Season 20 Spoilers & Speculation

[Aethera]

A place to discuss the upcoming 20th (yes, TWENTIETH) season of SVU

[Xeliou66]

So far the only thing we know about season 20 is that Barba is returning for an episode, according to MH. That should be interesting, although after they completely destroyed Barba’s character I’m not that excited to see him again.

[Jaded]

According to TV Line the season premiere will be 2 hours long.

[wknt3]

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

According to TV Line the season premiere will be 2 hours long.

Great! I'm sure they'll put the extra time to good use, just like they did with the finale... oh crap.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Great! I'm sure they'll put the extra time to good use, just like they did with the finale... oh crap.

I don't know how TV writing works, but maybe since they have a really long lead time for the season premiere, they will come up with something that makes good use of the 2 hours (84 minutes).

[wknt3]

18 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I don't know how TV writing works, but maybe since they have a really long lead time for the season premiere, they will come up with something that makes good use of the 2 hours (84 minutes).

I don't think the problem with this season's SVU Event type episodes was a lack of time or ability though. I really do have faith that the current writers and producers could come up with a plot that takes full advantage of the extra time. My fear/expectation however is that we will get a very interesting investigation/trial that would make a great episode on it's own, padded out to two hours by setting up this season's "putting Benson through the ringer" and exploring how Stone is all broody and tormented after being hit with the Sledgehammer of Angst and how it impacts his relationship with Benson. And until I see an interview about how we are going to "explore how Benson's experiences have made her a better cop and leader and delve into some aspects of the commanding officer's job that we haven't really explored before since even after 19 years there is still so much we haven't had time to put on screen" or however the flacks can spin putting Benoah on the back burner and going less soapy, or some PR about how the opener is introducing a new recurring character I'm not going to change my expectations no matter what the NBC promo monkeys tell us.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Will ADA Stone get his own thread here?

 

It's only fair, he's a series regular

 

 

If so, how about this?

 

 

 

ADA Peter Stone: Mothership Legacy Kid

 

 

[Jaded]

2 minutes ago, MrsRafaelBarba said:

Will ADA Stone get his own thread here?

 

It's only fair, he's a series regular

 

 

If so, how about this?

 

 

 

ADA Peter Stone: Mothership Legacy Kid

 

 

 

I just created one.

http://forums.previously.tv/topic/71845-ada-peter-stone-mothership-legacy-kid/

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Thank you.

[Xeliou66]

So I thought I would post about what I want  in season 20 : 

Continuing the wider variety of cases, not one he said/she said rape case after another like season 18 had. And also continue having more balance and less preaching, 19 still had a lot of PSA moments, but not nearly as much as 18.

More of Fin and Carisi, stop shoving them into the background. 

More courtroom/Peter Stone. He’s been a great addition and we need more of him and more legal scenes. 

Keep bringing back characters from the franchise, I want to see Olivet, Warner, Dworkin and especially McCoy back once again, as well as bringing others back, Munch and Cragen would be awesome, but anyone from the franchise would be great.

Please don’t try to shove a Benson/Stone relationship down our throats, Benson doesn’t need to be BFF’s with every ADA, and I really don’t want to see Stone become the Barba of season 18-19. I hated how the season ended with Stone crying on Benson’s shoulder, I liked the friction between Stone and Benson and how Stone doesn’t bow to Benson’s wishes, and I want it to stay that way, and I don’t want too much focus on Stone grieving for his sister either, and no more Benson/Stone comfort scenes. 

No Noah!! And no Granny!! 

What does everyone else here want for season 20?

[ChristiKRN]

Nice post, Xeliou66.

I guess my list would be filled with more of what I don't want:

1.  I agree with less preachiness. I appreciate what Mariska has done in helping reduce the rape kit backlog, etc, but it needs to be tuned down several notches.

2.  I much prefer Stone when he calls the squad on their crap and does his job as he sees fit, not as Benson tells him to do.  I don't want to see him turn into Barba of the last 1 1/2 seasons of his storyline arc, which was character assassination in my book.  I especially don't want a Stone-Benson romance. 

3.  Storylines where the squad does actual policework and works together to solve a crime.  Storylines with an unexpected twist. 

4.  No storylines showing a member of the squad going rogue/committing a crime/abetting a criminal/ etc.  All of them had moments over the years; some more than others.  It's expected of Rollins, but it was disappointing to see Carisi tiptoe down this road. 

5.  I don't mind a little peak into their personal lives every so often, ie watching Fin with his grandson. What made that scene enjoyable was that those scenes with Fin are few and far between.  Key phrase being few and far between.  No kid-in-danger storylines; I have a feeling we are about due for a Jesse-in-danger, but my guess is they are holding that storyline until they can get Donal Logue back for an episode (ugh- it still kills me that they made him the baby daddy; what a waste of that character).

