Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Quality is the foundation that "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is based upon. With compelling storylines, great performances and a first-rate cast; "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" radiates from the screen each hour it is on every night. Dick Wolf has combined quality writing with quality casting in the second of three series' in the "Law & Order" franchise.

Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Ice-T, Dann Florek, B.D. Wong and Richard Belzer all share one thing in common: they star in one of finest series on television.

Mariska, Chris, Ice-T, Dann, B. D. and Stephanie March are a well-rounded cast that bring great depth to their characters and compliment each other very well. Furthermore, the cast portray their characters so well that I have to remind myself that they are actors not detectives.

Quality writing and outstanding performances set "Law And Order: SVU" apart from the other dramas on television. Each episode is riveting, written with intelligence, and character driven. It is a privilege to watch "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

The writers' ability to draw viewers in and make them care about the involving storylines and characters help to make "Law & Order: SVU" one of the finest legal series on television.

At first I was hesitant to start watching this show. I am a survivor of rape and sexual assault, so I was afraid that this would be triggering for me. However it has actually been the opposite. Watching SVU has helped me heal and find closure with my past. I love that they are always actively combatting rape culture, and reminding that every one is worth a damn.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is one of the best and most underrated shows on TV. It stars Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, a tough-as-nails detective who makes his hatred of pedophiles and child molesters well known many times throughout the show. He has another side, a vicious side, that Criminal Intent's Robert Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) lacks. I'm very pleased that he's been nominated for an Emmy. Mariska Hargitay won an Emmy for her performance as Olivia Benson, another fantastic detective. Benson has more edge than CI's Alex Eames (Kathrine Erbe), but is revered for her ability to communicate to troubled witnesses and gouge confessions out of suspects. Her life is put in danger at least twice a season, yet she continues to be strong. Next is the sarcastic detective Jon Munch, played by the excellent comedian Richard Belzer. Munch may seem annoying at times, but his ability to relate to witnesses is excellent, and he plays the "good cop, bad cop" role very well. The final detective is Finn Tutuola, played by former rapper Ice-T. Ice-T plays the character reasonably well, but I think we'd all like to see a meaner side of him. He was very good in the episodes entitled "Rage," and "Rooftop". They are led by Don Cragen, played by Dann Florek, and Cragen is as good a captain as any, as Florek reprises his role he held on "Law & Order" for a few years. Adam Beach recently joined the show, bringing something new to the table in youth and his almost 'surfer dude' approach to detective work. The ADA now is Casey Novak, played by Diane Neal, who could be better, but she gets the job done. She's been better of late, and the contrast between her and her predecessor is really helpful to the show. Her predecessor, Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) was great also. The team is also aided by an FBI psychiatrist, George Huang (BD Wong), who aids them in finding out the true horrors of a person, witness or suspect. His best performance was in the episode called "Coerced." The members of this unit investigate sexually based crimes (rape, rape-homicide) and child based crimes (school shootings, child abuse, child molestation). The show has had extraordinary guest stars, from evil (Johnny Messner, Reg Flowers, Asio Highsmith, Jeff Kober) to touching (Leland Orser, Jerry Lewis) to lost (Brittany Snow) to famous and legendary actors (Jerry Lewis, Dean Cain, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Henry Winkler, Robin Williams, Matthew Modine, Alfred Molina, Cynthia Nixon, John Ritter). This is a truly great show that not only shows the line of work in this graphic department, but shows the emotional stress a detective goes through. 10/10

I have never one been that big of a fan of the original Law & Order. I would watch it for time to time and it was an alright show but never really had anything jump out at me to make it one of my can't miss shows. Then this show came on. I watched this show when it premiered back in 1999 and was impressed from the get go. Sure it followed the basic premise of it's original cousin but was much more loose on it's format and execution. Some episodes hardly ever involve the court room at all where the original week in week out follows a distinct pattern. First half hour is the law then the next is the order. This show although does sometimes follow the same pattern like i mentioned it is much more loose in how it executes it. Mariska Hartigay is excellent as her portrayal of Det. Olivia Benson. The whole cast as a whole is magnificent. Now I know a lot of people will disagree with me that this show is in no way better than the original but for me it is. It has given me something that the original never did.

