Bank via Getty Images); Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay (Photo:
Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images); Ice-T and Richard Belzer
(Photo: Jessica Burstein, NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) Graphic: Natalie Peeples
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit turns 20 this year, an accomplishment marked by bragging rights—it’s the fourth-longest running scripted primetime series in the U.S.—and two decades of heinous crimes, all investigated by an elite squad played chiefly by Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Ice-T, and Richard Belzer. As Olivia Benson, Hargitay has been holding down the show since its September 20, 1999 premiere, dealing with family tragedies and some serious occupational hazards while also moving up the ranks to lieutenant. If we were looking at individual detectives, there’d be no doubt about who would top the list of dedicated investigators. But teamwork is what the Special Victims Unit is built on, which is why The A.V. Club has sorted through all the files and letters of commendation—while skipping the pairings occasionally born of necessity, like Tutuola and Benson—to rank the series’ odd couples and dream duos.
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Ah, die hard Law and Order SVU fan here. I love the disclaimer that it’s not based on true events at the beginning and within ten minutes you can usually tell what real life crime it is based on. Rollins/Carisi, yup. She’s a hot mess and it’s pretty much established that he has a thing for her. They seem to be pushing Stone and Benson together, not sure if it works but Barba isn’t coming back so I guess they needed someone to fill the gap.
Most of those were marketed as “ripped from the headlines” so the disclaimer always made me laugh a bit. “This isn’t based on any real person or persons, but did you hear about the woman who bit her husband’s dick off and threw it out the window? Anyway, here’s our show.”
“Ripped from no particular headline.”
“Literally ripped from A headline, and then we just speculated how the actual story would have – nay, should have – gone.”
It probably should have said “Ripped from three different headlines and jammed into one bonkers story”.
“Hey, remember that guy six months ago who shot his kid’s babysitter with a crossbow before threatening to jump off the Brooklyn bridge and then trying to claim it was because he heard the voice of god telling him to do it? Nothing to do with this ep – as you’ll see, it’s the Queensboro bridge in this one.”
Having recently regressed into childhood and taken advantage of my PLEX server to have L&O running constantly in the background of whatever I’m doing (finally, a use for a tablet!) it’s funny to see when the same headline got ripped across the big three L&O properties, even though something like the “perps bribing homeless dudes to fight on camera” angle would turn out to be a feint on SVU half the time.
When they put the “not based on anything real” disclaimer at the end, you know it was only vaguely taken from something real. When they put it at the beginning, it TOTALLY was taken from something real.
I feel a little bad because I think the actors are talented but, yeah, Rollins and Carisi have the worst dynamic.
They seem to be pushing Stone and Benson together, not sure if it works but Barba isn’t coming back so I guess they needed someone to fill the gap.Cabot! They got her back for one ep last year.
Wouldn’t be opposed to that, there are plenty of people who ship the two. Cabot’s re-appearance did come a bit out of nowhere though.
I kind of enjoyed Cabot being so OTT about victims’ advocacy she started helping women fake their own deaths to get away.
I expected to argue, but no… This last is legit.
I was mentally preparing an impassioned, well-researched screed about how having Benson and Stabler as number one was a total copout and highly disrespectful of the real winners, Fin and Munch. I’m pleased to see it wasn’t needed.
The interplay between the two of them was just so natural. Friendship and respect, but around each other so much that there was a healthy dose of irritation. It’s also the only pairing where at least one of the partners didn’t seem too mentally unhinged to be a SVU detective.
“You tryin’ to tell me there are people who get off on the easy back-and-forth chemistry of these two cynical but good-hearted male detectives?”
I thought I saw some sick stuff in Narcotics, but this is a whole ‘nother level.
Brandon Bird got it right with the drawing “Cool Patrol.”
Available for sale, too… I want a place to hang it:https://brandonbird.myshopify.com/products/cool-patrol-original-ink-drawing
It’s sold out. 🙁
Signed print to the rescue!https://brandonbird.myshopify.com/collections/prints/products/cool-patrol-signed-printOr a tee shirt, if you’re out of wall space:https://brandonbird.myshopify.com/products/cool-patrol-t-shirt
My gf has said for years that when USA does their “themed” Saturday SVU marathons, they need to do one called “Brunch with Munch”.
