Moving to Peacock could be a great move for Law and Order: Organized Crime

Updated: May 9, 2024 - TVLine reports Law and Order: Organized Crime has been renewed for a fifth season and will be making the jump to Peacock.

Law and Order: Organized Crime may be making a big move to Peacock for season 5! Here’s why becoming a streaming show can help the spin-off succeed!

Premiering in 2021, Law and Order: Organized Crime had a big push with the return of Christopher Meloni as former Law and Order: SVU cop Elliot Stabler, a decade after he left the show. The first season revolved around Stabler’s wife being murdered and he joined an Organized Crime Task Force to hunt down Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott), the man responsible.

The show has continued since with a unique format of story arcs playing out over multiple episodes. While ratings are good, they don’t quite match the other Law and Order series. Notably, when NBC renewed the first two Law and Order shows, Organized Crime wasn’t among them. 

Now, reports are coming from Deadline that NBC is negotiating for season 5 to move to Peacock. It’s not official yet, but there is still a chance the producers and network will end up airing season 5 on NBC. This may be a huge change for fans, and many may be wary of having to get Peacock to enjoy the series. However, it can also be a boon for the show. Let me explain.

Law and Order: Organized Crime can go back to longer arcs

The first season of Organized Crime was dominated by a long storyline of Stabler targeting Wheatley. Since then, the show has broken seasons up into “mini-arcs” of anything from four to eight episodes. For fans used to Law and Order stories being done in a single episode, this may have been too much and harder to sustain over a regular network schedule.

Streaming customers are used to shows using a single story arc for a year and with the deal calling for ten episodes, it’s likely that they will go back to the idea of a single storyline for season 5. Streaming offers the chance to binge the show and without the interruptions of a network taking breaks with weeks between new episodes. Thus, moving back to a single unified storyline would be better for the show. 

Streaming offers more freedom

The big change to streaming will be being able to take advantage of no network restrictions. A few network shows have been able to use this, and for a series meant to explore the underworld of New York City, Organized Crime often seems watered down. That won’t be an issue here, as the most obvious change would be the ability to take advantage of no network restrictions for coarse language and more brutal violence.

That might be a bit off putting for some viewers but it’s hard to see a supposedly hard-bitten cop like Stabler having to hold himself back in his language. So we’ll probably hear Meloni drop some f-bombs or the like while pushing boundaries in ways they couldn’t on NBC. The writers can truly deliver the gritty crime drama they couldn’t on NBC. 

The series can latch onto a different audience 

Streaming and networks have different audience tastes as some may have dismissed Organized Crime as being an NBC show and not much different than the other Law and Order shows. Moving to Peacock will allow the series to find an audience that enjoys the other dark crime shows on the streamer and latch onto this better. They can also avoid the usual "sweeps bait" sensationalist stories for ones that really fit the overall arc.

It’s uncertain if the episodes would drop weekly or all at once, yet either way, the “binge” model can also help the show with folks turning out to watch it all in one go rather than weekly NBC installments that often break for a while. It’s a good way for Organized Crime to grow beyond its smaller NBC audience. 

The characters can shine better

As much as the show works well on NBC, it can be a bit hampered with the occasional crossover with other Law and Order shows and the need for subplots like the Stabler family dramas. Meloni is tops yet the other characters like Bell and Jet don’t get as much time to shine. Moving to streaming means a different set of bosses who will want to focus on the characters rather than ratings-grabbing bits like a Stabler family dinner gone awry.

Stabler himself can get more focus, but it would be better to spread it out with Jet and Bell, the latter of whom still feels woefully underused. Bringing in a couple of new characters can also help, as the streaming option offers a lot more opportunities for the series to delve into the Task Force’s personal lives as much as their job.

So far, the announcement isn’t official, so there is always the mild chance that NBC will air season 5, after all. It will also obviously mean cutting down on crossovers with the other Law and Order shows (so maybe no more Benson/Stabler relationship teases). However, seeing as other network shows have managed to thrive on streaming, Law and Order: Organized Crime can make this change work in its favor to be the powerful drama it was meant to be.

Law & Order: Organized Crime season 4 airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.