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MattyKatty t1_j9s60th wrote

That's kind of awkward.. Basically starting where he was a major character to ending with episodes where he barely appears. Apparently that was Belzer's own decision since he wanted to spend more time with his family, but still kind of weird to see from in a "Munch-a-thon"

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DifficultMinute t1_j9tigei wrote

Happens to basically everyone on that show. They started with 2-3 groups of detectives, albeit with Benson and Stabler as the stars, and slowly turned into the Benson show. The other characters are there, but they get like 1-2 lines each with someone other than "Liv".

If you watch the most recent season, she's in basically every scene. She's at the arrest, she's discussing with the lawyers, she's in the interview, she's in court, she's in the last scenes. At some point, I'm waiting for them to have an episode where she's watching the actual assault through the window.

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SuspendedInKarmaMama t1_j9tmlej wrote

You forgot that every episode now also shows her homelife with her son to an absurd degree.

It really stinks of an actor getting to be a producer.

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CryptidGrimnoir t1_j9yzjq1 wrote

Not to mention that Benson has been a victim of assault several times now and can't possibly be unbiased in her proceedings.

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NeoNoireWerewolf t1_j9trvlp wrote

The thing that’s ridiculous about Benson becoming the centerpiece of the show is that she gets promoted to captain eventually, so her role would be much more administrative and dealing with internal politics. She wouldn’t be showing up at the scene of every crime and doing a lot of actual detective work. Rawlins realistically should have been the protagonist for the show after Benson’s promotion, and while they have her a couple of episodes as the centerpiece each season, it still involves Benson being the focus of drama far too often. And they basically fired Kelli Giddish in the most recent season because she had been on the show so long she was getting too expensive given how much Hargitay costs to keep around.

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LuLouProper t1_j9uxv9l wrote

Benson got promoted very quickly from Detective to Captain for someone who wasn't the child/mistress of top NYPD brass. I guess you could explain it in-universe that the position needed someone of rank, and no one else wanted it.

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mug3n t1_j9wxpt9 wrote

The show did Kelli soooooo fucking dirty. They were gonna unceremoniously kill her off but Mariska kiboshed the idea and at least gave her a proper send off.

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