SUMMARY
- SVU has evolved from focusing solely on cases to incorporating the personal lives of detectives, but still produces great seasons.
- The constantly changing cast and showrunners make each season feel different, but SVU remains the most successful Law and Order spinoff.
- While all seasons have standout episodes, some struggle to strike the right chord, especially when addressing delicate subjects like police corruption and new technologies.
Since 1999, Law and Order: Special VIctims Unit has been one of the most popular crime procedurals on TV, and there have been plenty of changes across its 24 seasons. SVU is currently in season 25, but even its oldest episodes still make for great viewing. In the early days of the show, the focus was squarely on the exciting cases presented each week, as a team of detectives sought to unravel the tangled web of criminal deceit. In recent seasons, the personal lives of the detectives have become more important to the show, and it still produces some great seasons.
There have been so many cast changes on SVU that it can be hard to keep track. The only ever-present actor on the show has been Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson. The constantly changing cast means that the show often feels completely different from one season to the next, especially because the writers and showrunners also come and go. SVU is by far the most successful spinoff of Law and Order, even surpassing the original in terms of longevity. SVU is one of the longest-running scripted shows on TV, so naturally, some seasons are better than others.
24Season 22
2020-2021
Even those considered the worst seasons of SVU are still capable of producing some great episodes. Season 22, episode 9, “Return of the Prodigal Son,” is a fine example of this, bringing back Detective Stabler after years of being away as his family faces a terrible threat. Stabler and Benson are one of the most beloved pairs of detectives in the show’s history, so it makes sense that fans would remain interested in him even after leaving SVU.
Unfortunately, this is one of very few standouts in season 22, as the show struggled to strike the right chord after a fresh wave of questions against American law enforcement in 2020. SVU seemed unsure of how to approach such a delicate subject, and the result was a bit of a mess. With so many real-world struggles mirroring that of the show, it became hard for fans to engage with it the way they used to.
23Season 16
2014-2015
Season 16 is the end of the line for Amaro, as his fiery personality finally gets him into too much trouble for him to overcome. The show, however, never leaves a detective’s spot vacant for long. New detectives transfer into the unit regularly. As Amaro leaves, the show fills his spot with Carisi.
Although he has since become a beloved character, Carisi starts out as an obnoxious presence, irritating everyone else in the 16th precinct. Season 16 is also notorious for having one of the worst episodes in the entire run of SVU. Episode 14, “Intimidation Game” tries to examine the toxic culture of masculinity in gaming, but its approach is heavy-handed at best. The series has never shied away from allowing real-world events to inspire their fictional stories, but it didn’t work here.
22Season 18
2016-2017
Season 18 was the only season with Rick Eid as showrunner, who has also worked on Law and Order and Chicago P.D. Season 18 has a heavy focus on stories based on real life, but some work a lot better than others. Though the series has always focused on sexual assault, this season also gave special attention to the idea of what makes a predator as several episodes focused on family lineage, which not all fans loved.
Episode 16, “The Newsroom” plays on the harassment claims at Fox News, as Benson and Barba team up to gather evidence about a news anchor accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate workplace conduct. It’s an interesting dive into the psychology of survivors who stand up to famous perpetrators, but not all of season 18’s efforts are as nuanced.
21Season 24
2022-2023
Season 24 starts off in the midst of “Gimme Shelter,” the brilliant Law and Order crossover event which also includes the original Law and Order and Law and Order: Organized Crime, which features Elliot Stabler. While fans don’t always love when the series crosses over with other Dick Wolf shows, like the Chicago franchise, expanding the world of Law & Order is always a welcome addition.
“Gimme Shelter” used SVU to give both of these shows a boost, but the crossover was more than just a publicity scheme since it involves fan-favorite characters the audience is actually interested in. The rest of the season is rather hit-and-miss, but with a few more misses than hits. The later seasons of SVU have focused more on the detectives than the cases and the victims, and episodes without a compelling case don’t have the same thrust.
2019-2020
After initially departing after season 17, Warren Leight returned as showrunner for season 21. His seasons can be identified by the show’s increased focus on the personal lives of the detectives, which suited season 21 perfectly, as Olivia Benson was made Captain and Carisi became Assistant District Attorney. These were big changes for the characters, but also natural progressions for a show that had been on the air for 20 years.
Season 21 had to be cut slightly short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that there were only 20 episodes. In this truncated season, Rollins was frequently the most interesting character, with episodes like “I Deserve Some Loving Too” shining the spotlight on her. Rollins hadn’t started her time on the show as a favorite, but allowing personal lives to become a larger part of the stories worked in her character’s favor, unlike others.
