The Legislation & Order franchise has ignored Benson and Stabler’s relationship for nearly two years, however that’s over now.
Legislation & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 2 featured Benson sitting at Stabler’s bedside after an encounter with the villain’s semi-truck landed him in a medically induced coma. Stabler additionally had a small half on Legislation & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 19.
Many Legislation & Order fanatics are debating whether or not Benson and Stabler are already secretly sleeping collectively and hoping for extra overtly romantic scenes. Sorry, however I’m not one in all them.
I Was Extra Irritated By The Poor Storytelling When Benson and Stabler’s Romance Evaporated
I get the hype in a means.
Legislation & Order: SVU Season 24 Episode 22 left off with very promising information for Bensler followers.
Stabler and Benson’s iconic scene in her workplace seemed like the start of a romance, particularly with the almost-kiss earlier within the season.
So dropping it altogether was poor storytelling, particularly since a few of Stabler’s circumstances would have dovetailed properly with that terrible Maddie Flynn storyline all through Legislation & Order: SVU Season 25.
Maddie was taken by a man who saved her doped up on fentanyl. Stabler was attempting to find fentanyl suppliers.
The crossover potential right here was apparent, and it was writing malpractice to depart it out.
Some scenes with Benson and Stabler working collectively on this case might need made that story bearable.
As a substitute, we had been handled to week after week of Benson dropping her rattling thoughts over Maddie Flynn’s disappearance and her obsession with the Flynn household, and the one time Benson and Stabler interacted was when Benson known as him to inform him she’d lent the necklace he’d given her to Eileen Flynn.
It appeared out of character for Stabler to be superb with that relatively than involved that Benson was making her whole life about serving to this household. It was like he solely interacted with Benson to assist her unhealthy relationship with the Flynn household.
Not cool. However for me, it was in regards to the story, not whether or not Benson and Stabler had fallen in love.
The Legislation & Order Reveals are Not Cleaning soap Operas
When Legislation & Order: SVU started, its subplots about Stabler’s house life had been refreshing.
The unique Legislation & Order had been cautious to keep away from a lot, if any, private drama (apart from when Logan’s associate was killed on the finish of Season 1), so I loved subplots that made the SVU detectives appear extra like actual individuals.
These subplots had been enjoyable for a similar cause that the household dinners on Blue Bloods had been — they made the present about human beings who had been cops with households.
Nonetheless, the circumstances are speculated to be these police procedurals’ high precedence.
Legislation & Order: SVU is about supporting trauma survivors. Typically it will get it incorrect, however extra typically it illustrates issues that actual survivors undergo, typically issues that aren’t talked about sufficient.
It’s at its finest when the authorized system appears to be retraumatizing survivors as a substitute of serving to them get justice or forms interferes with making arrests.
The current Legislation & Order crossover was superb as a result of it pitted Benson and her finely tuned sense of empathy in opposition to Brady’s colder, outcome-focused strategy to legislation enforcement.
But that dialog is getting buried beneath the hypothesis about what Stabler’s thirty-second look meant and whether or not he and Benson are already lovers, as if the aim of the present is to get these two collectively and all the things else is secondary.
I’m not thinking about that dialog as a result of it misses the purpose of those tales.
Legislation & Order: SVU will not be a cleaning soap opera the place romances and one-night stands are central to the plot.
Including romance as a aspect plot is okay, but it surely ought to by no means overshadow the primary goal of the present, and if does, it’s gotten means off-track.
Sure, Benson Ought to Have A Life Outdoors of SVU
I do have an issue with the best way Legislation & Order: SVU Season 26 has centered Carisi’s trauma, virtually pushing Benson out of the image.
If I had to decide on, I’d relatively extra Benson/Stabler than Carisi’s unhealed trauma each episode.
Nonetheless, these are two manifestations of the identical drawback: specializing in characters’ private lives on the expense of circumstances.
We should always have extra household scenes with Benson and her teenage son, and if that non-public life entails her friendship with Stabler, that’s superb.
However it’s past time to cease judging episodes by their Benson/Stabler content material.
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What Do You Assume?
Are you in it for the circumstances and trauma survivor content material, or are you right here primarily for Benson/Stabler?
Let’s hold the dialog going — it’s the one means the good things survives.
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