‘Law and Order: SVU’ and ‘Organized Crime’ Should Be One Show

Far be it from me to tell TV mastermind Dick Wolf what to do with one of his prize franchises… but sit back while I tell TV mastermind Dick Wolf what to do with one of his prize franchises.

You know how in the past couple of seasons, the best episodes of Law & Order: SVU and its spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime, have been the crossovers? And how when an episode tease promises something major happening between former law-enforcement partners Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler — played by Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni — the audience shows up in earnest?

I’d like to propose a radical plan: Combine SVU and Organized Crime into one series. Give us the good stuff, every week.

For the purposes of this argument, let’s just pretend that the shows’ budgets, cast contracts and shooting schedules would allow for them to become one entity. Also for the purposes of this argument, let’s keep the original Law & Order revival as a separate series, existing in the same universe as the others, of course, but delved into sparingly and/or when story dictates. And finally, let’s say that the category of crimes this blended team would investigate would be broader and deeper than just sex crimes or crime syndicates — though there’d be plenty of each of those, too.

Is this a way for me to dream about Meloni re-entering the SVU fold in a more concrete way? Absolutely. Is it also a musing about consolidating the best parts of the expanded universe (characters we’ve grown to love, dynamics we’d like to explore) while losing what’s not amazing? Sure! And finally, am I — an avowed ‘EO’/’Bensler’/whatever you want to call them ‘shipper — scheming to have WAY more Liv and El interactions? That’s an affirmative, Captain.

Scroll through the list below for the top reasons to consolidate SVU and Organized Crime into one show, then hit the comments with your thoughts on the matter.