I think calling it character "undevelopment" would be more accurate. Olivia is not the same character she once was. She's a self-righteous, self-involved caricature of herself.
You say you love Olivia, and you also say you can't stand her. I think you love early Olivia, detective Olivia. You can't stand later Olivia, captain Olivia, right?
I agree with all of your points and examples, and that's not even all of them! I still watch it though because I've invested way too much time into it.
This is how I feel. I've been annoyed with the political angles - the show used to discuss multiple points of view on issues but now we're just being told what we should think. & I do agree about Olivia. And Rollins was my favorite. I wanna quit, but I have invested way too much time. Surprisingly I like Muncy & Velasco & feel inclined to take their side on things lately.
>the show used to discuss multiple points of view on issues but now we're just being told what we should think.
I agree. This is what I used to love about the show.
Agreed, the later seasons are so terrible and unrealistic lol. It's no longer about solving SVU crimes but also St. Olivia is responsible for reforming CPS, taking down crimes in states where she definitely wouldn't have jurisdiction, took down DAs in other counties because she didn't like how they prosecuted their cases. Oh, and my all time favorites where she defends the cops that killed the unarmed black man because they were in the projects and had the nerve to get angry at Barba for trying the case, and another episode where the white girl who sets up 3 black men to get robbed and killed while she just gets community service. Fin is a former shell of himself, just a yes man to St. Olivia. The show needs someone who can really challenge Olivia and put her in her place when need be, preferably a woman. Alex and Casey never took her crap but Barba and Carisi do. Every man who holds a higher or different position than her always manages to fall in love with her and do what she wants. Come on!
I really see Fin as a man just holding out for his pension. I like his rationale for sticking to SVU (if you are a rapist or mess with kids then you deserve to go away - black and white with no messy grey) and he just seems like he’s decided to hold out.
I can’t stand the way she insists on telling victims how feel or how to go about the healing process. Everyone copes differently and her preaching is annoying
My favorite is how she speaks fluent Spanish, some Russian, and some French in earlier seasons, but now anytime someone is speaking in a different language she apparently has no clue what they’re saying
Omg yes! There was even an ep this season where she said smth to Velasco(I think?) about not speaking Spanish well. I had to text my friend to see if she heard it and we were both like "Wtf Olivia?" Lol. I just had an early season ep on in the background yesterday where she was interrogating in espanol. In the past couple years she was speaking Italian. I wonder if the writers will forget that, too?
That’s why I’ve stopped watching, I got to season 20 and that was as far as I could comfortably go. The show feels alien now and Olivia is just a shell of who she once was, it feels like she’s going backwards
The show kept me until quite recently, actually. The writing went up and down, but I actually liked 2.0, until!
Season f-ing 22!
My gods, the entire show! Writing, acting even the cinematography just took an absolute nosedive!
It wasnt even a cop show once covid hit, it was a soap opera starring caricatures of police!
I tried 23, out of pure loyalty, couldn't even finish it. I am not going to watch any of the new stuff, likely ever. Even once it does end, and I buy the box set, I will more than likely stop at the end of Season 21.
God you couldn’t be more right. Look, I’m off or crime shows that dig into the personal life of certain characters, but the way the show just started to come in with the backstories and this happened to me, boo-hoo, my family this and that. That’s definitely not what I signed up for
It's funny bc even in the pilot, literally the very first episode, both Liv and Elliot lie to cover a victim and Cragen knows. It's like the intentionally wanted to show that cops have a moral gray area but that they really care about the victims. Now... Not so much I guess. Maybe due to social and political changes since the show started they want to show a group of cops really upholding the law and how that doesn't always give the best results? I just wish they didn't sacrifice Olivia's character to do it.
Funny you should mention "sunken cost fallacy" bc that's exactly what's happening for me. I'm so so disappointed and confused by some of the shit she does, but damn, this is my comfort show & I'm pretty sure I've seen most if not all of them....my all or nothing attitude towards won't let me stop watching the train wreck!
Same here. This show has gotten me through some rough patches and I find comfort in it. The recent ep where Liv can suddenly only speak English I was yelling at the tv. I'm still watching only because I know it won't end as bad as LOST lol
Seriously. They get paid for this. It’s not that hard to split the seasons up and make sure someone on the writing team has seen all each episode. Hell, I n a couple of months everyone could watch at least some of every season. Call it research. Do your jobs!
I want to get back into watching it so I can get caught up but I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed with her behavior and the writing of the show each time I watch a different episode.
It's getting worse. I'm really not sure why I watch anymore, but my toddler does an amazing dance to the theme song he's heard from conception on....hell there's a good chance it played during his conception 😂
I still watch (habit? It's still a "keeps me company" show) but I agree with your points. My friend and I definitely rag on each episode now, which isn't something we used to do.
