Warning! Spoilers forward for Legislation & Order: SVU season 27, episode 1.Law & Order: SVU returns with a significant loss to Olivia Benson and the NBC franchise as a complete. TV’s longest-running present is again with lots of thrilling issues forward, together with the full-time return of Kelli Giddish’s Amanda Rollins. So it is fairly jarring to study that the 12 months is opening with a large franchise demise.
Contemplating their line of labor, Benson and the remainder of her crew aren’t any strangers to hazard. All of them have confronted sure conditions that nearly killed them. Benson herself has been kidnapped and overwhelmed a number of occasions. Nonetheless, NBC and Wolf Leisure have managed to maintain Legislation & Order: SVU’s essential solid deaths to a minimal.
The final time a significant character within the present died was when Richard Belzer’s demise mirrored Munch’s destiny within the collection. Legislation & Order: SVU did not make an enormous fuss in regards to the matter, solely alluding to it with a quick toast. Its newest demise, nevertheless, is much extra heartbreaking and, frankly, even headscratching.
Legislation & Order: SVU Season 25 Kills Captain Cragen After 35 Years In The Franchise
As a substitute of the standard case set-up that opens an episode, Law & Order: SVU season 27 begins with the demise of Captain Donald Cragen. Benson walks to his memorial, the place she is reunited together with her fellow authentic solid members, Dr. George Huang and Brian Cassidy. After some pleasantries, she joins Sonny Carisi and Fin Tutuola.
For context, Cragen was initially a personality within the authentic Legislation & Order collection, debuting in “Prescripion for Loss of life,” the present’s pilot in 1990. By then, Cragen was already a captain — a job that he stored for a few extra many years and extra prominently when he turned a essential solid member when Legislation & Order: SVU in 1999.
Granted that Cragen retired from the service in 2014, he continued to seem in each Legislation & Order: SVU and, extra not too long ago, in Legislation & Order: Organized Crime to reunite with arguably his greatest detectives — Benson and Elliot Stabler. This has stored him related and energetic within the franchise.
Why Cragen’s Loss of life Is So Underwhelming
Cragen’s impression and contributions to the Legislation & Order franchise cannot be overstated. As Benson mentioned, every part she is aware of about being a captain, she discovered from her former boss. Other than being a piece mentor, Cragen was additionally a father determine to each Benson and Stabler.
The acknowledgment of Belzer’s demise by Munch is smart, however it’s quizzical why NBC and Wolf Leisure determined to kill Cragen now. Dann Florek remains to be alive, and was even on set after they filmed Benson and Stabler’s emotional speak exterior of his memorial. There would not appear to be any narrative reasoning for killing him — not less than proper now.
Even when Legislation & Order: SVU has a much bigger storytelling plan involving his demise, the transient memorial initially of the season 27 premiere is disrespectful to the legacy of the character within the franchise. On the very least, the present ought to have staged a correct reunion with him and even simply Benson and Stabler earlier than he bit the bullet.
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
- Launch Date
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September 20, 1999
- Showrunner
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Michael S. Chernuchin, David Graziano
- Administrators
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Jean de Segonzac, David Platt, Peter Leto, Alex Chapple, Juan José Campanella, Norberto Barba, Constantine Makris, Martha Mitchell, Arthur W. Forney, Michael Slovis, Steve Shill, Alex Zakrzewski, Michael Pressman, Helen Shaver, Mariska Hargitay, Michael Smith, Ted Kotcheff, Fred Berner, Jonathan Kaplan, Holly Dale, Jonathan Herron, Jud Taylor, Adam Bernstein, Jim McKay
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Mariska Hargitay
Olivia Benson
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Ice-T
Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuola
