Law & Order: SVU has gotten to the point where we all know that if Mariska Hargitay ever decided to quit the show, that would be it. Olivia Benson has become so central to what the show is about, and has so much character history, then replacing her with another random police captain would just kill the show. But that doesn’t mean that showrunner David Graziano hasn’t assembled a mostly new cast around her.
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT SEASON 24: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.” DUN-DUN!
The Gist: Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) picks up one of her SVU detectives, Kate Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez), and brings her to the shooting range, where the rest of the unit is bonding over shooting targets.
We see law students hanging out in an off-campus apartment, two women and one man. A fifth member of the group comes in and talks about how hard it is to meet anyone. When one of the men leaves, though, the other three get busy, and we don’t mean studying. The fourth member of the friend group comes back early, and sees the three of his roomies getting it on through the chained door.
Later, someone comes in, bashes one of the roomies over the head, sexually assaults one of the women and kills the other. SVU is called to the scene because of the sexual assault. Silva, Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice T), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Det. Joe Polasco (Octavio Pisano) and Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) are all involved in the investigation, which at first looks at the fourth roommate, who had a thing for the murder victim, but soon turns to a friend of the murder victim who helped her install a camera in her bedroom. ADA Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) does his best to get the law student to break down on the stand.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Law & Order: SVU Seasons 1-25.
Our Take: We hadn’t watched SVU in a few years, and we were shocked at how much the cast had turned over, outside Hargitay, Ice T and Scanavino. Over its quarter-century on the air, SVU‘s cast was always relatively stable; even with cast changes, the people sliding into the new roles stayed there for years. So it was surprising to see all the new faces.
SVU is one of the few L&O franchise shows that would fall apart without its star. Hargitay has made this her show over the years. Benson has been through so much as a character, it’s hard to think of this show going on if and when Hargitay finally decides to hang up her fictional badge.
As long as Olivia Benson is around and actively participating in these investigations, fans will love the show. Ice T’s Fin has always been reliable for a funny line, though his character has diminished a bit since the late Richard Belzer finally retired Det. John Munch. The rest of the group? They feel generic. We’re not even sure what role Capt. Curry, who investigated Benson when she was in Internal Affairs, serves, given that we don’t think she’s in SVU in a command capacity.
The case itself was somewhat of a headscratcher, because it mostly seemed to get hung up in the idea of these law students having a threesome. The cops seemed to get a lot of easy breaks, but that’s what happens in pretty much every network procedural. It was on the trail side that we shook our head, with Carisi trying to get the defendant to admit to something while on the stand. Who does he think he is? Ben Matlock?
Sex and Skin: We see some of the tamest threesome footage we’ve ever seen, as the law students do everything under the covers.
Parting Shot: A fairly generic L&O ending, where Benson and Carisi talking about how satisfying the verdict was, then a shot at the courthouse.
Sleeper Star: We love the fact that Ice T is hanging in there as Fin. We also want to know who he named his gun after.
Most Pilot-y Line: “She wasn’t any better looking than me,” says the defendant on the stand about the murder victim. Ok, dude.
Our Call: STREAM IT. We’ll never say “skip it” to SVU because Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson is one of TV’s most beloved characters and as long as she’s there, the show is worth watching. But, boy, they couldn’t have come up with a more generic season premiere if they tried.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ Season 26 On NBC, Where Benson And Company Investigate A Home Invasion appeared first on Decider.
