It should come as no surprise that "Law & Order: SVU" has some particularly brutal episodes. As anyone who watches even the credit sequence can tell you, sexually-based crimes are considered especially heinous. "SVU" is well known for depicting stories of sexual assault and showing how traumatic it can be. Any actor dealing with these themes for 12 seasons is bound to feel the pressure. When speaking to NPR's "Fresh Air," Christopher Meloni noted how important it was to handle the material with sincerity. He and other actors had face-to-face meetings with real-life SVU officers, which gave Meloni a personal perspective on how hard their jobs are. It was essential to the actor to do these stories justice, and the scripts were an asset in that fight. Episodes of "SVU" are often dark, with a specific point of view that Meloni took to heart.
"[Y]ou know, the horrors just keep coming and coming. And invariably, you know, it was the women — our women writers who would write the toughest scripts," Meloni told NPR. "They pulled no punches." Living in the frame of mind of someone as driven as Stabler can come at a cost. But while Meloni did take a break for a decade, he came back swinging. "Law & Order: Organized Crime" offered a new opportunity and put the actor back in the saddle again.
