New York - Unité spéciale

I have never one been that big of a fan of the original Law & Order. I would watch it for time to time and it was an alright show but never really had anything jump out at me to make it one of my can't miss shows. Then this show came on. I watched this show when it premiered back in 1999 and was impressed from the get go. Sure it followed the basic premise of it's original cousin but was much more loose on it's format and execution. Some episodes hardly ever involve the court room at all where the original week in week out follows a distinct pattern. First half hour is the law then the next is the order. This show although does sometimes follow the same pattern like i mentioned it is much more loose in how it executes it. Mariska Hartigay is excellent as her portrayal of Det. Olivia Benson. The whole cast as a whole is magnificent. Now I know a lot of people will disagree with me that this show is in no way better than the original but for me it is. It has given me something that the original never did.

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. :(

One of the better detective shows ever on television. The show is about a group of detectives who work in the Special Victims Unit and investigate sex related crimes. The SVU detectives are all dedicated and have their own stories and inner battles. Running for over 20 years is testament to the shows strength. It was far better during the first 10 - 12 years, as would be expected. The show has lost some steam, its edginess and changed direction somewhat over last several seasons. For the first 10 - 12 years of this show it was generally well balanced in its views. It focused closely on the detectives work and catching the criminal. For years now the detective work usually plays second fiddle to the show being self-righteous and making a political statement. But it is still worth watching now if you like detectives shows, just try to watch some episodes from the first 10 - 12 years.

The stories are usually well constructed and interesting. The theme most times is - a crime is committed, the detectives investigate and the case goes to court. The viewer gets taken through most steps of the crime, investigation and court case. The actual detective work portrayed is far from flawless, and often not the way real life detectives could or would work a case. There are often twists and turns in the story, some you see coming some you don't. The production, sets and acting is very good.

The best years of this show are the ones with the well balanced team of Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson. Stabler who is a force to be reckoned with but a bit of a loose cannon at times. With Benson as the deep thinker and more compassionate one. They were the stars of the show and a good team. They upheld the law and investigated the cases in a gritty and tough environment. There has always been a strong support cast and often a good guest star. The show has a cast members leaving and being replaced, which keeps the team dynamics fresh and interesting. With the absence of Detective Elliot Stabler during the latter years, the character of Detective Olivia Benson on-screen presence has grown noticeably. Its a shame as some of the other characters are well played and quite interesting, they should get more camera time without Olivia Bensons constant presence. Once a leading detective now Olivia Benson is the Captain of the unit, she is unlike the old captain who gave a few orders and some age old wisdom. Olivia Benson is very hands on and usually takes centre stage in virtually all of the stories with her brand of police work and leftist views on life. Mariska Hargitay became an executive producer of the show, which might explain the growth of the Olivia Benson character. The show has become more and more woke/left which affects the balance of the story telling. During the last several years of the show, its not too hard to guess who committed the crime, as more times than not, it is a nasty white guy, middle to upper class, 25 - 55 years old who is the perpetrator.

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.

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.