Personally, I do NOT want the two to have any kind of relationship except a professional one. However, I see hints, and I suspect that they may have already crossed that romantic line because of too many little things. Am I seeing a trail of bread crumbs where one doesn't exist? Time will tell.


In my household we thought that the portrayal of Stabler's personal life as "stable" was a breath of fresh air. But now, the writers are going the way of EVERY television show whether cop show or not, where the main character can not have a good marriage. Even though the statistics for divorce among Americans and police marriages are terrible, there IS a minority who DO have sustained, good married lives. Some of us actually like a story line of happy, married people, with "normal" problems. I wish the show would allow Stabler to get back with his wife and children and continue to give viewers of this show something different than all the shows out there. There can be so much tension, angst, drama and character growth in portraying a reconciliation--something few shows ever portray unless it is between friends; I think this is because many people don't know how to write a marital reconciliation since the sad truth is divorce is far more common, and few ever personally experience reconciliation once the "d" word is used. Showing this would be something I'd expect from L&O:SVU.


With all that said--It would be 'realistic' to a point if Stabler and Benson got together because so many police officers DO have affairs/relationships with their partner or another police officer or someone in law enforcement, like a radio dispatcher. The reason for this is not that cops are promiscuous people, although there are a few as in any profession. These officers can spend more time with each other than they do with their own families and they lose touch with being "real" or a "civilian". They feel that only another person in law enforcement can ever really "understand" what they are going through so they naturally identify with each other. Shared situations of great stress bond people, that is why police, fire...etc feel that they are a brotherhood.


Also, many cops suffer from "hypervigilance" which is a sustained emotional condition that basically has them on high alert--like being on an adrenaline high, and this keeps them on their toes when they are working. When they come home, they are still in this "cop mode" and many don't know that they are acting this way let alone how to come down from this mindset. This to me would be a better reason as to why Stabler and Benson would get together than any other stereotypical-done-to-death-romance-between-hot-colleagues-because-we've-run-out-of-friction-and-tension-situations reason.


L&O:SVU has had a lot of original script ideas and I commend the writers for these. It isn't easy to be that creative in a world where every story has already been told. I hope that when they run out of original content that they won't turn to formulaic tv and just end the show on a high note and be remembered for groundbreaking entertainment.