‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 16: Mariska Hargitay prepares for ‘Chicago PD’ crossover

While Wednesday night will feature a new episode of “Law & Order: SVU,” we’re going to be taking a different approach with this article: Looking forward to the future.

One of the biggest appeals of being a Dick Wolf series right now comes via the crossover potential, and there will be teams when the worlds of this show, “Chicago Fire,” and “Chicago PD” will all collide … in particular during the key November sweeps period that is when NBC and other networks really try to deliver the big ratings.

Well, one of these episodes focusing on the Sophia Bush series and “SVU” is getting ready to film, and the photo from Mariska Hargitay’s Twitter is further proof of that. This is also evidence that table reads still exist in dramatic television, and that this is one of the largest tables out there given the number of people who are at it.

We always have had a complicated opinion on crossovers, mostly because we never want them to force someone to have to watch multiple series in order to have a clue of what is going on. With that being said, we do rather like how “SVU” handles them in that we never quite feel like the show forces you to watch anything else for the plot. It is more of an asset to do so, but if your schedule just happens to be too crazy, they will find a way to fill you in most of the time.

Luckily, one of the good things about this series and “Chicago PD” is that they air on the same night. “Chicago Fire” is where things start to get a little trickier.

Photo: NBC