Saturday, January 7, 2012

Chris Meloni is NOT Replaced on 'Law & Order: SVU'

Everyone's got an opinion, and that's fine. 1st Amendment, Freedom of Speech/Religion/Opinion. I'm not trying to shut people (L&O: SVU Elliot Stabler/Christopher Meloni fans) up... but I am trying to stop people from judging Law & Order: SVU as it is now without watching it (more than 2 episodes in season 13).
Chris Meloni portrayed Detective Elliot Stabler since the series premiered in 1999, he left after season 12. Stabler shot a young girl in the sqaud room (episode "Smoked") and chose to quit in season 13 (episode "Scorched Earth").
People are quick to judge the show now without former lead Christopher Meloni aka "Stabler". Mimicry here: "I ain't watching SVU anymore. No Stabler, No Me. Hope SVU is canceled." Yeah, I follow the Twitter/Facebook feeds, you know who you are. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is not, "The Christopher Meloni/Elliot Stable" Show, it never was, even if the writing suggested it (thanks a lot Neal Baer, but he can't be totally blamed, he gave SVU some of it's best episodes in the earlier seasons).

Law & Order: SVU is about showing how detectives in the actual NYPD Special Victims Unit investigate some of the most shocking and brutal crimes - sex related crimes - and how those detectives interact with the district attorney's office and the Assistant DA's who prosecute these obviously careless offenders. It's not about one certain detective, it never was. All the Law & Order's from their inception have had casting changes, and expect them. (Even Law & Order: Trial by Jury and Law & Order: LA had cast changes in their first and only seasons).

Danny Pino (left) and Kelli Giddish (right) in the episode "Double Strands". They joined the cast of Law & Order: SVU as Detectives Nick Amaro and Amanda Rollins.
Danny Pino ("Cold Case") and Kelli Giddish ("Chase") - Detectives Nicholas "Nick" Amaro and Amanda Rollins - are NOT coming to SVU to replace Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay, they are there to be another set of detectives in the squad room with Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Fin Tutuola (Ice-T) being the lead detectives, and this season Sargeant John Munch (Richard Belzer) and Captain Don Cragen (Dann Florek) sharing the commanding officer duties. Pino and Giddish have slowly but surely warmed up to me, they ARE NOT Meloni and Hargitay, but if Mariska was to leave (God forbid, she's said she's staying with the show for now) I think I could watch them be the lead team.

Chris Meloni CHOSE to opt out of his contract, he CHOSE NOT to return. Sad as that is (I liked Stabler too) it's life, and life goes on. He's going to be in the 5th season of HBO's "True Blood". Meloni wanted to do other projects, he's portrayed angry Elliot Stabler for 12 years, he deserves a break! Will Meloni return to close out Stabler? - I hope so, but I'm not going to go all over the Internet and bitch and beg about it! If Meloni was fired, maybe, but Meloni left ON HIS OWN!

It's time to watch SVU go into the future. Bob Greenblatt has said; NBC's had "a bad fall" (he is to blame from canceling Law & Order: LA and not trying to revive it or the original flagship Law & Order). SVU is one of NBC's highest right now (which says something). We ALL (Stabler/Huang fans) need to support SVU, we need to see it get renewed on NBC for the next 20 years (not exaggerating).

I understand watching the show to see your favorite actor/actress, but if the show was that good with them and is still that good without them (thank you Warren Leight), why on Earth would you stop watching?! I know FOR A FACT that Chris Meloni wouldn't want fans to stop watching Law & Order: SVU JUST because he left! I used to watch CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for William Petersen's Grissom, I watched CSI after he left, but after he left; CSI's new writers didn't capture the same "pizzazz" the show used to have, to this day I can't stand to watch CSI or CSI: Miami.

But come on everyone, let's be a little smarter than this. I can't force people to watch, but I'm not going to sit idly by and let people not watching SVU bad mouth it because Stabler is out. And yeah, I hope NBC renews Law & Order: SVU season 14 (and more), they'd be even more foolish not to.
We've all heard the rule: "If you don't have something nice to say about someone, don't say it at all." Don't bad mouth the new SVU if you're not even watching it.

Everyone who's watching knows Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Wednesdays 10/9c on NBC.

4 comments:

Helennn Louise said...

THIS.

I, due to being British, am behind on the seasons as we're only getting season nine right now - sucks, right? But I, obviously, have been aware of this hype and it really irritates me!

I do, however, agree with you on the CSI spiel. It did die after Grissom's departure and, to me anyway, became the Ray Langston show which was annoying but seriously, Ted Danson has brought it back so if you were interested I'd suggest watching season 12.

Cass said...

agree 100%

people keep blowing up warren leight and all the svu people on twitter about chris meloni/stabler and they say they won't watch svu.

its stupid! i can't believe how many people are so selfish, the show wasn't about meloni and his family issues. the issues the show covers got blured with that.

i'm gonna watch svu until nbc does something stupid like canceling it. hope it stays on tv. mariska kicking ass this season.

but as for csi, it's still bad. ted danson tries, but it's still a shadow of its former self. i still watch svu wednesdays

Jasmine Gomez said...

Thank God someone said it! Seeing people black out on NBC and the SVU staff about Meloni's departure started to get so annoying. I am upset that he left, but I am very pleased with this season so far. I mean who knows, he could always return for one episode to give Stabler some closure. Either way, life does go on and it's time for people to stop complaining about what can't be fixed. Yeah, Mariska and Chris made the show with their awesome work as partners, but it's not about them. True SVU fans will stick with the show no matter what.

Amanda said...

You're right. SVU is a great show with great actors. A team. It can't be resumed as one actor. I'm a big fan. Of course we get upset with Meloni's leave, but still is a awesome show and deserves respect for all these years on tv and crew.