6.  I would like to see them add at least 1 other integral member to the squad and some support people.   They need some fresh blood.  Maybe there would be less Benson-centric episodes. 

7.  I also would like to see previous cast members, like Cragen, Munch, Warner, and Huang.  I believe I read somewhere that Barba will be making an appearance; he better have gotten back his cajones.   How about Amaro, Tucker,  or some of the recurring defense attorneys, like Elizabeth Marvel's character? I would even add Murphy in (see #5 above) because I like Donal Logue so much.  I don't want to see anyone with a Georgia accent or who has the last name of Rollins.  Haha-dare I say Stabler? 

Edited July 10, 2018 by ChristiKRN

[CelticBlackCat]

Everything above.  Whatever it takes to get Donal Logue back.  I don't need any Stabler comebacks.

Excellent lists above.  From your fingertips to TPTB's ears!!

[Fellaway]

Ugh.  Nothing against DL, but I hated Murphy (almost as much as I hate Stabler - Table! Party of one!) and hope to never see him again.  In fact, I'd very much love for them to do a retcon and have him not be Jesse's father.

I really don't want any former characters coming back, unless they're named Barba, because, let's face it, they're not gonna take any screentime away from Benson for them.  It'll come from Carisi and Rollins and Fin, characters I do want to see more from.  And, honestly, I don't miss any of them.  Except Barba.  Barba, from the Leight years.

Things I do want:  Less Noah; no Sheila; more Carisi; more variety in crimes and victims of the week; less St. Olivia; more Carisi; a stable Rollins; detectives who don't commit crimes and breaches in protocol to close cases; more Carisi; Franny appearances; detectives not named Olivia Benson getting to be the hero of the week; the more ensemble feel of the Leight years; Leight back; yes, and, did I mention, more Carisi.

[CelticBlackCat]

I loved Donal Logue.  I thought he was super sexy with or without the Irish accent.  I love the scene when Rollins was going to hit her rock bottom and service him while he was undercover, but then he shut it down, showed his badge, and kind of redeemed Rollins with a better way out.  I also shipped Amanda and Murphy even though there is the age difference and he was an authority figure.  I think he could have been good for her.  I hate that he fathered Jesse and then went MIA on some superundercover extra top secret mercenary post or something like that.  I know Donal Logue was unavailable to continue in L&O and "duty calls" was the best exit strategy storyline, but still.  I miss him.  I know I'm in the minority, and my ship is UO, but different strokes for different folks is what makes the world go around.  ;)

[RollinsRollins]

Quote

 

More friendship Benson&Rollins ,Less noah.
I would like to return Murphy.
I would remove Kim with a tragic death (Amanda's sister)
more more more Fin.

[Everleigh]

7 hours ago, Fellaway said:

Ugh.  Nothing against DL, but I hated Murphy (almost as much as I hate Stabler - Table! Party of one!) and hope to never see him again.  In fact, I'd very much love for them to do a retcon and have him not be Jesse's father.

 

I hated Murphy too. One of my least favorite character to ever be featured on the show. Hated that he was the one who knocked Amanda up but glad they chose to not have him play a role in Jesse's life so we (so far) haven't had to see him again, but I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere down the line for drama's sake. 

[QueenMab]

Just read an article on Reddit.com about "SVU Not Aging Well". O my goodness. Everything we have noticed/pointed out/detest, is referred to in this article. If you check it out, do, by all means read the comments. We Are Not Alone. 

[balmz]

12 hours ago, QueenMab said:

Just read an article on Reddit.com about "SVU Not Aging Well". O my goodness. Everything we have noticed/pointed out/detest, is referred to in this article. If you check it out, do, by all means read the comments. We Are Not Alone. 

hmm i looked there and didn't see it, i must have overlooked it, can i have a link please?

[Jaded]

2 minutes ago, balmz said:

hmm i looked there and didn't see it, i must have overlooked it, can i have a link please?

I think this is it.
 

[ChristiKRN]

I'm sorry... I don't know how to post articles but I just read that George Newbern is going to have a recurring role this season. Per Spoiler TV:

Newbern will play Dr. Al Pollack, a charming, handsome and very wealthy doctor who is a past and future love interest to Detective Rollins (Kelli Giddish). They have had a tumultuous relationship in past and he has a bit of a wandering eye, but when they reconnect things might be different this time- or not.

I'm guessing this is the boyfriend that caused Rollins to humiliate and degrade the prostitute that was beaten and raped by the military officers because he cheated on her with a prostitute.  Lord help us if that attitude and personality rears its ugly head on a regular basis now.   

