Aus week after Law and order: organized crime it started with a massif SVU crossover event, Dick Wolf, showrunner Ilene Chaiken and star Christopher Meloni are finally ready to reveal a little more about NBC’s latest big proceedings.
For months, details about Organized crime were largely kept under the package. But during a press conference on Wednesday, the trio answered reporters’ questions about what kind of cop Elliot Stabler will be in 2021 – and what it was like to finally meet him again with his longtime partner, Olivia Benson, of Mariska Hargitay.
Last summer, as Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country after George Floyd’s death, conversations about police proceedings began to change. For years, data has shown that these programs can promote harmful ideas about the police, among other things, by exploiting dishonest police officers – and by 2020, the reality has become impossible to ignore.
As showrunners began to release statements addressing the issue, some viewers wondered how Elliot Stabler’s future independent series would cope with this new dynamic, given the detective’s status as probably the best-known police officer with hot head. Speaking of backstage conversations between Law and order producers and showrunners, Dick Wolf told reporters on Wednesday: “I spent a lot of time talking about police behavior. I would probably tell you more time than any other illegal person in the country. Because that’s what we do every day. ”
Wolf referred to a statement made last year when he said he and his colleagues were listening to the conversations at the time and added that the show’s crew had read “virtually everything” written on the subject on both sides of the political spectrum – “From the extreme left to far right ”. (The Law and order the boss did not explain what specific resources or groups the team could have consulted.)
“Of course we’re dealing with what’s going on,” Wolf continued, “but it’s never in a knee-jerk way.” He described the “paradigm episode” of Law and order as a conversation between all the regulars of the series, in which each of them is on a different side of the same question and “each of them is right – because life is not black and white, but shades of gray.”
Finally, he said, “What I said in the spring still holds true: the shows will speak for themselves.”
As Elliot Stabler re-entered the world Law and order last week, during the crossover premiere, he faced questions from several colleagues about his police style. Many of the detective’s older colleagues, such as Olivia Benson of Hargitay and Finn Tutuola of Ice-T, guaranteed him newer colleagues who were more skeptical. Meanwhile, Stabler himself appeared frustrated by the constant forcing of his hands, even though he acknowledged that, yes, the police world is changing.
But beyond the new questions about Stabler’s character, Organized crime it will also be distinct from the other Law and order properties in his story. As Wolf recently revealed, the series’ premiere season will include three eight-episode arcs, with which he compared Godfather, American gangster, and finally Scarface.
“All you have to do is watch the casting from the first episode and realize, you know, this isn’t an episodic casting,” Wolf said – referring to an episode that included Dylan McDermott as our first great evil, the growing mobster Richard Wheatley. “We are shooting for a bigger game [with Organized Crime]”, Wolf said,” and I think it’s going to be endlessly interesting, and the character … has evolved in subtle ways that are offered much more than lips. ”
To this end, perhaps Organized crimeThe premiere included a major tragedy. The series begins with the death of Elliot Stabler’s wife, Kathy Stabler – an occasional appearance SVU years before Meloni left. Asked what he would say to anyone dissatisfied that the show chose to start using a dead wife to motivate its central male character, Wolf was blunt: “You can’t please all people at any time. It is not what we do; the only thing we can do is tell stories. ”
“You can’t please everyone at any time. It is not what we do; the only thing we can do is tell stories.”
Chaiken said the plot point had already been set by the time he came on board as a showrunner, but added that he thought it was “a great place to start.”
“I was immediately attracted,” Chaiken said. “When you tell a story about a loved one who has been missing for many years, the first question you ask yourself is, ‘Why now? “And that, as a story catalyst, is one of the best.”Why now I might think. ”
The silver lining of this tragedy, however, was pretty obvious to many fans at first: could Benson and Stabler eventually become an object? (Once they’ve healed all the pain Stabler caused when he left the force without saying goodbye, of course.) The answer to that question remains to be seen – but Meloni confirmed that both he and Hargitay were full of fan responses to the air show.
“I think he expected more than I did,” Meloni said of his longtime colleague. “Because I think … she was in Law and order stew … I wasn’t ready. ”
“It’s overwhelming and it’s wonderful and it’s very much appreciated,” Meloni continued. “And I think this time, I don’t know, the pressure has dropped. I feel less pressure than when Dick first gave me the job of being Elliot Stabler. So I’m a little freer to appreciate everything. It’s a beautiful journey. ”