While the later stages of the Neal Baer Era of SVU were often punctuated by whiplash-inducing flips of the script into wild new directions, few episodes start off in as strange a place as this one. In what might just be the only time in this show's nearly 600-episode run, we dive into the world of vampirism.

With a melange of Ripped from the Headlines story points peppering the subject of this week’s installment, Season 5, Episode 8 “Abomination,” there is A TON for Adam and Josh to talk about, including Matthew Shepard, Lawrence v. Texas, the odious Westboro Baptist Church, the sham that is conversion therapy, and Oscar-nominated actor George Segal. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of talk about what really matters to you: hypotheses on the possibly sketchy operations of East Village gay bars, the evolution of acceptable language in television and film, how insanely problematic the movies of our youth are, in-depth analysis of characters’ eating habits, and the warped mindset created by the repeated ingestion of the general insanity of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

This week we watched an aptly titled episode which follows a series of rape allegations against a recently retired basketball star.

In addition to classic Warren Leight Era racism, this is an episode in which Olivia Benson, improbably, thinks it's cool if people are falsely accused of rape in a shameless bid to end a black man's endorsement deal. We are also treated to some terrible accent work and to newly minted Detective Carisi's delightful mustache and Staten Islander pizza choices.

When we asked our listeners to select an episode for us to watch, we were asking for a choice as depraved and cruel as this, the episode that see beloved ADA Rafael Barba exit the show in ridiculous (and frankly, insulting) fashion. This episode has everything--if by 'everything' you mean bad acting, nonsensical writing, bizarre plot holes, and Phillip Winchester attempting to cry. Bad though this episode might be, we have so much to talk about including whether or not it's a good idea to rear a spite child, Adam's day at the museum, and the importance of a showrunner. Fans of our digressions should head over to Patreon to hear extensive deep dives into Japanese Onsen culture and minor league baseball.

The Randomizer (episode.lol) spat out the final episode of the disastrous Michael Chernuchin Era, which meant the Munchie Boys were force-fed the final part of some serialized content. Of course, here, this means we have long-time series regulars acting entirely uncharacteristically, including characters we'd known for 20 years. Perhaps more importantly, this episode eschews all common sense, asking society to act insanely in addition to its characters. This episode brings a season to a close that almost killed the series, and it's bad enough that Adam and Josh have to ask if it shouldn't have been put down.

Adam and Josh rolled the dice this week, and the dice gave them "Glasgowman's Wrath" (Season 16, Episode 6), which might be the only Halloween episode in the SVU catalogue. Who or what is a Glasgowman? Why is he wrathful? Is it GGG to act out a violent tawdry rape fantasy in a public space? How does any of this pertain to legendary plane crasher Sully Sullenberger? Take a (not 500 mile) walk with us as we breakdown this particularly bizarre example of the modern police procedural.

Our first ever Season 26 episode answers a question I've never asked: what is to be done with all those VR headsets Silicon Valley tried to force on us before they forced AI on us? The answer is: so that bad dads can teach their teenaged sons about the birds and the bees by forcing them to watch brutal POV strangulation porn which in turn leads to a series of assaults on teen girls. We also meet Detective Kate Silva for the first time on MMB and wish we'd been watching the episode happening in a parallel timeline about the playground footlicker instead.

Yet another Season 19 episode of SVU leaves the Munchie Boys scratching their heads wondering in just what world is this even occurring. Opening with an improbable YouTuber montage and having the case of the week closing with a full seven minutes of run time remaining to open the door for an SVU lyceum at a high school, this week’s 13 Reasons Why-inspired episode (Season 19, Episode 4 “No Good Reason”) is operating at one of the strangest frequencies we’ve encountered. This one forces Adam and Josh to reckon with vlogging that makes Eighth Grade seem totally comfortable, how and when they’re going to have to get a ChatSlam account for the podcast, and the murky demise of Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell.

After a supremely messed up Munchies' Choice episode last week, we settled back into the late season doldrums with an SVU that seems deadset on being racist against both Italians and West Virginians while wallowing in a domestic violence case that ends badly in a bathtub. Is it believable that the character who meets his maker would have been taking a bath? Were there more inventive or contemporary ways to take out the abuser? Probably not, but why focus on wanting this ep to make sense? Fin is also left to pick up the pieces from his S21 officer-involved shooting, which means that the Munchie Boys have to wade back into the morass of semi-serialized procedurals to watch as the pieces are picked up from a story from which we probably could have been spared.

Let's get weird with a SUPER early episode recorded before Adam and Josh had dropped an episode. Here, they wrestle with GHB, a reality in which Benson was in a sorority, the continued mistreatment of the homeless, super rapey college bars staffed by enabling deviants, exposition machine Michelle Monaghan, miscast body types for collegiate swimmers, theories of the genesis of Christopher Meloni's entrée into Wet Hot American Summer, and apocryphal baseball lore which can only mean one thing: they watched "Consent," Episode 10 from Season 2 of Law & Order: SVU.

In our first Munchies' Choice episode back from the break, we were gifted a delightful stunt-cast-isode featuring one of the true titans of stage and screen. Yes folks, this SVU features none other than the modern voice of Shaggy Rogers himself, Matthew Lillard, in a, how shall we say, difficult role for him opposite some nobody casting pulled in off the street named Carol Burnett. We also see not Judge Al Bertuccio get defenestrated into a parked car, Fin casually dropping slang from the 1930s into conversation, and the writers' room creating new ethnic slurs from scratch. This one gets a hearty recommendation. Fantastic stuff all around!