[Fellaway]

Yikes.  That's the best they could do for a boyfriend for Rollins, the guy who cheated on her?

I suppose it's too much to hope for that we'll have some Carisi story this season, story that isn't really about someone else in his family, that is.

[ChristiKRN]

I thought Peter Scanavino really shined in the episode when he went undercover as a sexual predator at the homeless shelter; SVU needs more Carisi-based episodes.  Generally speaking, it seems that SVU fans do want to see more of Carisi and Fin and less of Benson-centric episodes and Rollins' personal drama.  I'm not sure why the powers-that-be don't get it. 

[RollinsRollins]

9 hours ago, ChristiKRN said:

I thought Peter Scanavino really shined in the episode when he went undercover as a sexual predator at the homeless shelter; SVU needs more Carisi-based episodes.  Generally speaking, it seems that SVU fans do want to see more of Carisi and Fin and less of Benson-centric episodes and Rollins' personal drama.  I'm not sure why the powers-that-be don't get it. 

Maybe in this forum, I read a lot on twitter  other forums and comments on youtube,and the character of Rollins is one of the most loved ever, her being imperfect, messy and undisciplined fascinates much , it would be very boring if all were the perfect investigators, with a perfect morality always at follow the rules

Edited July 14, 2018 by RollinsRollins

[QueenMab]

Well, for God sake Rollins, don't let him meet LT.Olivia Benson, the super woman no man can resist.

[Xeliou66]

The writers just don’t care, for one thing, MH is an executive producer so she has a ton of input, meaning Benson gets to be at the center of everything, and Rollins is a writers pet and I think MH wants her to have a ton of screen time as well, she wants the 2 female characters to dominate the show. Rollins should’ve been transferred after her treatment of the victim in Service, but because she’s suddenly Benson’s BFF she faces no consequences. Rollins is an unethical screw up and terrible cop, can we please focus more on Carisi (but don’t have any more of his family members get assaulted), Fin and Stone, and bring back more previous characters, and stop with the excessive focus on Benson and Rollins and their brats and boyfriends.

[ForeverAlone]

https://tvline.com/2018/07/14/law-and-order-svu-cast-george-newbern-season-20/

Yeah, I read the article about Amanda's boyfriend. First off, why the hell would she be getting back together with a dude who likes to frequent prostitutes? I mean, sure she seems to be going through a dry spell, but there is no need to lower yourself to return to such a douche. Secondly, and this probably undercuts a bit what I said in the first, but the article describes her boyfriend as "charming, handsome, and very wealthy doctor." I'm sorry, and I say this as someone who likes Amanda, but no way could I see a doctor like that pursuing Amanda in the first place. Of course this is a guy who frequents prostitutes instead of having more sex with his girlfriend, so something is clearly off about him. Want to make a bet that he turns out to be some sort of sexual predator? Of course that doesn't speak well to Amanda's perv radar, but it's like, the writers can't come up with a more decent boyfriend for Amanda? 

[Fellaway]

I like Rollins, I do (though I do think KG makes some odd acting choices sometimes), and her growing friendship with Carisi over the course of 16-17 is one of the highlights of the whole series for me.  With that and the birth of Jesse, I think we saw some real movement for Amanda away from what had been something of a self-destructive trainwreck of a personal life (the occasional judgmental jab at others' mothering skills, notwithstanding), and that makes good show.  So, Season 19, with her hitting a handcuffed suspect and her treatment of that call girl?  Wow.  That's some serious devolution right there that should've brought down some equally serious disciplinary action on her head.  But, TPTB probably just saw it as good drama, without caring a bit of what would be real world implications.

If this doctor boyfriend is the same one who cheated on her?  Well, if nothing else, it shows some continuity if they wish to keep that devolution train on track.  I mean, have some pride, Amanda!  At least, get thee to a doctor to check for STDs, if he's the guy who's been sleeping with call girls.  And don't be surprised if other mothers start feeling free to criticize your mothering skills.

This guy better have something stellar going on with himself to make him worth taking back.

Has this Julie Martin said anything about any upcoming Carisi storylines?  Geez, Carisi's been on since Season 16, and I can't think of one time when anyone's been allowed to be attracted to him.  Other than deleted girlfriends, that is.  

[Fellaway]

Dylan Walsh Books Recurring Role on Law & Order: SVU

Quote

Walsh will play John Conway, a self-made man and major beverage distributor who is respected by his community and looked up to by his children. His story will unfold in the near future.

