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15* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
16** Elliot Stabler is one of the most notable cases of this reaction in American TV, with viewers about evenly split as to whether he's a good, even heroic man whose psychological issues are rooted in the trauma he saw both in his childhood and every day on the job, or a [[SmugSnake sneering]] PsychopathicManchild whose sole remotely decent trait is having the shred of self-awareness necessary to limit his violent impulses to [[PayEvilUntoEvil people worse than he is]].
17** Olivia. Does her backstory of being a ChildByRape grant her a deeper insight into the psyche of the victims, allowing her to empathize with them to the point that she's willing to risk her job to get them justice? Or has it made her an emotional basket case who can't maintain the emotional detachment and impartiality needed to do her job properly, seeking revenge on the dead rapist father she never met and can never punish in real life? "Devastating Story" further complicates this as the rape advocacy professor specifically went to Olivia in order to try and railroad three innocent men. She even did things like tell the victim even though they were both drunk it was still rape because she wasn’t capable of consenting.
18** There are numerous episodes where innocent people have had their lives ruined by the frequently overzealous efforts of the SVU detectives once they're convinced of a suspect's guilt. So are the detectives {{Knight Templar}}s whose zeal to get justice for the victims gives them tunnel vision? Or are they {{Lazy Bum}}s just trying to get the case over as quickly as possible? Keep in mind they have done things such as hounding victims into accusing someone (as well as hounding the accuser to confess, as well as repeatedly ignore police procedure (no allowing the accused to contact a lawyer, not talking to alibi witnesses, ect).
19** As discussed on the TearJerker page, in the last scene of "Padre Sandunguero", is Amaro's father's offer to talk a genuine attempt to make things better, or is his show of reconciliation and remorse just another part of the cycle of abuse?
20* {{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 or two.
21* ArcFatigue:
22** Stabler's separation from his wife and ensuing family drama lasted from the second episode of the sixth season to the very last episode of the eighth, and in the opinions of many fans, outstayed its welcome. Recurring attempts in the tenth season to bring back Stabler family drama with the Stabler kids were not well-received at all by the fans.
23** William Lewis continually returning to terrorize Olivia and the SVU squad. His charm was [[InformedAbility supposedly irresistible]] and at least one woman in radius could always be guaranteed to pick up the IdiotBall and help him even when he was boxed in. Further frustrating fans, Lewis [[AFoolForAClient represented himself at trial]] and Barba was actually stymied by him, which was a really blatant case of IdiotBall as one of Barba's best known (and best loved) traits is that he is usually a shark in court.
24* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dale Stuckey. Some fans loved the fact that an off-the-wall and quirky character was brought into an otherwise serious show and looked at him as comic relief. Other fans were simply annoyed by his nonchalant, insensitive attitude and his continuous screw-ups and either flipped the channel or muted the volume whenever he was on.
25* BrokenBase: Obviously being a {{Long Runner|s}}, this was bound to happen, especially regarding the 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).
26* CompleteMonster: [[Monster/LawAndOrder Has its own page.]]
27* CreatorsPet: Jo Marlowe. The fans almost universally hate her guts, and yet the four episodes she's in, it seemed like the writers are forcing her down their throats. Doesn't help that Sharon Stone's performance was not well-received. The execs took the hint and by season 12 she was gone.
28* DesignatedHero:
29** The SVU detectives frequently engage in ethically questionable acts that any halfway decent defense attorney would use to get any case they bring up thrown out of court.
30** Elliot Stabler was the biggest case of this trope especially because he had so many focus episodes. His portrayal as an AntiHero and CowboyCop lead to him bending the law to suit him, assaulting suspects, and other unethical actions to get the perp. Though the show often tried to provide counter arguments to his actions and have characters criticize him the narrative would ultimately side with him more often than not. The despicable nature of the crimes were supposed to make one side with Stabler's borderline vigilante antics but even so, an officer going above the law and getting away with it doesn't sit well with most viewers. He also treated his family terribly, explicitly having beaten at least two of his kids and acting like a KnightTemplarParent to the others, and in the early seasons had a borderline creepy preoccupation with making sure his eldest daughter stayed a virgin. The end result in many episodes was less a character with tragic rage issues from a thoroughly messed up life and career and more a [[PsychopathicManchild petulant sociopath]] whose sole decent trait was having the spark of self-awareness to direct his violent nature towards people worse than him.
31** Elliot's replacement Amaro was just as bad, having once assaulting and threatening a man he thought was having an affair with his wife (he was actually his wife's therapist) and later assaulting acquitted suspect Simon Wilkes but being treated in-story as the victim because Wilkes was an alleged pedophile.
32*** Then, the rest of the SVU detectives engage in an entrapment plot to blackmail Wilkes and his wife into filing a false report that said Wilkes threw the first punch. Morality of Wilkes aside, the fact remains that the entire unit committed fraud and falsifying evidence just to protect one of their own.
33* DesignatedVillain:
34** As part of the show's ProtagonistCenteredMorality, I.A. officer Ed Tucker is frequently vilified in plot for his constant efforts to bring the SVU detectives up on charges, never mind that the entire point of Internal Affairs is to maintain the integrity of the police and protect the public from abuse. Considering how more than one episode has involved innocent people having their lives ruined by the frequently overzealous efforts of the SVU detectives once they're convinced of a suspect's guilt (Stabler certainly but even Olivia and Capt. Cragen at times), and Stabler has flat out tortured a suspect when he didn't have any sort of anti-torture laws to hold him back, and it's a wonder why any of them still have their badges. Of course that isn't to say Ed Tucker comes out looking squeaky clean either as he is a {{Jerkass}} with an ax to grind against SVU, and will jump on any accusation no matter how clearly fake to try and screw them over.
35** Pretty much anyone who stands in opposition to the SVU detectives for whatever reason is this such as I.A., the Brass, defense attorneys, or social workers.
36* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Chester Lake is an insomniac and during his time on the series, he states on a few occasions that the city speaks to him. Whether or not he means it figuratively or literally is never made clear, but either way, it does not appear to affect his work.
37* DieForOurShip:
38** Dani Beck, Olivia's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute [[spoiler:who actually got to ''kiss'' Elliot before departing. In their defense, Dani was a widow who had gone through quite a hard time, and Elliot was still separated from Kathy.]] Both Kathy and Dani are reviled and bashed by Elliot x Olivia shippers, despite WordOfGod on how Stabler and Olivia will NOT hook up.
39%%** Kathy, Elliot's wife.
40** Casey was often subjected to death for the Alex/Olivia ship, primarily for [[ReplacementScrappy not being Alex]].
41* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Although the show usually takes pains to point out that these crimes are horrific and carry devastating consequences, many critics have nevertheless pointed out that there is also a tendency for the show to get a lot of lurid and sensationalist entertainment mileage out of them as well.
42* DontShootTheMessage: The point of this series was to show the many ways victims of sex crimes can be mistreated by the criminal justice system and the world in general. The show brought attention to the way institutions and problematic people (including police) intimidate, slut-shame, and victim-blame rape victims into silence, as well as the DNA backlogs that keep easily prosecutible rapists from being brought to justice. Unfortunately, the stories are told from the point of view of protagonists who are {{Hypocrite}}s and {{Straw Feminist}}s that habitually abuse their power, enforce laws that don't exist, harass people whose sex lives they disapprove of, defend, and even cover up for guilty criminals if they are young, cute, and female (or at least two out of three), send innocent people to prison, get innocent people killed, have a horrifyingly permissive attitude towards PoliceBrutality, and are ultimately emblematic of societal problems that are as bad as the ones they rage against.
43* DracoInLeatherPants: The fact that the actor portraying William Lewis happens to be a tall, attractive man has caused female fans of the show to start a fan base surrounding the fictional character.
44* EnsembleDarkHorse:
45** George Huang, due to being perceived as the OnlySaneMan and a consistently active aversion to the main HeteroNormativeCrusader tone of the show, as well as never bringing personal drama to the job.
46** Rafael Barba, primarily to people who miss Huang. He is also perceived as the OnlySaneMan and comes off as annoyed by the lack of professionalism at SVU. Needless to say, even people who hate the show love him and Raúl Esparza's performance. He may not be outdoing Cabot and Novak on the "Most Beloved ADA" charts yet, but he is ''damn'' close.
47** Declan Murphy is beloved by the fanbase due to his attitude and good nature, helped by Donal Logue's phenomenal acting (the man can flawlessly pull off multiple identities in a season due to Murphy's role as an undercover cop).
48** Mike Dodds developed a bit of a fan base due to his genuine commitment to justice (in contrast to his father, who's mostly concerned about public perception) as well as his unexpected kindness and humility and the ongoing arc involving his struggle to define himself separate from his father's wishes. More than a few fans felt that the character being killed off was a huge case of [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter wasted]] [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot potential]].
49* EsotericHappyEnding: Due to the ineptitude of the parties involved it is highly unlikely that a lot of the cases will end in a conviction due to the substantial amount of reasonable doubt the cops give the defense.
50** "Contagious" [[spoiler:is about a person wrongly being accused of rape by a 12 year old, who's actually too scared to name the real culprit. Before she recants her lie, the uncle she accused is arrested in public, and multiple parents accidentally pressure their kids into (falsely) testifying that they were raped by the guy. Eventually the SVU realize that they accidentally pressured the kid into naming the culprit because they were ''so sure'' it was him. They get the kid to testify who the culprit is and are easily able to prove he did it... but their main witness already lied, so why believe her now? (This is actually negated by the fact that the SVU can pin the guy for murder, but if the rape was his only crime, he'd walk.)]]
