Devonte Huntley

Well, we're losing Kat and Garland next season. How odd we're losing BOTH at the same time in the same episode. With Kat's actor, there seems to have been money issues involved as she states her leaving was not her choosing (always the damn money issues), but I have no idea why Demore Barnes is leaving. The storyline they set up for him at the end of the last season finale seems to have me interesting on the arc he was to have this upcoming season, but it looks like he's going to lose this fight sooner than expected or even intended. Quite a shame. I swear if Warren Leight has anything to do with this, I'm going to disown this man I swear it! Might be a money cut thing with NBC which isn't surprising neither given what we had to deal with this past year. Who knows? We can never seem to get proper info in cases like this when cast members leave abruptly. It took forever for us to even finally know why Chris Meloni left the show and we were left in the dark about that for age. I figured this show would maintain it's current cast for the years to come. They all sort of clicked, even though it took a while for me to grow to Kat, and was still growing but she was the young face this show needed, and Garland, eh...I didn't think he REALLY needed to be a main character since how often can you have the chief involved so much in these stories. Having Olivia be front and center is a stretch given Cragen was never given much involvement. But the different is, Olivia was always sort of a lead character and became the lead for a bit when Chris left, and they're not gonna want to give her the back seat no matter what promotion she has as far as running of SVU is concerned. If she were to take Garland's position, she'd certainly have to take a back-seat. But now Mariska apparently has to take a back seat due to her getting injured so we won't be seeing Olivia in much action either. HMM..... Oh boy, this season is going to be rough in it's beginning stages. So that leaves two cast members gone, one on bench that won't be a speedy recovering, so that leaves THREE we have to entertain us. The cast pool is just shrinking massively on us and is quite a shame for a show that's always had a big cast, even though we've had simply four main characters before in Season 1, but that was waaaaaay back when the show first started and still finding it's footing. I don't think fans are gonna settle for that at this level in the show's run, so we're gonna need some new blood in the squad room or even in the DA's office. Hell, what about the Medical Examiner? This is a good opportunity to bring back Tamara Tunie full time and implement more murder cases.

With the way people run these crime drama shows acting like they don't want to revisit old episodes 90% of the time, don't count on there ever being a continuation. It's sickening. If I was in charge of SVU, we'd be having revisit storylines and recurring characters right and left. All these episodes and characters and they want to keep shoving new ones at us all the time? Ridiculous.

Law & Order had a good run, but it was a sloppy one. The show was always changing cast members and it's a shame no one stuck around the whole duration and most stayed on for 1-3 years tops. I'm surprised it even lasted as long as it did because most shows that under-go so many casting changes like this show has tend to be cancelled very quickly because you grow and appeal to these people and want them to stay on a while. Thank goodness for the likes of S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterson, Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, Steven Hill, who managed to stay on for a significant amount of time with Chris Noth, Elizabeth Rohm, and Fred Thompson who stayed significantly shorter, but longer than most of their comrades. More than four years is reasonable to me. People fail to realize what doesn't work about L&O is that these people still have LIVES outside of their jobs and we ought to see that explore some time, which is why SVU came in and offered that balance. To constantly keep these characters' personal lives in the dark just paints them as one dimensional and drains them of having any kind of life outside of their job and they don't come off real. In real-life, these people tend to have families and go through non-work situations that can affect their jobs. If we're never seeing that to the point where they can't even TALK about their lives or incidents outside of it, then that just makes the show seem corny because how can all these victims and suspects have these lives that the main characters can never seem to have? Why not just make them angels or something? You want to make them human, they ought to have displays of human lives besides their jobs or they just don't come off real to me.

And that show has been over and done with for ten years now and SVU has (for the most part) been the remaining and successful running L&O show since. It should have contained elements of all the others. Like when L&O started show-casing the last moments of the soon-to-be victims' lives in the last three seasons? Something CI had displayed mainly? That's what I'm talking about. Don't just always leave the cool stuff to one show, especially if that one ended so long ago. I don't expect them to do it ALL the time but it'd be nice to see it done frequently. Trial By Jury also had this sort of angle, and it made sense since the show needed to showcase the defense/criminal point of view too with the court proceedings and balance out both side's goal to win.