Filming Begins This Week

Quote

Last Friday, Deadline confirmed that former “Scandal” actor George Newbern is joining “Law & Order: SVU” season 20 for a recurring role. While Newbern is a new addition to the cast, his role is not someone new story-wise.

The report revealed that Newbern will be playing the role described as a “charming, handsome and very wealthy doctor.” It turns out that Dr. Pollack and Detective Rollins had been in a relationship before the events in “Law & Order: SVU” season 20.

However, Detective Rollins and Dr. Pollack’s relationship has been on and off. One of the reasons they did not work out is because Dr. Pollack “has a bit of a wandering eye,” Deadline added. Dr. Pollack has also been described as Detective Rollins's future love interest, which hints that the two might rekindle the old flame in “Law & Order: SVU” season 20.

All I have to say to that is, "Ugh."  Oh, and that I'd kill to have Carisi get half as much story as Benson and Rollins.

Law & Order Season 20 Begins Production

Quote

"The joke with [then-showrunner] Warren Leight and I was season 16 was good, and we said season 17, we're going to phone it in," Hargitay said at a Paley Center panel honoring SVU in June. "That was our schtick on set, because we were so exhausted. And then season 17, we killed it. And then season 18 ... we had a wobbly year. But season 19, I was like, 'I'm sorry, did anyone see the show?' [New showrunner Michael] Chernuchin, every single episode, he outdoes himself."

Chernuchin's leadership during this new chapter in the series' history is what motivates Hargitay to stay involved with SVU.

"This f—ing guy is such a genius, and he listened to everything I said," Hargitay said. "Our writers are so brilliant, and they usually have their own ideas. But he said, 'This is my idea, but what do you want to do?' 

Were they watching the same Season 19 I was?  I dunno, but maybe they should listen more to some of those brilliant writers and less to MC and MH.  Yeah, I know, fat chance.

[Xeliou66]

Season 19 was a lot better than season 18, that’s for sure. The storylines were much more interesting, the legal stuff was better done with Stone, and lots of great characters were brought back, which we had none of in season 18. 19 was up and down, 18 was almost all down. I’m not at all happy about Rollins’ boyfriend drama. Why can’t we get more Carisi, Fin and Stone? Why is it only the 2 women, their brats and their revolving door of boyfriends.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Xeliou66

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, Xeliou66 said:

their brats

Brats, plural? Lots of Noah...almost nothing of Jessie.

[Fellaway]

I do agree Season 19 was better than 18, but not by a large degree.  Being better than 18 was a low bar, after all.  For me, coming on the heels of the stellar Seasons 16 and 17, 18 and 19 were a long, long fall.  They really suffer in comparison.  And 19 had its own issues, even if it was marginally better.  The reappearance of off the rails Rollins, for one.

At this point, all I hope for is story for Carisi (that doesn't involve the rape of another family member).  Instead, we get more stories involving recurring white, middle-aged, privileged (I'll fall over in a dead faint if they're not) straight men.  Yippee?

Edited July 19, 2018 by Fellaway

[Xeliou66]

2 hours ago, Fellaway said:

I do agree Season 19 was better than 18, but not by a large degree.  Being better than 18 was a low bar, after all.  For me, coming on the heels of the stellar Seasons 16 and 17, 18 and 19 were a long, long fall.  They really suffer in comparison.  And 19 had its own issues, even if it was marginally better.  The reappearance of off the rails Rollins, for one.

At this point, all I hope for is story for Carisi (that doesn't involve the rape of another family member).  Instead, we get more stories involving recurring white, middle-aged, privileged (I'll fall over in a dead faint if they're not) straight men.  Yippee?

Season 18 consisted entirely of he said/she said rape cases involving wealthy, attractive white people. Season 19 had much more diversity case wise and was much more interesting than season 18, it had its bad moments, particularly the Granny Sheila crap, but it was a good season overall IMO. 17 was the best season in recent years for sure, most episodes that year were good, but there were a lot of things I liked about season 19, a huge improvement over the crappy season 18.

I want more for Carisi that doesn’t involve another family member getting assaulted, more of Fin and Stone as well. 

[shapeshifter]

On July 18, 2018 at 11:06 PM, Xeliou66 said:

want more for Carisi that doesn’t involve another family member getting assaulted, more of Fin 

While Carisi and Fin are my favorites, I shudder to think of what sort of character assassination would occur if we got "more" of them—based on what more of Elliot, Olivia, and Rollins brought, over many years of different writers and producers.

[Xeliou66]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

While Carisi and Fin are my favorites, I shudder to think of what sort of character assassination would occur if we got "more" of them—based on what more of Elliot, Olivia, and Rollins brought, over many years of different writers and producers.

