New breed ‘Law & Order’ brings back Det. Stabler
The latest member of the “Law & Order” franchise has a familiar face playing a familiar character, but producer Dick Wolf says he’s switching up the storytelling.
NBC’s “Law & Order: Organized Crime” stars Christopher Meloni as New York police Detective Elliot Stabler, the role he played until 2011 on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
Unlike the largely self-contained episodes of its “Law & Order” relatives, the new drama shifts from one criminal syndicate to another in multi-episode arcs.
Think of it this way,
Wolf suggested: “If the first eight episodes are ‘The Godfather,’ the second eight episodes are ‘American Gangster’ and the third eight are ‘Scarface.’
“You have antagonists around to build a really good story. (That allows for options) we haven’t had a chance to explore, including antagonists that aren’t complete ‘black hats,’ that can be more nuanced.”
“Law & Order: Organized Crime” also brings a new writer-producer to the franchise’s ranks, Ilene Chaiken, whose credits include “The L Word” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“I’ve known her by reputation for a long time,” Wolf said. “Over the last 30 years there’s very few truly landmark shows, but ‘The L Word’ is one of them.”
Chaiken is “not only skilled, she’s incredibly insightful about human emotion” and with a different “rhythm” than he has, Wolf said. He called that a necessity for “Organized Crime,” with Meloni’s Stabler among the most “pre-Miranda cops on television.”
In other words, the sort of law enforcement officer who didn’t like to play by the rules — the sort of character TV once celebrated as heroic.
“What she had to do was keep that character intact, but soften and change him in a manner that got him into the present, so that’s he’s not a dinosaur,” Wolf said. “Not easy to do.”
The franchise’s theme music will be featured, with what he fondly calls yet another “Goldberg Variations” — a reference to Bach’s 19th-century aria and its 30 iterations. The “Law & Order” tune is practically an American standard, given the original
show’s ubiquity in reruns and the enduring “Law & Order: SVU.”
The new series is just part of the expansive TV real estate Wolf ’s empire occupies, including NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and its pair of spinoffs, and CBS’ “FBI” and its about-to-be two spinoffs, with the recent announcement of “FBI: International” for next season.
He cites Charles Dickens as inspiration for his shows, explaining how his approach compares to that of the British novelist.
“It’s Dickens’ London: Anybody who appears in any of the books can appear in any of the others,” he said, excepting ‘A Tale of Two Cities,’ which adds Paris to the mix.
“A movie exists for 110 minutes. A successful show exists for 110 hours,” Wolf said.