Law & Order: Organized Crime's flaws
Here are the flaws I have found while watching the 5 seasons of this show:
1. The show's pace
The show's stories were either dragging in length or wrapped up too soon; the latter mostly was the case of the cases (pun intended) shown in the third season when the format of a on-going arc was altered to "1-2 episodes per new villain" format after the Silas Arc was wrapped up. This was also a common problem with the 4th and 5th seasons, where a lot of the events leading the plot from their get-go to their conclusions were "rushed over" due to these seasons' rather short length.
2. OVER-reliance on Elliot Stabler and nerfing the rest of the cast at the same time
It seems that nobody besides Stabler, a guy in his late 50s to early 60s as the show progresses, can do anything at any given time when it comes to heroism and action.
For example, on the 3rd Season, Detective Jamie Whelan was taken off his undercover investigation of the Duran Gang, a Cuban illegal street races and drug trafficking organization, in the most humiliating manner as Stabler has decided to take over his investigation.
Another example: on the 4th Season opening we learn that Stabler, an Irish guy who squats in America, was chosen to infiltrate the Dominican Los Santos cartel for the past few months between the 3rd and 4th Seasons instead of his comrade, Bobby Reyes, who not only is a master of disguises, but also is an actual person who speaks Spanish and is of the genetic make-up of modern day immigrants in the Americas who identify as "Hispanics"/"Latinos".
Need another example? You got it. This time it's an illogical one: Stabler, whom is a Marine, not a bombs expert, was written to be the one who steps up to defuse a bomb and save Detective Frances Tanner when the very NYPD bombs squad can't decide on the method to do so on Season 5 episode 8. Not only that, in the very next scene when we see the reaction of the Collective whom were behind the kidnapping and bomb installation and hid a descent distance away from it all, to their foiled plan, Superman, I mean: Stabler leads the NYPD including the rescued Tanner to arrest them. As if he can walk through the barrier of time. Pathetic.
3. Jet Slootmaekers' ever-changing background information
Try to Keep up, because this shows exactly what changing a showrunner every few months can do to a successful show, or any show, at all. The character of Jet Slootmaekers was first introduced as a civilian white hat hacker whom Elliot knew from a bust of a network of Romanian criminals who operated in Italy while communicating through a video game app, a few years prior to the show's beginning. Later episodes of the first season tried to portray her as an NYPD cop while ignoring the previously established lore of the character. In the second season she was already described as a Detective 3rd Grade; and in the 16th episode of the third season, she was promoted to Detective 2nd Grade - only that she's in her 20s, and that no officer makes it to Detective 2nd Grade so young. In-reality, people like Jet whom are technology experts, have no field missions as she was sent doing throughout the show, and are office-oriented law enforcement personnel.
4. Frank Donnelly's ties with Stabler
Upon his debut, Frank Donnelly, who was inserted to this show to have another widely-known face to the audience, knew exactly where to find Elliot who was drinking in a random bar on the 15th episode of the second season, despite never being in touch with him, and only met him in a barbeque occasion 15 years prior. How he managed to do this was never explained, and it's a shame as it shows that the writers just think the audience would swallow anything they'd literally throw at them.
5. Gus Hanson: the "prophet"
Gus Hanson is the now-old partner of Elliot Stabler's father, Joseph; They were both dirty cops who messed around up to killing a teenager and framing him for a crime he didn't do (they claimed he shot Elliot's father in his leg and that Hanson had no other option but to kill the boy, whilst in reality it was Hanson who shot Stabler's dad to cover up his own tracks of simply being a prick who now murders for fun); as time went by, Hanson was transferred to IAB, and ended his career there.
Elliot comes to him to learn more about his father's Combat Cross which he "earned" in this listed above fucked-up situation. Hanson tries to mislead Elliot and cover up his secret which he plans to take with him to the grave.
After Elliot reveals the truth he goes to confront Hanson, who is also friends of Frank Donnelly (somehow, as the plot requires), and then after Elliot is expelled by Hanson from his residence, he picks up the phone and simply tells Donnelly all that Elliot has been up to in the past several months/second half of the second season out of nowhere ("he is not one of us [i.e. dirty cops], he is working as an undercover for both the OCCB and the IAB to capture/take down you and your Brotherhood!"). HOW THE F DID HE MANAGED TO GET ALL THIS INFORMATION IN LESS THAN A BLINK OF AN EYE? He had zero knowledge about Elliot's secret operation, all he knew was that Elliot was trying to search for the truth about his old dirty father.
6. Eli Stabler's writing
Eli's character was aged-up for some weird reason, as he was suddenly 21 years old by the fourth season (takes place in 2024) instead of 17 years old (born on November 16th of 2007, as seen on SVU).
Seems like it was done because someone at the writers' room said: "Hey, how about we will stop Eli's character's growth and simply mimic his father's biography of joining the NYPD after becoming an unplanned father?" and everyone just went along with that instead of simply saying: "NO!".
I also noted across the web that there is no chance in reality that a cop fresh out of the police academy, like Eli, would be doing the field missions he was assigned to. Noting that rookie officers are sent to patrol missions with more experienced cops.