Or gin and cola with Odafin Tutuola
Yeah, strange to read one of these lists and think “correct.”
Nothing has made me feel older than the realization that Monkey Basketball is officially from the first half of SVU now.
I was mid-marathon the other day a while into that episode and I remembered… There is a monkey in a basketball. It’s the reason I stuck around.
Off topic-ish, does anyone have the link to the classic AVC comment thread that had a spoof edition of Law & Order.
I really want to read that again.
Nevermind I found it.https://disqus.com/home/discussion/avclub/sam_waterston_will_be_the_quietly_stern_sam_waterston_type_in_aaron_sorkins_hbo_pilot/
Any chance someone can reassemble it into its correct order before Disqus scrambled it? (I know, I know – at least it’s not Kinja). Bonus points if anyone can retrieve the pre-Disqus version that didn’t clip the unregistered user names that were part of the narrative/parody from somewhere (God knows I tried at the time).
When SVU ends, the final episode should come from this “script”.
I think an AVC rule needs to be in place that whenever there is an article on Law & Order (or loosely connected to it), someone has to post a link back to this Discuss thread.It needs to preserved for all time.
No matter what else comes of the Internet, that alone justifies its existence.
OMG thank you for this… for all of this
Honestly my favorite part about this is that Sam Waterston on Newsroom turned out to be less Jack McCoy and more delightful little bowtie elf. My least favorite part is that it’s a harsh reminder of how much of the community was lost in the Kinjapocalypse.
I’m watching the new season of Grace and Frankie at the moment, and Waterston’s Sol is practically the anti-McCoy and I love it so much.
Thanks for bringing this up. That was peak AV Club.
Not off-topic at all! Like you said, that thread should be posted in every Law & Order related piece. I’m surprised I had to scroll down so far to find it. :’(
Wow, I thought I had watched a lot of SVU, but I stopped watching well before Stabler left so half of this list is meaningless to me. I agree that Fin and Munch are the best, though.
Same here… I figured the show wasn’t long for this world once he left, but here we are.
The show really isn’t that good now. Olivia has pretty much hijacked the show and the current cast sans Fin are all uninteresting.
You haven’t missed much of anything good, I pretty much hate the entire current cast and wonder every time I watch the show now why I’m doing it.
What?? How can you say disparage World’s Snappiest Dresser, ADA Barba, in this way?
I loved Barba, but he’s no longer on the show. 🙁 The new ADA is some generic dude who they try to make exciting by making him the son of former L&O ADA Ben Stone, it doesn’t work.
Ice-T tweeted that he was the longest-running black actor on a TV show now that SVU is into its 20th season. Kinja Hive Mind, is he right?
Well, since Carl is voiced by a white guy like everyone else on The Simpsons…
And legally* black people weren’t allowed on TV back during Gunsmoke
*probably not legally
Oh, having black people on TV then was well within the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law.
Looks like he may be right, if this site can be trusted for due diligence:https://www.kiss104fm.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/ice-becomes-the-longest-running-black-actor-prime-time/SA5V7ItGFoyhcxKQk5LWkN/
The Adam Beach episodes are insane. Those and the season and a half or so following are the best of SVU at its worst. Totally insane, serial killers, lots of rogue cops. Nuts. A+ for binging.
That’s where most of my show knowledge lies, and I’m totally cool with that.
There’s something incredibly creepy about the fact that the longest-running Law & Order is turning out to be the one with all the sex crimes in it.
I never really understood why the original was discontinued. Surely there are more story options available when you’re talking about all major felonies and not just sex crimes.
Especially since they were only like a year away from becoming the longest running drama in history at the time. Plus they canned it for L&O: LA just to add insult to injury.
I think that had more to do with a pissing match between Jeff Zucker and Dick Wolf and the idiotic Leno at 10 PM plan thank anything show related.
It’s hard to get excited about a drug bust when you could be watching a show about two incestuous rapists murdering entire dinner parties after forcing everyone to have sex with each other.