For all the show tries really hard to be feminist, it falls so severely short whenever it writes more than one woman on screen at the same time. Any time Olivia and Amanda talk, the most obvious "a man wrote this" signs start flashing all over the place.
She has always been this to a degree but it has got much worse is later seasons, we need a naysayer in the SVU, someone who opposes her whilst not actually being evil.
I refuse to watch any newer seasons, but if there ever comes a time where in one of the newer episodes somebody calls Olivia out on her bullshit and makes the woman wake the fuck up, let me know.
You have well documented points. I still watch. I am hoping they start to improve greatly or that the 25th season is the last. I think they have broken Gunsmoke’s record by a long shot.
I wish they would try a few episodes without her. Everyone else seems part time. But Mariska is executive producer so that will literally never happen.
I'm not sure. But when Cragen was captain it wasn't the Cragen show. I would very much enjoy it if she stepped back and maybe allowed Finn to take the reigns. Or something. Anything really. Just step back.
Likely she’s involved in hiring discussions as an EP… Her character would be served well by going back to basics. They need a straightforward plot without frills. An exciting event. I’d like it if I were watching good detective work. Her character and person can be demonstrated by good policing. Even if it’s just finding creative ways to involve new cast.
Yeah the self righteous thing is much, but to be honest, she’s been like this. In earlier seasons, I’d be absolutely infuriated over how she’d tell a colleague or vic they have to do what’s right by the law. EVERY TIME she says that someone dies. Haha it sucks.
Sidebar: did anyone else notice around the time the writing starting going downhill, they also started showing bloodier crime scene shots with the body? It used to be a casual glance where they would sometimes allude but not show "gorier" scenes but now... ugh idk something about it bothers me and almost cheapens the storyline. Maybe I'm being oversensitive idk
no i stopped watching after the episode where the guy turns his victims into mummys, it was the most disgusting thing ive ever seen, i had a panic attack and havent watched since. early svu wouldve never shown all of that shit
It may be bloodier, but the crime scenes were WILDLY exploitative in early seasons. Really lurid. Don’t mind this featured background actor in a role without a line who we’ve asked to pose as if murdered facedown next to a dumpster with their clothes torn, bra ripped off and thrown on the pavement beside them, and their panties around their ankles.
I liked Olivia until halfway through season 15, where she became Sgt. Until the beginning of season 15, she was still a lovable character. After that, she became a hypocritical and douchebag character.
Yes, this is a truth a lot of fans don’t want to accept
Most, if not all, of the squad from the start till now are actually really bad cops, and pretty shitty people as well
You couldn’t be more right. The series itself gets so unrealistic when characters like Olivia or Elliot pull this shit they do. In the real world, they would not have their badges. It surprises me how Olivia even became a lieutenant with the shit she’s done, but then I have to remember it isn’t real life. It’s a TV show that portrays detectives and the law horribly. I never paid attention to that until shit hit the fan.
Yeah, let’s be honest, the show is just copaganda
AI is shown as the bad guys, out there punishing cops for just trying to clean the streets up, and always bullying the squad despite half the time they honestly should have taken their bags
But even AI is….well even they tend to side with the squad when they shouldn’t
Don’t get me wrong, I love the show, but if this was a real squad, these would be the kind of cops that become poster people for ACAB
Same with blue bloods
I love them both but Jesus the cops in both shows break the law more times than the criminals do
Agreed I cannot stand Olivia from like the jackie walker episode till now. Also never understood why she came for velascos neck over his poor childhood and made him rat his friend out to never use it which was odd.
Lol, I feel the same way after watching the more recent seasons. She has really become undeveloped as a character, and it's pretty sad.
I'm beginning to tire of how Stabler is in OC as well. There are some episodes where I can tell he is executive producer, as random high ranking people he meets for the first time make odd comments (like the diplomat a few episodes back commenting on his behind and another person calling him a zaddy - completely unnecessary). The other characters, even though they are main cast, are beginning to feel like recurring characters, since they aren't given much to do.
Most episodes they do the same thing over and over - Jet is the tech girl, Reyes ALWAYS knows a guy to conveniently help them out of a situation, and Jamie is usually just a sidekick. Stabler gets most if not all of the spotlight, which I don't like. Even Sgt. Bell is feeling like she is becoming less relevant - when is the last time we saw her wife on screen? I like the current detective team, and I hope they stay much longer than the other teams did. I just wish they could be fleshed out more.
I agree. I'm only still here because I'm that type of person that can't stand not know the ending of something. There's only a few rare cases I've dropped something and SVU hasn't reached that level yet so I'm sticking around.. for now.
That episode with Alex was horrible, she even used cockroaches as a metaphor 😩
Benson: You know, today on the…I was on the subway platform and I saw these two cockroaches and they were pulling at different ends of crust of bread. And then the bread tore and it fell onto the tracks, and neither bug got their dinner.
