Law & Order: SVU

Perhaps this Law & Order should consider a name change this season to “Law & Order: PSA” since the majority of their episodes this season have veered off in wildly unrelated, and sex-less, directions such as childhood obesity caused by soda and toxic mushrooms as murder weapons. This leaves the viewers wondering if the once hard-hitting, gritty, and oftentimes emotionally brutal series has, dare I say it, run out of pervasive sexual storylines? And even when the episode is sex related they are spouting statistics in their dialogue like they’re testifying in front of congress (pun intended). Markisa, you are a champion for the cause of domestic violence and sexual assault, but you have been for years without inserting blatant statistics and calls to action IN a particular episode. Television is an escape from reality and SVU has been skilled at shedding light on current issues without hitting the viewers over the head with them. Dial it back a notch.

Not to disparage the longest running drama on television, and one of my top favorites, but maybe its time to throw in the towel before it completely crashes and burns. Of course I never want to see one of my favorite shows come to a close but at the same time I want to remember them fondly. If they go out on a low note that’s all anyone will remember and there are PLENTY of episodes to watch over and over again to remember them by. All the fans really want is for Benson and Stabler to get together, which we know, or at least the realistic ones do, won’t happen. So all I’m asking for is this: CLOSURE. Give Olivia the family she’s always wanted whether its through her adopting a child as a single parent, in vitro fertilization which leads to her finally overcoming her fears of passing on her violent and drunk genes, or even meeting someone and getting married. Maybe she takes a desk job to achieve her parental goals, or transfers to a less emotionally and physically draining unit. Or maybe she, or Elliot, become captain and Cragen retires. The series cannot end with the current status quo because then what was the point? It also cannot end with Olivia jetting off to LA to be on LO:LA (as Mariska Hargitay as said she’d be ‘up for’ and Dick Wolf is surely thinking about to retain his most popular and fan attached character). She would never leave Elliot, and if that happened she would waste away for another ten years on that show and fade off into the distance when she retires with no closure whatsoever.

SVU revolutionized the procedural drama format by actually giving their main characters continuing storylines so it would be a shame to rob these characters that we’ve grown to love from completing their arc.