‘Shiptober: Should we root for Barson on Law & Order: SVU season 19?

We should start off this edition of our CarterMatt ‘Shiptober series by noting that this is far from the first time that fans have speculated about Olivia Benson and her romantic life. She’s been paired off with many characters in the past, with Tucker being one of the most-recent ones. We know that there’s also a contingent out there who rooted for her with Chicago PD’s Hank Voight, but judging from some of the stuff he’s recently done over there we have a really hard time imagining the two of them ever working things out. Voight is a tiger with no interest, clearly, in changing his stripes.

In so many ways, Barba is the perfect partner for Olivia professionally in that they’re both super-intelligent, they both want the same thing (justice), and the two of them will do virtually whatever they can in order to ensure that they get it for some of the people that they care about protecting. They also bring out the best in each other , even if there are plenty of times in which we foresee both of them being extremely resistant to that very thing. These are people who are at times stubborn and don’t often look at things from another viewpoint beyond their own. For Olivia, it’s all about getting the case necessary to bring it to Barba. For him, it’s about making the right arguments. He doesn’t love all of her methods, and she doesn’t love all of his arguments.

In the end, it’s a collaboration and that’s why it works — they talk each other through their differences and they find a way to work out their problems, even when it’s not easy.

So why pair them up romantically?

For one, there is a clear contingent of fans who would want to see it happen? Also, they’ve already got a friendship — they know each other well and they’ve spent time together here and there beyond casework. They’re both in a similar pace in their careers and they’ve got enough distances from one another that they wouldn’t be constantly intruding on each other’s space either personally or professionally.

One of the only issues that we see some people having is that they wouldn’t want to see the fabric of the show change all that much and we certainly understand that. This is why we could envision a Barson pairing being something that doesn’t happen for a while if ever. If it doesn’t work out, for example, that could make the relationship a little bit awkward and SVU isn’t a soap opera. It’s hard-nosed and often about the cases. We do think, though, that since Benson and Barba are not soap-opera characters that they would be able to put their feelings aside if they had a case to work on — regardless of relationship status.

What do you think is coming for Barson?

In turn, what do you want to see for the two characters? Share some of your thoughts on the subject now in the comments!

(Photo: NBC.)