I used to love the L&O franchise, especially the original series and Criminal Intent. Great serious shows using some of the finest New York actors. I was reading this L&O wiki just now (hence the thread) and Laura Fries of Variety commented in 2001 Wolf’s characters are notoriously devoid of detailed personal lives. And it was true, all the shows concentrated on the cases.
So what happened? The only survivor is L&O: SVU and the damn show is nothing but a pure soap opera. It barely has time for the cases, the private lives of the characters are always pushing themselves front and center. I’ve lost count of the times Olivia has had the whole episode to herself, that’s the reason I stopped watching. But what was it that changed the show? Mariska Hargitay herself? I read that she’s an executive producer of the show now, small wonder that it’s turned into the Mariska Hargitay Show. (How Wolf would allow his creation to be bastardized like this I do not know.)
Or did it change in a push for higher ratings? I always thought that all the shows got good ratings but maybe not as NBC ruthlessly cancelled the original just on the cusp of its 20th season. (Would it have killed the suits to allow the show that milestone?)
What do you think? BTW Wolf wanted to resurrect the original show for one special episode as he thought it would be a great vehicle for a fictionalized version of the Weiner affair. NBC turned him down and SVU got to do Weiner instead. And it was absolutely terrible.
I completely agree. I still watch L&O:SVU because I’m… probably an idiot. Hell, I still watch NCIS, too.
The characters’ personal lives are in the stories waaaay too much. When Olivia adopted the baby, then the blonde one’s sister went berserk, and finally when Liv got involved with the Internal Affairs guy who treated her like DOG SHIT in the beginning of the series–! Geez, Louise.
I liked the L&O franchise when the shows were 98% police/court procedural. [Are there any shows like that any more?] Bringing in a lot about their personal lives makes me nuts.
However, I will say that I love Barba, and he’s much sexier than McCoy was on his best day.
I can’t believe Ice-T is still hanging around. I’ve always liked his character.
I agree, I’ve been a fan of the original Law & Order from the first season and always liked Criminal Intent more so than SVU, but I still was a fan of all three. When all three began, it was all about the case for the first few seasons or so (though SVU did have a few “home life” story lines in the first few seasons). It was that sticking to the crime story, over the characters themselves that made it more interesting for me. (of course, I’m one of these guys who loves watching Jeopardy but can’t stand the few minutes when they talk to the guests. All I care about is the game.)
Another thing that placed SVU in third place for me was that every crime was sex crime. Frankly, I got bored with that after awhile.
It’s funny to think too, that in the original cast of SVU the detectives included:
• a former ***Homicide: Life On The Street *** detective
• the current “Mayhem” guy on the Allstate ads
• the actress who played “Fire” on that low budget made for TV Justice League movie
What happened was each L&O franchise had a different premise. L&O was the one where you saw 30 minutes of cop show and 30 minutes of lawyer show. Criminal Intent was the one where you knew who done it up front. SVU was the one where they looked at their personal lives.