Law & Order: SVU - Episode 13.01 - Scorched Earth - Review

"…and how much did they pay you for your testimony?" —Alex

Two and a Half Men isn't the only show losing its leading man this fall. Law & Order: SVU, whose staple character Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni, has been written off the show after Meloni and the SVU/NBCU team couldn't finalize a deal. It's not exactly the hyped up, media-covered event that transpired with Men, of course, and in some ways that's a bit damaging. Could SVU have benefitted from a tirade of insults by both parties in the way Men has, at least during its premiere? After all, the back-and-forth game those guys played ultimately paid out in spades with an almost-30 million viewers rating during the season premiere.

SVU wasn't so lucky.

SVU fans didn't get much notice that Meloni, and therefore Elliot, wouldn't be on the show any more. No widespread media reported about it. The promos didn't exactly show he was leaving. Instead, they just showed a lot of shots of Mariska Hargitay by her lonesome during advertisements. (That said, people who were paying attention probably could have guessed.) But the show didn't just lose Meloni, it also lost its showrunner for the better part of its run Neal Baker, replaced with Warren Leight. And it may be Leight's new perspective, it may be better-looking cameras and post-production values, it may be Kelli Giddish, or it may be that this premiere episode made use of its ensemble quite well, but…

Law & Order: SVU is still a pretty solid show, if this premiere episode is any indication. Dare I say it may even be breathing new life? Well, I do. I dare.

In an episode that was much more order than it was law, we got the usual: someone yells rape, someone yells otherwise, and justice is ultimately…hazy; thankfully, the performances by all the guest stars for this episode were more than adequate, especially a heartbreaking performance by the victim. But there was a certain je ne se quois that made it all seem much more, hm what's the word?, tense or even important. At times, the old SVU would treat scenes as an afterthought (in terms of tone, not in actual storyline). In "Scorched Earth," every scene was treated as vital to the story.

Though, that could very well be that there was a bit more ground to cover. Not including the case of the episode, SVU had to introduce Giddish's character (though they didn't try much, past that she seems like a no-holds-back cop whose a fan of Liv's) while explaining Elliot's exit. And they did both very well. I especially found Hargitay's receipt of the news undoubtedly touching. I'm not talking about her breakdown thirty seconds later, I mean when she's in the office hearing that Elliot quit and her eyes mist up a bit: perfect execution. And it makes me sad that Hargitay's presence will be lessened halfway through.*

*I will say that I started watching the show when Liv was just part of the dynamic — and personally, I am much more fearful of her character taking a backseat than I was of Elliot leaving altogether.

Fans claiming that Elliot was the show may find themselves biting their tongue in episodes to come. The only real surprise in this episode, besides the fact that I thought I was going to see Danny Pino, is that episodes have gone from one-word titles to two words. How crazy is that? (No, seriously, check out the titles of upcoming episodes. All two words.)

About the only thing that I didn't like of "Scorched Earth" is the new title opening where the characters are standing, facing the camera. It almost seems like Richard Beltzer (Munch) had to tiptoe to even get in the shot. But as far as cons go, that's pretty low on the list.

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