Please Tell Me I’m Not The Only One Who Couldn’t Care Less If Law & Order’s Benson and Stabler Get Together

Are there other Law & Order fanatics out there who don't make Benson and Stabler's relationship their top priority?

The post Please Tell Me I’m Not The Only One Who Couldn’t Care Less If Law & Order’s Benson and Stabler Get Together appeared first on TV Fanatic.

The Law & Order franchise has ignored Benson and Stabler’s relationship for almost two years, but that’s over now.

Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 2 featured Benson sitting at Stabler’s bedside after an encounter with the villain’s semi-truck landed him in a medically induced coma. Stabler also had a small part on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 19.

Many Law & Order fanatics are debating whether Benson and Stabler are already secretly sleeping together and hoping for more overtly romantic scenes. Sorry,  but I’m not one of them.

I Was More Annoyed By The Poor Storytelling When Benson and Stabler’s Romance Evaporated

I get the hype in a way.

Law & Order: SVU Season 24 Episode 22 left off with very promising news for Bensler fans. 

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Stabler and Benson’s iconic scene in her office sounded like the beginning of a romance, especially with the almost-kiss earlier in the season.

So dropping it altogether was poor storytelling, especially since some of Stabler’s cases would have dovetailed nicely with that awful Maddie Flynn storyline throughout Law & Order: SVU Season 25.

Maddie was taken by a guy who kept her doped up on fentanyl.

Stabler was hunting for fentanyl suppliers.

The crossover potential here was obvious, and it was writing malpractice to leave it out.

Some scenes with Benson and Stabler working together on this case might have made that story bearable.

Instead, we were treated to week after week of Benson losing her damn mind over Maddie Flynn’s disappearance and her obsession with the Flynn family, and the only time Benson and Stabler interacted was when Benson called him to tell him she’d lent the necklace he’d given her to Eileen Flynn.

It seemed out of character for Stabler to be fine with that rather than concerned that Benson was making her entire life about helping this family. It was like he only interacted with Benson to support her unhealthy relationship with the Flynn family.

Not cool. But for me, it was about the story, not whether Benson and Stabler had fallen in love.

The Law & Order Shows are Not Soap Operas

When Law & Order: SVU began, its subplots about Stabler’s home life were refreshing.

The original Law & Order had been careful to avoid much, if any, personal drama (other than when Logan’s partner was killed at the end of Season 1), so I enjoyed subplots that made the SVU detectives seem more like real people.

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These subplots were fun for the same reason that the family dinners on Blue Bloods were — they made the show about human beings who were cops with families.

Still, the cases are supposed to be these police procedurals’ top priority. 

Law & Order: SVU is about supporting trauma survivors. Sometimes it gets it wrong, but more often it illustrates problems that real survivors go through, often things that are not talked about enough.

It’s at its best when the legal system seems to be retraumatizing survivors instead of helping them get justice or bureaucracy interferes with making arrests.

The recent Law & Order crossover was amazing because it pitted Benson and her finely tuned sense of empathy against Brady’s colder, outcome-focused approach to law enforcement.

Yet that conversation is getting buried beneath the speculation about what Stabler’s thirty-second appearance meant and whether he and Benson are already lovers, as if the purpose of the show is to get these two together and everything else is secondary.

I’m not interested in that conversation because it misses the point of these stories.  

Law & Order: SVU is not a soap opera where romances and one-night stands are central to the plot.

Adding romance as a side plot is fine, but it should never overshadow the main purpose of the show, and if does, it’s gotten way off-track.

Yes, Benson Should Have A Life Outside of SVU

I do have a problem with the way Law & Order: SVU Season 26 has centered Carisi’s trauma, almost pushing Benson out of the picture.

If I had to choose, I’d rather more Benson/Stabler than Carisi’s unhealed trauma every episode.

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Still, these are two manifestations of the same problem: focusing on characters’ personal lives at the expense of cases.

We should have more family scenes with Benson and her teenage son, and if that personal life involves her friendship with Stabler, that’s fine.

But it’s beyond time to stop judging episodes by their Benson/Stabler content.

Watch Law & Order: SVU Online

What Do You Think?

Are you in it for the cases and trauma survivor content, or are you here primarily for Benson/Stabler?

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.
Say something in the comments and share this article with your friends. Independent voices need readers like you.

Watch Law & Order: Organized Crime Online

The post Please Tell Me I’m Not The Only One Who Couldn’t Care Less If Law & Order’s Benson and Stabler Get Together appeared first on TV Fanatic.