Yeah, that’s the one thing that makes me nervous about getting more of Fin, Carisi and Stone, is that SVU will trays their characters for the sake of drama. They already shit on Carisi in In Loco Parentis, and Rollins has looked terrible in many episodes. I hope for more consistent writing for Carisi and Rollins, and I’m hoping Fin and Stone stay stable and don’t go off the deep end any.

[Fellaway]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

While Carisi and Fin are my favorites, I shudder to think of what sort of character assassination would occur if we got "more" of them—based on what more of Elliot, Olivia, and Rollins brought, over many years of different writers and producers.

Yeah, there is that.  I mean, to me, they already started on Fin in Season 19, with his kidnapping a suspect from Cuba and in some way blackmailing Chief Dodds to stay on SVU so...  Carisi's hands are still clean as far as I'm concerned, so, yeah, maybe the writers had best keep theirs off him!

[Xeliou66]

16 minutes ago, Fellaway said:

Yeah, there is that.  I mean, to me, they already started on Fin in Season 19, with his kidnapping a suspect from Cuba and in some way blackmailing Chief Dodds to stay on SVU so...  Carisi's hands are still clean as far as I'm concerned, so, yeah, maybe the writers had best keep theirs off him!

I didn’t have a problem with Fin going to Cuba to capture the rapist, the guy had raped 3 women and then fled the US, he was a fugitive and I had no problem with Fin tracking him down and bringing him back, the court ruled it wasn’t illegal either. I’m still curious about the situation with Dodds, I’m really hoping they don’t turn Dodds into a villain, I like him a lot. Fin is the most stable of the characters IMO, I like Carisi as well I just wish they would be a little bit more consistent with his writing, I hated how they made him look stupid in In Loco Parentis and him behaving like a jealous teenager in Intent.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Xeliou66

[Fellaway]

On 7/21/2018 at 6:54 PM, Xeliou66 said:

I didn’t have a problem with Fin going to Cuba to capture the rapist, the guy had raped 3 women and then fled the US, he was a fugitive and I had no problem with Fin tracking him down and bringing him back, the court ruled it wasn’t illegal either. I’m still curious about the situation with Dodds, I’m really hoping they don’t turn Dodds into a villain, I like him a lot. Fin is the most stable of the characters IMO, I like Carisi as well I just wish they would be a little bit more consistent with his writing, I hated how they made him look stupid in In Loco Parentis and him behaving like a jealous teenager in Intent.

 

I haven't seen Gone Fishin' since it first aired, so don't recall the details on the judge's decision, but that must've been some fancy dancing to make that fly.  I like Fin, too, but for me Carisi is the most stable cop amongst them, In Loco Parentis notwithstanding.  I hate that kind of writing, where they have to make a character stupid and out of character just to progress the plot.  That's the definition of bad writing.  At least they didn't have him lie on the stand.  They'd never have gotten me to believe that.

Ugh, Undiscovered Country!  I'd forgotten that ep.  Mercifully.  Talk about out of character.  That ep's down as the worst of the whole series for me, so another lowering of 19 in my estimation.

I do really like everyone in the current squad, sometimes in spite of the bad writing, though the jury is still out for me on Stone.  He's just not been on enough yet for him to make an impression on me one way or another.  I guess what it really comes down to wanting, for me, from the next season, is our squad acting like our squad.  And if the writers have to rewatch Seasons 16 and 17 to refresh on who these people are, I'll cue up the vids for them personally.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Fellaway

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Fellaway said:

I haven't seen Gone Fishin' since it first aired, so don't recall the details on the judge's decision, but that must've been some fancy dancing to make that fly.  I like Fin, too, but for me Carisi is the most stable cop amongst them, In Loco Parentis notwithstanding.  I hate that kind of writing, where they have to make a character stupid and out of character just to progress the plot.  That's the definition of bad writing.  At least they didn't have him lie on the stand.  They'd never have gotten me to believe that.

Ugh, Undiscovered Country!  I'd forgotten that ep.  Mercifully.  Talk about out of character.  That ep's down as the worst of the whole series for me, so another lowering of 19 in my estimation.

I do really like everyone in the current squad, sometimes in spite of the bad writing, though the jury is still out for me on Stone.  He's just not been on enough yet for him to make an impression on me one way or another.  I guess what it really comes down to wanting, for me, from the next season, is our squad acting like our squad.  And if the writers have to rewatch Seasons 16 and 17 to refresh on who these people are, I'll cue up the vids for them personally.

I agree with your entire post, @Fellaway, but for the squad to act like a squad, wouldn't Olivia have to spend more time in her office like Cragen did? I am not in the Benson/Hagarty hate club, but I do think having her always on the scene is not typical for a captain (at least in the land of TV cops), so it might make viewers resent her for micromanaging—heh, especially some who have micromanagers hovering over their own real lives.