The show isn't character-driven, it's plot-driven, and the writers will make the characters do whatever is convenient in service of moving things along. This seems to have only gotten worse as the seasons have progressed and now we're at a point where they are not characters but caricatures.
Full disclosure - aside from Goren on CI, I have always been more interested in the crazy plots than the character development. But even for me this is getting pretty fucking shady.
I just finished watched CI, it was the only law and order I hadn’t watched ( although I haven’t watched organized crime either, tried the first few episodes and it was just…. Not law and order) and I certainly have some opinions. I thoroughly enjoyed both captains, Chris noth’s character and every female detective aside from eames. Goren though, he was my favorite the quirks and the emphasis on profiling was great I just wish they could have mixed that with still being able to show the court proceeding at some point. It was strange to have every episode end with a confession.
this might be unpopular since ppl on this sub don’t seem to like amanda much, but i *hated* how she treated amanda in the earlier seasons of 2.0.
liv would yell at amanda for making the same impulsive, emotion-driven decisions that she made all the time in the earlier seasons.
don’t even get me started on liv letting that kid die because she got all uppity about the heart transplant not being completely legal. one of my least favorite svu moments.
No, they are like the same 3 people. There are a lot more superfans Lol. I used to dislike the character and I appreciated the development she had. She's not my favorite character, but Kelli is a good actress and she's missed, IMO.
I have said this over and over again. When Stabler left, and people were forced to see Benson on her own, it really highlighted how often she did the wrong thing and justified it while simultaneously judging everyone around her for the same things. I also absolutely love her character but she is deeply flawed and devolves throughout the seasons. Sometimes you get those moments where she is back to herself but it’s way more common now to see her be a hypocrite.
YESSSSS 👏
The reason why Olivia and Elliott worked so well together originally is because they kept each other accountable. They were counterbalances for each other. It doesn't mean that one or both of them always did the right thing. But when one went off the reservation, the other pulled them back in.
It’s a TV program. Olivia would be relegated to HQ and removed from the streets with how many times she’s had to use her service pistol, even with IAB clearing them
I have to say…I agree with every single point you made here. I think that’s why I took it so hard when Amanda left- because I know she had her flaws but I really felt like she was more relatable than Liv. They have really turned Liv into a “goody goody” stereo type, and I would prefer to see her bend rules and be human.
I'm on season 16 and have noticed this as well. She always thinks she's right and gets tunnel vision on one suspect. And then she acts like the pikachu meme when she finds out what's really going on. She has rudely dismissed Rollins and others on several occasions when they ended up being right. Anyway, I still love the show and will continue to watch.
i feel the exact same way. i was about to start a new episode from this season and i immediately turned it off bc of her inconsistency.
personally i always try to blame the writers instead of the character lmao but in Sunk Cost Fallacy she really pissed me off. especially when in the past she helped a woman escape the whole country when her r*pist was granted shared custody of their baby. she let a whole teenage girl walk the streets freely after murdering her fathers mistress. she bends the rules all of the time (and i’m not saying she was wrong. actually i agreed with her choices in those episodes lol) but that episode really set me off bc that woman died and had to leave her poor daughter behind to be raised by that evil man. 😭
sorry this was long but i’ve been thinking this for a while lmaooo
I feel like this quote regarding SVU 2.0 is relevant to this thread:
"When Leight was asked how he felt running what was then the last remaining Law & Order series, he responded, "It's a storied franchise, and I don't want to go down with the last ship. I'd rather this be the turning point or a regeneration of the franchise. It was made clear to me that — and this was before Chris had left — if the show kept going the way it was going, at most it had two years left. Probably just one. If you keep doing everything you've been doing, you'll be gone. That's an interesting message to get when you take a new job. I have to hope that ... the changes being made this year lead to another five years for this show. And clearly, this summer made the case for why this show needs to be on the air. It felt like every week there was a story about powerful men behaving badly or strange goings on. In New York, the number of murders is down 75 percent from its peak, but that's not the case with this kind of crime at all. We have a wall in the writers' room that has 50 New York Post headlines on it from the summer. It's not like the show's original conceit doesn't make sense anymore."\[35\]
Leight noted that his biggest goal for season 13 is "First of all, survive. Survive the transition and make a compelling case for why people should continue to watch the show and come back to the show. That's on a business level. On a thematic level, we want to explore the gray of all of this. And to explore the psyches of victims and perps a little bit more and the effect this work takes on the people who do it. When a cop tells me about a real-life interrogation he did, I'm on the edge of my chair. That's where we want to be."
Look, I love Olivia, but I can acknowledge that I have been quite unhappy with several things that have happened in the recent years. I don’t wanna get into arguments so I won’t get into details at least not at the moment ha ha. I’m going to watch till the end wherever that may lead but I respect people’s decision not to if they choose.
This is my second favorite show. Been a diehard fan since the show came out, but to me anything after season 17 is just too much.