When I am communicating with other people interested in crime series it is remarkable how many people seem to watch either CSI or CSI: Miami or both. Rarely (actually never) have I heard talk about this show, unless I brought it up myself and ended up discussing it with them. Of course I do not know the situation in America and other countries regarding this show, but I feel it is very underrated in the Netherlands. Of course this has a lot to do with it's programming spot. While CSI is usually on Saturday's at 8:30 or 9:30 p.m. and CSI: Miami on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., SVU's spot has been Sunday's around 11p.m. for quite some time now. That's hardly what I call a prime time spot. Just to compare I looked up the share's of those 3 shows on the internet. CSI has a share of 26 in the US and 17,5 in the Netherlands. For CSI:Miami these numbers are 15,0 and 13,2 and for SVU they are 17,0 and 7,7. This doesn't mean much, but once bring the number of households into it, it gets a lot clearer. CSI has about 18,6 million viewers in the US while CSI:Miami and SVU have 10,5 and 11,9 viewers respectively. In the Netherlands these figures are 1,175 million; 910 thousand and 370 thousand. This means that SVU has less than one-third of the viewers CSI has and MUCH less than half the viewers CSI: Miami has. In America SVU has two-thirds of the viewers of CSI and about 10% more than CSI:Miami. In my opinion this has a lot to do with the extremely bad programming spot SVU has gained in the Netherlands and the fact that the program is not advertised as vigorously as the two CSI's, for I feel it cannot have anything to do with it's quality.

The thing that makes SVU stand out so much in opinion, is that the stories depicted are very realistic and heart felt. I personally appreciate it very much, that there are no cheap attempts to make you cry by extending dramatic scenes or underscoring them with sad music. Mostly the sad parts happen quite suddenly and are relatively short. Maybe that's just another 'trick' to get you to cry without being as obvious as many soap opera's. TO me though, it makes the stories appeal much more life-like and truly gut-wrenching and sad.

Also all of the characters are good. If you watch long enough, you can get bits and pieces of information on everyone of them, thus discovering what makes them tick. I must admit that the series has changes it's emphasis a bit in recent years. In the first year there were numerous episode's that featured theme's or events from the investigator's home environment (especially Stabler's). This trend has somewhat diminished over the years, yet you can still see each individual's background shining through into their work ethics. One thin I really had to get used to was Richard Belzer's (Det. John Munch) role getting smaller. It seems to me that in the first few years of the series he was present much more and he made much more cynical remarks, something I really enjoyed. But overall the series has not changed for the worse, for I feel it has actually improved. While a few years ago I'd given this series an 8 out of 10 I'm much more inclined now to rate it even higher. What I've come to appreciate these last 2 or three years, were the additions of Ice-T (Det. Fin Tutuola), B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang) and Stephanie March (A.D.A. Alex Cabbot) to the team. Stephanie March's character provides the viewer not only with an insight to what the D.A's job is, but her involvement in the series also shows what difficult decisions need to be made at times when the victim becomes the pursued or when a suspect cannot legally be brought to justice. Huang's intense involvement lately is in my opinion the biggest and best evolution the series has undergone (up until now). Not only because there have been few if any series which placed the work of the forensic psychiatrist is in the spotlight, but also it is much more realistic than for instance the media's depiction of profilers in The Silence of the Lambs or the TV-series Profiler. Also I think it is good (in addition to being very interesting) to show the public that not every offender is purely bad, but there is often much more when you go beyond the surface. As for Ice-T's character, I think he really completes the mix in the show, as the tough street cop. Him and Belzer are an ideal couple, just like Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni).

The reasons, I personally feel SVU is the best crime series on the tube at the moment, are easily summarized. It has very much diversity, it offers insight into the psyche's of both victim's and perpetrators and it is realistic in every aspect.

9 out of 10