"Law & Order: SVU" Star Mariska Hargitay Explains Why Crime Shows Are ‘Calming'

[Ubiquitous]

“Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay said there’s a reason fans find
violent crime shows soothing.

During an interview with Fox News Digital, the “Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit” star said franchise creator Dick Wolf should get most of the credit for
the series’ popularity thanks to his “great writing.”

“Dick Wolf is truly a visionary,” the 59-year-old actress said while
attending the 33rd Annual Colleagues Spring Luncheon on Tuesday. “And I think
that’s a very singular thing to be a true visionary who understands our
culture in a very deep way, but also understands it’s sort of ironic that a
crime show would be actually calming in a way to our nervous system, knowing
that somebody is out there taking care of it.”

“That our voices are heard and there are people that are on it. So that is
it,” Hargitay said.

She went on to explain that people get a sense of satisfaction from seeing
horrible crimes being solved.

“It’s a very sort of interesting dichotomy,” Hargitay said. “Because you
think about a crime show, which normally should sort of upset your nervous
system, actually can settle it down because of that. I think that we’re all
fascinated with the human condition. We don’t understand how people can do
the things that they do.”

Hargitay said, “But it’s a very deep question, which is we are very complex
beings, and we all have a lot of parts, and we’re all capable of a lot of
things. That’s why working on ourselves and integrating ourselves and
integrating our shadow and our light is one of the most important things we
can do in our evolution.”

“So I think that’s the key to it — is that we all know what we’re capable of,
and we all have to take responsibility for our humanity.”

The original “Law & Order” series ran for 20 seasons from 1990 until 2010 on
NBC. It was rebooted in 2021 and was just renewed.

The popularity of the show inspired multiple spinoffs, including “Special
Victims Unit,” “Criminal Intent,” “Trial by Jury,” “LA,” “UK,” “True Crime,”
and “Organized Crime.”

Hargitay starred in “SVU” as Detective Olivia Benson since it began in 1999
and became an executive producer in 2016, the outlet noted. The series
follows detectives working in the New York City Police Department’s Special
Victims Unit. Benson and Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni)
investigate crimes involving sexual assault and abuse. Many of the stories
are inspired by real-life headlines.

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