Law & Order: Organized Crime seems to misjudge the appeal of Law & Order altogether

Vulture

Christopher Meloni's return as Elliot Stabler in Thursday's Law & Order: SVU was "fan-servicey and indulgent — lots of opportunities to stare deeply into his old partner Olivia Benson’s eyes and attempt to atone for the mistakes of his past," says Kathryn VanArendonk. "But by the time Stabler strolls out of the SVU domain and over into his own series, that character in particular and Organized Crime more broadly starts looking like a frustrating measure of just how far the world has moved on from the values and tropes that defined the character years ago. Worse, Organized Crime seems to misjudge the appeal of Law & Order altogether, and it does so in a way that only exacerbates the gap between now and the Stabler of old. Bringing back Elliot Stabler in 2021 was always going to be a mess. Sure, when seen through nostalgia glasses, Stabler is your Law & Order problematic zaddy or whatever. When he’s forced to exist in a contemporary context, though, it’s immediately obvious that all the things he was best known for a decade ago are now enormous flaws. He’s violent and impulsive, he cannot follow rules, and deep in his heart he truly believes that all these things make him a good cop." VanArendonk adds: "More generally, I’m just not sure that Organized Crime is what audiences want from the Law & Order universe. Setting aside the dubious choice of creating even more cop shows right now, the appeal of the franchise’s most enduring properties has always been their role as episodic-TV comfort food. It is copaganda of a very specific flavor: There are cops, there are problems, and then those problems get fixed. If Organized Crime keeps the 'cops' and 'there are problems' parts of the equation, but chucks out the part where those problems are fixed in a reliable clockwork rhythm, I’m not sure the lingering fondness for Elliot Stabler will be enough to win Organized Crime a dedicated place in viewers’ hearts. (Plus, there’s no DUN DUN. Is it even Law & Order without the DUN DUN?!)"

ALSO:

• Can Dick Wolf’s production machine use the Law & Order template to build a decent show around Christopher Meloni after all these years?: "Since the premiere of Criminal Intent 20 years ago, no new L&O show has lasted more than one season, and while SVU soldiers on, the focus of Wolf Entertainment has shifted to the more successful Chicago and FBI franchises. Meloni was, for all intents and purposes, the last really good reason to watch a Law & Order show," says Mike Hale. "(SVU, and Hargitay, haven’t been the same since he left.) He may not have the widest range or greatest nuance as an actor, but he has superb control, and in his tenure on SVU, his precise rendering of Stabler’s raging contradictions — his desire to be a good cop, his willingness to be a bad cop — was compelling and thoroughly entertaining."
• Law & Order: Organized Crime may believe it’s improving the problematic police show model, but its first episode ended with Elliot Stabler breaking the rules
• Did Law & Organized Crime open the door for a Benson and Stabler to finally hook up?
• It's weird that Dylan McDermott's villain character has a more compelling storyline than Elliot Stabler
• Christopher Meloni says Stabler and Benson interacting in future episodes is necessary, not just fan service: “Human beings, being what they are, and hurt feelings being the dynamic of what that is, you really have to go slowly and you have to address all the complications that are there,” he says. “Sometimes, you’re not ready to address the elephant that’s in the room, or address it head-on, or maybe you’re not equipped to do it in the moment.”