History YMMV / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit

* CrazyIsCool: Casey Novak once subpoenaed then-Secretary of Defense ''Donald Rumsfeld''.

* MorePopularSpinoff: It has outlasted every other show in the ''Law & Order'' franchise, including the original.

* CrazyIsCool: Casey Novak once subpoenad ''Donald Rumsfeld''.

** Seasons 16 and 17 received well or with mixed reviews from the fandom, but, after a shift in showrunners, season 18 was received... poorly. So they changed showrunners again for season 19.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: The 2011 episode "Flight" seems to be obviously based on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, but in fact predated the incident by several months.

** Tom Metcalf from "[[{{Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS18E3Imposter}} Imposter]]". It's not that he isn't a giant sleazebag, it's just that he's the least evil person in this entire episode, but gets treated like the only evil person in the episode. He [[BedTrick tricks women into having sex with him]] by pretending he can get their kids into a prestigious university, which is a rotten thing to do, but it's not a crime. Meanwhile, the women he tricks are trying to use sex to get a college admission slot, which not only evinces an appalling sense of entitlement, it's an actual crime (a few years after this episode aired dozens of people were arrested in RealLife for defrauding the admissions process). None of the women are arrested, but Benson and Barba arrest and prosecute Metcalf knowing full well he hasn't broken an actual law, which is an abuse of state power, another actual crime. The detectives then learn that Metcalf's friend, Gary Bell, secretly recorded Metcalf having sex with the women without Metcalfe's knowledge, which is another actual crime, in which the women and Metcalf himself were victims, but Barba and the cops made a deal with Bell to prosecute Metclafe. To clarify, they made a deal with an actual sex offender to prosecute one of his victims. In the end, Metclafe, who hadn't actually committed a crime, caves to pressure, pleads guilty, and accepts a year in jail, while every other character, all of whom had committed crimes, face [[KarmaHoudini no punishment whatsoever]]. The DisproportionateRetribution from the [[DesignatedHero protagonists]] combined with the lack of punishment for everyone else makes Metcalf seem more victim than villain.

* BrokenBase: Obviously being a {{Long Runner|s}}, this was bound to happen, especially regarding the more recent, Stabler-less seasons. Some fans like the refreshing change of pace that Warren Leight has brought to the show in which it is now as it was in the earliest seasons, an ensemble show and the angle of focusing more on the detectives' personal lives a la ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet''. Other fans feel this is a huge mistake as it takes focus away from the true nature of the show and adds even more gratuitous drama and boring and [[{{Glurge}} schmaltzy]] storylines (and these fans also remember the "improvements" that Leight added to ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''... which they believe eventually ran the show into the ground).

** "Pixies", the episode about teenage gymnasts, edges into this following some of the recent revelations about USA gymnastics and a number of individual coaches. Turns out the fictional Ilya Korska is pretty tame compared to some real-life Olympic coaches, including some who were active at the time the episode aired (John Geddert, Artur Akopyan, Mary Lee Tracy, etc.).

** ''Way'' back in the beginning of the series, the detectives were searching for someone who was killing men who were getting "serviced" in their cars while the women were left unharmed. While discussing possible motives, Stabler suggested the killer was a loser who wasn't getting any himself. In 2014, Elliot Rodger [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Isla_Vista_killings went on a killing spree in Isla Vista]], after recording a manifesto that, among other things, included a rant about his outrage that no woman would have sex with him. The shooting eventually became the topic of the "Holden's Manifesto" episode.

** The title of most deserving of this trope definitely belongs to Bronwyn Freed-Wilkins. She’s a MonsterFangirl who helps not one, not two, but '''''THREE''''' convicted serial killers/rapists escape from prison! Even after the last two she helped into breaking free leave her to die in a locked up car, she still sees nothing wrong with what she did and is still infatuated with one of said killers. She doesn’t even take into consideration that each of the escaped serial killers predictably went on killing sprees, kidnapping civilians, and raping helpless women. Benson, who suffered said kidnapping and torture ''for a second time'' from the very same killer Bronwyn first helped out on, [[TakeThatScrappy rightfully calls her out on it.]]

* AcceptableTargets:
** [[{{InternalAffairs}} Internal Affairs.]] Given the failure of the series to be anything resembling "subtle" about anything, the way they used this trope is exactly what you'd expect. They eventually ease up after [[spoiler:Ed and Olivia's RelationshipUpgrade.]]
** Anyone who has a fetish or a kink, even if it's completely legal and consensual, will be portrayed as a depraved pervert and will instantly be put at the top of the suspect list. It also makes them a target for mockery and derision and the SVU detectives will not hesitate to blackmail suspects and witnesses into cooperating with them by threatening to publicly reveal their private sexual interests.
** Much like the original series, the media is often unflatteringly portrayed. They're usually a group of amoral sensationalist tabloid journalists spreading half-truths and interfering with investigations for their own interests.[[note]]Although this is subverted in one episode, where a journalist risks his career to help Olivia expose a coverup.[[/note]]
** Religious people, of course. One especially bad example from a first season episode has a woman refusing to name her rapist--essentially aiding him in escaping charges for other rapes he's committed--because of her beliefs.

