10 Things Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Needs To Do To Fix Christopher Meloni’s Spinoff

Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5 must accomplish several changes to fix serious problems that are making the series more difficult to enjoy. The Christopher Meloni-led spinoff of Law & Order: SVU originally focused on Meloni’s Elliot Stabler returning to New York and joining the Organized Crime Bureau so he could solve the murder of his wife. Since then, there have been frequent Law & Order: Organized Crime showrunner changes, leading to the series repeatedly reinventing itself.

Although Stabler is a big draw, Organized Crime has long struggled to achieve the large, passionate audience that the other shows in the franchise enjoy. Organized Crime season 5 will air on Peacock, which is meant to solve that problem. However, it is difficult to tell whether the move to Peacock will work, given continued production shake-ups and the lack of a confirmed release date halfway through the 2024-25 television season. Truly, the newest season of Organized Crime will need to make several serious changes to remain viable.

10 Organized Crime Must Determine A Vision For The Series FIRST & Then Hire A Showrunner

Constant Changes In Showrunners Are Ruining This Law & Order Show

Organized Crime has changed showrunners seven times, with the most recent production update revealing that original EP Matt Olmstead will again take the reins for season 5. The revolving door of showrunners makes it hard to achieve any consistency. Each showrunner has their own vision for the series, which has led to massive changes from one season to the next, such as the length of story arcs, whether Stabler and Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson have a romantic relationship, and whether Stabler’s family is part of the series.

It is nearly impossible for anyone other than die-hard fans to stay loyal to a show that goes through that much upheaval. The changes are so drastic that Organized Crime constantly feels like the pilot of a new series with the same name. The series needs to choose a vision and stick with it for more than one season, and it would be helpful for the show creators to agree on said vision and then hire a permanent showrunner who understands and supports it.

Therefore, the most recent update is good news, as Matt Olmstead was originally tapped to lead the show but had to bow out because of the time commitment. Olmstead is a veteran producer at Dick Wolf Entertainment who also co-created Chicago PD as well as worked on several gritty police procedurals such as NYPD Blue. Olmstead understands what needs to be done to make Law & Order: Organized Crime conform to its original premise and can provide some stability for the series if he agrees to stay for a longer period.

9 Organized Crimes Needs To Bring Back The Rest Of Stabler’s Family Permanently, Especially His Mother

Family Storylines Should Co-Exist With Cases In Organized Crime

When Stabler was a main character in Law & Order: SVU, one of the reasons he was so popular was that he had a storyline involving his family every week. Organized Crime was most interesting in season 2, when Stabler’s family was around more often than not. The family did not return to the Law & Order franchise in season 3, but season 4’s inclusion of Stabler’s two brothers and his mother was an improvement. Bernie “Mama” Stabler is especially a popular and fun character who originally appeared in Law & Order: SVU season 10, episode 3, “Swing.”

Mama has bipolar disorder and is in the early stages of dementia while having a contentious relationship with all of her sons for various reasons, which would add depth to season 5. Additionally, Stabler has five adult children, but the only one who is regularly seen in later episodes is his son Eli, who quickly ages from a troubled 14-year-old to a young adult who reveals in the season 4 finale that his girlfriend is pregnant. It would be especially interesting to bring back Kathleen, who is established in “Swing” to also have bipolar disorder after she is arrested for breaking into someone’s house.

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Kathleen has turned her life around and often tries to support her father in the days soon after her mother’s death, but hasn’t been part of the series for a while. She should be brought back now to help deal with her brother and keep her father in line. Kathleen could also help with her grandmother’s care, as Randall and Stabler both find this difficult regardless of which one she lives with.

8 Organized Crime Needs To Return to Longer Arcs, But Release All Episodes In The Arc At Onc

Organized Crime Season 5 Should Take Advantage Of Being A Peacock-Exclusive Series

Arc length has been controversial throughout Organized Crime‘s existence. The series originally included stories that spanned eight or more episodes. This format made the most sense, given that in real life, organized crime cases take a while to close and often require building relationships with low-level members of a crime organization and getting them to flip on higher-ups. However, audiences grew bored with the longer arcs, so they were abandoned, although they began to come back in Organized Crime season 4.

Organized Crime has experimented with different formats, including single-episode stories and smaller mini-arcs that are solved quickly on the way to solving the big case. These options worked when the series was on broadcast TV, but now that Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5 will air on Peacock, it has the option of returning to longer arcs but releasing all episodes in an arc at once. This compromise would work well because it would allow those who enjoy watching the story slowly unfold to savor a long arc, while more impatient audience members can binge-watch it.

7 Organized Crime Needs To Create Complex Villains

Organized Crime’s Villains Should Be As Relatable As They Are Evil

Organized crime bosses can be some of the best villains to write, and the new showrunner shouldn’t hold back. The best villains on TV are ones that do horrible things yet have qualities the audience can relate to. The more the audience realizes that they have things in common with the villain, the scarier the characters seem, so Organized Crime‘s villains should be given humanizing traits rather than being depicted as being purely evil or not having relatable motivations for their crimes.

Organized Crime had stronger villains in the first two seasons. Stabler struggles with his affection for Reggie when he is undercover in the Albanian mob during season 2, and Reggie’s story is left open-ended enough that he can come back. In season 4, most of the villains are not as interesting, even if Keith Carradine’s Judge Bonner is admittedly extremely creepy. The villains should not be impossibly gifted at crime; instead, they should be ordinary people whose worldview allows them to do evil.