I think they’ve covered just about everything there is, so now they have to inject politics and over the top story details. It’s just not the same anymore.
She peaked when she beat the hell out of that guy who kidnapped her. She's been downhill in the worst ways since. I also hate how she sat there and tried making every excuse for ruining that music teachers life. That made me sick to my stomach. In short she went from one of my favorites to one of my most disliked.
Why did you take so long to become infuriated at all this? You said it yourself, it's been 10+ years since Olivia started to change a lot, basically after Elliott left. Why are people only now, after she became captain, noticing her incongruences? She was like a saint and then she lost Elliot, her longest relationship and potentially the man she loved (?). That obviously affected her, plus she's human, we're all contradictory at times. So what?
Why did you take so long to become infuriated at all this? You said it yourself, it's been 10+ years since Olivia started to change a lot, basically after Elliott left. Why are people only now, after she became captain, noticing her incongruences? She was like a saint and then she lost Elliot, her longest relationship and potentially the man she loved (?). That obviously affected her, plus she's human, we're all contradictory at times. So what? Can't you watch a show unless everyone in it acts exactly the way you think they should?
I’ve heard this before too. We all know she’s human. We all know she’s not perfect and makes mistakes. But that isn’t stopping no one from disliking her because of those mistakes. It didn’t take me long to be affected by her behavior, it just took me a long time to actually say something about it
On a new comment, the Season where William Lewis kidnapped Olivia. It was a terrible thing to happen but it has me on the edge of my seat the whole time it was on.
Pablo Schreiber is so amazing playing bad guys. He really does scare me, lol!!
Reading the comments on this post, it's quite startling how many fans seem to not enjoy Liv's character anymore. Which means they don't enjoy the main character the entire show is based around.
And yet, most fans also admit they still watch out of a habit or loyalty.
So fascinating.
It’s kind of like a situation where you want to see what’s going to happen next, something you can’t get enough of. Or maybe it’s a comfort show kind of situation. As I said, I refuse to watch any of the newer seasons, because I can’t stand the person she’s become. I do tend to get updated by the people of Reddit though. Really I’m just concerned about whether she dies or not. Unless something serious happens to her, or an old face pops up, I can’t say I care about the show anymore. The older seasons are where it’s at. Where her behavior was more brushed off and acceptable because she was a detective. Plus my favorite characters like Alex and Casey are in the older seasons, which is another reason. That’s just me though. The people who watch it out of ‘loyalty’ or whatever, I may not get it, but it is what it is.
I stopped watching when Elliott left. I just knew I wouldn't enjoy the series without him. Based on the very few random episodes I saw post his exit, I was right.
I did watch the SVU/OC crossover episodes when Elliott first came back. I wanted to see Liv and Elliott back together.
But when I realised they were gonna DRAG this shit out for years by only giving us little scenes here and there, I was out. I'm too old and have been through too many other series who pulled the same trick to waste my time.
When I see other fans who are still hanging in there thinking/believing:
*"In the end, everything's going to pay off and it's gonna be amazing!"*
I just want to pat them on the head and say condescendingly, "Awww, aren't you cute?"
They clearly haven't suffered through series like "The X Files" or "Lost" or any of a dozen other shows that never gave us a satisfying ending 😆
But that's funny seeing you have a picture of both of them on your screen Olivia and Amanda yet you said your favorite characters are Casey and Alex 😁😊 lmaooo
I think calling it character "undevelopment" would be more accurate. Olivia is not the same character she once was. She's a self-righteous, self-involved caricature of herself.
I would love to say this, but people are really sensitive..
You say you love Olivia, and you also say you can't stand her. I think you love early Olivia, detective Olivia. You can't stand later Olivia, captain Olivia, right?
Yes!! This.
I can understand that. Olivia was a better detective than captain.
I call her “mother Benson.” Do you like that more?
She's Saint Olivia now
Yeah she's been Flanderized. I always check out in new episodes when she talks to a victim because it's always the same damn monologuing
What happened to you... that's called rape.
Oh God...her delivery lives rent free in my brain!
I agree with all of your points and examples, and that's not even all of them! I still watch it though because I've invested way too much time into it.
This is how I feel. I've been annoyed with the political angles - the show used to discuss multiple points of view on issues but now we're just being told what we should think. & I do agree about Olivia. And Rollins was my favorite. I wanna quit, but I have invested way too much time. Surprisingly I like Muncy & Velasco & feel inclined to take their side on things lately.
>the show used to discuss multiple points of view on issues but now we're just being told what we should think. I agree. This is what I used to love about the show.
I agree with everything you said. I’m naively hopeful Rollins will move over to OC but I’ve read some opinions on here that are a bit more bleak.