** It seemed pretty obvious Dale Stuckey was [[IntendedAudienceReaction intentionally written as one]], given his obnoxious personality and the fact that [[TakeThatScrappy he's treated as one in universe]].

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Stuckey who, despite his tendency to annoy everyone, at times seemed to be a bullying target for the entire SVU department. Quite a few fans were cheering for him when he attempted to torture and kill Stabler, especially since Stabler had physically assaulted him earlier in the episode. However he also attempted to frame a man for a murder that, while he might have done, didn't commit, killed a lawyer and judge who were doing their job, and then killing a fellow forensic scientist it makes it hard for him to be sympathetic.

** Megan Ramsay from "Repression". It's not her fault that her therapist essentially convinced her she had been abused by her father through a combination of drugs and badgering, but she started seeing that therapist because of her drug abuse, for which her rich parents cut her off and kicked her out of the house. The abuse never happened and her father ends up dead over it, but Megan gets exactly what she wanted from the beginning, and whatever problems she had before meeting the therapist are never addressed. With Megan deliberately fabricating evidence against her father, it's easy to read the situation as Megan throwing her dad under the bus to get back in her wealthy mother's good graces.

** The little girl, April, from season 5 episode, "Sick". Even for all of the episode's {{Narm}} and [[FunnyAneurysmMoment funny aneurysm moments]], her own storyline [[MoodWhiplash is pretty sad.]] She had no father, her mother was addicted to drugs and wasn't part of her life, she had cancer and, according to her grandmother and guardian, she was molested by the Music/MichaelJackson {{Expy}}. [[spoiler:Only thing is, she never had cancer, nor was she molested; her grandmother made up the story ''and'' [[MoralEventHorizon was poisoning her with mercury all along, telling her she was sick with cancer just to get money and sympathy out of everyone.]]]] Even as she was talking to Olivia in the end, she said, "I didn't want to do it. I just didn't want to die. [[TearJerker How can my gram love me when she made me sick?]]".

** The title of most deserving of this trope definitely belongs to Bronwyn Freed-Wilkins. She’s a MonsterFangirl who helps not one, not two, but '''''THREE''''' convicted serial killers/rapists escape from prison! Even after the last two she helped into breaking free leave her to die in a locked up car, she still sees nothing wrong with what she did and is still infatuated with one of said killers. She doesn’t even take into consideration that each of the escaped serial killers predictably went on killing sprees, kidnapping civilians, and raping helpless women. Benson, who suffered said kidnapping and torture ''for a second time'' from the very same killer Bronwyn first helped out on, [TakeThatScrappy rightfully calls her out on it.]]

** The title of most deserving of this trope definitely belongs to Bronwyn Freed-Wilkins. She’s a MonsterFangirl who helps not one, not two, but '''''THREE''''' convicted serial killers/rapists escape from prison! Even after the last two she help escape from prison leave her to die in a locked up trunk of a car, she still sees nothing wrong with what she did and is still infatuated with one of said killers. She doesn’t even take into consideration that each of the escaped serial killers predictably went on killing sprees, kidnapping civilians, and raping helpless women. Benson, who suffered said kidnapping and torture ''for a second time'' from the first killer Bronwyn helped out on, rightfully calls her out on it.

* IdiotPlot: "Decaying Morality" starts with a disoriented young girl stumbling into a pizzeria bathroom. A line begins to form outside, so an employee barges in to see what she's doing. Confused, the girl accuses him of raping her, and he's promptly arrested. Despite being clearly groggy and dazed, they take the girl's statement for granted, without even bothering to find out how she got drugged, and where she was before the incident occurred. They send her semen stained sweater to be DNA tested, whilst a ContrivedCoincidence means there is a glitch in the pizzeria security footage. The detectives make no attempt to trace the girl's steps back to the start of the day, nor do they interview any potential witnesses. The accused also happens to be a black man, making the episode delve into UnfortunateImplications. Furthermore, when the girl's dad lashes out and causes the suspect to die, it is later revealed that the real culprit is her uncle, which anyone with a brain and eyes can clearly see. He's a dentist, he has access to a plethora of drugs, and the teen visited his surgery earlier that morning. If the cops had done their job properly, the innocent man wouldn't be dead, and this case could have been solved a lot sooner. The entire episode requires the protagonists to hold the IdiotBall, not to mention that none of them, excluding Barba, ever shows any remorse or sympathy to the family of the now-dead and wrongly accused black man. Not even the girl's father, and he was responsible for it.
** The twist at the end of "Shattered" turns the episode into this. It turns out that the father Paul Olsen was the [[AssPull true culprit]]. He was attempting to frame his ex-wife Sophie Gerard for kidnapping their son. The problem with this is that he came up with this plan after Sofia had already attempted a kidnapping so he was trying to frame her for something he already had proof of. All TheReveal does is make a AxCrazy StrawFeminist UnintentionallySympathetic. It also add UnfortunateImplications to the episode for trying to invoke TheExtremistWasRight.

