Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–)

What is Law & Order: Special Victims Unit about?

Sexually-based offenses are considered the most heinous in the criminal justice system. In the New York City Police Department, the detectives that specialise in investigating and solving such unimaginable cases belong to an elite squad called the Special Victims Unit. Especially trained to take on various sexually oriented crimes, the team is led by Captain Olivia Benson, who worked as a detective in the previous years.

Aside from handling sex crimes, the SVU detectives also investigate child abuse, domestic violence, and other crimes involving disabled and elderly victims. Getting close to vicious felonies as part of their investigation, the members of SVU struggle to keep the dark side of these crimes out of their personal lives, although many cases deeply impact their mentality. How they handle the atrocities they see and their struggle to prevail over the darkness remains to be a major theme of the show.

Crew Spotlights

• She has been on the show since it first premiered in 1999, making Mariska Hargitay’s Law & Order: SVU character Olivia Benson the longest-running character on television.
• Actresses Samantha Mathis and Reiko Aylesworth were also considered for the role of Olivia Benson. For the role of Elliot Stabler, actors Tim Matheson, John Slattery, and Nick Chinlund were considered.
• Not only did the series change Mariska’s life big time, this is also where she met her now-husband Peter Hermann. In 2002, during the show’s third season, Peter Hermann began playing the recurring role of defense attorney Trevor Langan. They married in 2004 and are now parents to three children.
• Families of the main cast members have appeared in the show as guest stars, including Mariska’s father, Mickey Hargitay, Ice-T’s wife Coco, and Kelli Giddish’s son.
• Ice-T, who plays Fin Tutuola, was supposed to only appear in four episodes. Now he’s the longest-running Black actor to appear on television.
• Mariska’s role in the show brought a long-lasting impact into her life that she created a sanctuary that seeks to supports survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse—the Joyful Heart Foundation.

Fun Facts

• With 27 seasons (and probably more to come), Law & Order: SVU is now the longest-running primetime TV drama in America.
• Law & Order: SVU creator Dick Wolf named the show’s two main detectives, Olivia and Elliott, after two of his five children. In a 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, the veteran TV producer teased about how this may be the subconscious reason why Christopher and Mariska’s characters never turn their connection into something full-blown romantic.
• Law & Order: SVU became the first TV series to film at the United Nations in New York City.
• Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is a huge fan of the show that she named one of her cats after Mariska’s character Olivia Benson.
• The original title for the series before it became Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was Law and Order: Sex Crimes.
• Law & Order: SVU was inspired by the real-life Preppy Murder case in 1986. While an episode was created for Law & Order based on this case, Dick Wolf explained he wanted to “get deeper into the psychology of such crimes and the role of human sexuality.”

Awards and Nominations

The procedural crime drama is no stranger to getting the commendation it deserves. Since its premiere, Law & Order: SVU has received 23 Emmy nominations, with Mariska winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2006.

Law & Order: SVU Season 26 in Australia

Law & Order: SVU Season 26 has yet to drop in Australia. It is currently the latest season before Season 27 makes its US premiere in September 2025. Streaming services offering selected seasons of the series are BINGE (14 seasons), Foxtel and Foxtel Now (13 seasons), Amazon Prime Video (24 seasons), and free-to-air catch up 7plus (6 seasons). It’s worth noting that licenses vary, so availability of specific seasons can change at any time. It’s also likely that Law and Order: SVU Season 26 will premiere on any of the aforementioned services.