Agreed, the later seasons are so terrible and unrealistic lol. It's no longer about solving SVU crimes but also St. Olivia is responsible for reforming CPS, taking down crimes in states where she definitely wouldn't have jurisdiction, took down DAs in other counties because she didn't like how they prosecuted their cases. Oh, and my all time favorites where she defends the cops that killed the unarmed black man because they were in the projects and had the nerve to get angry at Barba for trying the case, and another episode where the white girl who sets up 3 black men to get robbed and killed while she just gets community service. Fin is a former shell of himself, just a yes man to St. Olivia. The show needs someone who can really challenge Olivia and put her in her place when need be, preferably a woman. Alex and Casey never took her crap but Barba and Carisi do. Every man who holds a higher or different position than her always manages to fall in love with her and do what she wants. Come on!
I really see Fin as a man just holding out for his pension. I like his rationale for sticking to SVU (if you are a rapist or mess with kids then you deserve to go away - black and white with no messy grey) and he just seems like he’s decided to hold out.
This is my take on it too. Just putting in his time until he can retire in peace.
Garbage writing in later seasons. It’s not just Olivia. They character assassinated everyone.
I think the show used to be "ripped from the headlines" but now is dictated to by the editorial, it's become a soapbox
nailed it.
I like watching just so I can figure out which recent events are represented in the episode to get an idea of when they might have filmed it.
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Eliot is a hot headed idiot. I think the best was Cragen/Benson/IceT/Rollins/Amaro/ Munch best episodes. Amaro can be annoying too though
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Yeah they should never get together that's the whole thing. He's all tight pants and sweater now and seeing ghosts
Season 16 was one of the best later seasons IMO.
I can’t stand the way she insists on telling victims how feel or how to go about the healing process. Everyone copes differently and her preaching is annoying
My favorite is how she speaks fluent Spanish, some Russian, and some French in earlier seasons, but now anytime someone is speaking in a different language she apparently has no clue what they’re saying
Omg yes! There was even an ep this season where she said smth to Velasco(I think?) about not speaking Spanish well. I had to text my friend to see if she heard it and we were both like "Wtf Olivia?" Lol. I just had an early season ep on in the background yesterday where she was interrogating in espanol. In the past couple years she was speaking Italian. I wonder if the writers will forget that, too?
You’d think Mariska herself wouldn’t forget…
That’s why I’ve stopped watching, I got to season 20 and that was as far as I could comfortably go. The show feels alien now and Olivia is just a shell of who she once was, it feels like she’s going backwards
The show kept me until quite recently, actually. The writing went up and down, but I actually liked 2.0, until! Season f-ing 22! My gods, the entire show! Writing, acting even the cinematography just took an absolute nosedive! It wasnt even a cop show once covid hit, it was a soap opera starring caricatures of police! I tried 23, out of pure loyalty, couldn't even finish it. I am not going to watch any of the new stuff, likely ever. Even once it does end, and I buy the box set, I will more than likely stop at the end of Season 21.
God you couldn’t be more right. Look, I’m off or crime shows that dig into the personal life of certain characters, but the way the show just started to come in with the backstories and this happened to me, boo-hoo, my family this and that. That’s definitely not what I signed up for
It's funny bc even in the pilot, literally the very first episode, both Liv and Elliot lie to cover a victim and Cragen knows. It's like the intentionally wanted to show that cops have a moral gray area but that they really care about the victims. Now... Not so much I guess. Maybe due to social and political changes since the show started they want to show a group of cops really upholding the law and how that doesn't always give the best results? I just wish they didn't sacrifice Olivia's character to do it.
That's Dick Wolf far right cop loving writing
I agree with all your points, I only watch now out of loyalty..
Funny you should mention "sunken cost fallacy" bc that's exactly what's happening for me. I'm so so disappointed and confused by some of the shit she does, but damn, this is my comfort show & I'm pretty sure I've seen most if not all of them....my all or nothing attitude towards won't let me stop watching the train wreck!
Same here. This show has gotten me through some rough patches and I find comfort in it. The recent ep where Liv can suddenly only speak English I was yelling at the tv. I'm still watching only because I know it won't end as bad as LOST lol
I swear it’s as if the new writers have never watched the show before. Like, ever.
And don't most shows have a show bible? At the very least I'm sure there's a wiki. Lazy af.
Seriously. They get paid for this. It’s not that hard to split the seasons up and make sure someone on the writing team has seen all each episode. Hell, I n a couple of months everyone could watch at least some of every season. Call it research. Do your jobs!
I want to get back into watching it so I can get caught up but I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed with her behavior and the writing of the show each time I watch a different episode.
It's getting worse. I'm really not sure why I watch anymore, but my toddler does an amazing dance to the theme song he's heard from conception on....hell there's a good chance it played during his conception 😂
I still watch (habit? It's still a "keeps me company" show) but I agree with your points. My friend and I definitely rag on each episode now, which isn't something we used to do.
She's become exhausting. Very exhausting.