I forgot all about that planned spinoff. Seems disappointing considering L&O could have three shows running along side the Chicago shows which has their own trio and we have this competition. But, I guess it's better to just deal with two shows and not milk things too fast. But why is NBC not instead choosing to revive the ORIGINAL L&O? It tickles me they're putting so much focus on these spinoffs than the ONE show they ought to be bringing back they unfairly cancelled. It was Wolf's fault being so greedy, but they could have axed L&O: LA and kept this one going. Glad to see SVU and OC are coming back in the Fall and that OC is apparently getting a full season as opposed to being saved as another mid-season. The premiering of both is pretty odd. One week of two SVU episodes and one OC episode, and then the following week, one SVU episode and two episodes of OC? Interesting. Seems like NBC don't have any other show to fill in those extra time slots. L&O doesn't always have to be about police and prosecutors, it ought to be able to tackle the law in other aspects too besides one side. Besides, not everyone put on trial is guilty so it's great to see the defense side of that, kind of like how we seen it in Trial By Jury. SVU has always been about the personal lives as far back as Season 1 so expanding on that is nothing new. Even if it wasn't, a show running this long, it ought to be touching on new dynamics. Besides, all of the episodes will still feature regular cases that will take up most of the episode anyway, so there is nothing to fear. We're never going to get a bunch of episodes or even ONE episode any time soon in the vein of L&O's Aftershock and that episode was a nice little break from the traditional format that was needed after six years, followed by the three-part Los Angeles episode exploring more on the personal lives of Rey Curtis and Jamie Ross a couple years later. What I am looking forward is seeing more Criminal Intent-esque scenes where we have scenes not involving the main characters, something Warren brought to the show a bit during his last tenure as showrunner that he didn't utilize as much. Organized Crime was best not even being a L&O show. The style is just too different and should have been a related series like Conviction was. I don't think they should ship Benson and Stabler due to the fact that they're on different shows and it will be too much intertwining with them. If they were on the same show, fine because it's easier to keep together. What they're doing now with it is a tactic to make sure viewers of both shows continue to tune into both shows instead of just one or the other. But if they were go let's say get married or something two years down the line, how will both shows even continue if they're still running by this point?

Don't worry, I didn't mention you. I didn't think that was important anyway. She hasn't replied back yet though.

Oh I was serious. Check this out: Let's see if she responds. :D

Well this isn't a movie and the budget has to be saved for OTHER episodes and other factors that goes into the show. UGH, these rich people tickle me with this greed nonsense. I'm going on her Twitter to give her a peace of my mind.

What? This is a crime drama TV show on network TV, not a freaking Broadway musical. Well, that sucks. Damn you Sharon then. You jeopardized what could have been a big role for you. -_-

Watching some SVU reruns of Season 11 and I'm so disappointed the show couldn't make more use out of Sharon Stone's Jo Marlowe character. Such a terrific addition to the show and we only got to see her a short stint. Plus, she knew Elliot and was partners with him at one point and thus could have brought about a bit of an ongoing conflict between her and Olivia in who could be the better partner and perhaps who could show the hots for Elliot more. Sure, Kathy was still in the picture as his wife, but let's be honest, no one really cared for her Elliot might as well have been single and had these two women hitting on him. The way she came on in her first appearance as an eager ADA and then put on that fire fighter uniform and went in that burning apartment building was total bad ass. Do they really just let ADAs get involved so close to a crime this heinous? But man, we really need to see Jo make a return especially with Elliot back in the picture. Christine Lahti's character of Sonya Paxton was also a gem because she was seriously flawed and came off blunt and crooked. Many people didn't like this about her, but I thought it was refreshing to see a DA that wasn't all stern, by the book, and only bending of the rules in rare cases when it suited them as we endured with Alex and Casey, and was far from bland as Kim Greyleck (I wouldn't mind seeing her return though in guest-appearances). Christine came in with all sorts of drama that could have been interesting to see more had she been a regular. She should have remained as a permanent recurring status at least, but then they had to kill her off within like a year of her coming on. Pitiful. So would have liked seeing her more in the next few seasons appearing on and off handling some SVU cases, even alternating with Barba during his tenure. DAMN YOU SVU WRITERS.

