NBC’s primetime show centers on trauma survivors.
Law & Order: SVU has been helping survivors rebuild their lives for the past 26 years.
Now, two other TV series have joined its mission, and even better, Discovery and Irrational both feature black survivors — a severely underrepresented group.
Law & Order: SVU started a major trend 26 years ago
Law & Order: SVU has long been a beacon of light in a dark television landscape.
In most shows, trauma is a plot point but isn’t depicted particularly accurately.
People with PTSD are often described as violent or unstable, sometimes with inaccurate symptoms.
(This still happens from time to time; just a few years ago, Days of Our Lives featured a man with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experiencing hallucinations similar to those of people with schizophrenia.)
But SVU was different from the beginning. The show is far from perfect, especially early on.
While SVU’s mission is to center trauma survivors, early survivors were all white, female, and straight, and in its early episodes, the show wasn’t as supportive of LGBTQ+ people as it is today.
Still, it takes trauma seriously.
Olivia Benson is the police officer many survivors wish actually existed.
Instead of rushing to fill out paperwork, she took the time to listen with empathy, fight hard for justice, and stand with survivors even when no one else was around.
Twenty-six years later, Olivia Benson is no longer an idealistic newbie, but she remains passionate about helping survivors avoid the pain her mother endured after a rape resulted in Benson’s pregnancy.
These stories are important, but we need a variety of voices talking about what trauma looks and feels like, because trauma is never the same for any two people.
That’s why I’m so grateful that NBC is now launching not one, but three series centered on trauma survivors.
Watch Law & Order: SVU Online
The story of Alec Mercer in “Irrational” is about living fully and without fear
Ironically, Jesse L Martin’s name is Ed Green, and he was one of the detectives on Law & Order at the end of its first season in the late 2000s.
Today, however, he takes on a very different role, one who can inspire trauma survivors in a different way than Olivia Benson.
Martin plays Alec Mercer, a survivor of a church bombing in which his loved ones were killed.
One of my favorite things about Alec is that he shows how experiencing trauma can make someone’s life so unbalanced.
He is a brilliant neuroscientist who is not only very successful teaching at universities, but also helping the FBI understand the mindset of criminals so that more murderers and other violent offenders end up behind bars.
However, he divorced in part because his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was becoming too much for him to live with, and he moved in with his sister because it was difficult for him to live alone.
This is what trauma is or can be. People aren’t huddled in a corner 24/7 – in fact, Alec is one of the bravest characters on TV, inspiring others to live life to the fullest.
But sometimes, it can wreak havoc on parts of your life that other people find easy, which can be especially maddening if you’re extremely smart.
Alec’s expertise in neuroscience does not make him immune to trauma responses or other irrational behaviors.
Although he understands what’s going on in his brain, he doesn’t always have control over his actions.
Irrational inspires survivors by providing a hero
“Irrational” focuses on trauma survivors in a different way than “Law & Order: SVU.”
While “SVU” focused primarily on police officers helping trauma survivors, “Irrational” features a trauma survivor who thrives despite facing some challenges.
Alec spent much of the first season trying to uncover the truth about who planted the bomb that nearly killed him. After surviving a kidnapping by a bomber, Alec gets answers, but that’s just the beginning of the story.
In many ways, Season 2 of Irrational is even more empowering. Getting answers didn’t make Alec’s trauma go away, but it allowed him to focus on moving forward.
The consistent theme of the second season is Never let fear stop you from living life to the fullest.
Alec’s assistant Phoebe quits his job because she feels the risks he takes every day to learn the truth are bad for her mental health.
Phoebe wants to be safe, but she’s eager to go back to work for Alec, and even though she’s working for someone else, she’s always asking how she can help with cases.
Phoebe’s conflicting desire for security and desire for a fulfilling life is just one example of this theme.
The first episode of the second season of “Irrational” features a high-profile case of violence: Alec’s girlfriend Rose is kidnapped.
The important part of this story is what happened next. Rose struggled with the trauma of her kidnapping, constantly pushing Alec away for fear of losing him.
It wasn’t until the end of “Irrational” season 2, episode 3 that Alec convinced Rose to break off her relationship with him so she would never know the pain of losing him forever to violence.
Whether she can resist the forces of isolation in the long term remains to be seen.
This is what I mean by trauma survivor-centeredness. Rose’s trauma was different from Alec’s, and she dealt with it differently.
Alec and Rose are also affected by their different identities. Their race, gender, and culture all influence how they process trauma.
Alec is especially important as a role model because so few men are willing to show vulnerability and real emotional struggles on television. Since black people are underrepresented, there are even fewer black people.
As good as “Law & Order: SVU” is, it fails to provide that to viewers because it’s about a white female cop who straddles the line between police and social worker to help survivors.
Watch “Irrational” online
NBC’s findings also contribute to a refreshing new trend of centering trauma survivors
Discovery is a difficult show for some.
Its heroine, Gabby Mosley, is a trauma survivor who behaves differently than many people expect survivors to look like.
Trauma survivors don’t always pick up the pieces of their lives in ways we recognize, which is part of the reason the show makes some viewers uncomfortable.
It seems natural to empathize with survivors, but how far does compassion extend when survivors are not purely dedicated to helping others, sometimes come across as uncaring or selfish, or when conventional morality says things are wrong?
Discovery Season 2 makes it clear that Gabby is a survivor, but not a savior. Although she helped many other abducted people regain their lives while the police ignored their plight, her first priority was not saving the world.
She does a lot of good things, but she also does everything she can to prevent herself and her loved ones from being re-traumatized.
In Discovery Season 1, that wasn’t so clear.
The premise of Gabi locking her former captor in a basement and forcing him to help her with her cases seems like the takeoff point for The Silence of the Lambs , except Gabi is both Jazz’s jailer and the one looking to him for help.
But after Sir escapes and kidnaps Lacey again, Gabi is forced to face everyone’s judgment.
Almost all of her former friends betrayed her, accusing her of being just like Sir, even though she was not a psychopath and used Sir to do a lot of good.
It’s also traumatic, especially when the need for self-preservation and seemingly “bad” behavior intersects with related issues like racism and sexism, which can also cloud one’s judgment.
Everyone who works with Gabby is a trauma survivor, but this is complicated by the fact that surviving trauma doesn’t mean you understand what trauma is like for others.
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This is a story that needs to be told.
Television has come a long way in centering survivors of trauma, but it’s still stuck in the stereotype that survivors only deserve sympathy if they use their pain to help others.
TV can help dispel misconceptions about survivors
As a trauma survivor, I am acutely aware of how little understanding there is, even for survivors who did not do what Gabby Mosley is doing.
Many people are offended by the idea of trigger warnings in books and movies, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Many, many people believe that not being able to “get over” for years after something terrible happened means someone is weak or too emotional, and sometimes trauma survivors remain the butt of jokes about their oversensitivity.
That’s why we need diverse voices talking about trauma, and NBC is off to a great start this season with these three series centered on trauma survivors.
Over to you, TV lovers!
What do you think of NBC’s approach to centering trauma survivors?
Are there any other shows you’d like to add to the list of TV series that help empower survivors?
Hit the comments with your thoughts.