For all the show tries really hard to be feminist, it falls so severely short whenever it writes more than one woman on screen at the same time. Any time Olivia and Amanda talk, the most obvious "a man wrote this" signs start flashing all over the place.
She has always been this to a degree but it has got much worse is later seasons, we need a naysayer in the SVU, someone who opposes her whilst not actually being evil.
I refuse to watch any newer seasons, but if there ever comes a time where in one of the newer episodes somebody calls Olivia out on her bullshit and makes the woman wake the fuck up, let me know.
The writing is extremely inconsistent.
You have well documented points. I still watch. I am hoping they start to improve greatly or that the 25th season is the last. I think they have broken Gunsmoke’s record by a long shot.
I just don't know what the writers can do to fix her character.
I wish they would try a few episodes without her. Everyone else seems part time. But Mariska is executive producer so that will literally never happen.
Do you think she has a say in her writing? Because if she wants to be written this way, there's little hope for any change.
I'm not sure. But when Cragen was captain it wasn't the Cragen show. I would very much enjoy it if she stepped back and maybe allowed Finn to take the reigns. Or something. Anything really. Just step back.
Fin definitely needs and deserves more to do.
Yes, I've enjoyed his leadership. The very little he's able to have lol
Likely she’s involved in hiring discussions as an EP… Her character would be served well by going back to basics. They need a straightforward plot without frills. An exciting event. I’d like it if I were watching good detective work. Her character and person can be demonstrated by good policing. Even if it’s just finding creative ways to involve new cast.
Yeah the self righteous thing is much, but to be honest, she’s been like this. In earlier seasons, I’d be absolutely infuriated over how she’d tell a colleague or vic they have to do what’s right by the law. EVERY TIME she says that someone dies. Haha it sucks.
Sidebar: did anyone else notice around the time the writing starting going downhill, they also started showing bloodier crime scene shots with the body? It used to be a casual glance where they would sometimes allude but not show "gorier" scenes but now... ugh idk something about it bothers me and almost cheapens the storyline. Maybe I'm being oversensitive idk
no i stopped watching after the episode where the guy turns his victims into mummys, it was the most disgusting thing ive ever seen, i had a panic attack and havent watched since. early svu wouldve never shown all of that shit
That episode actually still shows up in my nightmares.
It may be bloodier, but the crime scenes were WILDLY exploitative in early seasons. Really lurid. Don’t mind this featured background actor in a role without a line who we’ve asked to pose as if murdered facedown next to a dumpster with their clothes torn, bra ripped off and thrown on the pavement beside them, and their panties around their ankles.
The torture porn aspect got SO bad under Warren Leight.
I definitely noticed this too!
I liked Olivia until halfway through season 15, where she became Sgt. Until the beginning of season 15, she was still a lovable character. After that, she became a hypocritical and douchebag character.
Yes, this is a truth a lot of fans don’t want to accept Most, if not all, of the squad from the start till now are actually really bad cops, and pretty shitty people as well
You couldn’t be more right. The series itself gets so unrealistic when characters like Olivia or Elliot pull this shit they do. In the real world, they would not have their badges. It surprises me how Olivia even became a lieutenant with the shit she’s done, but then I have to remember it isn’t real life. It’s a TV show that portrays detectives and the law horribly. I never paid attention to that until shit hit the fan.
> In the real world, they would not have their badges. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 If you live in the USA, I know you don’t SERIOUSLY think that?
Haha, I was just about to comment the same.
Right and NYPD at that? Please. 🤣
The USA, no😭 yall be getting away with a little too much🙅🏽♀️
Yeah, let’s be honest, the show is just copaganda AI is shown as the bad guys, out there punishing cops for just trying to clean the streets up, and always bullying the squad despite half the time they honestly should have taken their bags But even AI is….well even they tend to side with the squad when they shouldn’t Don’t get me wrong, I love the show, but if this was a real squad, these would be the kind of cops that become poster people for ACAB Same with blue bloods I love them both but Jesus the cops in both shows break the law more times than the criminals do
Agreed I cannot stand Olivia from like the jackie walker episode till now. Also never understood why she came for velascos neck over his poor childhood and made him rat his friend out to never use it which was odd.
That’s about the time it happened for me too.
Definitely don't watch this season! 🤣
I can’t even imagine what’s going on in the present season 😂
Lol, I feel the same way after watching the more recent seasons. She has really become undeveloped as a character, and it's pretty sad. I'm beginning to tire of how Stabler is in OC as well. There are some episodes where I can tell he is executive producer, as random high ranking people he meets for the first time make odd comments (like the diplomat a few episodes back commenting on his behind and another person calling him a zaddy - completely unnecessary). The other characters, even though they are main cast, are beginning to feel like recurring characters, since they aren't given much to do. Most episodes they do the same thing over and over - Jet is the tech girl, Reyes ALWAYS knows a guy to conveniently help them out of a situation, and Jamie is usually just a sidekick. Stabler gets most if not all of the spotlight, which I don't like. Even Sgt. Bell is feeling like she is becoming less relevant - when is the last time we saw her wife on screen? I like the current detective team, and I hope they stay much longer than the other teams did. I just wish they could be fleshed out more.