Yeah, it was the L&O SVU episode "Design" that concluded on the L&O episode "Flaw". I always find it interesting when a crossover story starts on a spinoff and concludes on the parent show. I guess it makes sense because whereas L&O's format has to have the 50% Law first half and 50% Order second half most of the time, SVU can just have a full on investigation so it's easier to start a story on SVU.

I think it's pitiful Cragen's wife Marge wasn't explored more on the show. We saw her one time on L&O in the early seasons and then when we get to this show she's dead. There was no need to kill her as we could have seen that relationship develop. I would have done like a back-door pilot on the original L&O in the ninth season where his wife gets raped which leads to him taking over Special Victims when the position is open to help other rape victims in honor of his wife's attack. What a missed opportunity. Also, Cragen had a son who would have been 18 years old at the time of this show's debut (14 years old as he stated in his 1995 guest-appearance on L&O "Bad faith") who we also could have seen developed as well. But I think they stated Cragen had no kids? Obviously they forgot. The dangers of the original L&O being such a story-driven show because the times we do get to learn personal details about the characters and their families, they are easily forgotten since they're never explored thoroughly. It's worse when we're talking years later and or transitioning one character to another show because a lot of the details established on that other show isn't even though of. I can imagine some of John Munch's character details from Homicide: Life on the Street being forgotten and retconned upon his transition onto SVU because the writers just didn't want to be bothered doing their homework to make sure their details was consistent apart from knowing who his spouses were and MAJOR highlights they figured to carry over. I'm surprised they even remembered Marge to bring her up on SVU so many years later after her one and only appearance on L&O in 1991. But to kill her offscreen and forget all about the son? What a pitiful missed opportunity to explore the Cragen family. A last thing I want to point out with the L&O episode "Bad Faith" is that in ways seems to be like an early pilot to SVU, because it involves a sex crime matter spanning decades and Cragen is involved as a supporting character. However, Cragen isn't running special victims yet and is apart of some anti-corruption task force instead. But SVU's creation and Cragen's incorporation to the show seems to be drawn from this early L&O episode. But it would have been nice if Cragen was already at SVU by 1995 and we see him there again in a couple future episodes as well as the Exiled movie, all leading up to SVU where he's already there. What a perfect transition. "Bad Faith" also had a judge character by the name of Jerome Novak who handled the episode's court proceedings. He appeared to be in his 50s. I so would have made him the father of Casey Novak upon bringing her to show as a tie-in. Seriously, I wish I was a showrunner at the time because I would have handled things a lot better than the actual L&O people did when it came to continuity and character relations. I hate how messed up things gotten.

No one is saying you mentioned corona. I mentioned it to make a point. Social agendas being brought into the show is not something bad nor surprising when it's a real-life thing happening and shows take and incorporate things from real-life all the time so this is expected. Also, this show has a starring FEMALE person and about a crime unit in which FEMALES are mainly the victims they deal with out of anyone, so of course they're gonna make wave out of this. No use complaining about it when it's helping them make story content whether you like it or not. This is L&O, always ripping from the headlines since 1990 and trying to be as real as it can be outside of those speedy investigations and court proceedings, but social issues is always something these shows have, are, and will continue to grasp.

I don't see why that's confusing. The same reason most shows incorporated the corona virus into their storylines. Why is it surprising when the shows turn into social justice when that's what going on in the world? It's a trope that has been going on since the 1970s when Norman Lear came to the scene. Real-life whatever is going to play a role in the TV shows running at the time.

Welcome to the 2010s and 2020s when the world became nothing but social agendas. Of course SVU is going to rip this headline to death. It's evolving with the times.