New York - Unité spéciale

As a huge fan and follower of this show for many, many years, I had rated it 10/10, and never missed an episode. But this new season ever since Kelli Giddish left the show, it seems the casting and writing has left the building as well.

I'm not saying that Giddish made or broke the show, but it seems with her leaving, the writers and casting directors left with her, because most of the new characters are just not believable, or offer up any reason to relate or sympathize with them, and the writing has become stale, ridiculous and mostly boring.

We see much less of the regulars like Tutuola, except for Benson, who seems to be on a power-trip all of the time all of a sudden, and Carisi, who seems lost since his love interest left her position. All the new cast seem to be entangled in too many nonsense personal dramas, and are just not convincing in their roles.

For the first time, I look more forward to seeing L&O-OC instead of L&O-SVU, as they've upped their writing and the show has become more suspenseful. Thus I've dropped my rating to a 8/10. Hopefully the writing improves with the upcoming episodes and the new characters as this season progresses.

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.

I hear on tv that apparently America's favorite Law and Order is the original. I personally think this is the best one out of all of them. It tackles some pretty intersting sides of society and humanity within an hour. I've been watching it for awhile and fell in love with the cast. They all have that hard edge that comes from doing a job like their's. Marishka is great and Ice-T is amusing. The storylines are very interesting and groundbreaking. In my classes, I've heard about the Down-Low phenomenon amongst black males in the U.S. This is the first show, aside from Oprah, that dealt with this issue. I was amazed and pleased that they'll take on any topic within their framework. Their guest cast should be praised as well. They have a great casting director. I don't know about their history with Emmy nominations, but they should definitely be in the running. The show has a very easy going nature despite the hardness of the cast that works well and acted beautifully. It gives a real look at society's imperfections and discriminatory ideologies. Nobody on the show is perfect and even the lawyers manipulate the law beyond the usual scope people think they do. Instead, they are manipulating it to see justice done and not avoided. I would urge anyone to watch this show. Give it a look.

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 love the SVU series. I'm watching every episode from the beginning. It helps me so much to think about something other than my cancer pain. So thank you for saving me from that!