It’s been almost a year since Law & Order: Organized Crime last hit the airwaves, but better a late return than none at all.
Law & Order: SVU’s Stabler-centered spinoff didn’t garner well-deserved love on NBC, so let’s hope Peacock treats it better. The arrival of ten new episodes thrills me.
On that note, I created a Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 wishlist. Peacock as it is free from the content restrictions of network TV.
First, A Quick Reminder Of Where We Left Off
It’ll be almost a year since Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 4 ended. It’s understandable if you’ve forgotten most of what happened.
The big cliffhanger involved Stabler’s wayward little brother, Joe Jr.
Joe had gotten caught up in illegal activity because of his heroin addiction.
To make a long story short, he had gotten caught, turned informant, and was trying to help Stabler and his team take down drug kingpin Julian Emery.
Unfortunately, while the team was able to get a bodyguard and some other foot soldiers, Emery took off for parts unknown… and Joe was on board his plane, handcuffed to a briefcase that presumably had chemical weapons in it.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Emery is suspicious of Joe to begin with, putting Joe in a dangerous position, and now Stabler’s team has interfered with Emery’s original plan.
Most significantly, they recovered a nerve agent that Emery was hoping to use to cause chaos on the ground while he was busy escaping — but he had another set of chemical weapons in his possession, and now Joe is attached to it.
Joe is clearly more hostage than criminal at this point, but it’s anyone’s guess what will happen.
Christopher Meloni called it “intense” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, and something tells me that’s an understatement.
Meanwhile, Stabler’s home life is also a mess. Law & Order: Season 4 Episode 13 ended with him realizing that he was the last to know that his son’s girlfriend is pregnant.
These Cliffhangers Guarantee That One Thing On Our Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Wishlist Will Come True
One thing that’s near the top of my list for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 is for family stuff to be front and center.
It doesn’t have to be MORE important than the cases Stabler pursues, but it has to be equally important.
Look, I already lost Blue Bloods, and as weird as it sounds, Law & Order: Organized Crime was the closest thing to it.
Organized Crime is way more gritty and violent, but it was the only other crime drama that made family so significant — at least sometimes.
Thanks to the never-ending game of musical showrunners, the series ran the gamut from family being central to everyone moving away so Stabler had no interaction with them and back again.
However, with Joe in trouble and Eli having just dropped this bombshell on his dad, the Stabler family HAS to be a big part of the newest season.
Eli also decided to follow in Stabler’s footsteps and become a cop, which Stabler warned him against.
I found it weird that Stabler is that jaded, but I’m not opposed to Law & Order: Organized Crime becoming a dark version of Blue Bloods where police work requires new recruits to embrace corruption to succeed.
Stabler already took down one such police organization, and my wishlist includes more stories like that.
I love stories about the heroes fighting corrupt and powerful institutions, and it would be even more fascinating if Eli’s decision to enlist lands him in the middle of that all.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Needs To Completely Embrace Its Original Concept
This show has never really fit the case-of-the-week format that is part of the Law & Order brand, and every time it has tried, it’s been a disaster.
If there’s one thing that HAS to happen, it’s accepting that.
Organized crime cases are complicated and messy; a show shouldn’t reduce them to a 45-minute, one-and-done format.
They generally involve people at the top who do everything possible to cover their tracks and leave underlings holding the bag while they get away unscathed.
Extreme violence is part of the deal, too. If anyone turns on the person on top, the whole damn thing falls apart, so leaders of criminal organizations have to make it clear that opposition means starting a war you can’t win.
Law & Order: Organized Crime understood this in the early seasons. It had long arcs where Stabler and company started at the bottom and worked their way up to catch the bad guys, undercover operations that went south, and as much violence as they could get away with on network TV.
People didn’t like the long arcs, and some didn’t like the violence, but that’s okay.
Law & Order: Organized Crime was trying to market to the same people who liked the rest of the franchise, and that’s not their target audience.
Instead, now that they’re on streaming, they’re free to market themselves properly.
This show has more in common with The Wire than with the Law & Order franchise (other than Richard Belzer’s Munch having been part of both The Wire and Law & Order: SVU). It needs to act like it.
That means bringing back the long arcs and taking advantage of looser restrictions on streaming platforms to become even more gritty and violent than it was before.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Needs To Bring Reggie Back
I wasn’t a huge fan of the Stabler undercover operation on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2. Stabler had already made a name for himself taking down the Wheatley Organization — there was no way that the Albanian mob didn’t know who he was.
It was a weak story during one of the weaker seasons, but the character of Reggie stood out.
He developed a friendship with Stabler’s alter ego and it seemed like higher-ups in the mob manipulated him more than he was truly evil.
More to the point, when the Albanian mob arc finally ended, Reggie escaped. He went into Witness Protection and got a final scene in his new city.
Why on Earth go to all that trouble and never have him pop back up?
It’s obvious that the writers intended to keep Reggie in their back pocket so they could use him again when the time was right.
I say that time is now.
It’s been three years, but the Albanian mob couldn’t possibly have disappeared just because Stabler took down John Kosta.
It’s probably still going strong, and finding and killing the traitor that helped expose them before may be one of its priorities.
Having a new Reggie story is on the top of my wishlist. Something should drive him out of hiding and force Stabler to reckon with this part of his past.
Sorry, But Benson and Stabler’s Romance Is Not On The Top Of My Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Wishlist
I know, I know. Some people only watch Organized Crime for Benson and Stabler’s relationship.
Here’s the thing, though.
If this series is going to be as gritty and realistic as I need it to be, then Benson and Stabler’s romance won’t really work.
Stabler would be working hard on extremely dangerous cases. He won’t be available most of the time, and his fear that being with Benson would just place a target on her back wouldn’t be paranoia.
It already happened with Richard Wheatley; the next mob boss might be even worse.
I’m not saying the two should never cross paths, mind you.
I’m irritated by the fact that SVU took Benson and Stabler to the edge of romance and then decided to start writing as if they didn’t exist in each other’s worlds.
They need to fix that.
However, I don’t see romance as being in the cards for them right now, and it shouldn’t be the show’s focal point.
Random Thoughts About Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5
- I want more Jet! Her grief after she lost Whalen on top of losing the target of her investigation that she fell for was strong, but then on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 4 she was reduced mostly to a stupid affair with Reyes and an awkward alliance with the new AI expert. Fix this, please.
- OC should explore Bell’s unique position as one of the few Black lesbian women in a position of power in the NYPD more. She used to have to fight to keep the Organized Crime Bureau open at all, but we haven’t had the internal politics BS in a while.
- In case I haven’t made that clear, I’m all for longer arcs, but no more nonsense like Richard Wheatley’s second run. Stabler and Wheatley trying to one-up each other was cringeworthy, so I hope the series NEVER goes there again.
What’s YOUR Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Wishlist?
I want to hear your thoughts. What are you most hoping for? What are you praying the series doesn’t do?
Hit the comments with your ideas.
Law & Order: Organized Crime will stream exclusively on Peacock starting April 17.
Peacock will drop two episodes on premiere night, then a single episode every Thursday until completion.
Watch Law & Order: Organized Crime Online
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