Fans are wondering exactly how “Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay’s Lieutenant Olivia Benson is going to tackle Charlottesville, Va.
The “Law & Order” franchise is known for ripping plots from the headlines and the eruption of violence in Charlottesville, Va., that occurred earlier this month is no exception.
“You can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll do that,” “Law & Order: SVU” showrunner Michael Chernuchin told Entertainment Weekly in a Wednesday, Aug. 30, article. “We don’t want to take a stand on any political point of view, but we like to present the issues. What I want is, at the end of a show, for half the people to stand up and cheer and the other half to throw their shoes at the TV. I want controversy.”
Earlier this month, a white supremacist rally in support of Confederate monuments spurred a counter-protest and turned violent and deadly when a man with white supremacist links rammed his car into a crowd. Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others injured.
Chernuchin cited the tensions as the reason why Charlottesville works as a storyline for SUV’s 19th season, which premieres on NBC Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 9 p.m.
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“Conflict. It’s just the state of the world today with everybody,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Everybody’s political now and everything is political now and we want to deal with that.”
However, not everyone thinks it’s appropriate for the long-running series to deal with the incident where racial tensions came to a head.
.@Noochone this is a bad idea and your reasons for doing it smack at ignorance, please don't https://t.co/UOPyTeM7xQ
— maraleia (@maraleia) August 31, 2017
Please don’t. The last time y’all tried to do a mass issue episode it was bad and didn’t even support the point of the issue.
— 🍀 (@falvonen) August 31, 2017
Please. Spare us made up bs for tv drama. People died there. Not subject for a network to make money on. Part of the problem.
— Ed Wallace (@znoxonyx) August 30, 2017
Still, others readily applauded the decision.
Excited to see what the #SVUWritersCrew has brewin’ 😊🙌🏼 #NewSeasonNewStoriesNewAttitudes #SVU19
— Hillary Cook (@HillRUN86) August 31, 2017
I love the fact that SVU addresses issues that touch many Americans. Very proud of the writers and cast. Thank you 😊
— Rebecca Chen (@Rpcchen) August 31, 2017
I go to university in Charlottesville, so this is pretty personal to me. Wanna see Barba go off on a Nazi.
— ✨💁🏾Tee ♍️ (@virgofictionist) August 31, 2017
