Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: Law & Order: SVU

Law & Order: SVU Showrunner on Benson/Stabler, S28 Squad Pairings

NBC's Law & Order: SVU Showrunner Michele Fazekas offered an interesting response when asked about Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler reuniting.

NBC's Mariska Hargitay-starring and executive-producing Law & Order: SVU Showrunner Michele Fazekas has been doing a nice job of rolling out some very interesting insights and teases about what Season 28 has to offer when it debuts on October 8th. Previously, Fazekas touched on how Capt. Olivia Benson (Hargitay) will start dealing with having been on the job for nearly three decades, and how old attitudes regarding sexual assault continue to be as much of a problem as ever (more on that in a minute). During the Season 28 premiere, Fazekas revealed that Olivia will name-drop none other than Det. Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni), noting how he would be willing to choose violence in certain situations.

After reassuring fans that Olivia won't be going down that route ("Obviously, Benson's not going to do that"), Fazekas was asked the ten-ton follow-up questions. With Olivia dropping a Stabler reference – and with Law & Order: Organized Crime no longer in play – can viewers expect a Stabler appearance this season? "I'm not going to say anything about that right now," Fazekas replied, going the noncommittal route. What the showrunner did share was who would be paired up with whom squad-wise this season ("That being said, I still like to mix things up"): Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), and Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) and Det. Jake "Griff" Griffin (Corey Cott).

"Benson is the boss, so when she's despairing or disillusioned, you're not going to really talk to your employees, the people who are your subordinates, because as much as she's friends with them and she's friends with Rollins [Kelli Giddish], as a good manager, you're not going to do that," Fazekas explained to TV Insider regarding the addition of J. Smith-Cameron's (Elsbeth, Murdaugh: Death in the Family) jury consultant Gwen Sharpe to the cast. "So, I like giving her somebody who's very, very experienced in a different way, who she can sort of have these conversations with. So J. Smith-Cameron is coming in, she's great." Smith-Cameron's Sharpe couldn't arrive on the scene soon enough, with Olivia beginning to process just how long she's been on the job and what she's experienced.

"What I got interested in this season was somewhat inspired by the case that we are doing in the first episode, which is a case that really highlights as far as we have come in the investigation of sex crimes and in how we as a society view sexual assault and how we define sexual assault; in some ways we're still back 30 years ago," Fazekas said. "It's a case that is really kind of disheartening for Benson. And she ends up sort of saying like, 'Oh, in some ways, yes, nothing has changed.' I wanted to see what she does with that, and so how does Benson push against her own boundaries?"

Fazekas continued, "How does Benson push further to get justice and even sort of challenge her own ideas of what is ethical and what is the right thing to do? How far will she go to get justice? I like playing with those boundaries and pushing against them because it is a little bit of being, not despair so much, but certainly disillusioned as you can be with the justice system when things seem to be so stacked against you. I like putting her in that spot and seeing what she does with it."

Created by Emmy Award-winning producer Dick Wolf, NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) is the longest-running primetime drama in American television history. Heading into its 28th season on NBC, this hard-hitting and emotional series chronicles the lives of the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, an elite squad of detectives who investigate crimes of sexual assault, child abuse, and domestic violence.

Mariska Hargitay, Ice T, Peter Scanavino, Kelli Giddish, Kevin Kane, and Aimé Donna Kelly star. Dick Wolf, Michele Fazekas, Mariska Hargitay, Kenneth Brown, and Peter Jankowski executive produce. NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.

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