** The season 23 episode "Promising Young Gentlemen addresses the serious issue of college campus rape and the role fraternities have played in it. However, it becomes hard to take seriously when the young men — age eighteen to twenty-two — sing their official group song — a song about raping women — to the tune of "Old [=MacDonald=] Had a Farm".

** "Intimidation Game". Like so many crime shows before it, it tries to tackle [[WereStillRelevantDammit video games and internet culture]] complete with video game-related one-liners ("They leveled up," the K.O.B.S. taunts in general ranging from "Prepare to be slaughtered" to "LEVEL UP!" and "GAME ON NYPD!" which are simply impossible to take seriously. And then there's the non-ironic use of "There is no reset button in real life"). The random first person camera perspective near the end meant to emulate a first person shooter just came across as jarring. Even better is that the episode's DownerEnding is followed by "Executive Producer: Dick Wolf", which is unintentionally hilarious [[Webcomic/PennyArcade in a video game]] [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/08/11 context]].

* WereStillRelevantDammit:
** "Girl Dishonored" combines inspiration from the Steubenville case thrown into a college frat and sorority setting. "We gang-banged her gangnam style" should win an award for both this and {{narm}} AND CriticalResearchFailure (no, no one gets gang-banged in Psy's song...)
** The Season 22 premiere addressed the protests that followed George Floyd's murder in a way that was truly cringeworthy. Rather than deal with the rampant police misconduct the main characters had engaged in over the past twenty-one years, the show used HollywoodLaw to make it seem as if the protests only served to interfere with honest police work and help a white man get away with rape.
** The episode "Branded" in which the team was searching for a female hacker and vigilante who branded rapists. It first premiered around the time that the ''Literature/MillenniumTrilogy'' became popular in the US...
%%%%%What year?** "American Disgrace" has a line where a girl being taken away from her man yells at him "I'm not your ''thot''". "Thot" stands for "that hoe over there" and it became a common saying on Twitter and other social media sites this year. The saying make no sense because it is used in the wrong tense.

** [[AC:Executive Producer: Dick Wolf]] is also mocked. After a whole episode about gaming culture, the phrase "Dick Wolf" ties into [[Webcomic/PennyArcade a certain meme from a popular video game webcomic]].
** Unrelated to "Intimidation Game", we have [[AC:Co-Producer: Speed Weed]], based on the [[AluminumChristmasTrees incredibly ironic and off-putting name of]] [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2373535/ a(n ex) member of the staff]].
** This one has crossed over with ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', due to the popularity of [[Music/REOSpeedwagon Robert E.O. Speedwagon]].

** Nick Amaro grew up in an abusive household and has struggled with anger issues, which cost him his marriage. His wife and daughter have been the target of TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive more than once (perhaps most creepily when he discovers his daughter Zara innocently talking on the phone to a representative of that week's BigBad), and his daughter and mother were nearly killed by vigilantes shooting at Amaro's house. [[spoiler:Padre Sandunguero takes this UpToEleven, showing Nick having to testify against his father for assaulting his fiancee, having to admit ''in open court'' that his father abused him and that he still has nightmares about it, the rest of the Amaro family taking his father's side and gaslighting the '''hell''' out of Nick like he's the one who's crazy and emotional, his father being found not guilty, and his father successfully making one last power grab against Nick.]]

%% * RonTheDeathEater: Wiki/ThisVeryWiki treats Elliot this way. Just look at the Headscratchers or Fridge page.

** The episode "Decaying Morality" shows a man falsely accused of rape after trying to help a drunken girl and found found himself vilified in court and later murdered by the father of the girl. This goes into relations of similar incidents happening from 2017 where men are found falsely accused and ended up having their lives ruined or worse. One such incident is the case of an Austalian man who helped a woman who had car trouble and was repaid by her accusing him of propositioning her for sex. He found himself jailed for two weeks, jobless, divorced, and vilified, all because he wanted to help.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The show has about as much subtlety as getting banged over the head with a 2x4 that has "X is bad!" on it. If you didn't get that RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil, you will after watching an episode of two.