You have to believe the SVU writers room is a constant game of, “Wow, that’s horrible. Can anyone think of a way to make it worse?”
Point taken.
..I would have thought that was a Criminal Minds storyline…or possibly Game of Thrones..
Nope! And then Benson blew it in the car chase because she was taking a call from her brother (who, like her, is a product of rape) who, in an unrelated way, is also a rapist.
That episode really went off the rails.
Yeah, and why are the other versions not streamed? Only SVU appears on Netflix and Hulu.
For better or worse they quit on a high note, too: the best detective and prosecutorial pairings in years and a new energy crackling through the writers’ room.
At least one critic openly opined that if they had one too many shows, they killed off the wrong one. Indeed, that was about the timeframe in which I drifted away from SVU (and never really found my way back; always thought its early years were the best anyway).
The sex is now just the hook to lead into anything else. There have been some strange episodes where they stray so far out of their own territory and jurisdiction.
It was a TENTPOLE!!
Hah! I’ve always wondered that too. It’s like “hey you know what would make Law and Order better? MORE RAPES!”
Yeah, I can watch OG L&O for 12 hours straight but I have to turn off SVU after a couple episodes because I feel grimy.
I have to turn off SVU after a couple episodes because I feel grimy Me too, but then I think of John Mulaney’s bit about Ice-T’s character and I can see an SVU ep as a comedy.
… Is that Dean Cain?
L&O could at least be somewhat funny (maybe not quite the right word, but there was a lot more ‘what the fuck’-ism with that show). SVU was always just demoralizing.
My ex-wife used to call our weekly SVU viewing “rape night”.
Reason #53,811 why we were doomed.
One of my housemates in college had a box set of L&O:SVU dvds, which I found baffling on multiple levels (the subject matter, the fact that you could find an episode of it on tv somewhere pretty much 24/7), until she came out as a lesbian and her first girlfriend bore a resemblance to Mariska Hargitay.
Yes! And it has misinformed millions about recidivism rates for offenders, just as the CSIs misrepresent the reliability limits of forensic evidence.
The formula is wearing thin. Charmy, but smarmy, man uncovered at child molester. I get it. Men are fucking creeps. Ok overstated but still… it seems like the show’s frequently unsettling endings were thought provoking. Now they just seem kind of predictable and well uh formulaic.
I’ve always wondered why there’s been so much crossover between Oz and the various Law & Order properties. They don’t appear to share any producers, but almost all of the main actors from Oz have appeared on Law & Order at some point, many of them in prominent roles. Maybe it’s just a good place for tough looking character actors to show up?
It’s probably because of Tom Fontana. From IMDB:“Producer Dick Wolf is old friends with producer Tom Fontana. They often use actors from each other’s TV series, usually resulting in the actors working on two shows at once. Examples are J.K. Simmons on Law & Order (1990) and Oz (1997), Christopher Meloniand Dean Winters on Oz (1997) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Kathryn Erbe on Oz (1997) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001). Richard Belzerfamously leaped from producers’ show to show as “Detective John Munch”
Ahh… Thanks. I looked for producers in common on the two shows a while back, but didn’t see the trivia that Wolf and Fontana are close friends. Makes sense now.
Yeah, it sticks out a little more when you add in Homicide: Life on the Street too since Munch came from there.
You also have to remember that Munch was in the X-file universe as well.
I loved it when Munch showed up on The Wire… but I just read that he also was mentioned, as an NYPD contact, by Idris Elba on an episode of Luther. That’s pretty cool.
Simmons simultaneously playing a vicious neo-Nazi on Oz and the empathetic Dr. Skoda on L&O tipped me off a long time ago about the kind of range the man has. It made him going Ben Kingley Sexy Beast in Whiplash less of a surprise.Also…look at the man’s IMDb page. Holy shit he must be the hardest-working actor in Hollywood.
Skoda was the first role I saw Simmons play, and it’s kind of imprinted on me. No matter what he does – and you can watch ‘Counterpart’ alone to see how chameleonic he is – I always kind of think of him as mild-mannered, slightly tired Dr Skoda.
