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Law & Order: SVU Fans Are Questioning Benson's Parenting Skills In Season 24
The in less than one month on Sept. 22 with t in which all three "L&O" shows will cross over with one another, and we’ve still got lingering questions from the “SVU” Season 23 finale, especially relating to the personal bombs dropped on lead ). Who better to ask than the show’s fearless leaders: veteran executive producer and head writer Julie Martin and newcomer and self-proclaimed fan and showrunner David Graziano.
Season 23 ended with Benson confiding in her therapist that she hasn’t been happy for a year, and her therapist encouraged her to explore a romance with , who unexpectedly
Below, Martin and Graziano weigh in on what’s to come for Benson and her squad, both and professional, in Season 24.
DG: I don't remember what the plot is actually. I wrote it when I was in NYU, and I'm sure it was horrible. I just sent it off. I pretended to be like Michael Madsen, and I called the production office just to get the address of the production office and I sent it off. Never heard back from him but Neal and I had worked together (on a pilot) a couple years ago, and we became close.
But I connected with the show early on. I really liked some of Julie (Martin)'s work on "Homicide" ("Life on the Street"). I was a huge fan of "Homicide." I've always been a fan of crime shows. I saw a murder happen in front of me when I was a teenager, and it got me obsessed with why people do the things they do — particularly with respect to criminality and human nature, the dark parts of human nature. And it kind of turned me into a crime writer. And so, I've always been obsessed with well-wrought cop shows, and the voices and the patter of them is really fun.
JM: Well, I think after a show's been on the air for 24 years, and I've been on it for 10 years, we're always looking to keep the show fresh, keep the show relevant, to keep the characters changing and growing. They're basically who they are — we're not going to 180 these characters but try to find different facets of their personalities and their investigative abilities and just where they are in their lives that we haven't seen before.
And I think it's a wonderful opportunity for a new showrunner to come in with a fresh take on the squad and fresh ideas about how these characters should interact. And so far, it's been working great.
DG: I was blown away by anything that (Detective John) Munch (Richard Belzer) was in. He represents all the ideals I have as a writer, like in terms of writing that crisp dialogue and the patter. And I really like the energy between them.
I like to think Julie and I have developed a similar musicality in working. We've been chained to each other every day just going over these episodes and bringing them together and doing the dialogue of the show. It's really fun to do, but I'm obsessed with patter between partners.
JM: From my understanding, the timeline of the three-hour movie premiere is sort of in its own time and place, and it's not necessarily linked to either our last episode of last season, nor our first episode of this season.
DG: I think Rick (Eid, "Law & Order") and Gwen (Sigan, "Chicago P.D.) have done a good job of weaving the three shows. It's pretty tough to do and there's like challenges, and they're just basic morphological challenges, but they did a good job. Our episode two will pick up like roughly six weeks after the events of the crossover.
DG: That's something we hotly debate back and forth here every day, and some of the considerations about Benson and Stabler have nothing to do with narrative and they're about just logistics of these two actors' (Hargitay and Meloni) busy schedules. You've got to think for a second about the "OC": Chris Meloni is in every single scene of that show, and they just can't lend him out the same way we can sort of give them Mariska for a day or two. Even when we give her over there for a day or two, we feel hobbled without her.
JM: Everybody knows the storytelling of — we like to keep that question going as long as possible. So to answer, either way, is to sort of kill that anticipation. So I think our job — what they talked about at the end of last season is certainly something that percolates in both of their minds, in Benson's mind and Rollins' mind, and when she'll actually act on that ... it won't be in the first episode.
DG: We have a responsibility to Benson as a character, too. There have been a lot of events that have happened in the "OC" and also on our show, "SVU," that would seem to preclude an easy relationship with the two of them.
DG: I would say they start off with kind of Philia, you know familial love, and that's what they have and have had for all of these years. It's sort of passionate from afar. There's a little Eros (sensual love) mixed in there: That's what the fans are picking up on for sure. And there's the romantic love that is the ideal. And maybe, maybe toward the end of whatever run we can ultimately get out of the show, there'll be some sort of rapprochement there and some slaying of monsters that'll lead to something approaching romantic love.
MC: MHMM.
JM: I think what you will certainly see in the movie (premiere) is them having a great, great working relationship and falling into that easy partnership, camaraderie and partnership, kind of knowing what the other person is thinking. It's fun to see them in that capacity again.
DG: I would say there's a ninth version of Greek love that the Greeks didn't discover because they didn't have this focus on partnerships. But there's like a love between partners and people who work together. ..
JM: The intention wasn't to imply a romantic connection between Benson and Barba but a deep love — love as friends. And we certainly hope to see Raúl back some time this season. We have no immediate plans, but he's always welcome to come back into the courtroom.
DG: He's just a monstrously talented actor. And just as a fan of the show, every time I saw him on screen, if I had a dial in my hand, like as if I was testing the show, my dial would go way up. He's just —
JM: Electrifying.
DG: He's electrifying, and he's one of the finest lawyers I've seen on the show over the years — other than Carisi. I'm a huge Rollisi shipper.
DG: He's got a drawer in her apartment, which is a pretty big commitment. ... They start out with a very familial, comfortable relationship. We see that it's advanced a little bit. He's very good with the girls. There are a couple of moments in some of these scenes that he is just like a father figure to them. I think it's important to dwell there and not rush things too fast and get to a wedding. My fervent wish for the show is to have some weird kind of Staten Island wedding.
JM: They're moving forward.
JM: It probably will. There's nothing earth-shattering happening immediately, but it's certainly not a storyline that we're just going to abandon and we'll have moments to talk about it.
DG: We have some events that we have to sort of play out that come on the heels of the premiere event, and we're spending a lot of real estate on those.
DG: Munch! I would kill for that. I don't think it's going to happen. He seems to be happily wiling away his retirement in France. So I don't think that's going to happen any time soon. But Betty Buckley, for me, it's like in terms of being an elder statesman on the show, it's like we're just having so much fun writing for her and the relationship between her as this patrician, super powerful, heavily connected, kind of slightly cheeky power broker of the city and then to see her in scenes with Benson, who is used to being the 800-pound gorilla wherever she goes.
JM: I always had a soft spot for Tamara Tunie for our M.E. So hopefully we'll find an opportunity for her to come back this season.
MC: No one asked me, but I love Marcia Gay Harden. Bring back Dana Lewis.
JM: (laughs) She's in prison.
DG: I loved her run on the show. I'm in the free Dana Lewis camp.