Before I even start this post, I just want to put it out there that I am not a current Law & Order watcher. I watched about half a season during quarantine and honestly thought “that Melon guy” a.k.a. Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay were married in real life up until about six months ago. (I’m slow. Let’s move on.) All of this to say, if you are expecting an in-depth analysis of the SVU and Criminal Intent cross-over episode from last week, this ain’t it. HOWEVER, I—like everyone else in this country—saw that promo. You know, the one where it was teased that Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) were going to kiss after nearly TWENTY-FIVE LONG YEARS–talk about a slow burn— AND DIDN’T?
For the two weeks in between episodes I saw that promo gif’d over and over on Twitter and Tumblr. Many a fanfic was launched dissecting every morsel of movement between the two cops. Christopher Meloni (jokingly) was grilled by Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on what to expect from the episode. Media outlets like Glamour and Today published articles telling fans to get ready, this is it. This is the episode you’ve been dying to see. It was all for naught. As fans quickly discovered, the scene they’ve been waiting nearly a quarter-of-a-century for was nothing but an over-edited, kiss-less talk between Benson and Stabler. Phone in hand, I quickly jumped on social media to witness the aftershocks.
Tweet after tweet, Bensler shippers and L&O fans started to vent their frustrations. In general, people fell into two categories: the pacifists who insisted that this scene was a step in the right direction for an eventual relationship (hopefully) and the pugilists who wanted to burn everything to the ground. (One fan even wanted to sue NBC and L&O creator Dick Wolf for false advertising.) Whichever side of the spectrum fans fell on, they could all agree they felt manipulated and taken advantage of by the promo. And they are right.
Any good showrunner knows that there has to be a symbiotic relationship between the fans and the Powers That Be. Without one, the other simply cannot exist. There is an unwritten level of trust that I as a viewer put into the show that I’m watching, hoping for my desired outcome. And when that trust is broken, like many feel it was last Thursday, I have a right to be upset. There are only so many times a show can push its viewers to the edge of a cliff and back off–or in this case, pretend that’s what they are doing– and expect the audience to stick around. (Does any one remember Fran/Max from The Nanny? How many times did we think they were going to get together and didn’t?)
According to TV Line, SVU recorded it’s second highest ratings since May 2018 with “Blood Out”. It wouldn’t surprise me if those ratings begin to crater as fans start questioning whether they want to keep watching for something that may never happen. Right now, the consensus among viewers is once bitten, twice shy. Olivia and Elliot fans earned the right to have more than a poorly-pieced together deleted scene and I hope Dick & Co. can give it to them. SOON.
Females in Film 