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When Do New Episodes of ‘Law and Order: Organized Crime’ Come Out?
Law & Order: Organized Crime moves from NBC to Peacock for Season 5, but Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler isn’t going anywhere. Not only did his detective character return to the NYPD for the series – Stabler’s since become the Organized Crime Control Bureau’s top investigator. So if you call him over the hill, you might get punched in the mouth. Meloni is also an executive producer on L & O: OC, and in Season 5, also a writer, which could play into his tease of another crossover featuring Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson. For now, Meloni is joined by series regulars Danielle Moné Truitt, Rick Gonzalez, and Ainsley Seiger; Jason Patric also joins the cast.
: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “Just burn it – it’s easy, as long as you stay upwind.” It’s a grisly scene as a bossman criminal-type shows off how merciless he is.
The Gist: “I need you to go undercover.” Season 5 of Law & Order: Organized Crime doesn’t waste any time getting into the thick of it as Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Truitt) visits Elliot Stabler (Meloni) at home to tap him for a new case. Breaking with Law & Order source code, OC isn’t a half-and-half situation – cases are resolved across numerous episodes. And it certainly seems like this new one has a lot of moving parts. Stabler assumes the false identity of “Hank,” a seasoned truck driver willing to haul anything, including contraband. And he infiltrates the operation of a New York state trucking company called 3 Kings, which contracts with a dangerous criminal gang based in Canada to smuggle drugs, guns, and possibly even women and young girls into the US.
At 3 Kings, Stabler works the big gearbox on his Freightliner as he becomes a quick ally of the sex workers who also ply their trade at the yard. And back at OCCB HQ, Bell tracks leads with Detectives Reyes (Gonzalez) and Slootmaekers (Seiger), plus tech whiz Kyle Vargas (Tate Ellington). But there is an additional federal quotient to this investigation. It’s a joint task force, and FBI Special Agent Sheppard (McKinley Belcher III) shows up to push for results while he insinuates that Stabler can’t get the job done. Bell stands up for her guy to the fed, but she and the entire team suspect Sheppard is withholding important information. Other than brief check-ins on the road at weigh stations, Stabler as “Hank” is on his own.
While undercover, Elliot is also missing out on his son Eli (Nicky Torchia) graduating from the NYPD police academy, and his homelife is also busy with his oldest brother Randall (Dean Norris) there, plus his mother Bernadette (Ellen Burstyn), who struggles with dementia. (In OC, the family side of Elliot Stabler’s life has always taken precedent over time spent with prosecutors and the courts.) As he encounters harsh violence from the driver’s seat of his rig, and the regular mistreatment of the women who work at 3 Kings, Stabler is anticipating being part of the operation’s biggest illegal shipment yet. Thwarting it would be a win for the OCCB, and satisfy the FBI. But how much heinous shit can a guy wired like Detective Stabler witness before he endangers his undercover – and himself – in order to protect those who need it the most?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? (and SVU, and Organized Crime, etc.) creator Dick Wolf is busy. He’s also behind the One Chicago suite of shows (Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med), and recently expanded the Law & Order franchise north of the border with L&O Toronto: Criminal Intent. But wait, there’s more! Wolf is also an executive producer of On Call, a half-hour police procedural for Prime Video.
Our Take: Honestly, entire chunks of Organized Crime feel less like the world of Law & Order and more like the CBS series procedural universe. The OCCB team back at base, with their expository dialog setups and lots of computer or LCD screen visuals for the viewing audience to follow, not to mention quirkier personalities like Detective Jet Slootmaekers (that name!) and AI/drone expert Kyle Vargas. But Christopher Meloni as former SVU-er Elliot Stabler remains the primary draw here. And if the detective has become slightly less intense as he has aged, Meloni still plays him with such familiarity, in season 5, we might as well be hanging in the sleeper berth of his big rig as he works to solve the latest case. Because we know the moves, and we love ‘em. Every eyebrow raised, every half-smile. Every talky fib he tells as an undercover. And if there is a woman or a kid in trouble, we know he’s going into tough guy mode. As Stabler, Meloni is both the connective tissue for the Law & Order franchise and the best reason to dive into Organized Crime, with its wrinkles off the TV brand’s form.
Sex and Skin: None, but serious themes including sex work under duress and physical abuse of women.
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Parting Shot: Detective Stabler has no backup readily available on his latest undercover assignment, and he’s dealing with some very dangerous people. But have you ever known Stabler to fret over something like procedure when it comes to saving an innocent?
Sleeper Star: Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) was already part of L&O: OC as Randall Stabler, Elliot’s big brother. But his meatier role in season 5 is welcome as the series balances the OCCB’s police work with its deeper exploration of the Stablers’ evolving family dynamic.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Elliot, they’re not just moving drugs. They’re trafficking women, and possibly underage girls, too.” Sergeant Bell immediately has Stabler’s attention.
Our Call: STREAM IT. We’d follow Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler anywhere, and as it moves over to Peacock for season 5, Law & Order: Organized Crime finds him undercover on a thorny – and possibly life-and-limb threatening – new case.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
- Christopher Meloni
- Stream It Or Skip It
