Hopefully, the latest additions to Law & Order: SVU will reverse the trend of a problematic Season 25.
Over the past few seasons, Benson has not had a full team to work with, instead relying on detectives seconded from other agencies, which has made it difficult for her department to handle cases effectively.
However, Season 26 will once again create a complete team.
Finn and Belasco will be working alongside Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), who eventually becomes a permanent member of the team, as well as a new female detective whose name has yet to be revealed.
Benson has had a hard time keeping female detectives since Rollins left
Four different women tried to work at SVU and left
SVU’s newest member is the fifth female detective to join the department in the past two years.
Shortly after Rollins left, freshman Grace Muncy decided to transfer to another unit.
Another detective on loan from SVU in the Bronx also disappeared without explanation.
In Season 25, Benson temporarily teams up with FBI agent Shannah Sykes, who angrily leaves after Benson confirms that Sykes’ sister, who has been missing for decades, is dead, while IAB agent-turned-SVU agent Renee Curry is a no-show. Become a part of the Season 26 cast.
None of these women exercised because they weren’t fit for it.
They all share aspects of Rollins’ character, such as her tragic backstory or difficulty following orders, but they’re not her.
This is as it should be. There’s only one Amanda Rollins, so trying to create all these Amanda 2.0 characters isn’t going to work.
Muncy and Rude were the most enjoyable, but they both quickly disappeared and were replaced by completely unlikable characters like Sykes.
This is not doing the series any good and needs to stop. Hopefully SVU’s latest addition will reverse that trend.
It’s bad enough when characters are so annoying that we can’t wait to remove them from the screen.
It’s hard to become attached to those lovely people when they may be gone within a season.
Will SVU’s newest member become a permanent member of the team?
She should be, but there’s no guarantee
SVU’s newest members are being promoted as permanent team members.
Nothing has been revealed about her yet, so it’s anyone’s guess what she’s like.
Either way, it’s hard to believe she’ll stick around for more than one season.
Muncy is also supposed to be a permanent member of the team, with Days of Our Lives’ Molly Burnett joining SVU to much fanfare at the premiere.
However, she’ll probably stick around until at least Season 26, if not beyond.
Rollins also had a role as a replacement, and she stayed for over a decade.
There’s no reason this new character can’t have a similar trajectory.
However, in order to achieve this goal, the writers had to abandon the idea of finding Rollins 2.0 and make SVU’s newest member a unique and original character.
If SVU keeps reminding us of Rollins, they might as well rehire her. (I would agree with this anyway.)
What they can’t do is keep creating characters who are like Rollins, not her, and expect that to be a satisfying solution to Rollins’ problems.
Rollins’ decision to leave SVU to teach increasingly feels like a non-romantic breakup for the sake of drama.
She dislikes teaching and seems eager to get on the SVU case, meanwhile, back in the class room, one woman after another with Rollins-like qualities auditions and leaves as quickly as they came.
We hope SVU’s latest additions will change that paradigm.
This is annoying, especially since SVU has a legion of loyal, smart fans who see through these attempts to replace Rollins with a similar character.
Everything we know about the actress playing SVU’s newest member
Juliana Aiden Martinez has guest-starred in many shows
While the newest addition to SVU Season 26 is shrouded in mystery, we do know a little bit about the actress who plays her.
Juliana Aidén Martinez has guest-starred on shows like “The Blacklist” and “9-1-1” and is best known for her role as June on “Griselda.”
While the actors can obviously play very different characters from each other, her portrayal of June may provide some clues to her role in SVU.
Joan is an intelligence analyst who is used to being the only woman in her department.
She didn’t let the way she was treated by her male counterparts get to her and helped bring down the leader of a major drug cartel.
It’s a tough, smart character — qualities that hopefully Martinez’s new role on “SVU” will embody.
If she had a family, we might also get an insight into her culture, like Dante Torres’s family scenes in Chicago P.D.
Martinez will add even more diversity, and there are many exciting directions for SVU’s newest addition.
Assuming SVU is renewed for Season 27, we hope she sticks around for more than one season.
Over to you, SVU fanatics! Are you excited about SVU’s newest addition?
Do you think she’ll finally break the pattern of female detectives leaving after only a few episodes?
Hit the comments and let us know.
“Law & Order: SVU” has been renewed for Season 26.