6 Organized Crime Should Reconnect With The Rest Of The Law & Order Universe

Organized Crime Should Not Be Isolated From The Rest Of The Franchise

Organized Crime has been standing completely alone for far too long. It was strange, as well as disrespectful to the relationship between Stabler and Benson that had already been set up in season 3, for Law & Order: Organized Crime to ignore events in Law & Order: SVU that it should have been involved with. This is especially true now that Amanda Rollins works for the Intelligence Unit, whose cases often overlap with the interests of the Organized Crime Bureau.

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It’s important for Organized Crime to stand on its own, and Benson shouldn’t appear in every episode, but ignoring her or her show when joint operations make sense doesn’t work either. This practice isolates Organized Crime from the rest of the franchise for no good reason. Additionally, if the flagship Law & Order features a case that involves organized crime, characters from the Organized Crime Bureau should make cameos to consult or help pursue the guilty.

5 Organized Crime Should Make Stabler’s Relationship With Bell More Adversarial Again

While Their Friendship Is Great, Stabler Should Still Be A Problem For Bell

Stabler and Danielle Moné Truitt’s Bell are the best of friends now, but when Organized Crime first started, he was a thorn in her side for reasons that have not really changed. Stabler is impulsive, hotheaded, and arrogant enough to think he knows best in any given situation. He rarely follows orders and often brings unwanted attention to the Organized Crime Bureau by taking unnecessary risks.

Bell used to call Stabler out for that type of behavior far more often than she does now. Additionally, after her undercover officer, Gina is killed during season 1, Bell reacts fearfully during undercover assignments, often pushing for Stabler or others at the time to withdraw prematurely because she thinks it’s too dangerous. Stabler is the least likely team member to follow those instructions, so this should be a central conflict throughout season 5.

4 Organized Crime Needs To Develop Each Team Member’s Character & Story

A Full Team Of People The Audience Cares About Will Help Improve Organized Crime’s Ratings

Although all the shows in the Law & Order franchise are police procedurals, it’s the characters that keep audiences tuning in more than the plots. However, Law & Order: Organized Crime has too often fallen down on the job when it comes to developing the characters on Stabler’s team beyond the foremost members. Stabler and Bell are both well-developed, with compelling backstories and current conflicts, but for the most part, the secondary characters are not well-defined.

For instance, Jet and Reyes have an affair in Law & Order: Organized Crime season 4, yet the only thing the audience knows about Reyes is that he’s excellent at undercover work. This is unacceptable; Organized Crime needs fully developed characters, not stock police officers who have only one recognizable trait.

3 Organized Crime SHould Make Jet The Most Central Of The Supporting Characters

Jet Is Already Well-Rounded & Is Highly Entertaining

Although Jet began as a minor character in Organized Crime season 1, she has grown throughout the series and is the one member of Stabler and Bell’s team who is fully three-dimensional. Jet is cynical and sarcastic, highly gifted with computers, used to being seen as a nerd, and secretly hungry for a loving relationship. She’s sabotaged several promising relationships and had two boyfriends die before she has an affair with Reyes while knowing he’s married.

Jet’s perfectly imperfect and deserves a larger part in Organized Crime going forward. Her snarky comments are always amusing, and her relationship with Stabler is interesting. She considers him to be the best of the older generation, who she mostly has no use for, and is willing to do favors for him behind Bell’s back so that he can investigate things on his own. The dynamic between Stabler and Jet is something audiences could fall in love with, and it should be featured in every episode.

2 Organized Crime Should Be As Gritty & Violent As Peacock Will Allow

The Criminal Underworld Is Not Pretty & Should Be Depicted Accurately

With its earliest seasons, Organized Crime tested boundaries, being as graphically violent as NBC would let it get away with, including showing things such as someone’s ear being cut off. While part of the audience recoiled at the horrific and often gory scenes, this type of violence is part of the environment for crime organizations. If Organized Crime wants to be at all realistic, it needs to up the violence quota as much as possible.

There are far looser restrictions on streaming services than on broadcast networks, which means the move to Peacock is, in this regard, a gift to Organized Crime. The series can now depict violent criminal activity as accurately as it wants, which will appeal to audiences who enjoy such content. While the series may lose some of its original audience who don’t like graphic violence, embracing it will win new fans who are drawn to harsh crime stories.

1 Organized Crime Needs To Create Friction Between This Unit & The Rest of the NYPD

1PP Should Not Understand Or Respect This Unit

Also during the early seasons, Stabler is not well-liked within the NYPD because of his refusal to follow rules when he felt they were a hindrance, and the NYPD would have loved to get rid of him — and the Organized Crime Bureau as a whole. There is something of a resurgence of this storyline in season 4 with the IAB agent who holds a grudge against Stabler’s father, but it isn’t enough.

Law & Order: Organized Crime showcases a rebellious unit, and the cops who want to treat their precinct like an organized crime entity should have nothing but disdain for it, especially after Stabler helped bring down the Brotherhood. Thus, the newest season should reintroduce this conflict with the NYPD to create added drama, pressure, and intrigue as the Organized Crime Unit fights to dismantle powerful criminal organizations that have run the city for decades.

Law and Order: Organized Crime is a spin-off of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and the seventh series in the Law and Order franchise. Law and Order: Organized Crime premiered on NBC in 2021. It stars Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, a veteran detective from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He returns to the NYPD following the murder of his wife, and joins the Organized Crime Task Force to find her killers. The task force is headed by Sergeant Ayanna Bell, played by Danielle Moné Truitt.

Cast

Christopher Meloni

Release Date

April 1, 2021

Seasons

3

Writers

Dick Wolf

Directors

Warren Leight

Showrunner

Bryan Goluboff

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