Mariska Hargitay Felt Crime Shows Like ‘Law & Order SVU’ Helped Audiences Feel Safe
Law & Order SVU is a show that’s constantly on Mariska Hargitay’s mind. It’s changed the veteran actor in more ways than one, turning her into an activist who championed women’s rights and safety. But SVU, and other shows of its kind, also had positive effects on its viewers.
How crime shows like ‘SVU’ comforted their fans
Hargitay had a lot of theories as to why SVU formed such a deep connection with its fanbase. So much so that it allowed the crime procedural to thrive on television for more than two decades. Apart from just good storytelling, Hargitay believed the show could be reassuring to its viewers. Something she credited to the show’s creator, Dick Wolf, and his vision.
“Dick Wolf is truly a visionary,” Hargitay once said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “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.”
What made the idea even more interesting to Hargitay was that she figured crime shows would have the opposite effect on its audience.
“It’s a very sort of interesting dichotomy,” she 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,” she added. “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.”
‘Law & Order SVU’ became therapeutic for its viewers
However, the bond fans had with SVU might’ve been a bit closer than the bond other crime shows had with their audiences. Because of its longevity, SVU had twenty years to cultivate the relationship it had with its viewers. But the show’s focus on sexual abuse and trauma resonated with real-life victims of these crimes who might’ve found sharing their experiences daunting.
“It’s an incredibly progressive show, progressive idea, and really starting a conversation and taking sexual assault, domestic violence, and these issues that were traditionally swept under the carpet,” Hargitay once said according to AP. “The conversation is in full swing, and that’s very exciting. I think the show has really been a huge part of the cultural education on sexual violence. I think we have taken on the issues of consent and the neurobiology of trauma and created a survivor-centric show that was utterly unique.”
The show’s material would also inspire Hargitay to create the Joyful Heart Foundation. The organization is dedicated to helping the kinds of victims typically portrayed in SVU’s stories.
“Being immersed in this material and learning the statistics and learning about the shame and isolation that survivors of sexual violence feel, that is what really called me to start my own foundation and to respond to the subject matter that I was being immersed in every day,” she said.
Her longtime SVU co-star and partner, Ice-T, shared Hargitay’s feelings about the show. Although he might’ve been a bit more surprised by the show’s impact than Hargitay was.
“It took about a year or so of people saying ‘thank you’ to realize that it was therapy for a lot of people. These are survivors,” he said.
