Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, returning for its 27th season this week, holds a unique position in the affections of many viewers, unlike many other police procedurals. While there have been criticisms of the show, its approach to sexual assault has been a source of comfort for many. Star Mariska Hargitay, and her character Olivia Benson, have become an emblem of how people wish they were treated when disclosing assault.

SVU has broken new ground in many ways throughout its decades on air, and Season 27 marks a significant new chapter, with the series’ first-ever female showrunner taking charge. Michele Fazekas, who previously worked as a writer and producer on the show in the early 2000s before leaving in 2006, has returned to the world of SVU almost 20 years later.

“I had been on the show for five years, and for a while I felt like, ‘I can’t do a sex crimes cop show anymore.’ It’s too difficult to inhabit that world. This was likely the appropriate amount of time to be away from it,” Fazekas shared with TIME, laughing.

SVU was quite different back then. The original cast included Hargitay; Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, who now stars in his own Dick Wolf universe show, Law & Order: Organized Crime; Ice-T as Odafin “Fin” Tutuola; the late Richard Belzer as John Munch; and Dann Florek as Captain Cragen were all still present. Now, only Ice-T and Hargitay remain (though several crew members from Fazekas’ initial run, including the teamster who picked her up for her first day back, are still working there). Fazekas fondly recalls her time working with Hargitay.

“She’s a major factor in my decision to return,” Fazekas states. “Working with her has been one of the finest professional experiences of my life. She brings such a positive energy to your set. She’s incredibly talented, diligent, and skilled, and just a fun, humorous individual, so she truly ticks all the boxes.” Hargitay’s enduring popularity is undeniable.

While still undoubtedly popular, Fazekas’ initial tenure on SVU was before it truly found its footing as the cathartic “guilty pleasure” many viewers perceive it to be today.

“I believe it’s acceptable to present an ideal scenario in an imperfect world,” Fazekas comments on SVU’s portrayal of law enforcement officers who empathetically listen to and advocate for survivors without causing them further trauma. “There’s a clear need for that.”

This theme is consistent across Fazekas’ work, especially in her other current series, the second season of the Prime Video college-set superhero show, Gen V, a spin-off from the irreverent The Boys. Gen V chronicles a group of budding, often reluctant superheroes as they come to terms with their abilities. It notably focuses on the experiences of young women, particularly protagonist Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), whose powers emerge with her first menstrual period, and her roommate Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), whose ability to shrink and enlarge herself draws parallels to disordered eating and body image issues.

“It’s why I prefer a diverse writers’ room with people from all sorts of jobs, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds,” she explains. In the Gen V writers’ room, “male writers would pitch scenarios from college, and every woman in that room either knew someone who had been sexually assaulted in college or had experienced it themselves, so it offers a different life perspective. In my work, I enjoy contrasting good with evil and challenging characters with truly difficult circumstances. I really like watching characters overcome adversity—that, to me, is very much Benson,” she says.

Fazekas isn’t planning a radical reinvention of SVU during her time, apart from introducing some new cameras and a different paint color in the squadroom. There have been several notable cast changes in recent years, and this season continues that trend, with Kelli Giddish returning in a full-time capacity to her role as Detective Amanda Rollins, alongside a host of new faces, including Noma Dumezweni as Benson’s superior, the chief of detectives.

Instead, she’s been looking back at what proved effective during her first period on the show and blending that with what SVU is currently excelling at.

“The show’s rhythm is different,” she notes. “I prefer a quicker tempo, so I told the producer we’re going to have many more scenes, but not to panic, they just need to be faster!”

Fazekas is also emphasizing the franchise’s more procedural elements—or “Dick Wolf law school,” as she terms it—and indeed, focusing on interpreting the nuanced areas of the legal system.

Will this impact the vicarious emotional satisfaction survivors feel when observing particularly heinous crimes investigated by dedicated detectives and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law? We will simply have to watch Season 27 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit to discover the answer.

Scarlett Harris is a culture critic and the author of A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment. Her past published works can be accessed through her various platforms, including her blog, The Scarlett Woman, and she maintains an active presence on social media.