19Season 8
2006-2007
Season 8 came right in the middle of SVU‘s strongest era, but it doesn’t have as many memorable episodes as those around it. Mariska Hargitay missed a few episodes while on maternity leave, and while the show wasn’t as squarely focused on her character in season 8 as it is today, it still suffered during her absence. For better or worse, Hargitay is the heart of the show. Without her, it doesn’t have the same appeal to long-time fans, just as it didn’t in the early seasons if she missed an episode.
When she is involved, season 8 still produces a handful of great episodes. One of SVU‘s best guest stars appears in the season finale “Screwed,” which features Ludacris as Fin’s nephew who goes on trial for murder and rape. It’s a stepping stone in Ludacris’ acting career, and a standout episode for the show.
18Season 3
2001-2002
Season 3 continued the long process of piecing the show together. It added some important fan-favorite characters to the show, like technology expert Ruben Morales, ADA Elizabeth Donnelly, and defense attorney Trevor Langan. All of these characters would go on to become vital to the show’s detailed portrayal of the criminal justice system. Where Law & Order differs from other crime shows is that it actually follows the entire process of investigation and apprehension of a suspect as well as their criminal trial. Shows like only follow the invesCriminal Mindstigation, not the trial, and not necessarily the forensics.
Season 3 also helped refine the twisty nature of the criminal cases. Episode 21, “Denial,” is one example of a case which seems simple at first, but the detectives uncover dark secrets as their investigation continues. That would become a prominent technique in the show moving forward.
17Season 23
2021-2022
Season 23 features the 500th episode of SVU, which brings back old characters like Cragen and Amaro. It’s a fitting way to mark such an incredible milestone in the show’s run, but it’s more than just a nostalgia trip as it also allows for more exploration of Olivia’s past since the case Amaro brings to Olivia was one of Cragen’s and had personal implications for Olivia.
Other episodes sway between dense political drama and more old-fashioned cases, with one standout being “Eighteen Wheels a Predator,” which sees Fin and Rollins linking a crime in Kentucky to one committed in Central Park. While the authority that the NYPD has across state lines wouldn’t be likely in reality, the episode does feel like classic SVU. Season 23 is bogged down by a few weaker episodes, and the changes to the visual style are too jarring at times.
16Season 19
2017-2018
Most seasons have made one or two cast changes, and the big news in season 19 was ADA Barba (Raúl Esparza) leaving SVU. Barba has made a couple of guest appearances since, but season 19 was his last major involvement. Season 19 also marked a new showrunner for the long-running series. Under the guidance of new showrunner Michael S. Chernuchin, season 19 gets off to a slow start, but the show eventually finds its feet.
“Gone Baby Gone” combines SVU‘s twin focuses of dangerous cases and the personal lives of the detectives superbly, as the squad unites to track down Benson’s missing son. When Noah is kidnapped from the mall, Olivia and the team set out to find him. It’s always interesting when Benson is at the center of a case from a personal standpoint instead of a professional standpoint because the way she works the cases changes and shows the layers to her character.
15Season 14
2012-2013
Season 14 gets off to a great start, with Cragen and Amaro accused of being involved in a nefarious homicide plot in the first episode. There’s nothing like opening a crime procedural with team members accused of a crime. There are other highlights peppered throughout the season, such as “Born Psychopath” and “Monster’s Legacy,” which both raise difficult questions about the limitations of the criminal justice system, especially when it tries to apply strict rules to nuanced and morally complex cases.
“Born Psychopath” is especially an interesting episode because it raises the question of how to approach a child depressing psychopathic tendencies as early as ten years old. The character is even revisited again in season 22, allowing the show to remind the audience that the stories don’t end in a single episode. Overall, it’s a strong season, and if the rest of the episodes had maintained this high standard, then it could have been up there with SVU‘s very best.
14Season 1
1999-2000
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit faced a tough challenge as the first spinoff from the original show, but season 1 makes a solid start. Initially, it kept to the same format the original series had, but focused on sex crimes instead of strictly murder investigations. Cragen crossed over from Law and Order, and a few other regular cast members made guest appearances in SVU season 1 to help get the series off the ground.
But SVU also had to forge its own path. Fortunately, Benson and Stabler’s compelling dynamic sprung up from the ground fully formed, and the show went from strength to strength throughout its first season. Some of the show’s best characters hadn’t joined yet, but the cases are still fascinating and the foundation for the dynamics between the partners was there.
13Season 2
2000-2001
Season 2 was the first to include Neal Baer as showrunner, and it began to set up the show’s greatest formula. Fin Tutuola joined the squad to replace the outgoing Monique Jeffries, and his immediate rapport with Munch was a huge boost for SVU. The duo act as a secondary team most of the time, which allows them to inject some humorous touches into the show more often than Benson and Stabler. There’s a reason those two teams are fan-favorites despite their very different dynamics.
