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TV Diary

 On TV's "Better Things," the harried mom Sam Fox admits that she really likes crime podcasts. "In my own life, I feel that I'm being murdered everyday," she says. "So these stories of actual murder.....I like to listen to these...."


It's sort of a joke--and sort of uncomfortable--like many other scenes from "Better Things."


I can relate to Sam, because crime stories have been a must for me, as I navigate two little creatures' early childhood development. This work isn't crushing, but it's isolating and monotonous, and so I enjoy watching characters who shoulder challenges -- and who persevere.


Which person am I thinking of? Certainly, it's Olivia Benson, on SVU.


Last night, I returned with my husband to Season Ten; specifically, this was "Confession." (The writers had *already* used "Confession" as a title, but when you churn out ten seasons, sometimes this happens, I guess.)


In "Confession (Season Ten)," a teen comes to Olivia to say he really would like to assault his own tiny step-brother, and he has been self-medicating with alcohol. This is a problem: If the kid hasn't committed assault yet, the cops basically have to kick him back out, wait for him to rape a child, and THEN deal with him. Olivia is desperate to avoid this scenario -- so, oddly enough, she tries to prove that the teen has *already* committed an assault (this effort is for the teen's own good).


This would be enough to send me packing; I'd shrug and submit my papers, and move to New Mexico. But Olivia endures home searches ("Why are there traces of semen on this dinosaur tee?"), visits to the Dark Web ("Pediapix is a 'safe' outlet for monsters; you look but don't touch"), and horrifying twists ("Yes, I sodomized him with a baseball bat.....because he needed to learn a lesson").


Throughout, Olivia doesn't crack, and in fact her perfect coiffure remains perfect, too.


I'm sure it's a bad sign that I find this writing more therapeutic than the end of "Insecure" (boring) or the rom-com twists of "Superstore" (also boring).


But that's where I am at.


Thank God for Olivia Benson.

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