51** "Birthright" centered around a mother kidnapping the daughter of another couple convinced she was her own missing daughter, and the detectives found out the two mothers went to the same fertility doctor and he implanted the first woman's eggs in the second, so the girl actually was her biological daughter. A custody battle ensued, and a conflicted Casey consulted Elliot, who told her the JudgmentOfSolomon tale. Casey called the girl to testify and grilled her about the confusion over her parents until the biological mother called the trial off, unwilling to put the girl through such an ordeal. She pleads guilty to custodial interference and moves out of state, unable to be near her daughter. We're supposed to be happy, except that the point of the Judgment of Solomon story is that Solomon ruled in favor of ''the mother who backed off'', as her refusal to put the child through pain proved to Solomon that she loved the child more. We're thus left with the implication that the parents who raised the child don't love her as much as the woman who kidnapped her, yet we're expected to be happy that she was allowed to remain with those parents. Also, Casey cross-examined a child to the point of tears just to see which mother will crack first, and we're supposed to see this as a victory for justice.
52** "Responsible" was about a woman, Lillian, who supplied a group of underaged teens (including her own daughter) with alcohol, leading to a couple of deaths and her daughter Becca suffering health problems. In the end, Lillian is given five years prison for her crimes, and Becca is sent to rehab so she can recover from her drinking. Whilst it is good that Lillian will be delt justice and Becca will get the help she needs for a better future, problem is Lillian was a single mother and rehab only lasts a few months at best. There is no mention as to who's going to look after Becca once she leaves rehab.
53* FanNickname: After one too many uses of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, Elliot became widely known as "[=UnStabler=]."
54* FanonDiscontinuity:
55** As far as Stabler fans are concerned, season 13 onwards does not exist.
56** They are eagerly joined by fans of Creator/MarciaGayHarden's recurring character Dana Lewis, who [[spoiler:''definitely'' didn't get sent to jail for murdering someone out of jealousy and then framing someone else for it.]] Her last appearance was in season 12, which was the show's last.
57* FanPreferredCouple: There are different ones depending on the type of ship and also from what era, given the series' two decade long lifespan and cast turnovers. Elliot/Olivia (called E/O) is the most popular het ship while Alex/Olivia (called A/O) is popular with femslashers. Barba/(Olivia)Benson (Barson) has become the most popular post-Stabler era (season 12 and onward) het ship. Meanwhile, [[HoYay Barba/Carisi]], or Barisi, is the most popular slash ship.
58* GrowingTheBeard: More like abruptly changing for the better. As of Season 13, no illegal interrogations, no laws being broken, less {{Idiot Ball}}s being tossed around, and of the two ItsPersonal episodes, one was low key and the other was actually handled completely according to protocol. Additionally, any morally ambiguous actions or issues get examined with a lot of scrutiny.
59* HamAndCheese: As the series goes on, Creator/BDWong seems to have adopted this attitude toward some of Huang's scenes and dialogue.
60* HarsherInHindsight:
61** In-universe, Stabler giving his daughter Kathleen an incredibly awkward sex talk in "Hysteria". It's funny when Kathleen is just a cute little kid, but becomes somewhat less so in retrospect given the kind of sexual behavior Kathleen engages in after the onset of her bipolar disorder, and ''especially'' given what she tells another girl in "Crush":
62-->'''Kathleen:''' I let boys use me. Have sex with me. Even hit me. I was too scared and too ashamed to say anything.
63** The episode "Personal Fouls" aired on September 28, 2011. The episode was about a well respected basketball coach who was accused of sexual molestation. The coach [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything used the charity that he had set up for at-risk youth to prey upon the young boys of his liking]]. About six weeks after this episode aired, the Penn State sex scandal broke. And the stories were even more horrifying than what was in this episode. ''The next week'''s "Missing Pieces" had a couple use a fake kidnapping to cover up [[spoiler:the accidental death of their baby]], which seemed to have inspired an actual case of fake kidnapping cover-up.
64** In "Spiraling Down", we see an ex-football star named Jake Stanton who gets in trouble for patronizing a prostitute and then indecent exposure. It's revealed that he has CTE, which is a disease that degenerates the brain as a result of many concussions. After it's found apparent that he was not of the right mind, the episode ends with [[spoiler: Stanton taking a gun from a cop and then committing suicide by shooting himself in the chest]]. While this is based loosely on what Dave Duerson did in early 2011, the episode rings even more harshly given that Chargers star Junior Seau also died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest five months after the episode aired; a postmortem examination of his brain revealed that Seau also had CTE.
65** Season 1's "Entitled" had the detectives 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 that 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. [[RippedFromTheHeadlines The shooting eventually became the topic of the "Holden's Manifesto" episode.]]
66** In a season 14's "Funny Valentine", Barba is talking about a domestic violence case with Benson, and he happily says that a girl he loved in high school "could have massacred my entire family and I would have looked the other way." Two years later, we have learned that his relationship with both parents was strained, Barba never having gained his mother's approval and his deceased father being implied to have been abusive. No wonder he wouldn't have minded.
67** "Authority" where Creator/RobinWilliams played the VillainOfTheWeek, which ended with the strong implication that his character committed suicide to avoid capture. Williams died in 2014, and his death was indeed a suicide.
68** The episode "Amaro's One-Eighty", has an unarmed black teenager being shot, leading to a media frenzy surrounding the shooting and drawing attention to the police brutality. The detectives intentionally try to block the investigation or make sure it's only handled by friends who are willing to look the other way, explaining that the cop will be a victim of the media and made a pariah for police brutality, therefore the case should just be dropped. Despite this, the case leads to protests against police and a recording of the shooting leaks to the internet. Ultimately the case only gets as far as a grand jury who decide not to indict, and the cop is largely let off scot-free. The episode aired in January 2014, and in August of that same year, Michael Brown's shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, saw all of these events happen for real. The episode feels incredibly bizarre, especially with the Internal Affairs agents inspecting the case being treated as bullies and SVU being framed as heroes for trying to bury details given the uncooperative response of the Ferguson and St. Louis police departments in the shooting's aftermath. And for the topic of a shooting that gets recorded and put onto the internet... just see the entry below.
69** "Intimidation Game" had scenes where we're shown a point of view from one of the attackers done up in a style similar to First-Person Shooters. People who mocked this episode certainly found the irony when on August 26th, 2015, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Alison_Parker_and_Adam_Ward disgruntled ex-reporter Vester Flanagan murdered his two ex-co-workers Alison Parker and Adam Ward]] and posted a video he shot in a first person view online.
70** The episode "Comic Perversion" is about a comedian making rape jokes. Given the Creator/BillCosby scandal that unfolded nearly a year later, it's very uncomfortable to watch. Though it may cross over into HilariousInHindsight if people relate it to Hannibal Buress' routine rather than the scandal that unfolded afterwards.
71** "Criminal Stories" is about the rape of a Muslim woman being declared a hoax, eerily similar to the University of Virginia Rolling Stone rape hoax.
72** Elliot's frequent application of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique was always pretty hard to watch, but in TheNewTens, after the character was written off the show, many American police departments became marred by [[DirtyCop corruption]] and [[PoliceBrutality brutality]] scandals in quick succession, so nowadays it's hard to see him as any better than the crooks.
73** "Taken" involved a woman being raped during a hotel's opening and accusing an employee, which turned out to be a scam to sue the hotel. Brian Banks was sent to jail after a teenage girl said he raped her... and then sued the school for a fortune. Both stories have {{Bittersweet Ending}}s; the woman in the show went to jail when the guy she accused was killed in prison, making her responsible under felony murder laws, while Banks got his accuser on tape admitting that she lied after he was released, and has been cleared of all charges and given a shot at getting his interrupted football career back.[[note]]Oh, and his accuser was successfully sued by the school for the money back. Which she already spent and has no feasible way of earning, so millions in taxpayer money have been flushed down the drain.[[/note]]
74** Stephen Collins (of ''Series/SeventhHeaven'' fame) guest-starred as a suspect in the ninth season episode "Trade". In 2014, Collins confessed to having [[http://www.people.com/article/stephen-collins-sexual-abuse-confession-exclusive sexually abused underaged girls]] earlier in his career.
75** The episode "Gone", based on the Natalee Holloway case, had three suspects, much like the RealLife case did at the time the episode aired. In the episode, all three are guilty, but it's the two cousins who are worse and end up also killing their accomplice, who has regrets and wants to confess. In RealLife, the exact opposite happened. The two brothers were eventually determined to have nothing to do with Holloway's disappearance--even her killer stated as such when confessing.
76** During the Season 7 episode "Fat", actor [[Series/{{Blackish}} Anthony Anderson]], makes a guest appearance as a detective, sent to help SVU solve a case involving an overweight black young man with Type-2 Diabetes who commits a revenge killing. In the end, the guy is convicted of second-degree murder, but isn't there to hear the verdict, because he's in the hospital after suffering a dangerous diabetic attack which gives him liver failure and results in his left foot getting amputated. The harsher part? Years later, actor Anthony Anderson, [[FormerlyFat who was overweight most of his life]], would get diagnosed with Type-2 Diabetes in real life.
77** A season 4 episode, "Futility", features Fred Savage as a serial rapist who intimidates his victims, which aired in 2003; fast forward fifteen years later, and Fred is being accused of sexual harassment by his former co-star Alley Mills while doing ''Series/TheWonderYears''.
