Source:Notey- The current cast of Law & Order SVU. |
To say that NBC's Law & Order SVU is ahead of it's time, would be like saying that it gets hot in Texas especially in the summer or it rains in Seattle, well at any point during the year or it snows in Minnesota in January and hopefully you get the idea by now. ( God help if you don't ) They were talking about issues back in 1999-2000 ( the first season of SVU ) 17-18 years before the so-called Me Too movement emerged in 2017. They were dealing cases as a detective squad about women being raped and sexually abused in other ways. As well as little girls and boys who are sexually abused by their parents and other adults in their lives.
Source: Daily Mail- Mariska Hargitay and Brooke Shields, being very cute for a little boy on the set of SVU |
But on a less substantive note but still important the Olivia Benson character ( played by Mariska Hargitay ) is one of the first sexy female police detectives on TV. There've been beautiful, sexy, younger female law enforcement officers on TV before. Angie Dickinson was the original with Police Woman from the 1970s, Heather Thomas from The Fall Guy in the 1980s, Kelly Hu from Nash Bridges from the late 1990s and perhaps there are more.
But Mariska is the first from a trend that started in the mid 2000s or so where you would have beautiful, sexy women playing tough cops who kick ass on a regular basis and even kick male ass. They're no longer playing secretary's, receptionists or desk sergeants that just take calls and pass on information to the real detectives and their superiors, but working cases and getting into conflict and having to physically take on strong male suspects who could severely hurt them if not kill them if the female officer is not up to the task.
Mariska, is the first female TV law enforcement officer to where tight jeans and boots on the show on a regular basis while she's working and not at home or having a rare day off, but working her cases in beautiful black leather jacket, black denims, and boots. She was doing that back in 2007-08 if not earlier and now every cop show has at least one if not multiple female lead officers who are beautiful, sexy, physically able to take care of themselves who work their cases in boots and jeans on a regular basis. Just watch CSI Las Vegas with Elisabeth Shue, or watch Criminal Minds with the attractive detectives there, Chicago PD with Sophia Bush, NCIS LA with Daniela Ruah and I could go on.
Mariska Hargiatay ( who plays now Detective Lieutenant Olivia Benson ) is not the first beautiful, sexy, sharp, witty, great cop on TV, she's just the best cop with those qualities and that includes Angie Dickinson who I love as well and they're now in their 20th season with apparently no plans to ever wind the show down and plan for a final season and not just because of how popular the show is and that it's lead to over great cop shows like Chicago PD, but also because of how great the show is. How great the cast, storylines and everything else that makes cop shows great.