'Law & Order: SVU' Season 22 Premiere Preview: Olivia Benson comes under fire for wrongfully arresting Black man
'Law & Order: SVU' is television's longest-running drama — when the Dick Wolf show first premiered in the 20th century, Bill Clinton was the President of the country. Since then, the United States has seen four more presidents (and about to see the next within a few months). Now, the show is set to return for its 22nd season — and it is not even nearly done: the Dick Wolf show had been renewed up to Season 24 earlier this year.
Like most other shows, 'Law & Order: SVU' had to wrap up its previous season earlier than expected due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The thing about 'Law & Order: SVU' is that the definition of good vs. evil is usually clear-cut. The show deals with sex crimes and Detective Olivia Benson's (Mariska Hargitay) and the show's impact on real-life survivors is also well-known.
But in the fall season of 2020, when the world looks quite different after going through a pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, we understand that the world is in all shades of grey — and that is especially true of the police force in the country. Yes, some are outright racist and seem evil, but there are those who propagate racist behaviors without realizing it.
The 22nd season of 'Law & Order: SVU' begins with this — the kind of microaggressions that people of color (especially Black people) face from the police. Throughout this year, and before, we have seen many news reports of (usually) White women calling the cops on Black people they encounter in public. Because 'Law & Order: SVU' is known for its stories being "ripped from the headlines," the new season starts directly with a similar story.
It is, however, the most unexpected person who comes under fire for wrongfully arresting a Black man when a White woman calls the cops on him: Olivia Benson herself. Olivia learns that the Black man she arrested will be filing a lawsuit against her. It may seem surprising at first, but her defense that he "fit the profile", may not be good enough for the day and age we are in.
The repercussions of Olivia's actions await her as all eyes will be on the Dick Wolf show to see how it handles the situation. Showrunner Warren Leight told TV Line, "In our Season Premiere, 'Guardians and Gladiators', our cops arrive at a crime in Central Park where a Black man has already been arrested. As civilians record their every move on cell phones, the squad makes a series of quick decisions that turn an already enraged community further against them."
He continued, "Throughout the episode, and the season, we’ll be looking at how explicit and implicit bias shape the criminal justice system, and also at how public scrutiny and anger, and internal conflicts, affect our squad."
'Law & Order: SVU' Season 22 premieres on NBC on Thursday, November 12, at 9/8c. Watch the promo for the episode here.