78 ** The episode "Decaying Morality" shows a man falsely accused of rape after trying to help a drunken girl and 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 end up having their lives ruined or worse. One such incident is the case of an Australian 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.
79** In "Imposter" a man was pretending to be the Dean of Admissions at an elite university to get women to have sex with him in exchange for admitting their kids. Benson's insistence that the women were rape victims who deserved justice became even harder to get on board with (see UnintentionallyUnsympathetic below) after the RealLife college admissions scandal came out a few years later.
80** "Pixies", the episode about teenage gymnasts, edges into this following 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.).
81*** In the same episode, when discussing the victim's relationship with an older man, the detectives discuss how her extreme gymnastics training made her vulnerable to a predator. In the late 2010s, it came out that Team USA doctor Larry Nassar had been sexually abusing girls for decades, and that he did in fact take advantage of the very vulnerability highlighted in the episode, by positioning himself as the gymnasts' friend and someone who looked out for them (so much so that some of the more supportive coaches, the ones who really did look out for their athletes, [[https://medium.com/@vanessasteck/aimee-boorman-will-now-take-my-questions-424c4b995230 percieved him as an ally]]). And while the fictional victim's relationship with an older sponsor was ostensibly consensual, if a bit creepy, Nassar's actions were decidedly ''not'' -- he claimed his molestation was medical treatment to keep the girls from realizing they were being abused.
82** The season 12 episode "Bully" had the victim die due to injuries from being pushed onto a wine glass and a piece of it piercing her throat. A little over four years to the day that the episode aired, Charmayne "Maxee" Maxwell of the '90s R&B group Brownstone died under similar circumstances (albeit her death was accidental whereas the episode's death was manslaughter).
83** After Nick Amaro beat an acquitted man into a coma, he became ineligible for promotion. He eventually moved to California where he could have a fresh start. In RealLife, following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, jurisdictions across the United States changed the rules regarding confidentiality of police disciplinary records to prevent cops with histories of misconduct from getting fresh starts in new cities.
84** At the end of "Melancholy Pursuit", Dodds and Benson have a conversation about how a parent never gets over OutlivingOnesOffspring. At the end of the season, [[spoiler:Mike's own father has to endure losing a child when Mike is killed]], and it's pretty clear he's never going to get over it either.
85** "Crush" has Ezra Miller playing a kid with a history of violent behavior and is suspected of attacking a teenage girl. In 2020, a video surfaced of Miller attacking a woman at a bar in Iceland.
86** In "Dutch Tears," Fin brings up how Munch is happily retired, running a bar back in Baltimore and dating a female Rabbi. Just days after the episode aired, Richard Belzer died.
87** In "Contagious," a then-unknown Creator/JennetteMcCurdy plays the VictimOfTheWeek, a little girl who was supposedly molested by her CreepyUncle [[spoiler:but actually by a teenage neighbor]]. Fifteen years later, [=McCurdy=] revealed in her autobiography that she had in fact been molested, and seriously abused in other ways as well, by her own mother.
88* HilariousInHindsight:
89** A popular BetaCouple in fanfiction to Elliot/Olivia had been George/Alex... [[spoiler:and then "Hardwired" gave canon confirmation that George was gay, {{joss|ed}}ing every single one of those fics.]] Which is, of course, particularly amusing if you ship Alex with Olivia. Or George and Elliot.
90** A recurring defense attorney is a British woman named Miranda Pond; others might recognize her as [[Series/DoctorWho River Song]], a.k.a. [[spoiler:Melody Pond, daughter of Amy Pond.]] It's ''probably'' a coincidence, considering [[spoiler:Miranda first appeared in 2009 and River's real name wasn't revealed until 2011.]]
91** Creator/BDWong voiced the love interest of ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' in the feature film. Some people fall under the interpretation that Shang (the character he voiced) was having problems with his sexuality during the movie since he possibly falls in love with Mulan when she is disguised as a male. [[spoiler:Huang is eventually revealed to be gay later in the show. Also an ActorAllusion, since BD Wong is himself gay.]]
92** In "Lessons Learned," the defense attorney argues: "What next? Is Mr. Barba going to bring in a cannibal to tell us how eating people is wholesome and healthy?" Which is really funny when you consider Creator/RaulEsparza's [[{{Series/Hannibal}} other TV gig.]]
93** "If Kathie gets pregnant again, I'll shoot myself", said Stabler in the episode "Choice". Three seasons later...
94** In "Dominance", Creator/JasonRitter playing a character [[spoiler: who's in an incestuous relationship with his brother]] seems uncomfortably amusing now that he's [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls a character]] who's [[IncestYayShipping popularly paired with his twin sister]].
95** In "Granting Immunity", the unit investigate a "rainbow party" of teens. Rollins mutters "I'm never having kids." Cut to four seasons later as Rollins is handling being on the job with her second child.
96** The 2020 episode "Redemption In Her Corner" has Barba make a surprise appearance over Skype to [[spoiler:comfort a grieving Olivia over Tucker's death.]] He reveals that he's in Iowa investigating some corruption in the state's primary race for president - while the show creators obviously had no idea that it would happen, the Democratic primary race happened two days before the episode's release date and was lined with numerous controversies and accusations of corruption.
97** Creator/ViolaDavis plays recurring defense attorney Donna Emmett from 2003-2008, nearly a decade before headlining the LawProcedural ''Series/HowToGetAwayWithMurder''.
98* InformedWrongness: In "Undercover Blue", When Cassidy finds out that Amaro had an affair with a target's sister while undercover, everyone acts as if Cassidy did something horrible to Amaro. Putting aside the fact that Amaro was [[NeverMyFault solely responsible]] for the affair and its consequences, Cassidy unintentionally did Amaro a huge favor. If it wasn't for Cassidy, Amaro might have never found out he had a son, or worse, might have found out after it was too late to save him from the gang his stepfather forced him to carry drugs for. No one ever told Amaro that [[UngratefulBastard he should be thanking Cassidy]].
99* JerkassWoobie:
100** J.J. from "Sick" is a troubled teen who trolled people online that he was going to kill a child in '''graphic''' detail and has numerous behavioral issues. However, he becomes completely sympathetic when it's revealed he was molested by a famous celebrity and his own parents made him keep silent to get money.
101** Though he could be annoying and [[spoiler: ultimately became a spree killer]], Dale Stuckey did have moments when the abuse heaped on him seemed greatly disproportionate such as when he explained how a teen used spoofing to threaten another girl only for O'Halloran to dismiss it as Stuckey wasting their time or in his final appearance when Stabler physically assaulted him, Stuckey demanded that Cragen write Stabler up for it, and Cragen outright told him that Stuckey's completely valid complaint which would have gotten a real life detective fired or even brought up on charges wasn't worth the trouble.
102* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Alex/Olivia and Elliot/Olivia are the juggernauts, but fans have also happily picked up shipping her with new cast additions Rollins, Amaro and Barba. Her [[RelationshipUpgrade canon relationship]] with Brian Cassidy also has its fans.
103* MagnificentBastard: "[[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS9E17Authority Authority]]": Merritt Rook is a former audio engineer whose wife died in childbirth thanks to an error from the doctor. Rook, gaining a hatred of authority figures, manipulated and harassed the doctor into suicide before making calls posing as an authority figure to make others commit crimes for no reason but a voice on the phone told them to. Representing himself at trial to get his views out, Rook manages to get acquitted and keeps his movement going before Detective Benson goes to arrest him. Turning the tables, Rook sets a trap for Stabler where he forces him to torture Benson at risk of a bomb exploding only to reveal Benson was never in danger and her screams were prerecorded. Rook proceeds to flee, with the assumption being he drowns in the river, but the strong possibility remaining he manages to escape justice entirely after proving the points he wishes.
104* MemeticMutation: [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/intimidation-game Intimidation Game]], which created the following:
105** "GO HOME, GAMER GIRL."
106** "They leveled up." The line is equal parts {{Narm}} and tastelessness to the point that it unintentionally CrossesTheLineTwice.
107** "Prepare to be slaughtered" along with the K.O.B.S. mask in general.
108** "There is no reset button in real life."
109** The use of the phrase "darknet" (in lieu of the proper term deep web) is parodied often.
110** The K.O.B.S. taunts "LEVEL UP!" and "GAME ON NYPD!" gained traction pretty quickly.
111** The CaptainErsatz website [[Website/{{Reddit}} Red]][[Website/FourChan chan]][[InternetJerk it]] gained traction on Reddit and 8chan, with certain gaming-related subforums on both sites using the moniker as an AppropriatedAppellation. Redchan.it even linked to an 8chan board for a time.
112** "I read on Kotaku that it [[ShowWithinAShow the Amazonian Warriors game]] was better than ''[[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Civ 5]]'' with the ''Brave New World'' expansion pack!" The ProductPlacement-laden line inspired a bunch of {{snowclones}}.
113** "Where? Where does he play them!?" Delivered with [[SeriousBusiness the same urgency]] as "[[Series/TwentyFour Tell me where the bomb is!]]" or "[[Film/TheDarkKnightRises Tell me about Bane! Why does he wear the mask?!]]"
114** The POV gun-aiming scene at the end of the episode has been photoshopped to include the settings and [=HUDs=] of popular FPS games.
115** This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8vzIRQLLM one scene]] from the Season 4 episode "Lowdown" has been making the rounds.
116--->'''[=DuShawn=]:''' I am not gay! I have relationships with women... and sex with men.\
117'''Fin:''' And I got news for you. That means you're gay.\
118''[[=DuShawn=] takes a second to think about it.]''
119** "Executive Producer: Dick Wolf" and "Co-Producer: Speed Weed"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Two segments from the show's opening credits that went viral after being pointed out by a bemused pair of Website/{{Tumblr}} users. The silliness of the names resulted in the credits becoming a popular subject for parody. "Co-Producer: Speed Weed" became particularly popular thanks to being a ''very'' IronicName, additionally crossing over with the ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' fanbase thanks to "Speed Weed" sounding like a corruption of "Speedwagon," the name of a character from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood'' and ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency''.[[/labelnote]]
120* {{Moe}}: Katie Nicholson, the disabled girl from "Savant". "Can I have a hug?"
121* MorePopularSpinoff: It has had a longer continuous run than every other show in the ''Law & Order'' franchise, including the original. Part of that comes from having a slightly bigger focus on the personalities and personal lives of the main characters, whereas other shows were more about the PoliceProcedural formula over everything else.
122* {{Narm}}:
123** Too many instances to count, but special mention goes to "Bullseye": The perp of the day has a strong but noticeably vague English-esque accent, but when his sister shows up for TheReveal, she's introduced as being from Delaware, and ''her'' accent is thickly Southern. ''"Butcha kept awn raypin'!"''
124** The EveryCarIsAPinto mentioned in the main section is this, too. The creative team most likely thought viewers would be horrified by an innocent man's suicide (and they didn't consider that the viewers might be pissed that Our "Heroes" [[KarmaHoudini don't so much as get written up for their actions]]). But when the car goes up in a fireball sixty feet high... well, the only reaction one could have would be to fall on the floor laughing at how stupid this show had become.
125** "The monkey is in the basketball." Up there with "Is this because I'm a lesbian?" as one of the most memetically ridiculous moments in the entire L&O franchise.
126** "Intimidation Game". Like so many crime shows before it, it tries to tackle [[PacManFever 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]].
127** The season 20 episode "Revenge", where the show takes another crack at handling internet culture. In this case, the episode revolves around incels committing crimes while referring to their victims as Chads and Stacys. It takes the team roughly a quarter of the episode before they learn that the names Chad and Stacy don't refer to any specific person, but rather to the [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chad-thundercock Chad and Stacy meme]].[[note]]Incel terminology for people who are physically attractive and manage to attract members of the opposite sex, the former term (Chad) is best known for spawning the many "Virgin Walk vs. Chad Stride" memes.[[/note]] Making it even funnier is that they don't learn about the meme or the term "incel" until they search the "dark web", when a single Google search would bring up plenty of information from either Website/{{Reddit}} or Website/FourChan, making the entire episode hilarious to anyone who has spent even a moderate amount of time on the internet.
128*** Then, there's this line from the VillainousBreakdown sequence:
129---->''"CHAD AND STACY, STACY AND CHAD! WINNERS OF THE GENETIC LOTTERY!"
130*** It's even funnier for viewers who are familiar with Ethan Slater (who plays one of the incels) from his best known role. That guy talking about how he's entitled to sex from women is ''[[Theatre/TheSpongeBobMusical SpongeBob]]''.
131** It comes off as pretty silly in Season 22 how the squad room and courthouse are seemingly exempt from any kind of masking/distancing rules despite the COVID-19 pandemic being very present within the show's universe. This is obviously done for cinematic reasons (having all of the characters' faces covered wouldn't make for a great viewing experience), but it is still kind of ridiculous. This goes double for whenever any of the main characters complain about how rough the pandemic has been on their lives, when every indication seemed to be that their lives pretty much went on as usual.
132** 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".
133* NarmCharm: Creator/RobinWilliams in Season 9's "Authority", particularly his VillainousBreakdown where he [[ChewingTheScenery takes huge bites out of the scenery and chews it. Loudly. With his mouth open]].
134* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: [[{{DoubleSubverted}} Double Subverted.]] The Season 12 opener, "Locum", features Creator/HenryIanCusick as Erik Weber, a suspect in the kidnapping of a young girl, but it turns out that he didn't do anything. This initial appearance, and the fact that he was cleared, kept people from jumping to the same conclusion when Weber appeared again in the subsequent episode, "Bullseye", [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he ''was'' the perp this time.]]
135* NauseaFuel: Part of "Beef" took place at a really unsanitary meatpacking plant, with gratuitous shots of cockroaches and mouse droppings.
136* NeverLiveItDown: While virtually every character has an incident that the fandom refuses to forget, ADA Greyek's actions in "Babes" (where she antagonized the suspect who harassed a pregnant teenager into committing suicide and then goaded her to attack her after she was found not guilty of the crime) is usually the first/only specific thing most people remember about her. Regardless on where you stand on the situation (the suspect ''was'' a {{Jerkass}} with a short temper), one would hope that a seemingly important character would have a positive impact on the show, especially since she replaced two vastly more popular characters.
137* OffendingTheCreatorsOwn: The infamous episode "Intimidation Game" was created to stand in solidarity with women in the video game industry who have faced harassment from sexist fans, but ended up resoundingly panned by that exact demographic, due both to the things the game developer character in the episode goes through being so exaggerated from the real-life cases the story was based on [[CrossesTheLineTwice as to wrap back around to almost comical]] and the fact that [[spoiler:although the episode ends with the villains captured, the victim still simply gives up, quitting her job and letting her abusers have the "win".]] Ironically, this episode managed to unite two groups that had been at each other's throats on-and-off up to this point, [[EnemyMine if only for a moment]], being slammed almost universally by both hardcore gamers and industry figures alike.
138* OneSceneWonder: The high-on-PCP pedophile in "Loophole" who rampages through the station, takes a fire extinguisher to the head, and throws Elliott through an interrogation room window before being tasered down. Played by former [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW World Heavyweight Champion]] and BMF [[Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} Bill Goldberg]].
139* ParanoiaFuel:
140** Pretty much every episode if you are a woman who lives alone or who has children or who leaves the house.
141** Every episode if you're a man involved with a woman who does any of those things.
142** Every episode if you're a man who does any of those things. There have certainly been enough male rape victims on this show.
143** The tactics the SVU detectives use to convict criminals or trick them into confessing, including their railroading of suspects who have only circumstantial evidence behind them, can start to give watchers rather pressing paranoia about cops.
144* PortmanteauCoupleName: A whole slew of them.
145** Bensler for Olivia Benson/Elliot Stabler.
146** Barson for Olivia Benson/Rafael Barba.
147** Barisi for Rafael Barba/Dominick Carisi.
148** Rolivia for Amanda Rollins/Olivia Benson.
149** Rollisi for Amanda Rollins/Dominick Carisi.
150** Calex for Casey Novak/Alex Cabot.
151** Cabenson for Alex Cabot/Olivia Benson.
152** And those are just the most popular ones...
153* QuestionableCasting:
154** ''Gilbert Gottfried'', of all people, as a one-off lab tech in "Lost Traveler". He basically analyzes and traces cell phone evidence, and doesn't speak in his usual voice.
155** Given the show's premise, the decision to include a guest appearance in "Monster's Legacy" by convicted rapist Mike Tyson was controversial to say the least. Thousands of fans signed petitions asking showrunners to reconsider. It's made even worse because Tyson's character isn't even the villain of the episode (which would still be problematic that they hired him, but would at least be consistent with how people think of Tyson), but rather is a sympathetic character that Benson is helping. (While Tyson's character, Reggie Rhodes, is a convicted murderer, he was [[FreudianExcuse made that way]] by the episode's true baddie played by Creator/EdAsner, and the [[AssholeVictim man he killed had been abusing him too]]. Rhodes even gets a happy ending, a retrial with the possibility of a lighter sentence, after it's discovered the the prosecutor at his original trial deliberately concealed evidence of the abuse.)
156* ReplacementScrappy:
157** Casey Novak was ''not'' warmly welcomed by all corners of the fandom. [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap However, as the show went on and Casey began to prove that she was, in fact, a fairly awesome character in her own right, most fans warmed up to her; they still bemoaned Cabot's departure, but not because they disliked Casey, who is now generally considered the second-best ADA the show has ever had.]]
158** Kim Greylek, who was an ineffective mixture of Alex and Casey, with a heap of InformedAbility and no SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome legal ass-kicking. She's particularly reviled for a scene in the episode "Babes" where she confronts a suspect who, while definitely a [[{{Jerkass}} terrible person]], had not actually committed any crime (the true baddie being [[spoiler:the victim's seemingly squeaky-clean boyfriend]]). Rather than accepting this, Greylek goads the suspect into punching her and then has her arrested for assault, in an enormous breach of legal ethics.
159** Dani Beck was this when Olivia went undercover. Her hot-headed nature rubbed some the wrong way, and her relationship with Elliot was a major thorn in the side who preferred Elliot/Olivia.
160** Chester Lake became a regular at the same time Munch was DemotedToExtra, essentially replacing him as Fin's partner. Due to Munch's fan favorite status, this could only be the result. He lasted one season before [[spoiler:being sent to jail for summarily executing a perp who had gotten OffOnATechnicality]].
161** [[CreatorsPet Peter Stone]] was introduced by prosecuting and ultimately replacing the popular previous ADA, Rafael Barba, which did not initially endear him to viewers who then had to sit through half a season heavily focused on his overwrought and unengaging personal life. This disproportionate screen time came at the expense of longstanding and better liked characters, including Olivia herself, earning him ire from all sides of the fandom. He lasted only a season and a half before being replaced by Carisi (who was already a popular character in the fandom and consequently averted this trope).
162* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
163** Originally, Carisi was highly unpopular, given how he was seen as TheGenericGuy in comparison to popular characters like Munch, Stabler, and Amaro. As his time on the show increased, however, he was given a ShipTease with Rollins, a VitriolicBestBuds chemistry with Barba, and a reputation as a [[NiceGuy gentle Italian boy from Staten Island]], and is now fairly popular within the fandom. Peter Scanavino's [[PrettyBoy good looks]] don't hurt, either.
164** As mentioned above, Casey Novak was initially vilified for the crime of [[ReplacementScrappy not being Alex]], but as the show went on, fans really warmed up to her, and she is now one of only three truly beloved [=ADAs=] in the show's history, along with Cabot and Barba. (And Carisi, but he didn't start as an ADA.)
165* RetroactiveRecognition: With this show being a long-running series with many characters, it's unsurprising that many guest stars would turn out to be very recognizable.
166** Creator/LynnCollins appears as a SympatheticMurderer in the Season 1 episode "Wanderlust", years before her appearances in ''Series/TrueBlood'' and ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''.
167** A young Creator/KateMara is a perp in the Season 2 episode "Pixies". Her sister Creator/{{Rooney|Mara}} had one of her first roles as a [[spoiler:once-obese fat-basher]] in Season 7's "Fat".
168** A pre-''Series/{{Heroes}}'' Creator/HaydenPanettiere has played two different characters in Seasons 2 ("Abuse") and 6 ("Hooked").
169** Creator/SarahHyland, best known as oldest daughter Haley Dunphy on ''Series/ModernFamily'', appeared on [[YouLookFamiliar two different episodes (Seasons 3's "Repression" and 10's "Hothouse") as different characters]].
170** Creator/ElizabethBanks shows up in the early Season 3 episode "Sacrifice" as the wife of the VictimOfTheWeek.
171** Creator/EmilyDeschanel shows up as a VictimOfTheWeek in the late Season 3 episode "Surveillance".
172** Creator/ViolaDavis plays recurring lawyer Donna Emmett between 2003 and 2008, only ending with her first Oscar nomination for ''Film/{{Doubt}}''.
173** A pre-''Series/TheOfficeUS'' Creator/RainnWilson shows up in a very minor role in Season 4's "Waste".
174** Creator/SarahWayneCallies, prior to starring in ''Series/PrisonBreak'' and ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', plays a key witness in the Season 4 episode "Privilege".
175** A pre-''Series/{{Lost}}'' and ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' Creator/IanSomerhalder plays a ControlFreak rapist who has his dad and little brother on the neck in a late Season 4 episode "Dominance". Said submissive sibling is played by Creator/JasonRitter, nine years before he voiced [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Dipper Pines]].
176** A rather high number of early guest stars ended up as regulars or semi-regulars on ''Series/BlueBloods''.
177** [[Series/{{Graceland}} Agent Paul Briggs]] is a recurring [=CSI=] tech.
178** Creator/MaggieGrace is the VictimOfTheWeek in the Season 6 episode "Obscene". The episode aired just weeks after her breakthrough role in ''Series/{{Lost}}'' and years before ''Film/{{Taken}}''.
179** A young Creator/JennetteMcCurdy shows up as a VictimOfTheWeek in the Season 6 episode "Contagious," two years before she became a well-known supporting actress on ''Series/{{iCarly}}''.
180** Creator/MichaelShannon plays a suspect in Season 6's "Quarry".
181** Creator/DaniellePanabaker appears in the Season 6 episode "Intoxicated" just months before her StarMakingRole in ''Film/SkyHigh2005''.
182** Creator/BradleyCooper plays a lawyer in the two-part episode ("Night"/"Day").
183** A pre-''Series/FreshOffTheBoat'' and ''Film/CrazyRichAsians'' Creator/ConstanceWu appears in Season 8's "Underbelly" as a college student mistaken for a hooker.
184** Creator/ElleFanning has one of her first roles in Season 8's "Cage" as a traumatized child with attachment disorder.
185** Creator/JohnDoman aka [[Series/{{Gotham}} Don Carmine Falcone]] shows up [[YouLookFamiliar a number of times]], most memorably as a RedHerring in Season 8's "Scheherazde".
186*** Speaking of ''Gotham'', the actors who played Don Maroni and both Cobblepots all appeared on ''SVU'' (in different episodes, but still) before its debut.
187** A pre-''Theatre/{{Newsies}}''' and ''Series/Supergirl2015'' Creator/JeremyJordan appears in Season 9's "Streetwise" as the douchebag boyfriend of the VictimOfTheWeek.
188** Creator/BrittRobertson appears as a central character in the Season 10 episode "Babes".
189** Creator/MelissaBenoist plays an UnlikelyHero (read: half of a horny couple who accidentally discovers a corpse while making out) in the opening scene of the Season 12 episode "Wet". This was two years before ''Series/{{Glee}}'', and five before her stint as the titular ''Series/Supergirl2015''. The same episode feayures a pre-''Series/LastManStanding2011'' Creator/AmandaFuller as the AntiVillain.
190** A pre-''Series/NecessaryRoughness'' and ''Series/Supergirl2015'' Creator/MehcadBrooks shows up as a UsefulNotes/LeBronJames {{Expy}} in the Season 13 episode "Personal Fouls".
191** A pre-''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' Creator/LiliReinhart appears as the VillainOfTheWeek in Season 13's "Lost Traveller".
192** A pre-''Series/{{Girls}}'' Creator/AdamDriver plays a StalkerWithACrush in Season 13's "Theatre Tricks".
193** Creator/LanceReddick, better known nowadays as [[{{Series/Bosch}} LAPD Chief Irvin "Irv" Irving]] and [[{{VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn}} Sylens]], is the recurring CSI tech Dr. Taylor in Season 2.
194%% * RonTheDeathEater: Website/ThisVeryWiki treats Elliot this way. Just look at the Headscratchers or Fridge page.
195* TheScrappy:
196** Kathleen Stabler. In addition to being seen as an obnoxious troublemaker by the fans, the episode where it's learned that not only is she [[spoiler: bi-polar, but Stabler's [[AssPull never-before seen (or since) mother]] is as well]] was {{narm}}ish on its head and failed to actually make her more likable and her actions better understood.
197** Carisi. Following fan-favorites like Munch and Cragen, he was bound to have a hard time endearing himself to fans. After some serious CharacterDevelopment and the chance for the show to actually give his character some depth, he got much more popular and is now very well-liked. (Also, Creator/PeterScanavino is really, ''really'' pretty, which doesn't hurt things one bit.)
198** The most famous Scrappy has to be Dani Beck, who becomes Stabler's partner when Olivia is given an assignment for the FBI. She's more prone to action which leads to almost being knifed by a perp, acts unprofessional to the point where Stabler actually lectures her, her temper is even shorter than Stabler's, [[spoiler: her negative words against a perp drove John Munch's unstable uncle to push him into an oncoming train]], and she never had a really powerful way to be written out unlike Chester Lake. She also got to kiss Stabler which really set off the Elliot/Olivia fans' BerserkButton since their relationship never got passed past the platonic stage.
199** ADA Strauss is a smug bastard who attempts to showboat his way to the top at the expense of various SVU detectives, up to and including trying to get Benson fired and/or indicted for her killing William Lewis. To say that he's not exactly beloved is an understatement.
200** Sonya Paxton for her caustic personality and at times contemptuous treatment of the Detectives and victims. While conflict between the Detectives and Prosecutors has always been present, most fans thought that too much of her character revolved around it. While the writers tried to balance her out by showing her methods flaw's and successes, they often ended up making her come across as RightlySelfRighteous or went too far in making her in the wrong to the point of unlikability. Her exit from the show is often seen as a sloppy AssPull with the out of nowhere reveal of her alcoholism and silly "drunken" performance.
201** Kim Rollins, Amanda's sister, for being manipulative, chronically taking advantage of (and betraying) said sister, getting people kill/injured (or kill/injuring them herself), and not learning anything from said experiences, and having some NeverMyFault attitude towards her actions and how they affect other people (almost costing her sister her job in a few episodes).
202** 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 kidnapping and torture from the first serial killer Bronwyn helped into escaping ''twice'', [[TakeThatScrappy rightfully calls her out on it.]]
203* SeasonalRot: The show suffered heavily from this, although it's very much a YMMV on when this set in.
204** There was some rumbling of it when Alex Cabot left the show, quite a bit more when Casey Novak went out on an IdiotBall / HonorBeforeReason note, and the rot was unquestionably in swing by the infamous "monkey basketball" episode, which was possibly the nadir of the entire L&O franchise.
205** The show recovered quite a bit in Season 13 (see GrowingTheBeard, above) with a new showrunner taking over and the introduction of new detectives Amaro and Rollins, both of whom seem specifically written to avoid or subvert the ItsPersonal cliches that the show had been heavily criticized for... but come Season 15, many were complaining that the quality had deteriorated, with soap-operaish plots for Rollins, Amaro, and Benson taking the place of courtroom scenes, which meant fans saw little of the one almost universally loved character. The Lewis arc was heavily criticized too, with many seeing it as using rape for a cheap ratings boost.
206** Seasons 16 and 17 received good to mixed reviews from the fandom, but, after a shift in showrunners, season 18 was received... poorly. So they changed showrunners again for season 19.
207** ...unfortunately season 19 and the proceeding one haven't been received any better. Common complaints include :having the same problems some previous seasons had like soap-operaish (though not as bad as season 15) and ItsPersonal storylines, An increased (and pretty biased) political angle and by the books or underwelming crimes that are often tame compared to the ones in earlier seasons.
