SVU never could hold a candle to the original series, or even some of its siblings. But the story lines were at least not as monotone in the early years as recently.
You know when sometimes writers want you to be surprised by what they think is a twist in the story?
Well here you can see the twist coming a mile away.
A man is found, shot dead in his car, one bullet in the head, one in the family jewels. This plot just screams at me: "It was a woman who shot him". Yet the detectives adhere to the old Hollywood adage that only men commit crimes. So it's only men they suspect and investigate.
Guess what: in the second half of the episode, the shooter turns out to be...a woman! Eureka!
Speaking about (bad) writing, I first saw Dann Florek (Cragen) in a couple of SVU episodes. My impression of him never went beyond "mweh". Then I purchased the first few seasons of the original Law & Order series, and low and behold, Cragen was suddenly a very credible character, well played by Florek. In that series he was replaced by lt. Anita van Buren.
The writing in SVU never came close to that of the original series. And many episodes dearly lack the "law" part.
You know when sometimes writers want you to be surprised by what they think is a twist in the story?
Well here you can see the twist coming a mile away.
A man is found, shot dead in his car, one bullet in the head, one in the family jewels. This plot just screams at me: "It was a woman who shot him". Yet the detectives adhere to the old Hollywood adage that only men commit crimes. So it's only men they suspect and investigate.
Guess what: in the second half of the episode, the shooter turns out to be...a woman! Eureka!
Speaking about (bad) writing, I first saw Dann Florek (Cragen) in a couple of SVU episodes. My impression of him never went beyond "mweh". Then I purchased the first few seasons of the original Law & Order series, and low and behold, Cragen was suddenly a very credible character, well played by Florek. In that series he was replaced by lt. Anita van Buren.
The writing in SVU never came close to that of the original series. And many episodes dearly lack the "law" part.