NBC’s two night, three show crossover concluded last night and now the question comes up if it was a success or not? Overall, yes the crossover was a success but what made it a success were the two episodes that aired last night (PD and SVU). The first hour of this two night event was CHICAGO FIRE and its episode just didn’t fit as well with the other two. In fact, if a viewer had decided to skip Fire altogether, they wouldn’t have missed anything. The only real bit of information gather from the Fire episode was the reveal of Erin’s brother as a victim (and that was shown again at the beginning of the SVU episode).
So while the FIRE crossover was nothing to write home about, the CHICAGO PD and LAW & ORDER: SVU was all kinds of awesome. There were so many good things about this crossover that it feels like these two should crossover on a regular basis more the Fire and PD. Sophia Bush’s Erin Lindsay fits in seamless with the SVU detectives that I want her and Amaro to switch jobs/shows. I realize that these shows have crossed over before but not anywhere near this magnitude.
The storyline of this crossover was interesting and kept the viewer on the edge of their seat. You had to know it was going to be an emotional few episodes based on the fact that SVU is involved and as Det. Benson said SVU doesn’t get very many “good” cases. What this case also allowed was the display of just how different PD and SVU shows are. While PD uses aggression and sometimes (actually most of the time) beatings to get the information they need, Benson and her crew use psychological warfare. It was so fun to watch as Benson got upset at Voight for breaking the law and Voight get annoyed at SVU for be too soft and slow. Both teams wanted the same outcome but had totally different ways of achieving it. The whole episode could have been about the dynamics between the two teams and them having to operate within each other and I would have been completely satisfied.
What made these episodes and any episode of television though is the story and this story was so interesting. Dick Wolf and company know how to pack an emotional punch. There were no less than 10 scenes where crying wasn’t an option, it was required. It was almost impossible to get through the scene of the entire CPD saluting the wife and child of a fallen officer without reaching for the tissues. I for one would love more SVU and PD crossovers as it created one of the best episodes of PD to date and fresh episode of SVU. I hope that the high ratings mean that this isn’t a far cry.
What are your thoughts TV Addicts? Sound off below.