Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
📺 27 Seasons
🎬 585 Episodes
📅 Returning Series
🌐 EN
CrimeDramaMystery
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.
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Seasons
Season 1
Detectives Stabler and Benson investigate the murder and dismemberment of a taxi driver; the team discovers that he may have been a vicious Serbian war criminal living in the United States under a false identity.
Season 2
Stabler's daughter bears witness to a horrific crime scene: a rocket scientist found dead with his crotch on fire. The scientist had strong ties to government security and detectives must determine if that had something to do with his demise. The internal investigation into the psyches of the SVU detectives yields interesting results.
Season 3
An 18-year-old girl is aided by her therapist in recalling repressed memories of childhood molestation by her father and reports the incest to Benson and Stabler in hopes of sparing her younger sisters the same fate. She brings charges of rape against her father who winds up murdered when those charges are dismissed.
Season 4
The detectives are on the trail of a recently paroled rapist responsible for the murder of a prostitute during a raid at a men's club and are called to the scene where he was shot in self defense by his own gun. However, the murder weapon was also used in another crime while he was still in prison, leading the detectives to investigate the victim through a trail of previously unsolved cases, a spending spree and another victim. They uncover a more serious criminal in the process.
Season 5
A woman with a high-risk pregnancy disappears and her ex-boyfriend, who's the father, and engaged to the boss' daughter, is under suspicion. In a race against time to find her as her delivery date approaches, Benson and Stabler are faced with more than one suspect willing to take the fall for the crime.
Season 6
Detectives Benson, Stabler, Fin and Munch face serial killers, self-proclaimed psychics and cult leaders as they investigate crime in New York City.
Season 7
The unit's gut-wrenching cases include a schoolyard shooting of a child, a shady dating service and a shocking revelation regarding Tutuola's son.
Season 8
Benson is called in after a young woman shows up at the hospital, raped and beaten with her head shaved. Haley Kerns refuses to submit to a rape kit, but Benson steals her underwear before leaving the apartment and gives it to Warner to check out. When Benson returns to her apartment she encounters Star Morrison, who admits that Haley is a federal informant working with them on eco-terrorism. After Stabler is wounded while out on a search with Morrison, Benson and she work to get information from Haley before the eco-terrorists can strike.
Season 9
Guest stars, including Cynthia Nixon, Robin Williams, Method Man, Jared Harris and Melissa Joan Hart, are season highlights.
Season 10
Stabler confronts his own demons when his daughter is caught with drugs, and Benson follows connections between an abused child and an attack on a woman.
Season 11
A new ADA joins the team, a crime scene photo of a murdered teen goes viral and Stabler tries to prove Benson did not murder a biker.
Season 12
Benson and Stabler are called to investigate when a little girl goes missing. They soon find out that the mother had another daughter who disappeared some years earlier and she becomes the focus of the investigation.
Season 13
Season 13 dealt with the departure of Detective Elliot Stabler from the Special Victims Unit after a shooting in the squad room.
Season 14
The squad reels from the fallout of Capt. Cragen being arrested for the murder of an escort.
Season 15
The SVU squad searches for Detective Benson and her abductor.
Season 16
Benson struggles to balance work and her new role of foster mother; when Amaro arrests a young prostitute with connections to Noah's mother, his undercover work sets off a dangerous chain of events.
Season 17
The squad revisit a crime scene where bodies were buried by a serial killer. Rollins tries to get a confession, but the killer reveals shocking new info instead.
Season 18
A young boy is found wandering alone in Central Park and the search for his parents leads to startling evidence of a planned mass casualty event in the city. As the SVU works with the joint-terrorism task force to find the suspects and the motive, Lt. Benson must also convince Barba to address allegations of rape and torture the boy's mother discloses.
Season 19
Fin's decision to capture a fugitive rapist in a foreign country creates political complications for Barba's case, and an old friend returns with a shocking allegation against Benson.
Season 20
Teenager Sam Conway shows evidence of rape but refuses to name his attacker. Meanwhile, Benson and Rollins confess to some major life changes.
Season 21
When an actress accuses a high-powered media mogul of attempted rape, Benson finds herself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. Changes in the squad room put Carisi between a rock and a hard place.
Season 22
When the squad tries to solve an assault in Central Park, they are hampered by their own blind spots and a community that is losing trust in the police.
Season 23
Benson's loyalty to Garland is tested. Rollins and Carisi try to keep their witnesses on board when a powerful congressman is identified as a suspect.
Season 24
A girl is shot and Cosgrove teams with Det. Jalen Shaw to track down her killer. Benson and Stabler assist and realize it's more than a typical homicide. McCoy and Price seek justice against an international crime ring.
The crossover begins on Law & Order: Organized Crime S03E01 Gimme Shelter (I). It continues on Law & Order S22E01 Gimme Shelter (III).
Season 25
As the squad celebrates Rollins and Carisi’s child, another child goes missing in broad daylight.
Season 26
The SVU investigates a brutal attack on a group of law students. Benson hopes the discovery of a hidden camera will crack the case open. Carisi's best chance at conviction is catching the defendant in a lie.
Season 27
Danger swirls around the squad as they investigate a suspect for rape and try to protect their key witness. A new chief of detectives puts Benson to the test. An off-duty Fin tries to stop an assault in progress.
Related
Cast
User Reviews
**26 SEASONS** there's a reason SVU is the longest-running primetime live-action series on American television. Every year this show is a must watch. The storylines are compelling and the actors are usually current, former or up-and-coming stars. Some "fans" have complained about the changing of cast members but I think it's what keeps the show fresh. Hoping for many more seasons with Benson to come.
October 11, 2024
This series is a poster child for the way the US wants the world, to perceive its justice system.
Hard working, earnest police, backed by an imperfect but mostly well meaning, justice system.
Of course, if you look behind the veil nothing could be further from the truth. The justice system and not just in the US, mind you is abusive and broken. More often than not failing victims and on a certain level, criminals, who often started out as victims of its indifference and outright cruelty.
I find long running series like this one annoying, in so much as they largely, shore up establishment narratives, rather than exposing them, for what they are.
Acting is reasonable but feels a little forced and unrealistic, at times. Its not helped by rather predictably, formulaic characterisations.
In summary, I rate this series down not just because its somewhat formulaic and bland but because, in my view, it does the truth of the world we live in, a disservice. Things can only improve when reality is exposed for what it is, not buried beneath pro establishment, "the system mostly works" narratives.
August 17, 2024
Crew
Producer
Michele Fazekas, Dick Wolf
Network
NBC
Production
Wolf Entertainment, Universal Television, Studios USA, Universal Media Studios
Keywords
detectivesexual abusesex scandaldomestic abusesexual violencedomestic violencecriminalsex traffickinginterrogationdistrict attorney