Law & Order: Organized Crime - Season 1 Television Review

As a huge fan of Miami Vice since my days as a teenager, I'll never forget seeing Dick Wolf's name in the credits of later episodes and imagining a modernized version of Miami Vice set in New York City. This fantasy was only further emboldened when I saw "Purgatory" via Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which I thought was just amazing. When word of this show's release came out, I was overjoyed and actually made time to schedule when I'd binge the whole season. I had no idea that my elation would morph into disappointed rage (and later mocking hilarity) by the end of the experience. Readers may note that I strangely reviewed season two of this show before publishing this review, but this is mainly because I felt the twisted need to revisit this season (with a support group this time) so I could properly document just how bad it is.

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Where to Find It: I saw this one on Amazon Video where it is available for rental/purchase, however it is also available for streaming on Peacock.

General Information 
Law & Order: Organized Crime is a police drama that originally premiered on 1 April 2021 (this checks out). It was jointly created by Dick Wolf, Matt Olmstead, and Ilene Chaiken under Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television. It is a spin-off of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (which is a spin-off of the original Law & Order). The series marks the return of longtime Law & Order: SVU actor, Christopher Meloni and is Law & Order's first foray into serialized storytelling. Critically, it has a 61 Metascore on Metacritic alongside a much worse 45% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Immediately out the gate, this show earns one of the few distinctions of where I have criticism before I even get into the actual substance of the show. Despite the fact that season one has eight episodes, viewers must sift through various episodes of Law & Order: SVU to get the whole story. Episode 9 of season 22 of Law & Order: SVU effectively acts as the springboard for Law & Order: Organized Crime, but it's impossible for new viewers to know that unless they've been keeping up with the promos and trailers when it first released (there are no instructions in the actual show telling viewers how to find this episode). Without that episode, viewers will have many questions going into the season and feel like they missed out. If it's not bad enough, this same issue happens again later (I think viewers are supposed to watch episode 3 of season 23) and what should be the season finale is instead also on Law & Order: SVU episode 9 of season 23. Once again, there are no instructions for how to find these episodes, so viewers who digitally buy season one walk away feeling jilted as season one essentially ends abruptly with no explanation.

 

The Story

After the horrifying death of Detective Elliott Stabler's (played by Christopher Meloni) wife, Stabler is on a crusade to find out who orchestrated her murder. His quest for justice eventually leads him to the NYPD's Organized Crime and Control Bureau where he begrudgingly develops a partnership with his new boss, Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt). It doesn't take long to learn La Cosa Nostra is somehow involved with the assassination, but the clues point to a shady business tycoon named Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott).

 

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After all these years, Stabler is back and this time it's personal!

The Law & Order franchise has always been well-regarded as the king of the police procedural series even though it sometimes bends the rules in regards to realism in order to keep a story engaging and well-paced. Like Wolf's work in Miami Vice, I went into this series not necessarily expecting realism, but I did expect some modicum of professionalism. Law & Order: Organized Crime throws any semblance of actual police work out the window and instead settles for heavy-handed messaging and an ends-justify-the-means approach to storytelling.

The show-runners seem to lack much of any knowledge on how organized crime or countering organized crime works to the point of which I was frequently amazed that this was made by the same people behind Law & Order. Stabler and his compatriots frequently fail and/or unnecessarily compromise themselves only to be saved by plot conveniences well beyond their control. Failure isn't necessarily a bad thing in police dramas, as both The Wire and The Shield are excellent examples of how it can be incredibly helpful in telling a story. This series, however, almost never takes the time to recognize this, which makes it seem as though Stabler & Co. are simply a pack of incompetents who fail upwards as they either receive no consequences for their actions or they're even rewarded for doing so.

 

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The series literally opens with Stabler threatening to kill suspects

Special Effects/Atmosphere
One area that Law & Order: Organized Crime still keeps pace with its predecessors is certainly in production value. Set designs are slick, and it is filmed in New York City like all of the others. There is a possible issue that it might be a tad too slick, as everything looks a little too neat and organized. Nearly every character looks like a model, and the griminess of Law & Order: SVU is exchanged for venues that are clearly studios. It all gives the series a "CW" feel akin to shows like Arrow. Most mobsters and gang-bangers don't exactly look like they'd be on the cover of Vogue. This isn't necessarily a problem, but it's a noticeable distinction when you look at the regularness of Law & Order's Lennie Briscoe or Law & Order: Criminal Intent's Goren and Eames. 

 

Another strange aspect of this season is that since it was filmed during the COVID-19 Pandemic, extras have to wear masks, but the main characters never do. It makes sense from an audio/visual reason for why characters with speaking roles would be maskless, but it also comes off as sort of comedic. One scene has Bell clandestinely meeting with someone at a supermarket and only her and the contact are maskless while every other shopper has a face-mask on. This kind of defeats the purpose of being covert. I totally get the need for safety, but for immersion purposes I'd argue that everyone should either be maskless or fully masked.

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One can tell who's important in this scene and not by just looking at the faces

 

One area I will credit the show is in its background music. Ruth Barrett's scoring gives the franchise a modern edge and brings it into the twenty-first century. I've never heard Barrett's work before, but her IMDB page reflects that Dick Wolf decided to keep her for future seasons, and this might be the smartest move made to this show's credit.