[wknt3]

On 7/23/2018 at 7:37 AM, shapeshifter said:

I agree with your entire post, @Fellaway, but for the squad to act like a squad, wouldn't Olivia have to spend more time in her office like Cragen did? I am not in the Benson/Hagarty hate club, but I do think having her always on the scene is not typical for a captain (at least in the land of TV cops), so it might make viewers resent her for micromanaging—heh, especially some who have micromanagers hovering over their own real lives.

I agree that the problem is Benson doing too much of the detective work herself more than anything else. Except maybe the lack of recurring characters, and even that could be argued to be an extension of the problem - if she does it all and knows it all why do they need anyone else? And while I don't want Olivia to go away I would love them to look at other successful procedurals like The Closer/Major Crimes and show her as an actual leader who makes the key decisions and does interrogations while the rest of the squad does the fieldwork. Or like the mothership when you promote your star use it as an opportunity for new stories by showing us all the stuff that the boss does that you only told us about before. I think they have improved from the second half of Season 17 or Season 18 where she was doing absolutely everything, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

[Fellaway]

On 7/23/2018 at 7:37 AM, shapeshifter said:

I agree with your entire post, @Fellaway, but for the squad to act like a squad, wouldn't Olivia have to spend more time in her office like Cragen did? I am not in the Benson/Hagarty hate club, but I do think having her always on the scene is not typical for a captain (at least in the land of TV cops), so it might make viewers resent her for micromanaging—heh, especially some who have micromanagers hovering over their own real lives.

I've made peace with Benson/MH being the star of the show now, as opposed to one of the stars as in 1-12, and I expect a good chunk of the show's audience want her to be front and center solving cases.  I'm okay with that too, because this is a police show and that's where the drama is, even if a police lieutenant's duties in the real world probably amount more to supervision, paper-pushing, and politics, with only appearances in the trenches for high profile cases.  But 13 up through 17, there used to be more balance.  Other detectives got to be the linchpin to solving cases. or the hero who saves the day, or the one making the connections with victims or witnesses.  We even got to see into their personal lives.  Remember when Carisi was the linchpin that got Keith to turn in Institutional Fail, or when he found the girl in Community Policing, or when he got Doug to testify in Forty-One Witnesses, or when he got Father Eugene to rollover in Unholiest Alliance?  (I used all Carisi examples, 'cause he's my guy, but I know there're others for the other detectives.)  Geez, I miss that Carisi.  Where did he go, because, now, it's all Benson, all the time in the All Singing, All Dancing Mariska Hargitay Hour.  Now Benson does it all, with the other detectives just doing the grunt work.  It's like Benson doesn't trust them to do anything else.  She even tells the ADAs how to do their job!  (Incorrectly, but that's another issue.)

The show wants it both ways these days.  They want Benson to have the prestige and power of the lieutenant's position, while still working cases and being the hero every week.  It's an uneasy, unbalanced mix.  Me, I want the Benson and the kind of episodes we had in 13-17 back.  She, and they, were way more interesting then.  That's what I want for Season 20.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Fellaway

[wknt3]

Speculating about some possibilities for Season 20:

After the whole soapy mess with Rollins and her doctor boyfriend plays out Carisi is all upset and Amanda gets defensive. Fin walks in on them arguing, gives them one of his patented WTF looks and says "Give me a break, I put up with this crap from Liv and Stabler for over 10 years and I'm not going through it again. Just go in to the crib and boink each other's brains out. Sergeants orders!"

NBC announces a special event to celebrate Season 20 - "Sex Isle: A Law & Order SVU Movie" bringing back a bunch of past characters as Cassidy investigates a series of rapes in Manhattan trying to regain his job as an SVU derective, becomes romantically involved with the relative of one of the victims and comes to suspect the perp is a cop, possibly even one of the SVU detectives. Viewers suspect guest star Jason Priestley, but in a shocking SVU twist it turns out to be Profaci.

In a February sweeps event the squad's investigation connects to an old case at the 27. They turn to Logan who doesn't have all the answers they need and tells them they need to find Lt. Van Buren who seems to have disappeared. They ask all her old detectives they can find (anyone who Wolf/Chernuchin can convince to appear cheaply) before finally going to Jack McCoy himself who reveals that she has gone into witness protection after being targeted by the Russian mob and inspired by her battle with cancer is now working under a new identity in a Chicago hospital. Voight must bring her back to NYC and have UST with Benson before conceding that Stone is a better man and better for her.

