‘Law & Order: SVU’ Stars Talk Season 25 Changes & Returns
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Here Are Their Stories
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Law & Order: SVU returns for its landmark 25th season on January 18, and it’s the perfect time for Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to reflect on her career; after all, we met her as a detective back when the show premiered in 1999. But she’s not the only one who’s had quite the journey.
Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) was introduced as a detective in Season 16, and since then, he’s made the jump to lawyer. Looking at where he is now, “he’s reflecting and he likes what he sees,” Scanavino told TV Insider on the red carpet celebrating SVU‘s 25th season. “He’s really getting his feet as the ADA. Everything is going well for him. Of course, as soon as you say that they’re going to write something like you get kidnapped or something.”
He worried about the same thing when it comes to how he and wife Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), who left SVU last season and transitioned into teaching — but hasn’t admitted to him that it’s not giving her the same thrills as being a detective did. “Things are good” for the couple, Scanavino said, but “you never know.”
What we know is we’ll see a lot of Carisi as a father this year, plus the lawyer working with Benson. “He’s got a lot to learn,” the actor admitted. “He’s learned a lot, and that’s going to continue.”
There are some changes at SVU beyond the loss of Rollins last season. Molly Burnett joined as Detective Grace Muncy then left at the end of the finale; she took a spot on a DEA task force. “It’s rough” having her gone, Octavio Pisano (whose Detective Joe Velasco had grown close to her) shared. “I can speak for myself. It came out of nowhere, but actually I’m sure he’s feeling the same way. It came out of nowhere and the relationship was building and there was a great friendship and now she’s gone. But it’s the nature of that business and the nature of this business.”
With new squad members coming in, Velasco “sees himself in everyone because he started off not too long ago and maybe he can give some piece of advice if somebody gets out of line,” he continued. Also expect “more action” from the detective.
Also back this season for some episodes is Kevin Kane as Detective Terry Bruno, who, thanks to the money he has from a wrongful termination case against the Bronx SVU, doesn’t have to work, but he does keep coming back to do so with Benson and the squad. “He doesn’t have to,” Kane agrees, “but he sees people that are there to make a difference and that’s why he would work. He feels like these people are there for the same reasons he would be, and so he’s found sort of a kinship with them.”
Todd Williamson/NBC
While he meshes well with SVU, at times, it seems like Benson and Chief Tommy McGrath (Terry Serpico) will never get on the same page. Might that change this season? “McGrath and Benson have the same goals. We both want justice. We both want the bad guys to be punished and the good guys to be vindicated, but we have very different ways of going about it,” explained Serpico.
“Tommy McGrath has got all the politics of the NYPD hierarchy resting on his shoulders. All of his detectives answer to him, and he answers to someone else,” he added. “Benson is one of the sharpest tools in my toolbox, but I need to be able to use her to do her job so that I can do mine. Will that mean that I ever warm up to her? Tommy has tremendous respect for her. He has very warm feelings for Olivia Benson, but it’s also a very professional relationship so he has to keep her at a distance so that he has the ability to say, ‘Do your job.'”
Well, every show does need a good antagonist…
Law & Order: SVU, Season 25 Premiere, Thursday, January 18, 9/8c, NBC
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