We didn’t ask, but NBC has delivered. It’s the spinoff of the spinoff of the original: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: Organized Crime. Photo from eonline.com.
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” premiered it’s first episode of its spinoff, “Law & Order: Organized Crime” last week, and it definitely had me reminiscing of the days I binge watched the original, thinking criminal justice was the career path for me.
Back in high school, I took one criminal law class, and I loved it. During and after taking that class, I started watching all of the “Law & Order: SVU” episodes and thought, “Wow, this is most definitely what I want to do.” My dream was short-lived after reality set in and I quickly learned that working in that field is not like the television show.
To this day, I am always shocked to see that new episodes are coming out, considering “SVU” has 22 seasons. Yes you heard that right, 22! One thing that I liked about the show was the fact that you didn’t necessarily have to watch every single episode in order. You could just throw it on and pretty much keep up with the storyline because, for the most part, each episode revolves around a new case. Of course, if you wanted to understand the characters more in depth, you would have to watch them in order, but I would always just throw them on and watch that episode’s crime be solved.
When I saw the new series trailer, I was immediately intrigued. I stopped watching “SVU” after high school, but the trailer did look good, so I was interested to see how it compared. What I didn’t know prior to watching was that there was a crossover event on “Law & Order” SVU” that led into this new series. That is important to note because I was terribly confused watching “Organized Crime,” considering the main character of the new series, Elliot Stabler, hasn’t been a part of “SVU” since 2011. So, when I jumped right into “Organized Crime,” I was lost and had no idea where Stabler came from. After watching the crossover event, I got all the backstory that I needed and I understood the first episode much better.
Will this series get me back on my crime show kick? I’m not quite sure. So much happened in the first episode, but at the same time, I am not completely sure where the series is going to go. We obviously know that Stabler is going to be the main character and we know that the plot is going to follow his investigation behind what happened to his wife Kathy.
What I found interesting is that the main “villain” of the show seems to already be identified in the first episode. I also think it is interesting that this series is about Stabler since he has been missing from the plot of “SVU” for so long. The show does lightly cover where he has been all of these years, but he is definitely an interesting choice of character to follow. As far as working in law enforcement goes, he is always very aggressive, and sometimes lets his emotions get the best of him, but he still feels as though he is a good cop, which is up for debate for a lot of the “Law & Order” audience members.
Another question I have about the series is who are the main characters going to be? We have Stabler, we have the criminal, but there weren’t many “SVU” characters in the first episode other than Olivia Benson, who has pretty much become the face of “SVU,” so I would be shocked if she doesn’t get a lot of screen time in this series.
If you are already a big “Law & Order” fan, then I would definitely check out this series to keep up with the story and the characters. If you haven’t watched a lot of “Law & Order” already, this may be a tough place to start, since you need some background in order to fully understand what is going on, so try “SVU” first.
“Law & Order: Organized Crime” is expected to have 13 episodes in its premiere season and will continue to air on NBC weekly on Thursdays at 10 p.m.