The 7 Best And 7 Worst Mariska Hargitay Law & Order Episodes Ranked

The "Law & Order" franchise has featured many memorable characters since the original "Law & Order" show first aired in 1990. Few, however, are as beloved as Olivia Benson, played by actor Mariska Hargitay. 

Hargitay's Benson serves as the lead on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," but has appeared in half a dozen primetime shows, including multiple "Law & Order" shows, as well as "Chicago P.D." and "Chicago Fire." Her work portraying the character across all these series has won Mariska Hargitay a Primetime Emmy Award. 

Olivia Benson has been a lead character on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" since it premiered in 1999, and has appeared in almost every episode of the show's long run. Beginning with Season 21 of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Benson became the longest-running live-action character of all time on a primetime show. During this time, Benson has been an integral character in many phenomenal episodes, as well as a handful of not-so-great storylines. Here's a look at her best — and worst — appearances.

"Devastating Story" is loosely based on the controversy around a 2014 Rolling Stone article titled "A Rape on Campus," which was later retracted after investigations showed the information in the article to be false and/or slanderous. The episode follows the story of a college student who goes on a fictional television series called "America's Worst Crimes" and tells the story of her brutal sexual assault, committed by several members of a fraternity. However, once the SVU team begins to investigate, they realize there are a lot of holes in the woman's story, and eventually discover that much of it was fabricated.

Unfortunately, like many of "Law & Order's" attempts to recreate real headline stories, "Devastating Story" fails to hit the mark due to many oversimplifications and certain frustrating dramatizations. While the major plot beats of "Devastating Story" loosely line up with the real event, certain additions to introduce plot twists make the story fail to ring true. For instance, the episode has the college student tell her story after being coerced by a school counselor who is trying to further an anti-fraternity agenda on campus, giving the story a firmer villain, but a less believable scenario.

"Imposter" follows the SVU team's attempts to try to prosecute a "rape by fraud" case against a man who pretends to be a college admissions counselor in order to trick women into sleeping with him to give their children a better chance at getting into college. The case is spearheaded by Benson, who tries to convince the man's victims to pursue legal action, eventually convincing one mother. While the episode brings up some interesting moral quandaries, there are several aspects that didn't sit well with many fans, making this one of "Law & Order: Special Victim Unit's" lowest-rated episodes on IMDb.

For instance, Benson's relentless insistence that the victims testify against their perpetrator, despite their reluctance, feels exploitive at times, putting victims in the public crosshairs in order to further an agenda that Benson and ADA Raphael Barba are trying to push. Finally, the victim's son dying by suicide at the end feels like an emotionally manipulative moment built for shock value, ending the episode on a sour note.

One of the few times "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" has come close to airing a bottle episode, "Part 33" takes place over the course of a single day, as the members of the SVU team are awaiting their time to testify in a trial they don't agree on. The case involves a woman who shot her husband, a former cop, to death. She claims that he was abusive, but never physically harmed or threatened her. Benson is on the fence about how she wants to try to color her testimony, while her teammates Carisi and Rollins try to convince her of their own individual opposing opinions.

Unfortunately, everything interesting the episode has to say gets said in the first ten minutes, with the rest of the episode just involving the increasingly angry Carisi and Rollins reiterating their opinions with more and more emotional upset, making the whole thing feel like a frustrating cycle of more of the same, despite some strong performances. In addition, a major element of the episode involves the fact that Carisi knew and hated the victim prior to his shooting, undermining his arguments that the victim deserved to die.

Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson guest-starred on the "Law & Order" Season 21 episode "Black and Blue." Sadly, it's one of "Law & Order's" lowest-rated episodes among fans, with an IMDb rating of 6/10. The episode tells the story of a police officer with a history of racism that was shot and killed by a Black woman who states that she was surprised by him in an alleyway. The case challenges the characters in different ways, and places EADA Nolan Price in a difficult position as he tries to find a fair balance while prosecuting the case.

The episode actually presents a lot of interesting viewpoints and challenges on the tense and poignant subject of the relationship between many Black Americans and the police. Unfortunately, the case itself is a mess. The episode quickly jumps from one point to another, and often contradicts itself. For instance, early in the episode it's established that the perpetrator was holding a gun on another man when the cop pulled up, but later in the court they say she reached for it in her jacket. These inconsistencies are never tackled in the episode and appear to just be mistakes in the script. Sadly, the sloppy writing doesn't provide a satisfying framework for the episode's interesting ideas. It might have worked better in a two-hour special that gave it time to breathe.

"Info Wars" sees the SVU team investigating the sexual assault of a conservative female pundit who was holding a rally at the fictional Hudson University. Guest starring "Better Call Saul" veteran Rhea Seehorn, this episode attempts to tackle the dangers of political extremists, but sadly struggles in its attempts to portray either side of the ideological spectrum. After the pundit, Martha Cobb, is sexually assaulted following her rally, the SVU team narrows the suspects down to two men, one liberal and one conservative. Both men have been complicit in spewing hate speech online, and both had a motive for the attack.

The episode never confirms which of the two men assaulted Cobb, and justice is never served. While there is definitely fertile ground to explore when it comes to political extremism, the episode's wishy-washy writing seems more insistent on cramming as many buzzwords into one episode than actually developing its theme, which leads "Info Wars" feeling like it has very little to actually say. Rhea Seehorn's acting is fantastic, but even that can't save "Info Wars" from feeling like an hour of wasted time.

"Guardians and Gladiators" opens with a familiar yet horrifying scene as a white woman at a local park films herself calling the police on a Black man she claims is scaring her child. The cops come and arrest the alleged perp, Jayvon Brown, before noticing another man lying unconscious in the brush nearby. When it's determined that the man was sexually assaulted, Benson and her team are called. Originally, they view Brown as a suspect, but quickly rule him out.

The problem with "Guardians and Gladiators" is that after the opening scene, the episode loses focus. While Jayvon Brown is ruled out early on, he files a complaint that leads to an Internal Affairs investigation into racist practices in the NYPD. This storyline provides the episode with some interesting scenes, but unfortunately the main case still takes up the majority of the running time, and follows a bland investigation that has no resolution at the end. There are also several uncharacteristically stupid decisions made by Benson in this episode, such as not bringing a lawyer to an Internal Affairs interview despite being told to do so.

"Intimidation Game" has the lowest score of any "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" episode on IMDb at 4.2/10 and it isn't hard to see why. The episode, which aired in 2015, is loosely inspired by the real-life harassment campaign dubbed Gamergate, which captured the public's attention the year before. The story centers on the harassment of women in the video game industry, eventually including the rape of a female video game developer.

However, when watching the episode, it seems that the writers don't quite know gaming culture. It's filled with long-winded explanations of even the most basic terms (such as "noobs") and the SVU team is constantly making level-up jokes while a woman's life is on the line, making light of a real situation that has ruined the lives of many women in the gaming industry. Further, the plan carried out by guest star Logan Paul's character, which involves sexually assaulting a game developer on a livestream on the fictional "Red Channel" before tricking the cops into a major shootout on top of a high-rise, strains believability in a way that sticks out on a relatively grounded show like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."