‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 18, episode 2 preview: Moving into ‘Making a Murderer’ territory

Tonight, “Law & Order: SVU” premiered on NBC with “Terrorized,” a harrowing episode that contained scary moments aplenty as Olivia Benson found herself having to step up once again for people in mind. We know that the show succeeds at taking stories from the headlines and applying them to their world, but we like that they went a little more personal with their first episode (other than an Apple-inspired plot near the end), allowing us to focus on this world and inner conflicts without having to think about anything exterior.

Next week, that’s going to change with an episode entitled “Making a Rapist,” which is clearly inspired on a certain level by Netflix’s “Making a Murderer.” Judging from the synopsis below, we’re going to see what happens when a highly-publicized cast ends up escalating in a surprising way. The synopsis below offers up some preliminary details:

“After 16 years in prison, a convicted rapist (guest star Henry Thomas) is exonerated due to newly tested DNA evidence. But only a day later, Fin (Ice T) is called to the scene of a shocking crime and must once again investigate the whereabouts of the man he arrested years ago.”

In one way or another, every episode is another test for Benson and the SVU, and despite a change in showrunners, we are already getting the sense that the story is not slowing down at all moving into season 18. Beyond the story and its ripped-from-the-headlines quality, we suppose that the other point of interest coming into this hour is seeing Fin in the spotlight so early this season. We’ve always enjoyed episodes themed around this character, and it’s welcome that we’re getting some focus on him so early this season.

(Photo: NBC.)