After an abrupt ending in the spring amid the coronavirus outbreak, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit returns for a record-setting season 22, extending its stretch as the longest-running primetime drama. As it has done in the past, especially after the emergence of the #MeToo movement, the NBC drama starring Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson will continue to reflect the issues facing the real world, such as the continued COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Black Lives Matter movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd. On top of that, there is also Elliot Stabler’s highly anticipated return to the Law & Order universe.
“Like everyone in New York, our characters have gone through a series of crucibles in the last nine months: the horrible losses of spring, the George Floyd uprising of summer, the isolation and depression and stress that permeated the entire year,” showrunner and executive producer Warren Leight. “All of what the city has gone through will be reflected in what our characters go through. Their actions as police officers will be viewed through a different prism than before.”
For the squad, which includes longtime members Sgt. Fin Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), assistant district attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino) as well as newcomers Officer Kat Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder) and Deputy Chief Christian Garland (Demore Barnes), that means trying “to regain their footing in a city that has lost faith in law enforcement,” Leight says.
In May, only three months after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, people all across the country rallied and protested against systemic racism and police brutality in the wake of Floyd’s death. The Black Lives Matter movement called into question the public’s relationship with law enforcement.