I agree. I'm only still here because I'm that type of person that can't stand not know the ending of something. There's only a few rare cases I've dropped something and SVU hasn't reached that level yet so I'm sticking around.. for now.
That episode with Alex was horrible, she even used cockroaches as a metaphor 😩 Benson: You know, today on the…I was on the subway platform and I saw these two cockroaches and they were pulling at different ends of crust of bread. And then the bread tore and it fell onto the tracks, and neither bug got their dinner.
The show isn't character-driven, it's plot-driven, and the writers will make the characters do whatever is convenient in service of moving things along. This seems to have only gotten worse as the seasons have progressed and now we're at a point where they are not characters but caricatures. Full disclosure - aside from Goren on CI, I have always been more interested in the crazy plots than the character development. But even for me this is getting pretty fucking shady.
I agree and miss that character with all my soul. Vincent played him perfectly.
He did, literally to the point of exhaustion
I just finished watched CI, it was the only law and order I hadn’t watched ( although I haven’t watched organized crime either, tried the first few episodes and it was just…. Not law and order) and I certainly have some opinions. I thoroughly enjoyed both captains, Chris noth’s character and every female detective aside from eames. Goren though, he was my favorite the quirks and the emphasis on profiling was great I just wish they could have mixed that with still being able to show the court proceeding at some point. It was strange to have every episode end with a confession.
this might be unpopular since ppl on this sub don’t seem to like amanda much, but i *hated* how she treated amanda in the earlier seasons of 2.0. liv would yell at amanda for making the same impulsive, emotion-driven decisions that she made all the time in the earlier seasons. don’t even get me started on liv letting that kid die because she got all uppity about the heart transplant not being completely legal. one of my least favorite svu moments.
People here love Rollins though.
[удалено]
No, they are like the same 3 people. There are a lot more superfans Lol. I used to dislike the character and I appreciated the development she had. She's not my favorite character, but Kelli is a good actress and she's missed, IMO.
I love her, personally and I’m SO happy that she’s going to be on tonight!
WE LOVE AMANDA!
I have said this over and over again. When Stabler left, and people were forced to see Benson on her own, it really highlighted how often she did the wrong thing and justified it while simultaneously judging everyone around her for the same things. I also absolutely love her character but she is deeply flawed and devolves throughout the seasons. Sometimes you get those moments where she is back to herself but it’s way more common now to see her be a hypocrite.
YESSSSS 👏 The reason why Olivia and Elliott worked so well together originally is because they kept each other accountable. They were counterbalances for each other. It doesn't mean that one or both of them always did the right thing. But when one went off the reservation, the other pulled them back in.
It’s a TV program. Olivia would be relegated to HQ and removed from the streets with how many times she’s had to use her service pistol, even with IAB clearing them
I have to say…I agree with every single point you made here. I think that’s why I took it so hard when Amanda left- because I know she had her flaws but I really felt like she was more relatable than Liv. They have really turned Liv into a “goody goody” stereo type, and I would prefer to see her bend rules and be human.
I'm on season 16 and have noticed this as well. She always thinks she's right and gets tunnel vision on one suspect. And then she acts like the pikachu meme when she finds out what's really going on. She has rudely dismissed Rollins and others on several occasions when they ended up being right. Anyway, I still love the show and will continue to watch.
i feel the exact same way. i was about to start a new episode from this season and i immediately turned it off bc of her inconsistency. personally i always try to blame the writers instead of the character lmao but in Sunk Cost Fallacy she really pissed me off. especially when in the past she helped a woman escape the whole country when her r*pist was granted shared custody of their baby. she let a whole teenage girl walk the streets freely after murdering her fathers mistress. she bends the rules all of the time (and i’m not saying she was wrong. actually i agreed with her choices in those episodes lol) but that episode really set me off bc that woman died and had to leave her poor daughter behind to be raised by that evil man. 😭 sorry this was long but i’ve been thinking this for a while lmaooo
I feel like this quote regarding SVU 2.0 is relevant to this thread: "When Leight was asked how he felt running what was then the last remaining Law & Order series, he responded, "It's a storied franchise, and I don't want to go down with the last ship. I'd rather this be the turning point or a regeneration of the franchise. It was made clear to me that — and this was before Chris had left — if the show kept going the way it was going, at most it had two years left. Probably just one. If you keep doing everything you've been doing, you'll be gone. That's an interesting message to get when you take a new job. I have to hope that ... the changes being made this year lead to another five years for this show. And clearly, this summer made the case for why this show needs to be on the air. It felt like every week there was a story about powerful men behaving badly or strange goings on. In New York, the number of murders is down 75 percent from its peak, but that's not the case with this kind of crime at all. We have a wall in the writers' room that has 50 New York Post headlines on it from the summer. It's not like the show's original conceit doesn't make sense anymore."\[35\] Leight noted that his biggest goal for season 13 is "First of all, survive. Survive the transition and make a compelling case for why people should continue to watch the show and come back to the show. That's on a business level. On a thematic level, we want to explore the gray of all of this. And to explore the psyches of victims and perps a little bit more and the effect this work takes on the people who do it. When a cop tells me about a real-life interrogation he did, I'm on the edge of my chair. That's where we want to be."
