Let’s get one thing out of the way in which: I’m a ride-or-die Regulation & Order: SVU fan.
I’ll stan Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T) for the remainder of time. I’ll stick by them by each new, barely completely different however very related squad room, and I’ll fake to not know that the well-known visitor star is the dangerous man as quickly as I see him. Nothing offers me consolation like that reliable “chung-chung”— what an ex as soon as referred to as “the soundtrack” to my condo—and I can watch the identical episode 25 instances, truly, with out losing interest. It’s — unusually, however not uncommonly — like a weighted blanket for my soul.
Nonetheless, the twenty sixth season, which concluded on Thursday, Could 15, left me wanting extra. I hesitate to say that, as a result of I hesitate to say something vital about anybody’s artwork, as a result of it’s artwork, and lots of proficient folks labored very arduous on it. Additionally…26 FREAKIN’ SEASONS. That’s insane and unprecedented and a triumph to be celebrated. However this season felt somewhat rudderless.
I appreciated that the present kicked off the midseason with an episode referred to as “First Mild,” starring the terrific Amy Landecker as a Gisèle Pelicot–impressed sufferer and the equally terrific Lelan Orser as her abuser. There isn’t a extra inspiring girl on the planet proper now than Pelicot, and her story may have performed out over a complete multi-episode arc. As a substitute it was smashed into 42-ish minutes. If there have been ever a have to decelerate and take a number of episodes — perhaps even a complete season — to unpack a tragedy and the numerous methods techniques and people can fail ladies (one thing the present usually does brilliantly), it was this.
Extra not too long ago, the Could 8 episode ”Aperture” left me scratching my head. It was — I feel — a couple of rich couple touring an condo that had a telescope, by which the rich husband spied a sexual assault, besides the couple wasn’t rich, they similar to to have a look at flats; and although it was an assault, it was a really completely different, very hard-to-believe-even-for-SVU form of assault than detectives first thought. And likewise the episode was form of concerning the homicide of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson? (Aspect word: Accomplish that many individuals actually have telescopes of their condo? I’ve lived in New York my complete life and no one I do know has a telescope. Anyway.)
Over 26 seasons, the sequence’ most memorable story traces have been sluggish burns — clusters of episodes during which drama performs out over an extended time frame (the William Lewis saga, which had two eras; The Delia Wilson/Bart Ganzel conflict, and so forth.); any variety of one-offs that see the righteous comeuppance of crypto bros, racists, males’s-rights activists and different D-bags; and the introduction of crimes so obscure and unusual they make you are concerned somewhat bit concerning the writers. (There may be not one SVU fan who watched the third season of White Lotus and didn’t instantly assume, “household annihilator” as Timothy Ratliff mounted these poisonous smoothies.)
For a present that always rips plotlines from headlines, I can perceive why issues could be overwhelming. Information in essentially the most horrible time line strikes quick — too quick for our nervous techniques — and our consideration spans are brief. There’s simply a lot to cowl. However these days, no storyline has been given sufficient room to breathe, and the result’s usually confounding.
Talking of room to breathe, I do want among the actors who’ve come and gone in recent times acquired extra of it. On Could 7 it was introduced that Juliana Aidén Martinez, who by no means fairly clicked into place throughout her one season as Detective Kate Silva, and, extra surprisingly, Octavio Pisano (Detective Joe Velasco for 3 seasons) will exit. They comply with an extended line of current blink-and-you’ll-miss-them regulars: Jamie Grey Hyder, Demore Barnes, Molly Barnett, Phillip Winchester. Essentially the most thrilling however shortly dashed improvement was when Jordana Spiro went from a standout visitor star enjoying a horrifically abused spouse in 2022 to an FBI profiler in 2024, then disappeared without end. (Again to Martinez for a second: Who can blame her for not clicking? I’m certain any actor enjoying New Feminine Detective on the Particular Victims Unit is available in with a good quantity of untimely PTSD figuring out how issues have gone for therefore many earlier than them.)
However the forged shakeup, as unhappy as it’s, particularly for Pisano, is probably going excellent news. On the heels of that announcement, it was revealed that season 27 would right an egregious error—the dismissal of longtime forged member and fan favourite Kelli Giddish. (It was arduous to not really feel that each new squad member who got here and went was attempting to fill the Rollins-shaped gap within the place, as was Rollins herself, who stored exhibiting up as a visitor star.)
However the perfect signal that issues are trying up for SVU got here in April, when Deadline broke the information that Michele Fazekas — who has produced practically 100 episodes — would turn into (unbelievably) the present’s first girl showrunner, changing David Graziano. Playwright Warren Leight served as showrunner for greater than a decade, with a break in between, and oversaw among the sequence’ greatest episodes (together with ones that had been ripped from the headlines, like 2011’s “Scorched Earth,” which took inspiration from the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, and the ahead-of-its-time body-mod-themed “Unusual Fruit,” which featured a not-yet-famous Britt Decrease, who was already incandescent). I’ve a sense we’re headed for an additional golden age like that one within the arms of Fazekas and her writing associate, Tara Butters.
“I’m clearly not finished with SVU and I’ve a lot accountability there nonetheless, which is preserving me artistically challenged. It’s difficult. Within the meantime, I even have had these unbelievable moments,” Hargitay stated in Could 2024 about staying on the present since its 1999 premiere. “I’m actually blissful and fulfilled with my life proper now. So, we’ll see what comes. However as of proper now, I’m very blissful on the journey.”
That is all to say: SVU, you’re a titan. I imagine in you. Twenty-six is historical in TV years, in the perfect method. And I’m so excited to see the place we go from right here. (Additionally, please strive one other Gisèle Pelicot arc. You — and she or he and we — deserve it.)
All episodes of Regulation & Order: SVU can be found to stream on Peacock.