Law & Order: SVU will have a new face for season 28 of the long-running NBC series. Actress J. Smith-Cameron, who starred in Succession, will be starring alongside Mariska Hargitay in what has been described as a mentorship kind of role. Find out what we know so far.
TVLine reports that the premiere episode, which airs on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 9/8c, will feature Smith-Cameron as Gwen Sharpe, who works as a jury consultant and will soon become a peer for Captain Olivia Benson.
In bringing her on board, showrunner Michele Fazekas said that it wouldn’t be proper for Benson to vent to her subordinates when a case makes her feel disillusioned by the job. “That’s not good management skills,” she explained.
Sharpe won’t necessarily teach her anything new, but she will be someone who can provide Benson with a different perspective when it comes to her feelings about the job. For Benson, Gwen will be “a nice sort of sounding board for her and somebody that she can talk to.”
There’s no indication of how long she will recur on the series, but Fazekas said she may appear on screen three or more times through the season. No other storylines are known yet, but just based on where Benson will be when it comes to dealing with her feelings about the job, she could be a good outlet for Benson to have for more than just a handful of episodes.
In talking to TVInsider, Fazekas dove into how the idea of feeling disillusioned with the job will reflect where Benson was at the end of season 27, when the idea of retirement came up. In the premiere of Season 28, the case they work on will also reflect how investigations relating to sexual assault have not really changed in 30 years.
Fazekas said the idea was to watch Benson reflect on this fact and how she pushes “further to get justice and even sort of challenge her own ideas of what is ethical and what is the right thing to do.”
All of these feelings for Benson at play would offer her a chance to talk to someone outside of her colleagues and give her a different view, which may be how Gwen Sharpe comes into play. So while we still do not know much since there’s still time before the season premieres, it sounds like this might be good for Benson and give her another outlet that will guide her through her work.
Law & Order: SVU is also streaming on Peacock so you can catch up on the previous season before the season 28 premiere.
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