In a new iteration of the hugely successful TV franchise, detective Elliot Stabler returned, the vigilante cop who, though chastened, remains the hero
Until last week, 10 years had passed since the last time Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), the gruff, hot-headed muscle to Detective Olivia Benson’s (Mariska Hargitay) empathetic, cooler brain, appeared on Law and Order: SVU, one of TV’s most popular
police procedurals. For 12 years, as one half of the alchemic detective duo in
New York City’s special victims unit, Stabler epitomized the “ends justify the means” hero cop – the officer who bends the rules at his discretion, who loses his cool in an interrogation room, who lets passion override protocol, who fantasizes about exacting justice on heinous criminals on behalf of innocent victims.
Related: Cops: the violent legacy of a TV show that sculpted America's view of police