Same. I didn’t see any Oz until later and it was jarring. He then goes to chewing butts in Spiderman to the bewildered CIA boss in Burn After Reading. Just the ultimate supporting actor who takes control of every scene he’s in. Even Skoda brought an expert gravitas that attracted your attention.
ignoring the greater Tommy Westphall stuff (which is often amusing but stretches into goofiness often) the fact that character John Munch had a fully credited appearance on the X-files makes me smile when watching any of the L&O titles. seeing lenny brisco cracking wise about some murder and also knowing that canonically in the next building over some werewolves might be eating an alien at the command of a mysterious government agency is endlessly amusing.
Also, he was in ‘Arrested Development’, so Mulder has potentially heard of Mr F.
This is a very valuable and enlightening answer. Thank you!
Oz just had a tremendous cast. Many of them also were prominent in The Wire.
Maybe because everyone has to take a turn doing at least one LO episode? I mean, isn’t it sort of required that any actor passing through NYC has to do his/her time?
Excuse me, I think you’ve forgotten the best SVU pair:
I thought this was going to be a picture of Meloni’s butt.
Enjoy!
Lol. I wouldn’t mind a picture of Meloni’s butt!
Now who’s angling for some Stable wish-fulfillment?
That pair would fit in better with the homicide or narcotics squad… As in causing a bunch of one and taking copious amounts of the other. Though they did save some kids! For real.
Stabler was the best character on this show. Anyone seen his show Happy? Pretty twisted but good
One of my favorite things about catching random episodes of the original L&O on TNT was that you didn’t get any of the regular’s personal lives and each episode was entirely self-contained so you didn’t need any prior knowledge.
…unless you caught the episode when they left the show.(e.g., Serena the lesbian, Ed Green’s secret life, all the ADAs Jack hooked up with)
Fortunately for me, that never happened and I only found out about that first one from all the people posting the screencap.
Listen, Jack having hooked up with all those ADAs was clearly implied. Sam Waterston could get it.
I’d put Rollins/Carusi above Stabler/Beck. I only remember Beck from two scenes, when she arrested that guy for kissing the woman with the disease that made her look like a child after they just got out of court, and when she brought home that foster kid and the kid lit her couch on fire.Why did I ever stop watching this show?
A foster kid played by Elle Fanning, no less.
That’s one of the fun things about watching marathons of old episodes of SVU(Greys Anatomy is like this too). You’re watching, and all of a sudden your like “Holy shit, that’s young(major current star)! The amount of people who have SVU or Original Recipe Law and Order credits early in their career is astounding:Hayden Pannettiere, Sara Ramirez, Amanda Seyfried, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Kate Mara, Sarah Hyland, the list goes on.
It’s even crazier with ER. Fucking EVERYBODY was on that show over the years.
I was watching an early 90s episode of mothership Law and Order the other day, which had Gina Torres as the person who finds the dead body and teenage Claire Danes as the murder suspect’s daughter (who it turns out was the real killer).
Agreed. The Rollins/Carusi pairing is helped by Carusi’s general likability – he almost (but does not) manages to make Rollins likable.
I started watching Law & Order with my grandma as a teen on its first broadcast. I followed it through its whole run, into SVU and then into Criminal Intent. Characters came and went, some better, some worse, some killed in a car or in the trunk of one. Rollins is what broke that streak. Her constant soap opera crap from embarrassing writing made me roll my eyes on a weekly basis for 2 years until I could take no more. 17 years of series loyalty, 26 years of franchise loyalty all flushed down the drain because they had to turn a character into a ridiculous hot mess that’s still somehow a supercop. Now I see articles about how people love how trashy it’s gotten, so I guess the problem is with me.
Rollins’ awfulness far pre-dated her kid. I liked Carisi during the Warren Leight years (his back and forth with Barba was great) but being partnered with Rollins has done him no favours. Fin and Munch are definitely the best pair. I hated Stabler and Benson by series 8.
The real debate is Munch and Tutuola or Munch and Bolander?
I would like to read this Tutuola/Munch fanfiction you speak of.