A very attractive young woman who has a great apartment and a fantastic wardrobe despite having an entry level job at Planned Parenthood is raped after a politician tweets that anyone who works for pro-choice organizations is fair game to be assaulted. The first half hour is a a debate between Carisi and Rollins with Carisi saying the politician is morally responsible and Rollins saying that it is ridiculous and he can't prove it's connected. Liv moderates, mostly agreeing with Carisi, but pointing out that he needs to re-examine his privilege although she respects his attempts to be an ally. At the beginning of the the third act Fin walks back into the squad room and announces that while they've been debating he has investigated the case and made an arrest. Later Liv is very upset that Stone refuses to file charges against the politician despite a long conversation in a dimly lit restaurant and again at the gym where Liv stands over him while he lifts weights in a very tight tank top.

We find out that the reason we haven't seen Munch lately is that he has been assigned full time re-investigating all of the cases from Season 18 and working with the DA's appeals bureau and internal counsel to try to keep some of the perps in jail and defend false arrest and abuse of authority lawsuits.

Mariska finally goes completely off the deep end. In a desperate attempt to break Gunsmoke's record Dick Wolf relaunches the series as Law & Order: The Conners.

This last one is perhaps a bit outlandish, but as long as we're speculating about possibilities here - Liv comes across an unstable individual who pullls a weapon and barricades themselves inside a building with a hostage. Benson orders the squad to take tactically sound positions observing the exits and keeping civilians out of the line of fire, calls in backup and waits while a trained hostage negotiator and ESU peacefully resolves the situation, then interrogates the perp according to procedure and Stone secures a conviction based on the solid forensic and circumstantial evidence as well as witness testimony they had before they confronted them.

Edited July 27, 2018 by wknt3
fix formatting and add accidentally deleted phrase

[Xeliou66]

51 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

Speculating about some possibilities for Season 20:

After the whole soapy mess with Rollins and her doctor boyfriend plays out Carisi is all upset and Amanda gets defensive. Fin walks in on them arguing, gives them one of his patented WTF looks and says "Give me a break, I put up with this crap from Liv and Stabler for over 10 years and I'm not going through it again. Just go in to the crib and boink each other's brains out. Sergeants orders!"

NBC announces a special event to celebrate Season 20 - "Sex Isle: A Law & Order SVU Movie" bringing back a bunch of past characters as Cassidy investigates a series of rapes in Manhattan trying to regain his job as an SVU derective, becomes romantically involved with the relative of one of the victims and comes to suspect the perp is a cop, possibly even one of the SVU detectives. Viewers suspect guest star Jason Priestley, but in a shocking SVU twist it turns out to be Profaci.

In a February sweeps event the squad's investigation connects to an old case at the 27. They turn to Logan who doesn't have all the answers they need and tells them they need to find Lt. Van Buren who seems to have disappeared. They ask all her old detectives they can find (anyone who Wolf/Chernuchin can convince to appear cheaply) before finally going to Jack McCoy himself who reveals that she has gone into witness protection after being targeted by the Russian mob and inspired by her battle with cancer is now working under a new identity in a Chicago hospital. Voight must bring her back to NYC and have UST with Benson before conceding that Stone is a better man and better for her.

A very attractive young woman who has a great apartment and a fantastic wardrobe despite having an entry level job at Planned Parenthood is raped after a politician tweets that anyone who works for pro-choice organizations is fair game to be assaulted. The first half hour is a a debate between Carisi and Rollins with Carisi saying the politician is morally responsible and Rollins saying that it is ridiculous and he can't prove it's connected. Liv moderates, mostly agreeing with Carisi, but pointing out that he needs to re-examine his privilege although she respects his attempts to be an ally. At the beginning of the the third act Fin walks back into the squad room and announces that while they've been debating he has investigated the case and made an arrest. Later Liv is very upset that Stone refuses to file charges against the politician despite a long conversation in a dimly lit restaurant and again at the gym where Liv stands over him while he lifts weights in a very tight tank top.

We find out that the reason we haven't seen Munch lately is that he has been assigned full time re-investigating all of the cases from Season 18 and working with the DA's appeals bureau and internal counsel to try to keep some of the perps in jail and defend false arrest and abuse of authority lawsuits.

Mariska finally goes completely off the deep end. In a desperate attempt to brean Gunsmoke's record Dick Wolf relaunches the series as Law & Order: The Conners.

This last one is perhaps a bit outlandish, but as long as we're speculating about possibilities here - Liv comes across an unstable individual who pullls a weapon and barricades themselves inside a building with a hostage. Benson orders the squad to take tactically sound positions observing the exits and keeping civilians out of the line of fire, calls in backup and waits while a trained hostage negotiator and ESU peacefully resolves the situation, then interrogates the perp and Stone secures a conviction.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I laughed out loud at this post! The one about the Planned Parenthood worker actually sounds like something SVU would do. And after Barba became a baby killer, I wouldn’t put anything past the SVU writers.