What this delightful episode of SVU lacks in terms of coherent three-act structure or thoughtful character development is more than made up for by the absolute cavalcade of bonkers plot lines and instantly recognizable famous people. Ann-Margret justifiably won an Emmy for her turn as the perma-drunk Rita Wills. William Goddamn Atherton plays a petulant serial killer! Morgan Fairchild gets about 30 seconds of screen time! Liv and Elliot get propositioned for a threesome! There’s so much fun in this episode you're going to have to just dive in and revel in the madness.

The Munchie Boys sit down with Neal E. Fischer, the author of the brand new book Law & Order SVU: Confidential, an essential companion piece to the show you know and love. We get the straight dope on how the book came together, his process, and his mental health after watching every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit over the course of a few months. We also chat about his other creative endeavors, including his podcasts Triviality and Curated by Chance, his other books (like Being Patrick Swayze), and his work as a filmmaker.

In a raucous ride filled with twists and turns that only the Neal Baer years of SVU can deliver, the Unit first catches a dead baby in a bag in a gutter and ends up with two different perps going down for two very different crimes one of which is ripped from not one, but two different headlines. Featuring dives into West Nile Virus, the origins of the UK's Anatomy Act 1832, and subdermal tubes filled with other people's blood used to juke blood tests, this one has a lot going on, and that has nothing to do with how this Season 5, Episode 5 "Serendipity" will forever reframe how you look at honey.

This week, the world's largest airline ensured that this episode could not be released on time. To all of the listeners whose Monday mornings were tragically impacted by this unfortunate event, we at Munch My Benson are truly sorry.

Sadly, the writing staff of Season 13 of SVU was absolutely unapologetic in thoroughly trashing the second largest city in the state that SVU calls home. We've seen this show look askance at lesser states and provinces across the continent, but the glee with which this episode implies that Buffalonians will stop at nothing to ensure that their own children grow up in unsafe homes is truly shocking. Josh and Adam, of course, talk early childhood education, examine the films of Satyajit Ray and Michael Cimino, describe bottomless brunches and lil' squeezers, and plumb the depths of Rollins's depraved backstory. Enjoy!

As we are getting back into the swing of recording again, the Randomizer blessed us with a bonkers Season 2 episode of SVU which features misplaced Jets fandom, Cuban Stars baseball lore, and the Bruneian consular website. In Legacy, an extremely bad mom beats and rapes her daughter with a brush to garner sympathy points while blaming her ex-husband, who everyone initially believes did it due to racism. Watch as this mom dismantles family after family on her way to the clink. Also, enjoy how friend of the show, A-List celebrity Jimmy Kimmel, continues to dominate the news cycle in which we recorded this episode.

Though "Turmoil" (S11E8) was not the best SVU in the series, this slapped together melange of homoerotic fan service, intra-Stabler household drama, impossible travel times, and substandard professional ethics does provide the Munch My Benson boys with plenty of food for thought: Did Dickie Stabler kill Bin Laden? Just how many bodies did Elliot drop this episode? And, of course, is redemption even possible in this economy?

It's been a while folks, but the Munchie Boys are officially back on the horse. No, not H. The figurative horse that having a child can buck you from. And how are Adam and Josh repaid for their long overdue return to actively podcasting about Law & Order: SVU? Well, once you move past the fact that they basically had a three-minute commercial for the podcast on primetime network television, they had to watch an episode that avid gamer Ice-T has since distanced himself from. Yes, it's time to revisit Gamergate, one of the dumbest incidents in our timeline that somehow seems more and more germane to the world in which we live with each passing day.

Adam's Paternity Leave ends next week, so get some bad mom action up in this joint.

When the Randomizer selects a late-season SVU, there is often a concern that sets in that we might not be getting the best of the insanity that SVU has to offer. That concern was UNFOUNDED with regards to “Motherly Love” (S18E10)—which is a banger in every sense of the word. After having seen nearly 500 episodes of SVU and recorded now 77 episodes of a podcast about the show, it’s safe to say that the Munchie Boys have been subjected to some unimaginably shocking things, yet this episode still dropped their jaws with its brazen impropriety.

So listen as Adam and Josh revel in a truly disturbing exploration of motherhood in its darkest form. This episode is as good an exemplar as any when trying to describe why this podcast exists.

Adam's Paternity Leave is nearly over, but while we still have a couple weeks left, let's look at the last of a pair of episodes featuring a very tall Emmy winner of yore.

The Munchie Boys pick up where they left off last week, trudging through the murk as Ray’s tall brother faces the fallout from having been charged as a serial rapist while the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association possibly threatens Barba’s life for having the temerity to come after one of their guys. This fallout includes the first—and thus far, only—time an officer on the Unit dies in the line of duty, which gives Adam and Josh quite a bit to mull over while wondering why the stakes were lowered so much before offing him. Any episode that has Chekhov’s gun go off while also not having Chekhov’s gun go off means there’s going to be plenty of plot discussion to be had. There are also plenty of discussions about the typically insane things that SVU forces one to reckon with, namely intimidation wizards, phantom door-locking chicanery, the hilarity of needing apple boxes in hostage shoots, and much, much more.