Law & Order: Organized Crime mixed things up more than ever for Stabler and Co. with Richard Wheatley breaking hacker extraordinaire Sebastian “Constantine” McClane out of prison with the goal of joining forces… although Sebastian has other ideas. The NBC role has brought Gotham alum Robin Lord Taylor back to network television after playing Penguin for five seasons over on Fox. Sebastian is a very different character compared to Oswald Cobblepot, and Taylor broke down how the two compare in a chat with CinemaBlend.
Although Sebastian isn’t exactly on Stabler and the NYPD's side in Season 2, he’s also not quite as evil as Richard Wheatley, played by Dylan McDermott. When asked what it has been like to build their odd couple dynamic, Robin Lord Taylor brought up a comparison to Gotham:
It's really fun. And it's new for me too, to be on the other side. Because when I was on Gotham, I was the one who would come in. I was playing a character who would come into the room and have all of these plots and plans and setting all this dastardly stuff in motion. On this one, Dylan enters, and he's being Richard Wheatley in all of his like grotesque splendor, and McClane just gives him nothing. You know what I mean? And it's different for me, and really fun exercise to play. And then I get the front row seat of watching Dylan McDermott just do his thing. And it's just awesome.
Penguin’s plans may not have always been successful on Gotham, but he pretty much always had some kind of scheme in mind, and he liked having power. He certainly wasn’t against a jailbreak from Arkham! Sebastian McClane, on the other hand, didn’t ask to be broken out of prison and certainly never meant to cause a man’s death, with Wheatley doing the dirtiest deeds of Organized Crime. And I think it’s safe to say that Dylan McDermott is very good at being bad on the latest entry in the Law & Order franchise!
Robin Lord Taylor is trying some new things as Sebastian on Organized Crime, and not just because his new character has a very different look from Penguin on Gotham. The actor shared what his experience returning to network TV has been like after spending all those years in Fox’s Gotham City:
Oh, it's been incredible. And the cherry on the sundae is the fact that I'm shooting in my hometown in New York City. Also there are crew members on this show that were on Gotham. We were a family on that show, and just everyone loved each other, truly, truly loved each other. So then to be back on the streets of New York, in like this iconic show, this iconic world. And, you know, over there is my friend that I worked with in Gotham City. It's just, it's so great. And I'm having the time of my life.
Joining the iconic world of the Law & Order TV universe may not be too similar to joining a TV show inspired by the pages of DC Comics, but Organized Crime has reunited Robin Lord Taylor with some familiar faces from his Gotham days. While actual law and order worked very differently when Taylor was opposite Ben McKenzie’s Jim Gordon vs. now opposite Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler, there are some familiar elements for the former Gotham actor.
Robin Lord Taylor elaborated on the fun of Organized Crime after Gotham, as two shows filmed in the same city that are so different:
It's totally different, and it's funny, too, because it's such a fun new experience. Because it's contemporary now. Like, it's the world as close to the world that you and I live in. You know what I mean? Unlike Gotham, where it's just like, you know, it's Gotham City. It's iconic. It's the '70s and it's like the 2020s all at the same time.
Considering that Sebastian McClane uses the kinds of technology that never turned up in the world of Gotham, Organized Crime definitely has a different look and feel to it. Still, for Gotham fans, there is a very familiar face at the forefront of the second half of Season 2 so far with Robin Lord Taylor. Sebastian was in a sticky situation with Richard Wheatley at the end of the most recent episode, and viewers will have to wait and see if and how he gets out of it.
Robin Lord Taylor previously shared how Sebastian and Angela can find allies in each other, but surviving Richard Wheatley is going to be a difficult challenge. See what happens next with new episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following new episodes of Law & Order: SVU. The two L&O shows will soon be joined by a third with the return of Law & Order for a Season 21 revival.
