The Law & Order world feels whole again by this point in the 2025 TV schedule, thanks to the long-awaited arrival of Christopher Meloni’s Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5. While the new episodes are releasing via streaming for viewers with a Peacock subscription, OC’s guest stars in the first few episodes guarantee that it still feels part of the family with the NBC shows.
In fact, with OC returning just as Law & Order: SVU crossed over with Law & Order (complete with a Christopher Meloni cameo) for a two-parter, it was easy for me to compare, contrast, and decide that OC has the franchise’s best approach for three similar shows in one TV universe.
Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Early Season 5 Guests
Only three episodes of Organized Crime’s fifth season have been released at the time of writing, but two of those three included characters from SVU. Mariska Hargitay crossed over in Episode 2 as Olivia Benson in the wake of Stabler’s latest near-death experience, but she wasn’t sure there for a quick cameo at his bedside before returning to Special Victims. She was pulled into the case to keep her old partner from getting himself killed, and Bell welcomed the help of another NYPD officer.
It was a treat for me as a longtime fan of SVU, especially since Benson and Stabler didn’t interact on screen in the 2023-2024 TV schedule. And while I’m historically not a Benson/Stabler shipper, her emotional arrival on OC resulted in what new series regular Dean Norris described as the “most unsexy pickup line you can imagine,” so what’s not to love about all their interactions?
The third episode of Season 5 will likely be remembered the most for Jet deciding to leave the OCCB and the shooting cliffhanger, but Peter Scanavino also crossed over from SVU as ADA Carisi. He didn’t drop any F-bombs on the Peacock show despite Scanavino’s thoughts on the matter, and his role in the episode was ultimately minor in the grand scheme. But that was really what worked about it, as far as I’m concerned.
What's Working About Organized Crime’s Approach
It’s not every week that one Law & Order show will be able to lend out the lead to another show like what SVU and OC managed for Mariska Hargitay rejoining Christopher Meloni for an episode of Season 5, but smaller character crossovers like what fans got with Carisi could really make the Law & Order corner of the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe feel more cohesive.
After all, these three shows aren’t like the One Chicago series elsewhere on NBC, where it makes sense for the first responders of Fire, healthcare workers of Med, and cops of P.D. to cross paths from time to time, but not regularly. They work different jobs out of different locations and departments. Sure, crimes on Med and Fire can bring P.D. cops into the mix, and the cops and firefighters of One Chicago are injured enough to often turn up on Med, but character crossovers are still pretty rare.
Wolf Entertainment’s FBI trio over on CBS get away without many connections due to how they’re geographically separate, and even those will share Alana De La Garza as SAC Isobel Castille and Jeremy Sisto as ASAC Jubal Valentine from time to time.
The Law & Order shows all are set in the NYPD, and it’s not like the 27th precinct only investigates murders without elements of sexual assault, Special Victims only investigates sexually-based offenses without murders, and the OCCB only investigates crime syndicates. I’ve been watching episodes of Law & Order and thought that the cases would fit perfectly on SVU, and not just when they involve crimes at the dreaded Hudson University.
Would Mini Crossovers Really Enhance The Law & Order World?
If the stars could align, more minor crossovers would really make the shows truly feel like they’re part of the same world outside of the occasional big multi-part event. Even if they can’t share leads on a regular basis like the situation with Mariska Hargitay appearing in a lot of her Organized Crime episode, Carisi turning up on OC was both nice continuity with Season 4 and a good example of how the ADAs and law enforcement officers would overlap. We could see Price and Maroun every once in a while on SVU and/or OC, especially since OC doesn’t have a dedicated ADA like the other two shows.
Is it really feasible to have more Law & Order characters popping over to their sisto shows? Maybe not, and Hugh Dancy has confirmed that the shows don’t all share the same courtroom set. Scheduling can be tight for the production of 20+ episodes of network television, and there are undoubtedly more variables now that Organized Crime is a streaming rather than broadcast series.
Still, it’s fun to think about this spring after how OC started out its fifth season by bringing in some familiar faces from elsewhere in the franchise. Honestly, I was so happy to see Benson and Stabler interacting again that I almost forgot to begrudge Stabler about The Letter!
If I’m going to be realistic with my hopes, it would be great to at least see Law & Order and SVU characters meeting every once in a while on NBC, even if it’s just to consult for a case or to testify. It does happen sometimes, and Camryn Manheim was great opposite Mariska Hargitay when they briefly interacted before the former departed L&O. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Maura Tierney and Mariska Hargitay after how their characters interacted in the crossover I’m just going to keep hoping for more a la Organized Crime as the wait continues for NBC to announce renewals (or cancellations).
For now, keep tuning in to NBC on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET for Law & Order Season 24 and 9 p.m. ET for Law & Order: SVU Season 26. New episodes of Organized Crime begin streaming every Thursday as well. All three shows offer seasons streaming on Peacock.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
