I first started watching Law and Order Special Victims Unit whenI happened to be channel surfing one Friday night. I like my crime dramas especially the American ones so thoguht I would watch and see how it turned out. I have been hooked ever since.
I recently decided to get the first series and initially watching it was a bit strange as I am so used to the current team but after watching all of it, I liked it.
The team in the current set-up comprises, Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson who are the main detectives, with back-up from Detectives Munch and Cassidy - and a femal detective whose name I confess I never ever caught as she plays a very minor role. There captain is Captain Creegan. The team is set up to deal with sex crimes and are termed the Sex Crimes Unit, albeit I know in later series that becomes Special Victims.
The story behind Benson and Stabler is this :-
Benson was conceived when her mother was raped and although it is not explicitly stated, it seems clear that this is why she wanted to get into the unit. There are occasional references and you can definitely see she is always for the victim and finds it hard to dissociate herself with that.
Stabler is a family mand with a wife and 4 kids, three of whom are girls. A lot of the first series, or at least the first few episodes show Stabler in this role and how his job effects his family relations e.g. he catches his eldest daughter sneaking in late one night and goes mad because of course he knows what can happen to young girls out late at night, or after the brutal rape and murder of a young boy, he gets panicked when his young son isnt sitting with the rest of the family but is playing ball with the older boys.
As you can imagine the storylines centre around rape and sexual assault victims or crimes with a sexual element. For the main part, the writers do a very good job of coming up with different storylines but occasioanlly you do feel it is simply written to a sort of step by step guide.
In the background to all this, is the District Attorneys office. They are there mainly to play minor parts revolving round getting enough evidence for a warrant etc.
The acting is believable but the two main detectives Benson and Stabler are I would say better than the rest. I also believe that an episode in one of the later series won a TV award.
All in all, SVU is a good series and I will certainly be watching the second box set. My main complaint though is the cheesy music and scenes for the opening credits but thankfully I already know that they do away with this further down the line.