Law & Order: SVU Fans Make Their Dislike For Stabler Very Clear
Christopher Meloni began starring in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit upon the series’ inception in 1999.
After a decade away from the show, he’s appeared as a guest in the last few seasons. While Meloni’s performance has been praised - even earning an Emmy nomination in 2006 - Stabler’s characterization has been far more divisive.
A Stabler defender took to Reddit to ask their fellow fans why everyone seems to hate Stabler.
One fan pointed to the fact that Stabler consistently oversteps his boundaries as an officer of the law, which is an issue with a lot of police procedurals. They argued that any perp Stabler apprehends has a case for a battery lawsuit against the department. On top of that, most of the confessions he gets are while the criminal is under significant duress.
While Stabler’s willingness to flaunt traditional police procedure can be infuriating, it admittedly makes for great television. He consistently clashes with his less-aggressive colleagues, though they always work through their issues in the end.
He’s a very prototypical machismo, a hot-headed cop that emerges from late-night dramas. While it borders on the unrealistic, it creates more drama for the fans to consume.
Another fan said Stabler’s aggressiveness turned them off from the show. They called Seasons 13-15 - the first three without Stabler - the best years of the show.
According to the fan, Stabler was a “walking liability suit time bomb” who never learned from his mistakes. While his aggressive nature made sense in the first few seasons, there was no character development. The fan believed he should have either grown or been fired, and the show improved upon Meloni’s departure.
Another fan pointed out some of the more problematic quotes from Stabler, especially in the earlier seasons. He once said that a man can’t be raped and a woman can’t be a perp - not a great mindset for a detective who works in sex crimes.
They also pointed to his penchant for “violating [perps’] presumption of innocence,” which is paramount to the American legal system. While some of his colleagues also fell into the same trap of false accusations and arrests, Stabler never recognized his mistakes and admitted his wrongdoings.
The fan said Stabler was too hard-headed to be a likable character.
Despite some of the hate that’s heaped toward his character, Meloni has always been a welcome guest in the show’s most recent seasons. He last appeared in Season 24, Episode 12 - “Blood Out.”
The Season 24 finale will air on Thursday, April 6 on NBC.