The producers of “Law & Order: SVU” promise that the show will “go back to basics” in Season 26.
This is a good idea. I loved the early years of Law & Order: SVU. At the time, it was a unique TV show and a worthy successor to Homicide: Life on the Street, which borrowed from Munch’s work.
The thing is, I don’t think the writers have figured out what “back to basics” means for SVU yet.
Building a complete team is just the first step
Law & Order: SVU had several teams of detectives in its early years, so it’s good that the writers brought that back.
Fin and Bruno are similar to Fin and Munch; they are both One of the best police teams in the history of police procedurals. Assuming Silva stays for more than half a season, Velasco and Silva could make a decent second unit.
We can’t forget about Corey, who doesn’t have a partner but is currently offering to assist.
But here’s the thing: going back to basics doesn’t just mean having a bigger cast. Forging some new partnerships is a great first step, but we can’t stop there.
If you look at what made SVU so great in previous seasons, it was that the unit worked well as a unit.
Fin and Monk were in charge of one part of the case, Benson and Stabler on the other, and Captain Cregan was directing the investigation from the squad room.
I think SVU is trying to get back to that, but they’re not quite there yet.
Kate Silva is a great addition to the cast of Law & Order: SVU , but don’t let her fade into the background.
We get a strong introduction to her in the first episode, but in the second she barely has any lines.
I know part of the problem is that SVU is trying to save money by not having the entire cast in every episode, but introducing a character and then excluding them is not a good idea.
You can still have an ensemble show without it being so uneven. Check out what Chicago PD is up to in Season 12!
Please lose the crazy long cold opening
If Law & Order: SVU is serious about going back to basics, the biggest problem they should address is those damn cold starts.
In the early years of the show, cold opens were short and quick. There is a crime scene, a crime is discovered, or someone comes into the team room asking for help.
It ends in suspense and scrolls through the opening credits.
It may seem like a tired TV trope to do this, but those chilly openings deliver the drama.
These days, cold opens often take up ten to fifteen minutes of air time, and they often feel like the pilot episode of a new show about the lives of victims.
Season 26 is trying to be better, but the cold open season is still too long.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 2 was shorter than the Season 1 premiere, but there was still a lot of unnecessary exposition before getting to the meat of it.
Before we get to the meat of it, there are four scenes in the first few minutes involving Maggie, a woman we’ve never seen before.
It’s only two minutes, not ten, but still.
We don’t need to know about her battle with alcohol, her problems with her family, or the fact that they helped her parents pack their things.
It would have been a lot more dramatic if the episode had started with a scene where Maggie found the diary.
Even better, Maggie could have walked into the squad room in shock and reported to Benson that she believed she had been raped twenty years ago.
Likewise, we don’t need to juxtapose all these scenes of a group of soon-to-be victims with a scene of Benson’s team practicing at a shooting range in Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 1.
Shortening the cold open would not only add drama, but also leave more room for the police and courtroom scenes that made “SVU” famous.
Plus, we get to know the victims alongside Benson and the team. We don’t need to know everything in advance; in fact, it would be more interesting if we didn’t.
Going back to basics also means conducting realistic investigations
In some ways, SVU has always been unrealistic. For example, DNA evidence takes weeks rather than days to come back.
It’s okay to accept permission for this type of drama. But investigations should not be rushed or include unrealistic courtroom scenes for the sake of drama.
The first episode is a great example of what not to do. For half the episode, the police focus on one suspect and then face the real killer, who has never been mentioned before.
That’s cheating.
Even though “SVU” isn’t a mystery drama like “Elsbeth” or “The Irrational,” we still want to be able to follow the case and have a chance to find the guilty party.
Plus, it doesn’t feel like a real police investigation as you solve the mystery. Half the show on “SVU” should show the police investigation and then the courtroom scenes.
This is the Law & Order brand, but SVU has gone off the rails. Sometimes complex investigations don’t end up in court, and that’s fine.
But sometimes, the writers seem afraid to show police work.
I know there are people screaming that SVU is “propaganda” that should be canceled, but part of the reason I listen is because I want a world with good cops who care about survivors and their well-being.
I know that’s not always the case in the real world.
But SVU is comforting to me and many survivors because it centralizes the type of police officers we want to handle these types of cases.
We don’t need a stripped-down version of SVU, where the police appear to be doing their jobs, but focus on one suspect and then rush to the point of making an arrest.
Back to basics means properly centering survivors
“SVU” has always been a survivor-centric show. Police officers and lawyers also have personal lives, but these should be secondary.
Early on, SVU did this perfectly, letting Stabler deal with family issues at home while having to put everything aside to go to work.
While the balance isn’t quite as good as Blue Bloods, it does work.
Likewise, while Benson’s mental health issues are an important part of the series, they shouldn’t dominate the victim’s story.
Even though Maddie Flynn’s horrific story seems to be over, it’s a prime example of how absolutely nothing must happen if SVU is going to go back to basics.
The biggest problem with Maddie’s story is that it’s not about her. It’s about Benson feeling guilty for not stopping the kidnapper when he had the chance.
If the story focused on finding the missing teenager, a multi-episode story about Maddie might work.
Instead, it feels like a story about Benson’s disintegration, which is not what SVU is supposed to be about.
Vicarious trauma is an issue that needs more discussion, especially now that Mariska Hargitay has come forward to talk about the impact such stories have had on her.
But the way to do that isn’t to have Benson solving mysteries episode after episode because she’s too preoccupied with the people who are still missing to focus on the survivors in front of her.
This is starting to feel like an obsessive love story, which is not what I wanted it to feel like about a cop who has spent 25 years helping survivors put their lives back together after someone else’s obsession shattered their sense of security. Get back on track.
Some things should stay in the past
This entire conversation assumes that going back to basics is a good idea, and for the most part, it is.
Still, there are certain ways in which Law & Order: SVU needs to continue to evolve rather than change.
The show did little to do the LGBTQ+ community any favors in its early years, often using language that would be considered offensive today to describe those who are gender non-conforming.
We don’t need to go back to that, just the parts of the show that worked well but have gone off the rails.
Over to you, Law & Order: SVU fanatics.
What does going back to basics mean to you? What do you hope will change this season on SVU?
Hit the comments with your thoughts.
Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and Fridays on Peacock
