‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 16, episode 20 preview: A crossover lies ahead

Is it possible that we are getting a shorter order for “Law & Order: SVU” this season than in the past couple of years? Based on the fact that there is no new episode next week or the week after, it seems that way. We’ll take some responsibility for getting our collective hopes up and thinking that there could be some more episodes than what we ended up ultimately getting.

One of the reasons that we could end up getting fewer episodes this is season is simple: Crossovers. You are getting so many of them between series that this probably adds a little more time to the screen time for the cast. When the show does return on April 29, it will be doing so with an episode that connects in some ways to both “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago PD.” Dallas Roberts of “The Walking Dead” fame is one of the people poised to guest star.

The question that we always wonder as someone who watches all three shows is this: Does this particular move annoy people who are not dedicated to every series? We could see that it would, given that you are not getting a chance to fully comprehend what is going on, and it is almost Dick Wolf and NBC strong-arming you into it. Of course, those of you who probably are enjoying all three shows are sure to love this. Based on our surface feeling, we may get a chance to see more connectivity here than we did even in the first spin-off.

Photo: NBC