208* ShockingMoments: "Zebras": A paranoiac kills two people, and then tries to ''gas'' Elliot and Fin! And this is just the start; [[spoiler: recurring character Dale Stuckey turns out to be the real antagonist of the story, as he fucked up the DNA and allowed the perp to walk free on a mistrial. Having gone into denial of his wrongdoing (and being a generally selfish narcissist), Stuckey sets out to redeem himself, his first step being to ''murder an innocent woman'' in the style of the perp to frame him as the culprit. His next step? Murder anyone who insulted him or hurt his feelings in the wake of his screw-up, leading him to target Judge Donnelly and outright kill O'Halloran, and capture and torture Elliot by slicing his chest with a knife. Olivia realizes something is up and manages to trick Stuckey long enough to help Elliot take him down.]]
209* {{Squick}}: It's a show about sex crimes, after all. However, specifically, William Lewis is not shy about spouting out sentences dripping with sexual violence (sometimes while smiling) and it's enough to make just about anyone squirm. [[spoiler:The last few minutes of "Beast's Obsession" include a scene of Lewis attempting to rape a bound and helpless Olivia Benson. Lewis gropes Olivia's breasts and forcefully kisses her while she's handcuffed and bent over a table. Add the incredibly disturbing sound of him loudly panting in her ear as he's assaulting her and it's no wonder many fans admitted to being triggered by this image.]]
210* StrawmanHasAPoint:
211** The episode "Runaway" has detectives from InternalAffairs interview the SVU detectives after they used the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique on a suspect to get the location of a missing girl, who was dead by the time they found her. Whenever the [[DesignatedVillain internal affairs]] detectives point out that suspects have rights, the SVU detectives respond with some form of "What about the victims' rights?" They deliver this response as though it were an unassailable drop-the-mic argument, but the truth is, the internal affairs detectives were absolutely right and the "[[DesignatedHero heroes]]" were wrong.
212** "Competence" centers around a young woman with Down Syndrome who became pregnant after being raped. Her 67 year-old mother campaigns throughout most of the episode to have the fetus aborted, and the writers make it clear we're supposed to vilify her at this point. YMMV on her methods, but the points made in court by the mother's attorney are valid nevertheless. The girl clearly had no idea how to properly care for a child and would likely not only fail to be a competent mother, but may endanger the welfare of the potential child.
213** "Manic" is about a pharmaceutical company marketing anti-depressant medication to previous users of its products. We're supposed to believe that the big evil drug company is big and evil because the boy who took their medication was involved in a shooting where he shot two of his classmates at school. Thing is, they provided the (already FDA approved) anti-depressants ''free of charge'' to people who ''already had been prescribed the meds by their doctors'', complete with dosing and usage instructions. The mother of the shooter (who had been taking the drug herself) gave them to her underage son in defiance of the instructions enclosed, without consulting a physician, doing any research, or even telling anyone. She's the only character who is ''never'' considered responsible, and the episode ends with [[spoiler:the CEO protesting that he hasn't done anything wrong, while Alex Cabot has a smug grin on her face as he's arrested.]]
214** "Snitch", where the leader of a gang apparently killed the underage wife of a witness going to testify against him in an upcoming murder trial. When he starts using intimidation tactics to keep the man silent, he's accused of witness tampering. Confronted, he argues just how many times the police have compelled testimonies from criminals in exchange for commuted sentences or have threatened jail time if a witness didn't cooperate. SVU has threatened to and (though very reluctant) thrown rape/abuse victims into lock up. They also have a very nasty track record of making DealWithTheDevil all in order to get the bigger fish.
215** Whoopi Goldberg's character in "Institutional Fail" had a breakdown in court, and managed to make some very valid points about civil servants being blamed for failing to solve problems that the rest of society happily ignores, despite not being given sufficient resources to solve them.
216** In "The Things We Have To Lose" AmoralAttorney Elana Barth, after spending a year using LoopholeAbuse, MovingTheGoalposts, victim-blaming, intimidation, and harassment on behalf of her [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney rich client]], attempts to justify herself by asking Benson if she could imagine her son being falsely accused of rape. Benson says she can’t. Barth’s actions are reprehensible, but considering how many cases in the history of this show ended with a rape allegation being proven false, Benson’s answer only makes sense if ViewersAreGoldfish.
217** In “Tangled Strands of Justice” a former VictimOfTheWeek steals a set of watches worth $850K from her sugar daddy. The investigating detective takes a short cut and identifies her with the DNA from her rape kit in defiance of proper procedure. The Queens County prosecutors are supposed to be seen as callous and unsympathetic for refusing to dismiss the charges as a matter of principle. But the rape kit was only used to identify the thief and that bell couldn’t be unrung. The former victim stole a large amount from a completely innocent victim and the evidence against her was legally admissible. It seems the audience was expected to agree with Benson that only the victims of sex crimes deserve justice.
218* TakeThatScrappy:
219** In "Burned", Kathy Stabler makes a few derisive comments about Dani to Olivia.
220** Sonya Paxton claims alcoholism isn't a disease, then shows up to court drunk. She [[NeverLiveItDown never really lives it down.]]
221* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
222** In "Cold", Casey gets a job offer from another firm that involves defending corporate cases. Taking up the offer after losing the case would've been a better write-off for the character than her [[IdiotBall lying about the evidence in the case (which she doesn't win anyway) that ends up with her getting suspended]].
223** In "Heartfelt Passages", [[spoiler:Sergeant Mike Dodds is leaving SVU for an assignment in the Joint Terrorism Taskforce just as the audience was getting to learn more about him. Instead of having him take the already built up being PutOnABus, leaving the door open for future appearances, he gets shot in a hostage situation gone bad and ends up dying in the hospital.]]
224* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The Season 1 episode "Limitations" had the detectives rushing to catch a serial rapist before the five-year statute of limitations ran out. The prosecutor tried to indict the rapist using his DNA profile but the court wouldn't allow it. In real life, New York State courts have since ruled that DNA indictments are permissible and the law was rewritten in 2006 so that the statute of limitations doesn't apply to first-degree rape.
225* UnintentionallySympathetic:
226** 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.
227** 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 Metcalf'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 Metcalf. To clarify, they made a deal with a real sex offender to prosecute one of his victims for a not-real crime. In the end, Metcalf, 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.
228** John Stamos's character Ken Turner in "Bang". He's a skeezy slimeball who uses his charms and good looks to impregnate women (a "reproductive abuser") before abandoning them after the kids are born, with at least ''twenty'' children fathered by him in the state of New York alone and ''forty-seven'' in the U.S. ''and'' Europe by his own count. But...being a sick bastard who fathers children left and right doesn't mean he's broken any laws. All the sex was consensual. No matter how the detectives fume and stomp their feet about what he's doing, he's not breaking any laws, and being a hounddog of a man isn't enough to put someone in jail for. Nor is it enough to ''kill'' over, as he's murdered in horrific fashion, with air injected into his chest through a knife that causes it to explode, all for the "crime" of just being a gross person.
229** Ed Tucker. The detectives always say he has a vendetta against them, but this is an InformedFlaw, as he never investigates them without a reason, and when they are able to prove their innocence, he backs off. The squad’s general contempt for InternalAffairs makes them seem [[{{Hypocrite}} no different]] from the cop-haters who interfere with their efforts to stop dangerous criminals. The fact that the detectives frequently commit PoliceBrutality and other illegal acts, and repeatedly get innocent people sent to prison or killed, make Tucker seem like an OnlySaneMan trying to bring a crew of KarmaHoudini {{Dirty Cop}}s to justice.
230* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
231** Sandra from "Pop". Lying to cover up for her abusive husband is one thing, actively trying to frame Stabler when he was trying to ''help'' her is another.
232** Mary Ellen Abbott from "Lowdown". It might have been understandable for her to be in denial at first about her husband being secretly gay and a murderer, but after finding out it was all true and that she was HIV positive, she was never seen getting angry at her husband, but she did get angry at Casey. Even though her husband was entirely to blame, she told Casey that Casey had ruined her life, despite the fact that Casey probably saved her life by warning her she had been exposed to HIV (which Casey did [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight to her own detriment]]).
233** Javier Vega from "[[{{Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS5E21Criminal}} Criminal]]". He's supposed to be sympathetic because he genuinely reformed and had his new life destroyed by a false murder accusation. But, he was sentenced to twenty-five to life for the murder he did commit and only served fifteen, so the small amount of time he spent in jail for the murder he didn't commit doesn't really feel like a colossal miscarriage of justice. There's also the fact that he was involved with his grad student, which he knew was an inappropriate relationship. Rather than refrain from the relationship, he kept it secret, which was why there was no evidence of it, and makes him losing his job not unjust either. Then when the cops figure out he had been framed, he immediately figures out who did it. Instead of telling the cops, who he knows made an honest mistake because he was expertly framed by someone who learned how to do it from him, he keeps the information to himself so he can perform a VigilanteExecution, and he files a FrivolousLawsuit against Cragen.
234** Michele Osborne from "Birthright". Sure, what her doctor did to her was wrong, but her behavior throughout most of the episode alienates any possibility she had to being sympathetic. She acts very cold when discussing being reunited with her daughter and seems to view her as a trophy rather than a child she loves. Plus, there's the fact that she's either unaware that taking Patty from the only family she's ever known will destroy her or she just doesn't give a damn. [[spoiler: Luckily, in the end, she decides to let Patty stay with them.]]
