'Law & Order: SVU' Season 22 Preview: NBC procedural drama returns with pandemic, police brutality and more
'Law & Order: SVU' is television's longest-running drama — when the Dick Wolf 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). There are many reasons that 'Law & Order: SVU' has been going on for so long and one of those reasons is its compelling characters, especially Detective Olivia Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay.
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 city it is set in, New York City, has changed a lot since the last episode of the show aired, so it is only natural to wonder how much the show itself would have changed. For its 22nd season, 'Law & Order: SVU' will be tackling not just the pandemic, but also the mass protests and instances of police brutality that have characterized the country over the past eight months.
Warren Leight, who returned as the showrunner last year, told Entertainment Tonight, "We're going to reflect New York in the pandemic" and "what happens to someone who is sexually assaulted during the height of the coronavirus outbreak." Sadly, the 'Law & Order: SVU' family lost a member of the costume department, Josh Wallwork, who died at age 45 of complications due to Covid-19.
As for the protests and police reform calls, 'Law & Order: SVU' will be tackling that as well. Leight told The Hollywood Reporter podcast TV’s Top 5 that Floyd’s death “has to come up and it will,” explaining that they’ll tackle related issues from all sides. “There are ways, we will find our way in to tell the story. Presumably, our cops will still be trying to do the right thing but it’s going to be harder for them and they’re going to understand why it’s hard for them,” he says of the squad facing an understandably untrustworthy public when it comes to day-to-day cases.
Leight also told TV Insider that since the last season was filmed, New York City is "a city that has lost faith in the NYPD and the DA's office", and that the season premiere episode starts with an assault in Central Park that "quickly turns into a racially volatile situation, and [the unit] confronts how their own racial bias affects their judgment". After a case about domestic violence, the episode 'Remember Me in Quarantine' turns to what happens after extended social isolation and quarantine due to Covid-19 — or, Leight said, "how close people get to their breaking points".
The new season will also feature the return of Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni), who will lead a new 'Law & Order' spinoff. In the planned 13-episode first season of the new spinoff series, Stabler will head up an organized crime division of the New York Police Department.
'Law & Order: SVU' Season 22 will premiere on NBC on Thursday, November 12, at 9/8c.