Lei & Ordem: Unidade de Vítimas Especiais

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.

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

SVU used to be one of my favourite shows. There's been some incredible, edge-of-your-seat episodes like "911", but now it's mostly he-said she-said's and statutory rapes between two willing participants (i.e. 15 year old girl and 16 year old guy). Yes, it's more realistic and true to life, but that's not why I watch TV like this. If I wanted realistic crime shows I'd watch Highway Cops or something - not Law & Order.

The political agenda pushing that's become central to the show is beyond aggravating. As the most liberal, feminist, pro-immigration, anti-racist, anti-fascist person around, having the views I already believe in forced down my throat every time I'm trying to chill out and watch TV is frustrating. It's also even more frustrating knowing how pointless it is - SVU is a crime show, it's not going to make anyone reconsider their politics, and it's dumb to isolate people from a show they've enjoyed for decades just because their politics differ to yours. The way it's all approached feels really patronising and tacky too - and the "my way is the right way" attitude is unhelpful in creating any positive political discussion.

Season 19 has been better than the past few seasons - there's been a few more engaging plot lines. It's still not even close to how it used to be though, where virtually every episode was an 8/10 with 9's being a common occurrence. Now it's more like every episode is a 5/10, and we're lucky if we get a 7.

I don't watch the show regularly anymore; I just resort to it when there's literally nothing else I can think of to watch. It sucks because it was so good, and I don't even think the new cast is too bad (yeah, they're not the OG's, but I can deal with it if the plots are good). It seemed to get a lot worse when Mariska Hargitay took over as Executive Producer.

Bring back engaging plots please and stop the political tripe. :(

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.

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.