Law & Order: SVU: Season 2

Over the years television has embraced the crime drama depicting the exploits for brilliant detectives as they solve homicides, robberies and other assorted crimes. Now, with the growing popularity of series shown on premium cable series broadcast television has found that it must push the envelope with more adult themes in order to compete. This trend lead to one of the finest police dramas on television, Law & Order and subsequently, an even more adult oriented spin off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. This series, as everyone not living in a hole in the desert must know, is about a small group of detectives whose purpose is to investigate crimes of either a sexual nature or those involved with children. Working from a Manhattan precinct offers a wide variety of cases for the squad, there is nothing like mid town New York City for the strange and unusual. In the second season now available of DVD the basic setup has already been established and a fan base created so the producers were now free to explore the lives of the detectives in greater detail. This season helped to establish the strain that these kinds of cases have on the individual and how they often interfere with the normal pursuits of a life outside of work. In real life assignment to this type of unit typically results in a transfer after only a few years, it is an incredibly demanding and emotional work and this series does proper credit to those brave enough to take it on.

The man in charge of the unit is Captain Donald Cragen is played by Dann Florek who continues the role he created on the original Law & Order. It is his job to maintain balance with his detectives while making sure the cases are solved in a legal fashion. His two lead detectives are Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her partner Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). Benson father had raped her mother so often she over identifies with the victims of rape. Stabler is a family man with a wife and four children including a teenaged daughter Maureen (Erin Broderick). Work and home life collide in the season opener when Maureen witnesses a man murdered and set on fire. Stable has to make every attempt at working this as any other case but he is a passionate man who loves his family and wants to get the person that put his daughter through such a horrific ordeal. Also in this first episode the results of a psychological evaluation of the squad is revealed. Detective Monique Jefferies (Michelle Hurd) is determined to be psychologically unsuited for work in the Special Victims Unit and reassigned. Replacing her is a transfer from undercover narcotics Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola (Ice-T). Also gone in this season is the resident bad boy Detective Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters). His former partner John Munch (Richard Belzer) is now paired with Tutuola. While such drastic cast changes is usually the harbinger of doom for a weekly series in the world of this Dick Wolf franchise it is to be expected. Wolf has managed to keep his series fresh with regular cast changes or moving the same characters between the various incarnations out there.

Not only does the main characters move about the Dick Wolf universe the guest stars sometimes find their way back. In one season two episode a rape with a very specific profile comes to the attention of SVU. Kenneth Cleary (Neil Maffin) enjoys raping women and taking little mementos of his conquests. Now that he appears to be at it again now only is SVU on his case but also a former victim, Harper Anderson. This character is a reprisal for actress Tracey Pollen who garnered an Emmy nomination for her first time round. We get a deeper look at the personality of Munch when the squad catches a case involving a comatose seven year old girl. As the investigation brings up dark memories for the detective we see what influenced him to join such a draining unit. Social issues have always been popular as themes for all the Law & Order series and in this season the squad is faced with the deadly reality of a patient’s rights. A schizophrenic refuses to take is medications. When he is on the meds he si fairly normal but without them he is a killer. One particularly inventive episode looks at a seventeen year girl apparently raped at the grand opening of an upscale hotel. As the investigation continues Benson and Stable discover that she is not a victim at all. In another episode a young gymnast is found dead and the team finds that her benefactor is not as charitable as he would like others to think. It’s the little twists that keep this season going year after year and in this second season set some of the series best is offered.

The cast of this drama is stronger than what you find on most police series. Mariska Hargitay plays Benson as tough but still a woman with a heart. She defends the victims like a mother lion does her cubs. Hargitay is afforded the opportunity this season to develop her character more completely allowing the audience to empathize greatly with Olivia. She also has excellent chemistry with Christopher Meloni. They are partnered but there is no sign of the usually hackney ploy of a romantic pairing. Benson is distanced from any possible suitors and Stabler is just trying his best to hold his family together. Meloni is a powerful actor that commands the screen in every scene. Ironically, he was a regular in the HBO prison series Oz, like many Law & Order regulars, where he played a sadistic sexual predator, just the type in hunts down here. From the depth of the dramatic performances provided by Richard Belzer you would not immediately think that he started as a stand up comedian. This back ground in comedy does let him season his performance with just the right touch of humor to help the pacing. The best change this season was the inclusion of Ice-T. Strange that he came to fame with is rap song about cop killers yet his best performance is as a police officer. His Tutuola is street wise, having spent years under cover in the drug war. He now takes the same passion he had to locking up dealers and uses it to put the most heinous criminals of all behind bars. The pragmatic Fin is the perfect counterpoint for the conspiracy intrigued Munch.

Universal started out with releasing the first season of this series on DVD and then went to the most recent. Now they are backfilling the series with the release of this second season. If you are wondering why you should purchase a series that is constantly in reruns the answer is simple, the technical specifications are great. The full screen video is better than most syndicated stations can provide. The color balance is true to life and free of defect. The Dolby two channel audio is robust and provides excellent coverage of the full audio spectrum. There are also a few extras included such as profiles of Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni. There is also a featurette about how sex crimes in the paper are translated to the series plots. Another featurette looks at the fun the cast and crew has making this series and there is a look at the real Special Victims Unit. This is the kind of series that many will want to collect and season two is a pivotal one for the season so make sure you don’t leave this out of your collection.

Posted 9/29/05