Season 2 gives them some great episodes together, such as “Legacy” and “Manhunt,” but they also frequently help out in the background. “Legacy” in particular is a great episode for expanding Munch’s character. Though he and Fin are the backup to Benson and Stabler, it’s Munch whose history gets explored a bit more during the case. He relates stories of his childhood to Benson and even stays by the side of the child who survived being attacked.
12Season 20
2018-2019
Season 20 is characteristically uneven for one of the later seasons of SVU, but the highs are exceptional. “Revenge” is an example of SVU perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of online discourse and new technology, which isn’t always easy for a show that tries to keep up with the headlines.
The outstanding episode is “Alta Kockers,” however, which features Judd Hirsch and Wallace Shawn in top form as a pair of reclusive brothers who become the center of a murder investigation. It’s a great showcase for some fine acting, with the brothers each hiding decades-old secrets from one another. The investigation itself stems from a teenage writer’s death, but ends up tracking to these much older men for a very different story than what the audience was expecting. The twists of episodes like this one make the good episodes great.
11Season 15
2013-2014
Season 15 changes the familiar formula of SVU, focusing primarily on a single case throughout the entire season. It’s rare for a crime procedural to do this, though Criminal Minds has done similar change-ups, maintaining cases of the week while connecting storylines to one longer arc. There are only a few episodes that don’t feature William Lewis, the man who abducts and tortures Olivia Benson.
Naturally, Benson becomes a key focus of the season, but Rollins also has a lot of great moments as her gambling addiction forces her into a corner and allows the audience to get to know her better. Even with these story lines simmering in the background, season 15 still has plenty of intriguing cases to keep things fresh on a weekly basis. Season 15 also marks Cragen and Munch’s farewell.
2011-2012
When Christopher Meloni left SVU, the show suffered its biggest loss since it began in 1999. Somehow, season 13 managed to produce plenty of great episodes without Stabler. His absence is felt by the entire squad, but Benson struggles in particular, since the two had formed a tight bond over the years. It works because the show doesn’t just ignore the hole left by his absence, but leans into it.
Benson, of course, is still compelling without Stabler, and episodes like “Justice Denied” delve into her interesting past. Rollins and Amaro make great additions to the team, helping to soften the blow from Stabler’s departure. Season 13 has a different feel to its predecessors, with plenty of new writers as well, but that also works in the show’s favor as the new characters need those new voices in the writer’s room.
9Season 12
2010-2011
Season 12 was the end of an era for Law & Order: SVU, with Christopher Meloni and showrunner Neal Baer leaving before season 13. Crucial characters George Huang and Melinda Warner also made their final appearances in season 12, so the squad’s technical help would never be the same. The show easily could have floundered under all of these big changes happening in the same few months, and while it did have to restructure, the series still found a way forward.
Before these key players departed, they contributed to plenty of classic episodes, like “Behave,” in which a serial rapist and stalker is found to have assaulted women all over the country. The season finale features the squad room shooting, one of the show’s most shocking moments of all which also killed a beloved recurring character.
8Season 5
2003-2004
Alex Cabot received one of the most memorable send-offs of any main character in SVU in season 5, as she receives death threats for prosecuting members of a Colombian drug cartel. Cabot is forced to fake her death and go into the witness protection program – and she is the only main character to have to go this route during the show’s run. It makes for one of the most memorable episodes of the season. She is replaced by ADA Casey Novak, who is even more tenacious in her pursuit of convictions.
Most seasons of SVU feature cases based on real life, and season 5 is no exception. One of the most disturbing episodes is “Sick,” which takes inspiration from the allegations against Michael Jackson, with an acute focus on the culpability of the parents of the victims.
7Season 10
2008-2009
SVU produces some of its best episodes when the personal lives of the detectives get tangled up with their work, and this is the case when Stabler finds that images of his daughter are being circulated on a website for sexual predators. It puts both Stabler and his daughter on the other side of the case, making for a different dynamic in the episode.
Season 10 saves the best for last, however, with the season finale “Zebras” also blurring the lines between personal and professional, when CSU Dale Stuckey murders a string of people. Everyone he murders is connected to a specific case and their deaths are in an effort to cover up his own error. The surprising reveal shows that nobody can be trusted, even within the SVU, which wasn’t something the audience would have truly considered before Stuckey’s reveal.
