5 reasons why we’ll miss Peter Stone

2. He provided a valuable counterpoint

Peter Stone was, without a doubt, a disruptor. And he was brilliant at it. On both Chicago Justice and Law & Order: SVU, fans saw him butt heads with numerous people—most of them the ones he worked with. He was the counterpoint to everyone else’s point of view, and that’s something that hasn’t always existed not just in the Dick Wolf world, but in TV in general.

On many crime dramas, the main characters tend to agree with each other most of the time. They might have a disagreement for purposes of a particular plot, but generally they’re ride or die with each other. Just look at Chicago PD, where the Intelligence Unit members have chosen their team over everything else quite a few times in six seasons.

Peter disagreed with people more than he agreed with them. What made Chicago Justice work was that he and Jefferies (Carl Weathers), or he and someone else, had that back and forth which represented both sides of the case. That made the show more complete than any other legal drama has been in a long time.

And on SVU, he was the perfect foil for Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), matching her emotional arguments with factual ones. That show tends to lean into automatically believing the accusation, so it was important to have Peter there to point out that cases have to be made on more than belief and that people can be mistake.

Peter Stone was unafraid to tell people that they were wrong, but he also told them why they were wrong and did it without talking down to anyone. And he was just as willing to be wrong himself. His presence made every discussion more well-rounded, and now audiences won’t have that other point of view.