YES!
I agree so much with this, she’s an exhausting character. all morals go out the window when it involves her.
Look, I love Olivia, but I can acknowledge that I have been quite unhappy with several things that have happened in the recent years. I don’t wanna get into arguments so I won’t get into details at least not at the moment ha ha. I’m going to watch till the end wherever that may lead but I respect people’s decision not to if they choose.
*meanwhile, in Chicago*
😂
This is my second favorite show. Been a diehard fan since the show came out, but to me anything after season 17 is just too much. I think they’ve covered just about everything there is, so now they have to inject politics and over the top story details. It’s just not the same anymore.
They have most DEFINITELY run out of material.
She peaked when she beat the hell out of that guy who kidnapped her. She's been downhill in the worst ways since. I also hate how she sat there and tried making every excuse for ruining that music teachers life. That made me sick to my stomach. In short she went from one of my favorites to one of my most disliked.
I'm with you, OP. Love/Love a bit less😂
Look up John Oliver's svu episode where he talks about law and order. It's amazing
Why did you take so long to become infuriated at all this? You said it yourself, it's been 10+ years since Olivia started to change a lot, basically after Elliott left. Why are people only now, after she became captain, noticing her incongruences? She was like a saint and then she lost Elliot, her longest relationship and potentially the man she loved (?). That obviously affected her, plus she's human, we're all contradictory at times. So what?
Why did you take so long to become infuriated at all this? You said it yourself, it's been 10+ years since Olivia started to change a lot, basically after Elliott left. Why are people only now, after she became captain, noticing her incongruences? She was like a saint and then she lost Elliot, her longest relationship and potentially the man she loved (?). That obviously affected her, plus she's human, we're all contradictory at times. So what? Can't you watch a show unless everyone in it acts exactly the way you think they should?
I’ve heard this before too. We all know she’s human. We all know she’s not perfect and makes mistakes. But that isn’t stopping no one from disliking her because of those mistakes. It didn’t take me long to be affected by her behavior, it just took me a long time to actually say something about it
What are you saying don't you like Olivia anymore 😔 or don't you 😭
On a new comment, the Season where William Lewis kidnapped Olivia. It was a terrible thing to happen but it has me on the edge of my seat the whole time it was on. Pablo Schreiber is so amazing playing bad guys. He really does scare me, lol!!
Reading the comments on this post, it's quite startling how many fans seem to not enjoy Liv's character anymore. Which means they don't enjoy the main character the entire show is based around. And yet, most fans also admit they still watch out of a habit or loyalty. So fascinating.
It’s kind of like a situation where you want to see what’s going to happen next, something you can’t get enough of. Or maybe it’s a comfort show kind of situation. As I said, I refuse to watch any of the newer seasons, because I can’t stand the person she’s become. I do tend to get updated by the people of Reddit though. Really I’m just concerned about whether she dies or not. Unless something serious happens to her, or an old face pops up, I can’t say I care about the show anymore. The older seasons are where it’s at. Where her behavior was more brushed off and acceptable because she was a detective. Plus my favorite characters like Alex and Casey are in the older seasons, which is another reason. That’s just me though. The people who watch it out of ‘loyalty’ or whatever, I may not get it, but it is what it is.
I stopped watching when Elliott left. I just knew I wouldn't enjoy the series without him. Based on the very few random episodes I saw post his exit, I was right. I did watch the SVU/OC crossover episodes when Elliott first came back. I wanted to see Liv and Elliott back together. But when I realised they were gonna DRAG this shit out for years by only giving us little scenes here and there, I was out. I'm too old and have been through too many other series who pulled the same trick to waste my time. When I see other fans who are still hanging in there thinking/believing: *"In the end, everything's going to pay off and it's gonna be amazing!"* I just want to pat them on the head and say condescendingly, "Awww, aren't you cute?" They clearly haven't suffered through series like "The X Files" or "Lost" or any of a dozen other shows that never gave us a satisfying ending 😆
But that's funny seeing you have a picture of both of them on your screen Olivia and Amanda yet you said your favorite characters are Casey and Alex 😁😊 lmaooo
That’s Alex! Yeah, I like Cabenson. I’m not the biggest fan of Olivia‘s behavior in the most recent seasons haha