One of the aspects of the fact that Law & Order: SVU has had the same star for all of its 27 year run that hasn’t been explored is what exactly Olivia Benson’s future is going to look like. After all, at this point, she’s been on the force for over 30 years and is well beyond the age where most cops hang up their badge and do less-dangerous private-sector jobs. The show’s 27th season starts with both Benson and another veteran SVU detective contemplating their careers.
Opening Shot: “In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.” DUN-DUN!
The Gist: We see the high heels of Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) as she walks into a pub where the NYPD is holding a memorial for her old boss, Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek). As she watches Cragen’s retirement speech with ADA Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino), she talks about how he made her the leader she is now, and how much he devoted his life to the NYPD until he just couldn’t do it anymore. It leads her and Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice T), both of whom have been on the force for over 30 years, contemplate if there’s life after SVU, even if only momentarily.
She meets the new Chief of Detectives, Capt. Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni), who has been very impressed with Benson’s clearance rate at Manhattan’s SVU; Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) tells Benson that Tynan is well-respected but very hands-on.
Benson gets a call about a case and encounters her bestie, Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) standing by her car, working up the courage to go inside. “We had a pretty good run there for a bit,” he says to Benson about their partnership. “Still do. Just different,” she replies, referring to their enduring friendship.
Fin leaves the memorial and walks through the park; when he sees that a woman is being attacked, he draws his gun. But it’s a ruse, and he gets knocked down, beaten, and his gun and ID are stolen. In the hospital, he tells his SVU colleagues, Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane) and Det. Joe Polasco (Octavio Pisano), to not tell Benson that he lost his gun.
Benson joins Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) on a case where a woman in a short-term rental is raped. It doesn’t take long for Benson and Curry figure out that the leaseholder of the apartment is the culprit, but when they try to get the building’s super, who can ID the perpetrator, to testify, they’re blocked at numerous turns by ICE, due to the super’s immigration status. The super, who wants to do the right thing, eventually comes out of hiding, but he faces deportation if he testifies in the rape case.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Law & Order: SVU, Seasons 1-26.
Our Take: While there has been a lot of cast turnover on SVU, it’s distinctive from its L&O brethren for one reason: The presence of Mariska Hargitay. As we mused before Season 26, the show will end whenever she decides to stop playing Olivia Benson. So it’s interesting that the show starts Season 27 with Benson contemplating her future in the NYPD and SVU, even if it takes killing off Dann Florek’s character, who left 12 years ago, to do it.
Of course, the death of her old, beloved boss would make Benson — and Fin, who has been right there with her for her entire time with SVU — think about how, as Benson says, she’s “closer to the end than the beginning.” But by the end of the episode, Tynan has given her even more to think about: Having her in charge of a new department that consolidates all the SVU squads across the five boroughs.
She at first says she’s doing just fine where she is, but we wonder if the offer will be in the back of her mind throughout the season; it obviously gives her a chance to shape every SVU squad her way, but it also puts her at 1 Police Plaza and out of the everyday police work that she thrives on. We can’t imagine Benson becoming management; when the rape victim asks her why she keeps doing this intense work, she refers to Cragen and how “he was good at his job, and it gave his life meaning,” and how she realizes how much like him she is.
As we said, Fin also contemplates his future, especially after he gets jumped. “It was the rope-a-dope, and I was the dope,” he says to Bruno and Polasco. That story, though, got resolved much quicker than you might think, given that a main character was put in the hospital. It’s resolution felt a bit undercooked, though it seems that after working together for over a quarter-century, it does show how Fin still sees Olivia as a boss as well as a friend.
The central case was definitely “ripped from the headlines,” given the involvement of ICE and how it has conducted its sweeps of undocumented immigrants since the current president returned to office. The dilemma the witness faced — testify and get arrested by ICE or stay hidden and quiet — is a real one, but that story also resolved itself a little too cleanly.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Polasco is told to get in a strange car as he walks to his apartment.
Sleeper Star: There are a couple of cameos by former SVU cast members during the memorial scenes that made us wonder why they aren’t still on the show.
Most Pilot-y Line: “I have just one question: Who the hell gets jumped on their way back from a cop funeral?” That’s the first thing Benson says to Fin when she sees him in the hospital.
Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s good to see the writers of SVU paying attention to the fact that the show has been on for 27 years, and two of its stars are well beyond the age where most cops decide to take their pensions and go into less stressful jobs. But we’re pretty sure both Benson and Fin are going to be a part of SVU, both the unit and the show, for some time to come.
New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air on Thursday nights this fall on NBC. You can stream episodes next day on Peacock.
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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.