After ghosting his closest coworkers and long-time viewers, the return of fan-favorite character Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to his own new series should've been a slam dunk. Discovering why he left, what he's been up to, and what he'll do now provided plenty of storyline opportunity, yet the show seems to be constantly spinning its wheels.

Stabler suddenly returning to the universe he abruptly disappeared from 10 years prior had fans buzzing — and for good reason — but to what end? Putting aside where he left things back in 2011 for a moment, Law & Order: Organized Crime is halfway through its third season now and somehow still in the process of finding itself. A parade of different showrunners and Dick Wolf all trying to agree on a direction has been out of reach so far, but it’s not too late to right the ship.

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Image via NBC

Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler were on-screen detectives who, for years and years on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, remained forever busy bringing perpetrators of the especially heinous to justice and the survivors of their crimes some measure of peace. SVU danced around Benson & Stabler’s level of desired intimacy every now and then, with a “They almost…” moment here and some “He would’ve…” wishful thinking there, until that possibility was jarringly severed after the Season 12 finale when Christopher Meloni exited the series without warning. It was a particularly tumultuous season finale to make his retroactive goodbye episode, with Stabler involved in yet another shooting that resulted in multiple dead and wounded. The following season addressed his departure the only way possible, by having Stabler leave the NYPD entirely and never speak to Benson again. He was occasionally mentioned post-departure, but it was never exactly complimentary and always very past-tense. Meloni was very openly done with the series, so returning to the L&O universe as abruptly as he left it, to star in his own series, no less, might have suggested there was a reason or point to the reappearance. Unfortunately, aside from stringing Benson/Stabler shippers along for no reason other than they can (which should be categorized more as an SVU problem, and not the only one) and Sgt. Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt) experiencing marriage problems, L&O:OC has almost no ongoing consistency.

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Disorganized Organized Crime

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Image via NBC

Stabler, Sgt. Bell, and Ainsley Seiger’s hacker Detective Jet Slootmaekers are the only characters to carry over from season to season so far (plus Benson, technically) and that wouldn’t be an issue whatsoever if it was story related or character-based, but it seems to be more behind the scenes turnover causing the constant change.

Season 1 gets a pass on finding itself as they had to re-integrate Stabler and deal with the fallout of his wife Kathy’s murder in just eight episodes. The following season and a half has seen four different showrunners at the helm, though, and everyone seems to have a different idea on what the series should be. Season 2 had a built-in reason for the semi-disjointed nature, with Elliot being undercover in different ways sandwiching Dylan McDermott’s hammy return as Richard Wheatley, the Joker to Stabler’s Batman and the man responsible for Kathy’s death. The rest of year two breezes through a couple storylines, leaving several resolutions underbaked and offscreen, before Season 3 simply jettisons everything and everyone aside from the three leads. Even Benson has only popped up once so far (the less said about Stabler’s recent guest spot on SVU, the better).

With each season giving the three leads a different batch of coworkers to mostly act as sounding boards, it wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to hope for well-rounded and fleshed out people. Except only Stabler and Bell have been given ongoing storylines to work with, for whatever reason, with Seiger’s Jet, an anti-establishment hacker who’s now a full-on detective with a past at the ripe old age of 24 or so, mostly busy making googly eyes at love interests. Stabler’s family, of which there are enough to form their own hockey or volleyball teams, has also disappeared into the ether. Ellen Burstyn came from nowhere to be Elliot’s all of the sudden very present mother, easily one of last season’s high points, only to be offhandedly written out as just as much of a non-character as she was before. Eli (Nicky Torchia), Elliot’s son, was aged up and sent away to college on the opposite end of the country between seasons. Even saying “written out” is a bit of a stretch, as their absence was covered in pre-release chatter and the show itself didn’t actually bother to address where any of Stabler’s brood was for the longest time. At least Bell’s wife got a brief wrap up when she popped by earlier this season.

'Law & Order's Showrunner Parade

Christopher Meloni in a scene from Law and Order: Organized Crime.
Image via NBC 

Obviously, characters don’t have to remain on shows indefinitely because they were on the previous season, but oftentimes there are end points to a character’s arc or a general point to their presence. L&O:OC has mostly opted to just plop new people in, move them around as plot needs require, then ditch them without mention in order to try something else. Why bother forming attachments if everyone will be forgotten at the drop of a hat? The showrunner changing from Ilene Chaiken to Barry O’Brian to Bryan Golubuff to Sean Jablonksi in a half year period, from mid-Season 2 to mid-Season 3, has surely done the series no favors (and that’s not even taking into account Dick Wolf’s opinions or whatever showrunner is in charge at SVU, as developments concerning Benson/Stabler are committee decisions with Hargitay and Meloni also having voices in the discussion), but ultimately the viewer is simply looking to watch a show they enjoy.

An overhaul would be one thing if the results were positive, but so far Season 3 has been drifting from tangent to tangent. The overarching casino storyline that’s supposed to span the entire season has been a non-starter with little by way of stakes. There has been no mention of the newest detectives to join the cast because history suggests they’ll be an afterthought soon enough, but perhaps Jablonski will buck that trend. Despite all the backstage drama and missteps, it’s still entirely possible this latest showrunner will be the one who gets things back on track because there’s always a chance. Just because it hasn’t been working doesn’t mean it can’t be better, and all Law & Order: Organized Crime needs to do is finally decide what kind of show it wants to be so its characters can breathe, grow and hopefully get to some of those good WTF! Moments the L&O franchise is still capable of after several decades.