"You cannot choose the victim." That is the bottom line of the impacting first episode in Special Victims Unit, the third successful spin-off of the Law & Order franchise. All the crimes they deal with are sex-related. Pedophiles. Rapists. Sick serial killers. Take the most twisted, revolting cases from Law & Order that you remember and consider them the norm for this series.

Flashing lights peer through the pouring rain as the police investigate the fatal stabbing of a cab driver. Detectives Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) are called in when they discover the cabbie is missing a certain part of his anatomy. Working beneath the energetic and likable characteristics of Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), this case brings powerful emotions to the surface when they link the victim to a series of rapes carried out in a war-torn European country. The victim was a former war criminal who fled to New York to escape indictment for his brutalization of women in the takeover of a small village in Serbia. Details of his crimes nearly send Olivia over the edge, and Cragen warns that if she cannot handle the case, he's going to remove her from the squad. Haunted by the knowledge that she is a product of rape, Olivia identifies with the killers, whom they suspect to be two of the cabby's victims.

Also working on the investigative team is the dry-witted John Munch (Richard Belzer, from Homicide, Life on the Street), recently retired from the Baltimore Police Force. He is a constant source of aggravation for another detective, the tough-talking feminist Monique Jefferies (Michelle Hurd). Cases in the office spill over into home life, influencing the way the detectives view the world. Unlike the norm for the other spin-offs, this show grants us glimpses into the personal lives of its characters, most notably Elliot Stabler. He deals with street thugs all day long, then goes home to a loving wife and a rambunctious teenager. His daughter is determined to move away from being "daddy's little girl" and branch into adulthood. But the world is a dangerous place through the eyes of a cop, and he's not ready to let her make that leap.

The opening statement is enough to warn viewers that this is going to be an intense series. None of the crimes are savory, and all of them deal with sexual offenses in some form. What is remarkable is that the writing remains tight and memorable despite the horrendous nature of the cases. Cragen's sense of humor, the lightweight banter between detectives, and their obvious affection for one another, prevent the series from falling into heavy-handedness. It would be very easy to become disillusioned with mankind watching SVU, because the things people do to one another are so awful that they seem inconceivable. That's where Dick Wolf's ingenious characters come into play. They make you care. They relieve you of some of the emotional weight. In short, they are what prevents the series from wallowing in the depths of human depravity.

Since there are so many sex-crimes in the series, I won't go into particulars, but every episode involves semi-graphic details. "Payback," "Or Just Like One," "Stalked," "Closure," "Limitations," "The Third Guy," "Chat Room," and "Contact," all involve rape cases. "A Single Life," "Wanderlust," "Uncivilized," and "Nocturne" involve child molestation/pedophiles. Homosexuality is argued over in "Bad Blood" and "Russian Love Poem." "Bad Blood" contains several anti-conservative rants that got a lot of religious groups up in arms when it aired. There are mentions of bisexual victims and suspects, and a lot of cases turn up threesome activities. Benson has a one night fling with a younger partner, then decides never to see him again because flings with coworkers never end well.

Guest appearances from Law & Order regulars (Abbie Carmichael, Jack McCoy, Lennie Briscoe, Ed Green) keep the two connected in our mind. It's enjoyable to see Abbie in her own for once, since she's one of the most formidable ADA's the show ever offered. Audiences should be forewarned, however, that the episode "Entitled" has no ultimate conclusion, because it was shot as a cross-over with a thirteenth season L&O episode. There are some notable cases but the one that remains standout is "Stalked," in which during the course of an investigation into a cruel rape-homicide, Olivia is selected as the new target. The twisted interrogation and the shocking conclusion leaves audiences slightly shaken, as is Dick Wolf's specialty. If he cannot get the family arguing over dinner about whether pedophiles should be incarcerated for the rest of their life, or the death penalty should be applied in certain cases and not others, he has failed. With SVU, he doesn't fail. It's just so emotionally difficult to watch that it might be too intense for more sensitive audiences.