Law & Order: SVU has been airing for 26 seasons and counting, with Season 27 on the way in the not-too-distant future of the 2025 TV schedule. The longevity of the NBC series has meant that plenty of future film and television stars appeared as guests early on, with some even appearing in the Law & Order franchise as multiple different characters. Julie Bowen, now best known for her eleven seasons as Claire Dunphy on ABC’s Modern Family, appeared on an episode that aired back in 2008, but Law & Order’s social media accounts have been celebrating her lately. Seeing that, I’ve come to a conclusion: Bowen deserves more dramatic roles.
The franchise’s X account posted Julie Bowen’s most emotional moment from the Season 10 premiere, called “Trials” and available streaming now with a Peacock subscription and Hulu subscription. I won’t go too deeply into details here in case you want to check out the 2008 episode for yourself, but Bowen’s character confronts her husband, played by the late Luke Perry. The caption on the X post was “Julie Bowen gives a chilling and unforgettable performance,” with the Instagram account posting the same. Take a look at the clip below from the end of the episode:
Julie Bowen is only one of a surprising number of Modern Family stars who appeared on Law & Order: SVU, including two of her on-screen kids. In a fun twist (if anything about the storyline of an SVU episode can be described as fun), “Trials” aired exactly one year to the date before the series premiere of Modern Family on ABC. (The sitcom is also available streaming on Peacock and Hulu.) She debuted in SVU as Gwen Silbert on September 23, 2008, and kicked off what would be a long run as Claire Dunphy on Modern Family on September 23, 2009.
In addition to Luke Perry and Julie Bowen, the Season 10 premiere of the most successful Law & Order spinoff featured the future The Conners star Sara Gilbert. Still, due to all of those years on Modern Family followed by projects like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hysteria, and most recently, Happy Gilmore 2, Bowen is more associated with laughs than tears. From 2008 through 2025, I’m confident that most people think of comedy rather than drama from her body of work.
There’s nothing wrong with that, and she won a pair of Emmys in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work as Claire Dunphy, despite certain outlets trying to pit her against costar Sofia Vergara. I also don’t want to give the impression that Julie Bowen hasn’t dabbled in drama since 2008, but I think it would be interesting to see her working more jobs in the more serious genre. If she could do it pre-Modern Family on SVU, surely she can do it in 2025 and beyond!
Whether or not Bowen starts working on more dramas moving forward, I would agree with the Law & Order social media accounts in describing her SVU performance as “chilling and unforgettable.” I distinctly recall seeing her episode for the first time during a cable TV marathon of SVU episodes many years ago, and I could recall the plot that brought her, Luke Perry, and Sara Gilbert all to the small screen in the same episode.
