job and also with her gambling. It was a lot less successful with her personal life family drama, which never engaged me and grew more and more tiresome the more melodramatic it became and when Kim became increasingly more annoying and Rollins more naive.

"Gambler's Fallacy" is a look at the gambling. To me, it did a great and admirable job exploring an issue that was a big problem at the time, was so beforehand and still is with solutions needing to be explored more and be made more aware of. It also provides some good development to Rollins that progresses her character, this is a story that could have made the viewer frustrated by her and been too melodramatic but it managed to be unflinching and is one of the better episodes of a very inconsistent season.

First and foremost, Kelli Giddish is as every bit as terrific as she was in "Deadly Ambition" (a case of the performance being much better than the episode itself) and "Rapist Anonymous" (same thing but a superior episode) and once again shows how far she has come on as Rollins since Season 13. Donal Logue also impresses and suitably unsettles while Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T are solid support. Once again, Rollins' development was well done.

Of the three episodes that develops her dominantly this is the episode that forwards her character most and in the most illuminating and relatable way in a situation that was a lot more compelling than those in the previous outings. The insight given into her and her circumstances was very well done as was Olivia and Fin's suspicion and concern. The subject of gambling and how it is portrayal here will resonate with anybody who has been in Rollins' situation or seen what gambling does, as someone who got addicted to online bingo some time ago the episode scared me. Usually do not care for these kinds of stories, but when it is raising awareness of an issue or developing further a character in need of it (both the case here) it's fine. Here the atmosphere is unyielding but not heavy handed.

Photography while very close up doesn't come over as too static or filmed play-like, while the production values are typically solid and have subtle atmosphere while not being drab and keeping things simple. When the music is used it is haunting and has a melancholic edge that is not overdone. The episode is sympathetically yet uncompromisingly directed. The script is tight and thought provoking.

My only criticism of what is otherwise a truly fine episode is the overlong beginning that also drags.

All in all though, excellent. 9/10.

Something Different, For a Change

[championbc-99-5005 · 10/10 · 20 February 2015]

I'm surprised that no one has reviewed this one. For a change, I don't have to feel sorry for poor girls who worship some guy, get drunk, go to his room, beg for sex,climb on his bed, and then cry "rape" when things get rough. We don't have to see Barba get his head handed to him when the "surprise video" turns up to ruin his case, and we all shake our heads as another guilty defendant walks away. That has seemed to be the theme of this season so far.

In this one, we don't even have to see Reverend Scott, SVU's own Al Sharpton, misinterpret what happened and step in as a representative.

No, I would have to be a "spoiler" to say more. I just want to note that this one will go where you don't expect it to go, and at the danger of saying too much, please note that Kelli Giddish is still on the list of future shows, but by the middle of this episode, you are wondering if she will get her own spin-off, "Cop in Jail." This is one of the best this year so far. What we've learned this year is that it is next to impossible to indict an obvious brutal criminal, that SVU is in a crisis. They can't win a case; they have lost two veterans, and of the remaining detectives, one has been taken off the streets and put in an office, two others have lives so messed up that you wonder how they keep their jobs. I never thought I would see the day that the most stable cop in the whole unit is being played by Ice-T, the rapper who at one time was most famous for his "kill a cop" albums. But Tutuola is now the last bastion of stability.

In the middle of all of that, you get what, at this juncture, is the best episode of the year so far. As some suspect might say, "I have said too much." So I'm walking out of here now, unless you are going to read me my rights, in which case, I'm getting a lawyer.

Death Wish

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 20 March 2015]

I think that Detective Amanda Rollins, formerly of the Atlanta SVU has some kind of career death wish. This woman for her gambling problem has put her career in a jackpot a few times over this issue. But never in the way she is here when at an illegal gambling club, Kelli Giddish is outed and forced to cooperate with some illegal activity.

I can't go any further into this story, but suffice it to say that in this episode Giddish has a fairy godfather that is looking out for here. And it isn't her supervisor Mariska Hargitay nor any of the other members of the squad. In fact the rest are quite put out by her behavior.

This episode has Lothaire Bluteau as the club owner and Sherry Saum as his pregnant mistress and they are a pair of truly evil people.

Amanda Rollins is saved, but I think should Kelli Giddish ever want to exit SVU they've got an issue to provide an episode exit with.