The Acting

Across the board, Law & Order: Organized Crime hams it up in the acting department. Christopher Meloni stands out amongst his peers, but he's also given the most to work with as a grieving husband searching for his wife's killer. Meloni has always been great at portraying rage and determination in his previous performances as Stabler, but that seems to be his only setting in this season. Some scenes where he struggles with PTSD are hilariously over-the-top and any interaction he has with Truitt comes off incredibly stilted (although I'll mostly blame the writing for that).

 

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No, Stabler, you're not

Nearly every other actor applies a one-size-fits-all approach to their characters. Truitt is nearly always confrontational; Jet's Ainsley Seiger is consistently grumpy and anti-social because her character is a computer whiz; and Angela Wheatley's Tamara Taylor seems to always be in a state of near-catatonia despite all of the events surrounding her character. The list goes on, but everyone seems to run on a default setting that almost never changes.

I need to take a moment to mention Dylan McDermott as this season's antagonist. I've seen Bond villains less smarmy and self-assured than Richard Wheatley and McDermott delivers it all in such melodramatic fashion that I laughed at nearly every scene his character was in. At one point he evilly monologues about the wonders of octopi and it will be forever my favorite moment of this season (if not the entire series).

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McDermott cracks me up in this, but I don't think he was supposed to

The Best of the Best: Stabler's undercover assignment to date middle-aged women because they're the only ones who could be buying stolen COVID-19 vaccines.

The Worst of the Worst: The decision to keep key episodes involving this season's plot on Law & Order: SVU makes the nonsensical plot even more confusing.

Calhooey Score: 2/10 - So Bad It's Good

Would I Recommend?

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Not what I wanted, but I'll take it

 

Law & Order: Organized Crime may have failed to give me the show I had dreamed and hoped for, but I got something almost as equally entertaining. Fans of police dramas like The Shield, The Wire, or even Law & Order will likely despise this show. If you watch this as a comedy though, it's pure gold! Strap yourself in for a convoluted plot as some of the NYPD's most unorganized detectives fail their way to success!

Spoiler Comments

• That was nice of Stabler's wife to have some of her final words be that it's okay for Stabler to hook up with Benson. I'm glad she could clear that up.
  
• It shouldn't be surprising to anyone, including Richie, that most members of the mafia are racist. These are not good people.
  
• If Wheatley is this master criminal that's never been arrested before and is always several steps ahead of the police, why does he allow employees of his frozen "dessert" business to post photos of themselves in front of stolen merchandise that he's hiding?
  
• I cringed so hard when the woman Stabler went undercover to "date" so he could arrest her doctor was seemingly turned on by his deception.
  
• They literally have Wheatley on tape instructing one of his goons to assault and potentially drown a loansharking victim and yet Stabler and Bell keep going on that they don't have anything concrete against him.
  
• So, why exactly would Bell be fired because her wife is leading a lawsuit against the NYPD over a case that has nothing to do with her?
• Everything involving Izak Bekher shows just how incompetent Bell's team are.
• After learning he was involved with killing Stabler's wife, Bell believes using him as an informant and having Stabler meet with him is a good idea.
• Izak dismantles some of Bell's listening devices, which actively hinders her investigation and explains that it's a good thing because it makes Wheatley believe Izak can be trusted. Remember: Izak has killed for Wheatley, so I'm not sure how Izak could further convince Wheatley.
• Izak is the reason Gina is dead.
• I know this is fiction, but if this ever happened in real life, this would be the type of scandal that would bring down entire branches of the NYPD.
  
• After years of being undercover, it seems like Gina's only accomplishments were that she could cause drama. How did Bell rationalize keeping that operation going? What did the NYPD get out of that besides a dead cop?
  
• It's a good thing we can always rely on the MTA to pull through for us in desperate times.
  
• The idea that Chinatown would ever be that empty in the middle of the day is hilarious.
  
• I love that they just make Wheatley hobble around on his shot leg well after he should've received medical treatment.
• What was the purpose behind Stabler, Angela, and Richard meeting after Wheatley's arrest? It's incredibly unethical and it seems like it was contrived solely for the purpose of Wheatley telling Angela that Stabler wants to get with Benson.
  
• That betrayal at the hospital really came out of nowhere, didn't it?
  

References

(1) Law & Order: Organized Crime. (2020). Law & Order: Organized Crime cover image. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved from: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/law_order_organized_crime/s01.

(2) svusquadbot. (2021, April 5). Squadbot Bensler gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/squadbot-bensler-elliot-stabler-olivia-benson-svu-gif-21043551.

(3) eliottoiivia. (2021, April 4). Eliottoiivia Law And Order Oc gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/elliotoiivia-law-and-order-oc-law-and-order-organized-crime-organized-crime-elliot-stabler-gif-21019037.

(4) Jacobs, M. (2021, April 15). Wheatley presentation image. TV Insider. Retrieved from: https://www.tvinsider.com/995068/law-order-organized-crime-stabler-richard-wheatley-dylan-mcdermott/

(5) xstarlersscityx. (2021, September 29). Elliott Stabler Organized Crime gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/elliot-stabler-organized-crime-law-and-order-oc-law-and-order-organized-crime-stabler-gif-23268644. 

(6) nbclawandorder. (2021, June 8). Bye Bye Richard Wheatley gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/bye-bye-richard-wheatley-law-and-order-organized-crime-goodbye-gif-21878260.

(7) nbclawandorder. (2021, April 15).Put Sunglasses On Richard Wheatley gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/put-sunglasses-on-richard-wheatley-law-and-order-organized-crime-cocky-smug-gif-21170244.