Made for me September 29, 2006 Jill It’s everything I love in life (Mariah, Elliot and Olivia), and I thought I’d share. Plus, Lauren dared me.
Nooooo. They can’t be lovers. I won’t allow it. I’m still holding out for an Olivia-and-Alex-Cabot love session. Got any Youtube for that? If not, that’s fine. I’m positive it’ll happen, eventually. Sooo perfect for each other…
Yay! A safe space for me to admit my huge, and somewhat obsessive, crush on Elliot. I love Olivia, but there’s just something about detective Stabler. I even watch reruns of SVU’s I’ve seen multiple times because I love them so much.
I heart SVU. Alex Cabot and Olivia are my ultimately fictitious girl crushes. I pretty much aspire to be Alex in the courtroom one day.
Well, my crush on Mariska Hargitay goes back a long time — I think I’ve written of it here before… and as for Elliot, I love the way he balances this very traditional masculine protectiveness/anger with an unusual degree of kindness. Nice to see men on TV doing that.
Early in SVU’s history I would watch on occasion, but ultimately concluded that Eliot’s and Olivia’s anger-driven judgmentalism made them two of the most unpleasant and tedious lead characters on broadcast television. (True, neither comes close to David Caruso’s campy “what’s Darth Vader doing as a cop in Miami?” portrayal of Horatio Caine, but Caruso’s in a league of his own.) Not trying to piss on anyone’s parade; it’s just that being more of a “what’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding” type, I find it fascinating/puzzling that ‘wrath of god’ characters would be so appealing amongst progressives. (Though I confess I loved V for Vendetta, so I guess I’m not immune to this sort of thing.)
I’m contenting myself with imagining what Olivia and Marcia Gay Harden’s character are doing on “special assignment.” “Star, I wish I knew how to quit you!” “Is this because I’m a lesbian?”
Actually, I think one of the best aspects of L&O SVU is that they didn’t go for the obvious and start a relationship between Olivia and Elliot, even after his wife dumped him. Contrast, for example, Without a Trace, where poor Poppy Montgomery seems to be stuck sleeping with every guy in the office. Now, if only TV could shake the convention of putting every attractive female in a clingy top, no matter what her job–cop, doctor, teacher, etc. One mercifully short-lived sitcom (it was dropped after the pilot) even had Heather Graham going to her job as a book editor in a bustier! I’ve worked in publishing my entire adult life, and the next editor I see wearing a bustier in the office will be the first. Don’t get me wrong–I like looking at women in tight tops as much as the next straight guy. But it robs the show of credibility, and doesn’t do a whole lot for the image of women in the workforce, either.
ballgame: I suspect the characters are appealing because they get angry, then do the right (and loving) thing. I think that’s appealing because it’s easier to relate to than characters that do the right (and loving) thing with God’s Love shining out of them at all times, and we want to see _somebody_ on TV doing the right thing.
You want to seriously crush on Mariska Hargitay? When I trained as a rape crisis counselor–she was in my group training as well. Heart her.
Ballgame, I’m with you. I am so fucking sick of judgmental cops on tv shows. I blame the fact that this country was angry and wanted vengeance after 9/11 and these shows addressed that need (especially, apparently, those set in New York City). I saw that SVU episode last week with the 17-year old that looked like a 12 year old, and it just pissed me off so much that Eliot’s character was all set to deny her her right to choose a boyfriend because he was uncomfortable with her looks. (Twisty I’m sure could do an excellent job deconstructing that one!) The thing with these shows is that they are all too happy to tromp all over people’s rights, and when prevented or chastised by a judge are all upset, because, you know, these are bad guys and they don’t deserve rights. Of course, in these shows, they never get the wrong guy. They never make a mistake. I was watching some old Quantum Leap episodes recently and it hit me that a show like that—in which the main character literally walks in someone else’s shoes for a time—would never make it nowadays. Never. Compassion is apparently out of fashion, or for the weak, or of no importance. Even Numb3rs—which I adore for the fact of David Krumholtz’s nose alone—had one agent tell another last week, “Be careful that when you get into their [the bad guy’s] head that you don’t let them get into yours”, i.e., don’t let yourself feel compassion for them; make sure to keep them The Other. Makes it easier to shoot ’em, I guess.
Bitter Scribe: I totally agree. The worst is on CSI: Miami, where they have women going to investigate crime scenes/perform autopsies in tight-fitting, low-cut outfits that stain easily, with their long hair down. Oy vei.
“that stain easily?” well, okay, i probably know what you mean, but whatever it says about me my first image was of grease spots from lunch or something. and thinking: yah, SEX-CY!
Thalia: I can only fully enjoy my love of Olivia because it’s balanced with my love of Casey Novak. As much as I sometimes find her frustrating , she’s always got the legal shit covered. As a much as I believe in doing the right thing despite laws preventing it, I absolutely believe in the legal system doing everything on the up-and-up.
Eliot is always harassing the suspects! And it’s never the first suspect, so in effect he was threatening and roughing up some innocent guy. That’s the reason people don’t like cops.
I’ve never watched SVU, so I can’t speak to the legal stuff (though I do remember them in their early days filming in my neighborhood in Jersey City), but I quite clearly remember an episode of L&O, original recipe, in which they did their first crossover episodes with Homicide:Life on the Street, and one of the issues was that Frank Pembleton fucked everything up during an interrogation of a suspect in New York (who they were trying to extradite to Maryland) by ignoring him when he said he wanted a lawyer. This episode aired just around the time I was studying for the New York bar, and the reason I remember this so well (other than the flirtation between the later-out Bayliss and the later-dead Kincaid) is that I had just been studying my Crim Pro stuff, and in New York, if a suspect asks for an attorney, everything stops. (The other things I remember from the bar course are Stop and Frisk, StopandFrisk, Stop. And. Frisk. and New York Is Grand Jury Heaven). So, L&O hasn’t always been so cavalier about the rights of the suspects. In fact, Jerry Orbach would NEVER trample anyone’s rights, dammit.
I am an SVU addict. I finally can admit this. What? No… my TV’s not tuned to an SVU marathon on USA at this very moment, while I venture into the comments section at Feministe. No, I was not just gazing at Elliot just then or giggling at Olivia’s hair changes throughout the series. My only real complaint: Novak going blonde. What?? Why??
Despite the fact that I will never be a lawyer or an alleged lesbian, I want to be Alex Cabot when I grow up. I still miss her, and hold out a faint forlorn hope that Ms. March will return to SVU someday.
My only real complaint: Novak going blonde. What?? Why?? Not clear, but it definitely accompanied a new wardrobe person, because she’s stopped wearing suits regularly in the courtroom and now wears knee high boots. She’s the only one of the female attorneys that I can recall who’s worn something that looked distinctly non-professional.