“These villains will be really bad guys,” series creator Dick Wolf told reporters during a Zoom press conference, which also included Meloni and showrunner Ilene Chaiken.“They give Chris a constant source of energy, outrage and belief in justice, and a different way of pursuing criminals than we have done before. This is a long period–but not too long–to get inside both your protagonist and antagonist’s heads.” After his abrupt departure from SVU a decade ago, Stabler disappeared and wasn’t in contact with Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) during that entire time. But the two were reunited when Stabler’s wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) was the victim of a car bombing meant for her husband. We learned that Stabler had been living in Rome as part of a task force fighting terrorism, sex trafficking and organized crime. After Kathy’s passing, Stabler explained to his children that Rome was for her, so he and his son Eli (Nicky Torchia) would not be returning to the Eternal City. Rather, he finagled his way into a new elite task force in New York City, which is fighting organized crime–hence the title of the series–but also with the motive to avenge his wife. “Did you ever think you’d see Stabler cry?” Wolf said by way of explaining the differences in the new series. “I think Chris is becoming one of the most complex television stars in the history of the medium because you don’t know what he’s going to do now. He’s a little more unpredictable.” Not all of the exploration of what’s going on inside Stabler’s head will be through his relationship to criminals. Rather, Organized Crime will take us home and watch him deal with his children: Maureen (Autumn Mirassou), Kathleen (Allison Siko), Elizabeth (Kaitlyn Davidson), Dickie (Jeffrey Scaperrotta) and especially Eli, the youngest. “This show will spend time with Stabler and his family and his life and his emotions,” Chaiken told Parade.com. “We will tell procedural stories, which are the DNA of the Law & Order franchise, in our show, but we will get to know Stabler in a way you’ve never gotten to know him.” Meaning that a big part of Stabler’s story will be that he’s a single father of a 14-year-old son, so it will examine how he manages to balance that with being back in New York and back on the job. In fact, to make the family gel, before filming began, the actors got together and talked about who they are, where they’ve been, what they’ve been doing and what they do now. “My son Dickie was the only original from day one of SVU,” Meloni said. “Some came later, and some were brand-new, so it was like, ‘Hi, you’re my new daughter. Let’s figure out our history.’ The biggest thing to try and overcome was, and it was very sweet, they made me feel like the OG, because I have lived in this world for almost 20 years and many of them were new to it. We just had to get to know each other as people.” Law & Order: Organized Crime airs Thursday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Next, check out the best episodes (so far!) of Law & Order: SVU.