6Season 17
2015-2016
More so than any season which came before it, season 17 of SVU digs into the dark secrets hiding in the NYPD. “Manhattan Transfer” focuses on two cops involved in an underage prostitution ring with ties to the city’s political elite, and “Collateral Damage” reveals a deputy police commissioner’s hidden business distributing child pornography. The final two episodes follow the case of Gary Munson, a corrections officer accused of sexually assaulting inmates. The crime is disturbing enough, but the way the perpetrator is sheltered by the system is even more upsetting.
It’s seasons like this one that helps SVU to be more than what critics might refer to as “copaganda.” Fictional stories with law enforcement as the main characters and the heroes are often seen as an effort to provide propaganda for the very institutions portrayed. The idea is that seeing these characters as heroes all the time makes the audience less critical of real-life institutions. Season 17, however, reminds the audience that being critical is still encouraged, because not all members of law enforcement are created equal.
5Season 11
2009-2010
Season 11 of SVU is remarkably consistent, with very few episodes which could be labeled as disappointments. Each episode presents a twisty case that ultimately speaks to some of the most pressing issues facing criminal justice in America. For example, “Solitary” questions the use of solitary confinement in prisons, and whether it should be considered “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the 8th Amendment. Ethical dilemmas like this one are used in some of the most fascinating episodes of SVU, asking the viewer to reflect on their own views.
While the show is known for actors living and working in New York guest starring, season 11 marked a huge season for guest stars. Wentworth Miller, Scott Foley, Sarah Paulson, Naveen Andrews, and Sharon Stone all appeared throughout the season. Notably, Ann-Margret and Jaclyn Smith also appeared in an episode with connections to an old crime. Ann-Margret won an Emmy for her role.
4Season 6
2004-2005
Season 6 of Law & Order: SVU is known for having some really heavy-hitting episodes. It also has some fantastic guest stars, like Martin Short, who is usually in much more comedic roles. Season 6, Episode 18 “Pure” features Martin Short in one of SVU‘s greatest guest appearances of all time. Short plays a phony medium who claims to have visions of a missing girl. It’s an uncharacteristically villainous turn for Short, but his usually affable persona makes his chilling performance even more disturbing.
Another standout episode, “Scavenger,” sends the detectives on a twisted game through the streets of New York as a copycat killer leaves a trail of clues to toy with them. It’s a delightful puzzle, perfectly utilizing Benson and Stabler’s different skill sets, and an unusual storytelling tactic for the show to use that really captured the attention of fans.
3Season 4
2002-2003
George Huang, played by B.D. Wong, became a regular in season 4 of SVU, and this allowed the show to shift focus toward more psychologically complex cases instead of simply using physical evidence and witness statements as the sole investigative techniques. It marked SVU as ahead of its time since shows that delved more into the psychological aspects of crimes, like Criminal Minds, weren’t on the air yet. One brilliant example of this comes in episode 20, “Dominance,” in which a young man manipulates his brother into assisting him on a killing spree.
By season 4, SVU had found a great rhythm, with each episode beginning with an eye-catching cold open which set in motion an unpredictable investigation. The detectives were each distinct and compelling characters, but the focus was always on the crime of the week.
2Season 7
2005-2006
Mariska Hargitay won an Emmy for her performance in “911,” as Benson tries to keep a young girl on the phone long enough for the team to track her down. It’s arguably the best episode of SVU, with a ticking clock heightening the tension to unbearable levels. Much of the episode relies on Hargitay to speak into a phone and hold the attention of everyone else around her while she does. It’s impossible to look away during the episode.
Season 7 is filled with great episodes just like “911”. SVU has heartbreaking cases, propulsive mysteries, and political drama, and season 7 strikes a perfect balance between these different elements. It helps that the cast lineup in season 7 is one of the strongest the show has ever had. Fan favorites Benson, Stabler, Munch, Tutuola, and Cragen make up the police end of the characters with Novak as the primary ADA, and Warner and Huang rounding out the investigative team. This is the lineup most remembered by fans who talk about the show.
1Season 9
2007-2008
It’s a shame that season 9 was cut slightly short by the 2007-2008 Writer’s Guild Strike because it contains many unforgettable episodes. It very much feels like Season 9 built on what season 7 offered fans of the show while season 8 acts as the bridge between them with slightly less compelling episodes. There are psychological dramas like “Alternate,” experimental episodes like “Undercover,” and nail-biting thrillers like “Signature.”
Episode 17, “Authority” features Robin Williams as one of the most intriguing villains in the show’s history. Williams is one of the best guest stars the show has ever had with an amazing performance. Law and Order: SVU always benefits when the criminals are as complex as the detectives, and season 9 is a prime example of this. The episodes are topical yet timeless, making them just as entertaining today as they were over 15 years ago.