I imagine it mostly consists of the two of them about to have sex, before Munch has to stop and explain at length the nature of the sex act and that, yes, there are people who get off on it, and by the time he’s finished he’s no longer in the mood.
Eheheh. One of my favorite Fin/Munch takes came courtesy of James Wolcott, who derisively noted that they read their lines as if they have a grudge against the scripts. But that is what makes their performances so much fun. 🙂
I have a soft spot in my heart for Carisi, mostly because I used to babysit for one of the actor’s children, and Pete and his wife are actually really nice, decent people. I just like giving props out to actors who are actually nice, decent people. That is all.
I hated Amaro. He was so blatantly an attempt to copy Stabler’s volatility but without any of the original actor’s charisma.
If you don’t think Danny Pino is sexy as hell, I don’t know what to tell ya.
The man is obviously super handsome but I don’t find him interesting at all. Maybe that’s just me.
I’ve liked him in other stuff, so maybe that’s the writing. Not sure.
If you had included Criminal Intent then Goren and Eames would be at the top.
I was originally going to do all the L&O shows in one list, then decided I like living.
Because obviously the best would be Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green from OG L&O
Lennie Briscoe was great with whoever his partner was. Loved the character! And Munch was good with Winters, Jeffries, and Fin. But I especially liked the Jeffries, Winters, and Munch dynamic! They seemed like they’d have fun hanging out together.
They’re probably objectively the best, but my first L&O partnership was Briscoe and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt’s character) and so they will always be my favourite.
Curtis was super underrated. Also, I remember when he hooked up with Lorelai Gilmore. Fun times.
Was about to type about Lenny, i miss that old fella and i wonder why there arent any reincarnations in the newer L&O series? Us old fans wpuld apretiate!If you ask.me i also miss Dan Florek he was always a role model of a boss for me…
Not quite. Briscoe and Logan. (But Green is near the top, too.)
Oh man, I missed Jesse L Martin’s smile on L&O. Basically since I couldn’t have Green OR Kincaid in my L&O: OF, I just stopped watching.
I preferred Noth and Nicholson, but to each their own. Goldblum was pretty fun as a character but his pairing chemistry wasnt quite as good as others.
I love Criminal Intent and enjoy the pairing, but Eames was undoubtedly the second banana. It just doesn’t feel like an equal enough partnership (both in terms of getting interesting things to do and character development) to really be the best.
You’re right but Goren was such a strong, smart character that that’s exactly why you needed a low key, background partner like Eames. In some ways it was like Holmes & Watson.
She was the only one who could put up with his constantly sideways head.
I surmise this whole list came from a heated discussion arguing #1 and #2. You could make the case for either.Now do one for the FAR SUPERIOR original L&O (fight me). #1 is Briscoe and Curtis, non-negotiable, and you can go on from there.
If you expand this list to include all series, I think the #1 partnership is:#1. Briscoe and [insert partner]
I was so sad when Orbach passed but I think Farina was a solid follow-up. Like Steve Young to Joe Montana.
Rollins/Kelli Giddish is terrible. I quit watching the show because it was increasingly centered around Rollins. My only explanation is that Dick Wolf is determined to make her a thing and should SVU get canceled, she will likely be the star of the inevitable Chicago HVAC.
I’d love to meet someone who’s last memory of SVU was from the mid-aughts, when it was a fascinating, thought-provoking procedural, is jarred when they tune in to a recent episode which is basically a soap opera in a police precinct. Can anybody honestly say they care that much about the Detective’s personal lives? How many times can they put Benson in peril to win Mariska an Emmy?Even the cases are so tedious and secondary that it is hardly worth the effort. Gone are the bizarre crimes and crazy whodunnits. I thought I was done when Mariska wanted some guy locked up for lying about his job but otherwise having consensual sex with a lady. Seriously? This is where we are now? Then I gave it a second chance and witnessed ADA Barba murdering a baby, and then his boss, the DA, who had just charged him with murder, was like “why you quitting? you don’t have to do that!”
I just caught it on bad days, it can’t be that bad, I said to myself. So I tuned in and found Benson on trial for abusing her kid.