235** Melanie Tamkin's father in "Responsible". When Stabler tells him that his daughter died at a party three other teenagers threw, he cries "They murdered my little girl". Except they really didn't. The girl drank too much and choked on her own vomit. When the judge doesn't throw the book at them he screams "YOU CALL THIS JUSTICE. YOU'RE LETTING KILLERS WALK FREE." then screams at the kids "MURDERERS! YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER". The show tries to portray him as a victim being disregarded by a callous system, but he just comes off as a pathetic man trying to make his daughter's death anyone else's fault because he thinks his grief entitles him to a pound of flesh.
236** "Collateral Damages" centers on the SVU catching a city official in a child pornography sting, but the entire episode is about how sad it is that his family is ruined by his porn addiction and that he's really not such a bad guy; even Olivia says she feels bad for him, his wife is implied to stay with him, and Barba gets him the lightest possible sentence. Why? Because hey, he didn't rape his ''own'' children, he just traded in a mountain of kiddie porn for twenty hours a week and stashed it in the bottom of his underwear drawer, it's not like he really hurt anybody!
237** Hailey in "Transitions" is meant to be seen as a struggling child fighting for the right to be herself, but while she's admittedly going through a tough situation (being transgender and having a parent who refuses to accept her as a girl, a refusal which carries potential major implications in the near future due to questions of medical intervention), she is confrontational, out of control, irrational, and violent against just about everyone in her life whether they mean her any harm or not (including her mother, who's come around to being supportive), and she's openly proud of it. After the godawful nightmare that Cheryl Avery went through, hearing a twelve-year-old brat congratulate herself for giving her mother a black eye for catching her sneaking into the house at two in the morning just doesn't work. Jackie Blaine is in a similar boat, since she basically tried to kill Hailey's father in revenge for an assault she suffered years ago that had absolutely nothing to do with him, with the excuse that she was protecting Hailey from him — but while it's clear that he's hurting Hailey by refusing to accept her gender identity, it's still a long way from what Jackie went through.
238** Eva Santiago in "Hardwired" is supposed to be sympathetic because she was abused by her first husband and then her second husband who rescued her from the unsafe shelter she was stuck in, put her on prescription drugs so he could molest her child, and it was emotionally difficult for her to help the police trap a bigger pedophile. But she intentionally crashed her car into another woman's car, while the other woman's child was in the car and punched the woman in the face and smashed her head into the steering wheel repeatedly. She did this because the other woman accused her son of sexual assault, which was true. Then she stabbed her husband, who did not get away with molesting her son, in fact he was being led away in handcuffs when she stabbed him. Then she got mad at the cops for arresting her for stabbing her husband, after they let her go. She received no punishment for any of her crimes and Olivia taught her how to walk away with all of her husband's money.
239** Jennifer Banks from "Hothouse". Benson wants to go easy on her because she's only 14 and wasn't in her right mind when she committed her crime of murdering her roommate, Elsa, due to the drugs she was taking to improve her performance at her elite prep school. But the fact remains that she killed Elsa over a petty dispute, tried to cover up the murder by suggesting that Elsa's abusive father was responsible, and never once showed remorse for her actions, even flat-out stating that ''"I'm glad she's dead."''
240*** While in the interrogation room, Jennifer brings up that no matter how hard she studied, Elsa's grades were always better than hers. She even tried begging Elsa to deliberately fail one exam for her, so that Jennifer's grades would be the highest in the school for once. Presumably, this was intended to show that she was under incredible amounts of pressure to succeed, which she was. But Jennifer also knew that Elsa's father physically abused her for not living up to his expectations, as evidenced when she tried to pin Elsa's death on him. This makes Jennifer look even worse, as she was essentially saying that she didn't care if Elsa was being abused as long as she, Jennifer, [[ItsAllAboutMe got to be the school's star student]]. Not helping matters is that Jennifer is already much more privileged than her victim, coming from a wealthy and loving family. She had a lot less to lose than Elsa, but decided to take everything from her anyway, just because she couldn't stand to be in "second place".
241** Jamie Hoskins from "Influence". Because of her young age and her bipolar disorder, Novak tries to get her a relatively light sentence. She is presented as a vulnerable young woman led astray by her idol, a rock star with anti-psychiatry views, who convinced her that her medication was damaging her brain. But her actions throughout the episode make it difficult to sympathize with her. [[spoiler:When she stops taking her pills, she goes through a manic phase, having sex with two of her male friends, then falsely accusing them of rape, ruining their lives, costing one of them a college scholarship, and getting them (and herself) expelled from school. She then tries to commit suicide by deliberately causing a car accident, injuring six innocent people and killing another girl. Throughout the trial, she shows no remorse for her crimes and ''still'' refuses to take her medication. She even has the gall to [[NeverMyFault blame her parents]] for everything that she did while off her pills. After all that, house arrest, a court-ordered drug regimen, and a short sentence in a psychiatric facility seems very lenient, considering the devastation she caused. Near the end of the episode, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone it finally hits her how badly she messed up]], but for many viewers, it's too little, too late.]]
242** Laura Collett from "Imposter" tried to get her son into an Ivy League university by having sex with the Director of Admissions. Her willingness to do this meant that she didn't care that she was stealing a slot from a student who earned it by merit. She said she did this because she wanted her son to have opportunities, which meant that the opportunities her son would have as a rich male WASP with a degree from a slightly less prestigious college wouldn't have been enough for her. When she finds out the man she had sex with was only pretending to be the Director of Admissions, she tried to help Benson and Barba prosecute him for breaking a law that they all knew didn't really exist.
243** Benson and Stabler are supposed to be sympathetic because of their AbusiveParents and the fact that their drive to get justice for the victims comes at a constant cost to their personal lives. But they act like petulant children whenever they don't get exactly what they want, they never take responsibility for their own wrongdoing, and their choice to put work ahead of everything would come off as much more noble if they hadn't destroyed so many innocent lives in the course of doing their jobs.
244** Trish, one of Ken Turner's reproductive abuse victims from "Bang". When Ken refused to let her or his son move in with him, she killed herself in the car with carbon monoxide, along with her son. The episode tries to paint her as an innocent victim of Ken's. However, the fact that there are at least 46 other women who weren't DrivenToSuicide and Ken fully intended to support his child her committing MurderSuicide because the man she loved didn't want to be with her made her actions come across as {{Wangst}}.
245** Councilwoman Nasar from "Assumptions" was supposed to be sympathetic because halfway through the episode she was revealed to be secretly gay and living in fear of how her constituents and her devout Muslim family would react if they found out. Apparently this was supposed to make the audience forget that she was a rabid anti-Semite and that she manipulated Jewish teenagers into making themselves look like Islamophobes in an out-of-context video.
246** Nick Amaro. When he thinks his wife is cheating, he assaults the guy he thinks she is sleeping with ([[SarcasmMode always a productive solution]]). He joins Benson in [[DirtyCop covering up for the killer]] of Dia Nobile. When Cassidy finds out about his undercover affair, he acts as if Cassidy is the one [[NeverMyFault responsible for his newfound problems]]. And he never showed a hint of remorse for beating an acquitted man into a coma.
247** Holden's mother from "Holden's Manifesto". Yes, she's a grieving mother, and no matter how much evil her son had caused [[EvenEvilCanBeLoved she's still going to love him]]. However, when he's killed after holding up a high school class full of people he'd never met (including one that he'd murdered) and holding two police detectives at gunpoint, she proceeds to blame literally everyone except for the people responsible for the situation; first, she points the finger at Olivia for "breaking her promise" to save Holden's life (even though she really did do everything she could to stop the sniper and ultimately had next to no say in the situation) and then yells at the "whore" Amanda for getting her son killed (even though she spent several minutes trying to peacefully talk him down). By blaming everyone except for the man who ordered the shot, the man who fired, or her own son's horrific actions (in the process blaming all of the women while never once blaming the men), she goes from being a grieving mother to the apparent source of [[StrawMisogynist Holden's]] [[MoralMyopia many]] [[NeverMyFault issues]].
248** Gloria Montero of "Poisoned Motives". Okay, her and her father's life went down quickly after he was injured in the line of duty and she ''does'' have some right to feel angry. However, to vent her anger she decides to go on a killing spree involving the attempted murder of Rollins, murders of four innocent people, and kidnapping/attempted murder of two more. Of the aforementioned four people, two of them were cops like her doing her job but she killed them to not leave witnesses; the other was the son of her father's former boss; and the last was (relatively) innocent girlfriend of the man who shot her father, which left their child in foster care. And those two people she held hostage? A ''pregnant'' woman and her ''child''. Their "offense"? Being in her childhood home. And Gloria [[NeverMyFault blames]] all of this on everyone else and doesn't care about how she has needlessly hurt innocents. At the end of the day, she's nothing more than an egotistical, cold, heartless monster who doesn't deserve sympathy.
249** Amanda Rollins. Amanda always forgives and takes care of her AbusiveParents and AddledAddict sister no matter how miserable they make her life. When Benson berates Amanda in "Gambler's Fallacy" and "[[NotMeThisTime Star-Struck Victims]]" she never stands up for herself by pointing out that Benson is a total hypocrite that Cragen has let off the hook for things she [[KarmaHoudini should have gone to prison for]] (even after Benson admitted that firing Amanda wasn't an option). Meanwhile, in "Rapist Anonymous" when Amaro tries to warn her about her dirtbag sponsor/boyfriend, she accuses him of trying to sabotage her happiness. In "At Midnight in Manhattan" she yells at Carisi, for abandoning her to work at the DA's Office and calls him stupid for ever believing that she was genuinely supportive of his decision. Add it up, it's clear that Amanda chooses not to set boundaries with people who abuse her, and then [[MisdirectedOutburst takes it out]] on the people who genuinely care about her.