[Fellaway]

Hee, wknt3!  Though I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I can see the show doing some of these plotlines.  ::g::

I think the most outlandish one, however, is Carisi hooking up with Rollins, only because this show seems to have something against Carisi hooking up with anyone.  Poor guy's going into his fifth season on the show and he still hasn't seen any action.  Now, one could say this isn't that kind of show, except we get all the gory details of Benson's and Rollins' personal lives, romantic included.

[CelticBlackCat]

8 hours ago, Fellaway said:

Hee, wknt3!  Though I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I can see the show doing some of these plotlines.  ::g::

I think the most outlandish one, however, is Carisi hooking up with Rollins, only because this show seems to have something against Carisi hooking up with anyone.  Poor guy's going into his fifth season on the show and he still hasn't seen any action.  Now, one could say this isn't that kind of show, except we get all the gory details of Benson's and Rollins' personal lives, romantic included.

Another unrealistic aspect of the show.  Carisi, who lots of women would find very hot and desirable, with a steady job, and who treats women with respect, is girlfriend-less.  Is Carisi supposed to be secretly saving himself for Rollins?  That ship needs to be docked and mothballed.

[Fellaway]

8 hours ago, CelticBlackCat said:

Another unrealistic aspect of the show.  Carisi, who lots of women would find very hot and desirable, with a steady job, and who treats women with respect, is girlfriend-less.

Right?  He's hot, he's gainfully employed, he's also a lawyer so the boy's got options, he has excellent credit, he's kind, he's good-natured, he can cook, he's good with kids and animals.  His respect for women alone makes him worth his weight in gold.  (Don't mess with that, Show!)  It really is inexplicable.

[Xeliou66]

9 hours ago, CelticBlackCat said:

Another unrealistic aspect of the show.  Carisi, who lots of women would find very hot and desirable, with a steady job, and who treats women with respect, is girlfriend-less.  Is Carisi supposed to be secretly saving himself for Rollins?  That ship needs to be docked and mothballed.

Carisi did have a girlfriend at one point and she was going to appear, but her scenes got deleted, it was in the episode Complicated. The girlfriend was mentioned a couple of times in season 18 I believe. 

I hate the whole Rollins/Carisi ship, it needs to go, Carisi can do so much better than trainwreck fuck up Rollins. And the whole subplot in Intent, extremely weird and OOC for Carisi. 

[Fellaway]

3 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Carisi did have a girlfriend at one point and she was going to appear, but her scenes got deleted, it was in the episode Complicated. The girlfriend was mentioned a couple of times in season 18 I believe. 

Oh, yeah, but, for me, a couple ambiguous comments and a deleted girlfriend amount to zip for Carisi.  Deleting her even makes it kind of worse.  It's stymying.  I mean, even Captain Cragen had an onscreen girlfriend before he left!

[CelticBlackCat]

4 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Carisi did have a girlfriend at one point and she was going to appear, but her scenes got deleted, it was in the episode Complicated. The girlfriend was mentioned a couple of times in season 18 I believe. 

I hate the whole Rollins/Carisi ship, it needs to go, Carisi can do so much better than trainwreck fuck up Rollins. And the whole subplot in Intent, extremely weird and OOC for Carisi. 

Yeah, Carisi's two-minute gf was probably just to let us know he isn't gay (not that there's anything wrong with it).  Seriously, we were going to get something and then they shut it down.

[shapeshifter]

On 7/28/2018 at 2:43 AM, CelticBlackCat said:

Yeah, Carisi's two-minute gf was probably just to let us know he isn't gay (not that there's anything wrong with it).  Seriously, we were going to get something and then they shut it down.

If TPTB want to, they could still have Carisi come out of the closet. Since we haven't seen much of his interactions with people when he's not at work, they could follow lots of different story lines with him. There was a sister, wasn't there? I can't recall how that ended. But I'd rather have just Carisi at work than Carisi soap opera.

[CelticBlackCat]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

If TPTB want to, they could still have Carisi come out of the closet. Since we haven't seen much of his interactions with people when he's not at work, they could follow lots of different story lines with him. There was a sister, wasn't there? I can't recall how that ended. But I'd rather have just Carisi at work than Carisi soap opera.

Someone here on PTV was shipping Carisi and Barba.  Barisi?  Carba?  Anyway, Sister Carisi was a pretty dominating gal, IIRC.  I don't want a Carisi soap either.