You telling me you don’t care about Olivia’s son stubbing his toe and her freaking out for the hundredth time?
Oh yeah, some of my least favorite parts of early episodes were when they had to shoehorn Stabler’s family life into every episode and have parts of the case get reflected in his real life in such a ham-fisted manner. Especially with his oldest daughter. Thankfully they got out of that pattern and the show hit a good stride for a bunch of seasons. Then Benson got a kid and everything turned into a tornado of depressing events and having “the system” suddenly turn against the detectives in a bunch of insidious ways. Cases were worse too. Barba was mostly a great character though, just showed up at a bad patch.
The Chris Noth (Mike) /Jerry Orbach (Lennie), Sam Watterson (Jack) /Jill Hennesey (Claire) and Steven Hill (Adam) lineup will always be my favorite of any L&O variant series.
Jill Hennesey was so good. As far as I’m concerned, no other assistant ADA has matched up.
New list of Asst ADAs across the franchise!Kincaid (OBVIOUSLY)Casey, then Alex? Or Alex and then Casey?Barba……Literally everyone else…Serena.
I give the slightest possible edge to Benjamin Bratt over Chris Noth, but otherwise, you’re right on.
I’m pretty sure that SVU exists in the same universe as Arrested Development though.
*Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Mrs. Funkhouser watches this for hours on end. I step in and out while it’s on and agree with #1 over #2 once it’s explained.
Next up … rank SVU Assistant District Attorneys.#1. Barba.Then all the other what’s their names.
I will fight you.1) Alex Cabot was The Man. Try and deny it. Prepare to fail.
2) Casey Novak wasn’t The Man, but she had awesome chemistry with ADA Elizabeth Donnelly and fought well against (and with) opposing counsel. Also, so amused that Diane Neal was first a suspect in an episode regarding male rape by women and her character had a thing about being auto-erotic asphyxiation.
3) Barba4) The rest.
Cabot has to be #1, but would you consider Greylek or Paxton worst ADA?
Paxton could have torpedoed so many cases, so she’s the worst to me.
very fair, courtroom drunk meltdown is hard to beat
I like Cabot a lot but Barba is funnier and his chemistry with Olivia was pretty important for the show when most of the new cast during Barba’s time didn’t really sweep me off my feet with their rapport. Also, Cabot was a stone cold tough lady and I liked her unflinching attitude, but Barba was kind of a dick and I thought that was fun to watch since most SVU characters (besides Munch/Finn) are sort of Justice League and I’m looking for The Authority. Novak was ok.
Jeffries deserved better. She brought a compelling energy to the show that was different to the rest of the team, and she was a smart, cool woman of colour, which TV certainly could use more of. I wish they had used her better and kept her around (though maybe the actor didn’t want to stay).I also had no idea that Cassidy was Dean Winters. Now I’m just imagining his character as Dennis Duffy, telling everyone about Rat Kings.
I would really love a Munch visit to Brooklyn 99, for a Belzer/Braugher reunion (from Homicide life on the street). I guess that won’t happen, but the guy has appeared on almost every other show on network TV
He was on X-Files and Arrested Development! B99 would be a perfect match for Munch. I need this now.
Yess! Munch and Finn were the best. Good call. I liked Chester ok, but I agree that they messed up giving him quirks instead of actual character progression and I also rolled my eyes when he identified that area by its distinctive whistle. But he could have been something, given time.
Adam Beach deserves better!
I 100% agree with the placement of Fin and Munch as the best pairing on SVU. My only complaint/quibble is why is the video clip associated with this pair one that does NOT feature them? Instead, it has Munch and the Captain?!
For a long time I’ve been searching for the right public place to shit on Carisi. Really hoping this is it. He’s the fucking worst ever… with that shitty, two cent new york accent “AAaaaaaahhh, Hey Liv?” He sounds like some fake ass Joe Pesci baby who’s tongue is too big for his mealy, bagel mouth.
You’ve finally done it, AVClub… A perfect list. I never doubted you!
Can’t wait for Elliott to return. It’s great to hear there will be a spin-off.