Law and Order: SVU

9.00pm Thursday February 2 on Ten

Detective Benson’s investigation into a 13-year-old girl’s pregnancy exposes the secrets of a political family, potentially endangering a member of that family.

9.00pm Thursday January 26 on Ten

A powerful Italian is investigated after a maid accuses him of rape.

Season 13. Episode 2 PERSONAL FOULS

A local coach’s induction into a city basketball hall of fame is disrupted by accusations of sexual abuse by one of his former players, and another addition to the squad arrives.

8.30pm Thursday December 8 on Ten

As Benson and Stabler investigate the disappearance of a mother and her teenaged daughter, they uncover a conspiracy between a corrupt immigration attorney and gangsters running a prostitution ring that is staffed by women they have smuggled into the country and imprisoned as sex slaves.

Good News Week gets another week off on Monday July 19 with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Great Debate 2010 filling its timeslot of 8.30pm. The topic for the annual debate is “That Food is Better Than Sex” and will feature comedians such as John Paul McDermott, Arj Barker, Fiona O’Loughlin, Russell Kane, Greg Behrendt and Corinne Grant.

Promos for Rush are now running on Ten, in the lead up for that show’s season return at 8.30pm Thursday July 22. Law and Order SVU moves to 9.30pm. This is the 3^rd season of Rush.

On Tuesday nights, NCIS and NCIS:LA will play out as repeats in their usual timeslots – and why not – with NCIS repeats doing so well. A new season starts in the US in September, expect Ten to fast track it here.

Meanwhile, the NCIS repeat on Friday nights has been replaced with a new Jamie Oliver series: Jamie’s Food Revolution which sees Jamie spreading his message of healthy eating to schools in the US. It premieres 9pm, Friday July 16.

And once again, the Hawke telemovie airs Sunday July 18 at 8.30pm, with the Good Wife taking a week off, returning July 25.

Thursday April 30 8.30pm

The death of a teenage prodigy sheds light on some disturbing and unhealthy practices taking place among a group of competitive students at a prestigious academy.

Detective Benson goes undercover as a Madame to investigate the mystery surrounding the circumstances of the teenager’s death.

Thursday April 23 8.30pm

A girl who vanished at age 14, four years ago, reappears with a tale of imprisonment and sexual slavery, but Benson and Stabler find themselves on an odd fact-finding journey as they try to piece together her story and resolve the discrepancies.

Trivia:

This episode appears to be ripped from the headlines of the Elisabeth Fritzl case in Austria. Joseph Fritzl kept his daughter as a sexual slave in the cellar of his basement for 24 years, impregnating her several times. Three of her children lived with her in the secret three-room structure, the rest lived with their grandparents (elisabeth’s mother believed she had joined a cult and couldn’t keep the babies or make contact with her family).

Thursday April 16 8.30pm

The team is faced with a difficult scenario when a teenage girl claims she was raped by a corrections officer, and also claims the same man is threatening her mother in prison.

Benson decides to compromise her own safety and go deep undercover to help investigate and ultimately solve the case.

Did you know?

Before playing Detective Benson, actor Mariska Hargitay was a bit of a ‘scream queen’. Beginning with “Ghoulies” in 1985, hargitay has gone on to star in some classic horrors including Wes Craven’s television series “Freddy’s Nightmares” and the monster croc film “Lake Placid”.

Thursday April 9 8.30pm

The robbery of fertilized embryos from a sperm bank call for Benson and Stabler to track down the thief.

Clues from the clinic’s security tape lead them to a long list of suspects including two publicity-hungry extremists. The detectives race against the clock to find the missing embryos, but that isn’t the only clock that’s ticking – Olivia considers her own fertility and the possibility of motherhood.

Quote:
Chief of Detectives: [about a tank of frozen embryos stolen from a fertility clinic] “Now, Don doesn’t believe this falls under your purview, but those are potential children, who’ve been kidnapped. If they’re not special victims, who is?”

Thursday April 2 8.30pm

A beaten and raped woman, who has no memory of what happened to her, puts Benson and Stabler on the trail of a serial rapist, but when women refuse to testify Olivia will have to face how her assault has affected her job performance.

Trivia:
This episode appears to be ripped from the headlines of the Andrew Luster case. Andrew Luster, a descendant of a famous Hollywood family, was found guilty on 86 counts of poisoning, battery, rape, and other similar charges in 2003. Luster would charm women, then drug them and sexually assault them. He also taped the assaults, but stated that the tapes showed only consensual sex.

Thursday March 5 8.30pm on Ten

Taxi driver Nfansu Marong (Babs Olusanmokun) leaves a five month-old baby at a fire station, claiming a woman left the baby in his cab. The baby is burning with fever, and at the hospital, Dr. Massey (Donna Murphy) says she has advanced aids and was never given treatment.

The baby’s dna matches Joanne Suarez (Jessica Pimental), who’s currently in jail. Joanne left the baby with a neighbour, Ida Jallow (Antu Jacob), but didn’t know she was sick. It turns out ida and the cab driver live together and when the cops catch him he says they tried vitamins prescribed by an internet doctor, but Antonia just got sicker.

The internet doctor, Gideon Hutton (Martin Mull), runs a “voo-doo” medical practice, and Greylek (Michaela Mcmanus) sends the press after him in order to bring forward more patients. An anonymous tip comes in regarding the death of four year-old Lisa Ross (Jordan Evans). Her mother Susan (Paula Malcomson) claims she died two months ago from an allergic reaction to penicillin, but the tipster said she had HIV and was never treated for it.

They talk to Jack Lufton (Richard Joseph Paul), Susan’s ex-husband, who admits to calling the tip line. He says Susan contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, and knowingly infected him because she doesn’t believe it’s a serious sickness. ME Warner (Tamara Tunie) says Lisa may have contracted HIV from breast feeding, but the police want to go after Hutton for criminally negligent homicide – as a doctor he had a legal obligation to get Lisa tested and treated.

In order to test her for HIV, Warner exhumes Lisa’s body. She says Lisa died from aids-related pneumonia and rules her death a homicide. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Chris Meloni) arrest both Hutton and Susan, and Susan’s son Tommy (Aidan Mitchell) is devastated. Both suspects post bail, and though Tommy can now go home with his mother, Greylek asks acs to remove him to a shelter. Hutton’s attorney, Donna Emmett (Viola Davis), tries to bring multiple “experts” to the witness stand who will say that aids doesn’t exist, but the judge won’t allow it. Instead, Hutton gets on the stand and spouts his outrageous theories. Greylek is afraid the jury will believe him but when Susan also testifies, she has a seizure in court and is taken to the er. The doctors find several brain lesions caused by untreated HIV, and she dies that night. However, she makes a dying declaration to Benson of other children with aids who were misdiagnosed by Hutton, and Hutton finally agrees to plead guilty for criminally negligent homicide.