250** In "The Five Hundredth Episode", when Olivia faces the fact that her ex-boyfriend was a predator who took advantage of her, she then comes to regard her mother sympathetically, as just trying to protect her. Except said mother threatened Olivia with a broken glass bottle, saying she would never let Olivia go. At best, Olivia's mother comes across as RightForTheWrongReasons.
251** Carisi's niece in "In Loco Parentis" who falsely accuses a male classmate of raping her just to keep her roommate (who had a crush on the boy) from being mad at her for hooking up with him, resulting in the boy being expelled. When Carisi finds out about this he believes that expulsion is too good for the boy who raped his niece and launches a police investigation into the matter. However, the investigation exposes several inconsistencies in his niece's story and when he tells her that the investigation is likely to be dropped, she tells him that she lied about being raped and why. Carisi is understandably furious and demands her to make things right. It turns out, her way of making things right is to call the boy and ask him to come to her dorm so that she can apologize to him in person. He shows up and proceeds to rape her for real this time in retaliation for the false accusation. During the trial, Carisi forbids his niece from perjuring herself but instructs her not to admit making up the first rape if the defense doesn't specifically ask about it. The defense does not ask his niece about it, but Carisi takes the stand later on and is ultimately forced to admit that his niece lied about the first rape. The boy is ultimately convicted, but only after confessing on the stand.
252* ValuesDissonance:
253** Due to the show running for [[LongRunners twenty-five years]], a ''lot'' has changed regarding how society views things like gender and sexual orientation. Nowadays, it can be jarring to hear how freely the detectives threw around the word "tranny", "he-shes", and descriptions like "boys pretending to be girls who are really boys" in earlier seasons regarding trans people. The season 3 finale "Silence" is probably the worst offender, particularly as the episode also specifically makes it clear that the murder victim wanted to undergo gender reassignment, albeit using the slightly antiquated term "sex change operation". The ship starts to get righted as soon as season 4's "Fallacy" -- while the trans character in that episode is referred to as "really a man" and "a tranny" once each, it's a shocked reaction to getting the initial news, and thereafter the character is mostly consistently referred to with correct pronouns aside from one outburst by Stabler and the character's comically transphobic parents. Other notable instances from the first season alone include Munch cracking a joke that a former rapist out on parole was "too gay to rape a DA" now that he was in a relationship with a man, BDSM practitioners being seen as sexual perverts and deviants, and bisexuality being the target of many a "lol look at 'em, they're [[DepravedBisexual depraved]], sick weirdos who go for just anyone and ReallyGetsAround!" style jokes.
254** Earlier seasons had the police regularly abuse and torment witnesses and violate the law by inviting themselves into house (claiming to hear noise) and seek protection behind a blue line of silence. Elliot Stabler in particular not only reached for the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique every chance he got, but would casually discuss methods of torture with his coworkers and even admitted that he fantasized about murdering the suspects he arrests. Shortly after Christopher Meloni left the show police officers across the country were the subject of one abuse scandal after another, with real-world police officers behaving in this manner in such cases. While the show responded by toning down the violence and having its detectives stop using such methods, it's hard to watch the older episodes without wondering how long Stabler would last in a world where the people he arrests have camera phones.
255* ValuesResonance: One of the reasons the show is still going (besides Mariska Hargitay now being the face of the show) is that it's willing to take a good, hard look at the inequality between those who are raped, both women and men, and their abusers. It forces the audience to take a look at their own attitudes and see if they too need to adjust the way they view rape cases in the real world, which still sadly have too many cases of men using the excuse that women asked for it just based off the clothing they were wearing, gay/trans panic defenses that murderers use to excuse their violent actions, and abused women who have trouble leaving the partners abusing them
256* WhatTheHellCostumingDepartment:
257** Olivia's pixie haircut from seasons two and three. It didn't suit her strong facial features and even in an interview years later, Mariska Hargitay expressed dismay and regret over it (which looks worse when you learn that the stylist cut her hair ''after consuming a couple of glasses of wine with her'' that she offered).
258** Casey's gratuitous dye job from season seven. Trading in her FieryRedhead hairdo for a basic blonde style arguably toned down her personality and led to more casual fans of the show confusing her with Alex.
259* TheWoobie: Almost ''everyone''.
260** Olivia Benson was conceived through a rape, grew up abused by her alcoholic mother, wrestled with fears of being like him, has been the victim of AttemptedRape three times, two of which were by the same man in the span of a year and included brutal torture, and was abandoned by her partner, who was the only family she had at the time and has trust issues as a result.
261** Elliot Stabler grew up with an abusive father and bipolar mother who nearly killed him, has struggled with anger issues, has issues with his family and seems unloved at times by his wife and kids, and finally had to leave the force after he was forced to shoot a teenage girl.
262** Odafin Tututola's son and wife are estranged, his nephew who is the product of incestuous rape on said wife commits murder and gets off scot-free, his former partner got shot protecting him which led to his daughter shooting his current partner, and his current partner betrayed his trust.
263** 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 up to eleven, 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.]]
264** Amanda Rollins is from a BigScrewedUpFamily. Her dad gambled until their mom kicked him out, her mom went through a series of abusive boyfriends, her sister tried to frame her for murder to get insurance money and later cleared out with everything Amanda owned. Amanda also gets beaten up by some loan sharks she owed money to and two years after that, relapses after her current boyfriend is revealed to have been cheating on her on the stand. She was also shot by someone with a grudge against Fin.
265** Rafael Barba grew up in extreme poverty in a barrio, was bullied, and was never believed in by his mom as much as his best friend was. Said best friend, Alex, also married the woman Barba loved and still loves Yelina. He comes back while campaigning for mayor and asks for help with their other best friend, Eddie, who has been accused of rape. Barba risks his career to help Eddie and then Alex when suspicion turns to him. In the end, though, he must report Alex. End result: Barba loses Alex and Yelina's friendship, gets called a sellout on national television, turned against by the people of New York City, probably ruining his political future, and is left questioning whether he really did go against Alex because of jealousy. The penultimate scene shows him DrowningMySorrows. Then there's [[spoiler:Padre Sandunguero, where he reveals that his father is deceased, and hints that he may have been abusive as well.]] Then, in December Solstice, [[spoiler:he has to put his sick, injured grandma in a nursing home, but before they can move her in, she dies. And he tells his mom it was his fault.]]
266** Michael from "Wrong is Right" was repeatedly sexually and physically abused by his foster father, who then had his "friends" come to also sexually abuse Michael.
267** Jeremy from "Juvenile" was a [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer ostracized]] young teenage boy who only wanted friends to hang out with. He was manipulated by a younger, but more sociopathic peer. Said peer then tried to blame the episode's victim on Jeremy even though the latter didn't say anything out of misplaced loyalty. And even when the truth was found out, it was decided he should prosecute as an adult just to set an example, even though he neither knew what his peer was going to do or even participated in the act. The episode ends with him being found "guilty" and the scared look on his face makes you want to go and hug the poor boy.
268** Rosalin from "Poison" first [[OutlivingOnesOffspring lost her daughter]] from a rare ailment. Then, a classist judge who presumed she was guilty of murdering her child simply because she low-class and a teenage mother, abused his power to find her guilty. Rosalin spent 10 years in jail for a crime she never committed, being separate from her other child. Fortunately, Casey manages to prove her innocence and get her out of jail.
269** The little girl, April, from season 5 episode, "Sick". Even for all of the episode's {{Narm}}, 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?]]".
270** Chelsea Maddox from "Reasonable Doubt". It's left ambiguous if whether her father did sexually abuse her or if her mother coached her to say that he did. Either way, her life is still tragic with whatever scenario really happened -- She will have to live with the intense guilt over indirectly causing her father to flee the U.S. because her selfish mother couldn't stand him or face the trauma of her father's sexual abuse and come to the haunting realization that her mother probably saw her daughter's abuse as a way to get rid of him. Olivia's last line in the episode is even "God help that child".
271** Cora and her mother, Virgina, in "Starved".
272*** The former is a struggling alcoholic who was in a physically abusive relationship before entering into an emotionally abusive one with the episode's crook. All of this resulted into her having very low self-esteem and said crook managed to guilt trip her into killing herself.
273*** The latter had to be emotionally tortured as the episode's crook was using her brain-dead daughter to evade prosecution.
274** Mr. Downey in "Hooked". First, his wife dies leaving a struggling single father to their daughter. He doesn't make a lot of money and because of his wife' death, they don't have medical insurance. Then, his only child and daughter is murdered. Afterwards, he is shocked by said daughter's secret life, making him feel like he was a failure to her.
275** Emma in "Alien". She is a young girl but had to face bullying from the victim (using the term loosely) and other children only because Emma was raised by two women. The school she was going to did nothing to stop the bullying. One of her mothers is dying and she was tricked into saying her other mother molested her because of the manipulations of her grandparents' (the parent of the dying mother) homophobic lawyer.
276** Nathan Phelps from "Infected". His father died and he was forced to watch his mother be shot by a sleazy and corrupt political official. He makes a mistake during the line-up, leaving him distraught and he kills the criminal for revenge. Nathan is then prosecuted by a lawyer of a gun organization just to keep their gun rights.
277** Jesse Dawning in "Obscene". She was raped as a "joke", is frequently slut-shamed by a misogynistic radio talk-show and a self-righteous mother, and everyone blames her for her sexual assault.

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