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Law & Order: SVU is set to address George Floyd, protests, and police brutality in an upcoming episode. This all comes after Dick Wolf’s production company fired a writer after he threatened protestors with violence on social media. Warren Leight is the showrunner for the long-running NBC drama and he spoke to THR’s TV Top 5 Podcast about it. There have been a lot of calls for media to address its relationship to the realities people are facing in everyday life now as the protests continue around the world. Leight is saying that there will be room for that to get added to the show. Law & Order has especially leaned on the headlines for script fodder over the years. This is something that has to be addressed in a real and frank manner for audiences.
“There are ways, we will find our way in to tell the story. Presumably, our cops will still be trying to do the right thing but it’s going to be harder for them and they’re going to understand why it’s hard for them,” Leight told THR.
The showrunner also mentioned that he wants to make some changes to the SVU writers room as well in “a conscious effort to bring in new voices, fresh voices, different voices.” He continued, “Change will start taking place on TV shows individually. There will be lip service paid.”
Leight said they’ve “tried really hard in the last year to show how class and race affect the outcomes of justice in society, but I’m beginning to suspect ‘really hard’ wasn’t enough. This has to be a moment where people make themselves uncomfortable, where people in power have to make themselves uncomfortable.”
His comments continued as he said, “[he] can’t make every episode about a bad cop.” while adding, “Olivia makes mistakes…but she’s empathic, which is I think what separates the cops on our television show from a lot of what we’re seeing these days on our livestreams…I’ve been made uncomfortable by a number of shows that glorify the use of violence in interrogation or the use of threat.”
They also talked about addressing the pandemic in the upcoming season, “We’re going to reflect New York in the pandemic. What happens to someone who is sexually assaulted during the height of the coronavirus outbreak.”
What would you like to see in the next season of Law & Order: SVU? Let us know down in the comments!
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