Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series 1999– )

Law u0026 Order: Special Victims Unit: Created by Dick Wolf. With Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, Dann Florek, Richard Belzer. This series follows the Special Victims Unit, a specially trained squad of detectives in the N.Y.P.D., who investigate sexually related crimes.

“When I am communicating with other people interested in crime series it is remarkable how many people seem to watch either CSI or CSI: Miami or both. Rarely (actually never) have I heard talk about this show, unless I brought it up myself and ended up discussing it with them. Of course I do not know the situation in America and other countries regarding this show, but I feel it is very underrated in the Netherlands. Of course this has a lot to do with itu0026#39;s programming spot. While CSI is usually on Saturdayu0026#39;s at 8:30 or 9:30 p.m. and CSI: Miami on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., SVUu0026#39;s spot has been Sundayu0026#39;s around 11p.m. for quite some time now. Thatu0026#39;s hardly what I call a prime time spot. Just to compare I looked up the shareu0026#39;s of those 3 shows on the internet. CSI has a share of 26 in the US and 17,5 in the Netherlands. For CSI:Miami these numbers are 15,0 and 13,2 and for SVU they are 17,0 and 7,7. This doesnu0026#39;t mean much, but once bring the number of households into it, it gets a lot clearer. CSI has about 18,6 million viewers in the US while CSI:Miami and SVU have 10,5 and 11,9 viewers respectively. In the Netherlands these figures are 1,175 million; 910 thousand and 370 thousand. This means that SVU has less than one-third of the viewers CSI has and MUCH less than half the viewers CSI: Miami has. In America SVU has two-thirds of the viewers of CSI and about 10% more than CSI:Miami. In my opinion this has a lot to do with the extremely bad programming spot SVU has gained in the Netherlands and the fact that the program is not advertised as vigorously as the two CSIu0026#39;s, for I feel it cannot have anything to do with itu0026#39;s quality.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe thing that makes SVU stand out so much in opinion, is that the stories depicted are very realistic and heart felt. I personally appreciate it very much, that there are no cheap attempts to make you cry by extending dramatic scenes or underscoring them with sad music. Mostly the sad parts happen quite suddenly and are relatively short. Maybe thatu0026#39;s just another u0026#39;tricku0026#39; to get you to cry without being as obvious as many soap operau0026#39;s. TO me though, it makes the stories appeal much more life-like and truly gut-wrenching and sad.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso all of the characters are good. If you watch long enough, you can get bits and pieces of information on everyone of them, thus discovering what makes them tick. I must admit that the series has changes itu0026#39;s emphasis a bit in recent years. In the first year there were numerous episodeu0026#39;s that featured themeu0026#39;s or events from the investigatoru0026#39;s home environment (especially Stableru0026#39;s). This trend has somewhat diminished over the years, yet you can still see each individualu0026#39;s background shining through into their work ethics. One thin I really had to get used to was Richard Belzeru0026#39;s (Det. John Munch) role getting smaller. It seems to me that in the first few years of the series he was present much more and he made much more cynical remarks, something I really enjoyed. But overall the series has not changed for the worse, for I feel it has actually improved. While a few years ago Iu0026#39;d given this series an 8 out of 10 Iu0026#39;m much more inclined now to rate it even higher. What Iu0026#39;ve come to appreciate these last 2 or three years, were the additions of Ice-T (Det. Fin Tutuola), B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang) and Stephanie March (A.D.A. Alex Cabbot) to the team. Stephanie Marchu0026#39;s character provides the viewer not only with an insight to what the D.Au0026#39;s job is, but her involvement in the series also shows what difficult decisions need to be made at times when the victim becomes the pursued or when a suspect cannot legally be brought to justice. Huangu0026#39;s intense involvement lately is in my opinion the biggest and best evolution the series has undergone (up until now). Not only because there have been few if any series which placed the work of the forensic psychiatrist is in the spotlight, but also it is much more realistic than for instance the mediau0026#39;s depiction of profilers in The Silence of the Lambs or the TV-series Profiler. Also I think it is good (in addition to being very interesting) to show the public that not every offender is purely bad, but there is often much more when you go beyond the surface. As for Ice-Tu0026#39;s character, I think he really completes the mix in the show, as the tough street cop. Him and Belzer are an ideal couple, just like Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe reasons, I personally feel SVU is the best crime series on the tube at the moment, are easily summarized. It has very much diversity, it offers insight into the psycheu0026#39;s of both victimu0026#39;s and perpetrators and it is realistic in every aspect. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e9 out of 10”