Law & Order and SVU Renewed Through 2026 – Change Is Needed
This past week it was announced that flagship Law & Order’s reboot (going into season 25) and SVU (going into season 27) were renewed through the 2025-26 broadcast TV season. That said, it’s been a rocky run for the Law & Order brand this past season:
Organized Crime: moved to Peacock
Show runner John Shiban departed the show at the end of the 5th season; original show runner and co-creator Matt Olmstead helming the show in post-production.
If renewed a 6th season by Peacock, there will need to be search for a show runner/executive producer prior.
SVU:
David Graziano (whose run has been widely unpopular since season 24, in conjunction with the news of behind the scenes harassment allegations) exited the show at the end of this season. Long–time L&O brand staffers Julie Martin and Norberto Barba to follow; Barba expected to return as a director.
Octavio Pisano and Juliana Martinez (Detectives Velasco and Silva) have also parted ways with the show.
Law & Order:
No immediate changes in cast or crew, but struggling to reach audiences with the same zeal as the original run due to lack of depth in the scripts and the overall series direction.
All the aforementioned in mind, immediate change is going to be needed to maintain the brand’s popularity. Organized Crime being an excellent example, it had undergone six show runners before John Shiban was tapped to take over. He brought stability (no pun intended to the main character’s name) to this show and set it up in a way that it should have been introduced to the audience from day 1. Not to take away anything from the storylines introduced in the earlier seasons of OC, but the writing truly caught on in season 4. Shiban and his staff’s scripts were truly fleshed out and they included the whole OC cast, as well as it weaved it together with extending the Stabler family on-screen. The performances in season 4 and thus far in season 5 continue to show the talent of this cast. I’d even make the argument that both seasons 4 and this season are showcasing some of Christopher Meloni’s best work as Elliot Stabler. Fans across social media and reviews from sources like TV Line, Cinema Blend, and Give Me My Remote even agree with the work that’s been done on Organized Crime as of late. It’s a shame that Shiban has departed the show, his vision is what was/is missing on both OC and the franchise in general.
That said, can that same view be extended over to SVU and the original reboot? It certainly needs to be. I gave a critical review of the franchise back in 2024 where I felt like Organized Crime was leading the franchise creatively, the mother ship reboot was better than when it started, and SVU needed an overhaul; fast forward to over a year later and I genuinely feel the same way. Even with a lot of the same points for both SVU and the flagship reboot. However it could be finally being put into some kind of motion, hopefully. With Graziano being out at SVU, hopefully the show can get back to the premise it had a few seasons back at least, or maybe a step further; Michele Fazekas (former co-executive producer and staff writer, seasons 3-7) will be running the show in the upcoming 27th season. Fazekas not being new to the show will hopefully bring back a spark that has been missing creatively the past few seasons, as well as bring something new to the table now that she is running the show and not simply a staff writer or lower level producer. She can take the series to a different direction than where it’s been going as of late, and that’s down the toilet bowl, to put it bluntly.
Now Graziano’s run hasn’t been totally bad, the most popular parts of his run involved bringing in Kelli Giddish (Amanda Rollins) to guest star, which drives me to a further point; Wolf and NBC letting her go back in season 24 was a big mistake. While Mariska Hargitay will always be the star of the show, you have to admit that Kelli was “runner up” so to speak. She was that secondary female voice of the show behind Mariska/Olivia, and it truly lacked after her departure. Newer female characters were either written in poorly or they never leveled up to the caliber of actress Kelli is or interesting as a character as Amanda is. Or they were meant to be throwaway characters from day one. The turnover in the main cast and recurring cast in the last two and a half seasons is proof of that. Graziano seemed to write the other characters into corners and wrote Benson and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) as polar opposites at times in my opinion. Too much inconsistency. Fazekas has an opportunity to repair the damage that’s been done over the past few seasons, it’d be nice if that included reintroducing Kelli Giddish in a permanent capacity again, but that also is going to require Dick Wolf/NBC and Kelli to come to a new deal.
***UPDATE 5/15/2025, 2:00PM/ET: It was announced via Deadline that Kelli Giddish (Amanda Rollins) will return as a series regular in season 27. ***
But speaking of that damage, she can get the show back to telling the stories how it once did telling the stories of sexual assault victims/survivors, the elderly, crimes against children, etc. while also infusing the personal sides to our favorite characters. The legal side of the series also needs to be in repair again. While the show has evolved a lot of the course of it’s longevity, the legal side of the series seemed to disappear under Graziano’s direction. Peter Scanavino’s ADA Carisi moved to the district attorney’s office in season 21 and the legal side became sort of a view through his eyes in how he’s learned to prosecute cases. However one thing that keeps that portion of the show interesting is the investigative part of the legal system and the law, what goes into prosecuting the offenders as well as tunneling through whatever law or loophole that the defense attorney’s find to defend their clients. Speaking of the defense… where did they go? We stopped seeing the recurring defense attorneys of now both Neal Baer and Warren Leights eras. The defense plays a huge part in the legal part of the show, it’s truly needed and needs to be seriously included. While at times written comical and with throwaway lines, it’s also proven that the fans like the recurring defense attorneys – to name a few: Donna Emmett, Lionel Granger, Arthur Buchanan, Rita Calhoun, Nona Efron - for their wit and the legalese back-and-forth that the prosecutors have with them in and out of court. It makes that part of the show have some interest and it gives those characters some layers, while they aren’t our heroes, they have their voice too. In recent years the defense attorneys seem to be some throw away characters that don’t have any personality other than to yell “objection,” and no zeal to defend their clients.
In addition to that, in the majority of Graziano’s era, Carisi was woefully underutilized; not just on the legal side and in court scenes, but as is concerns Benson and the squad as well. There is only 1 major storyline that I actually stand behind in this era that Graziano partially got right and that is this storyline with Carisi being held hostage in the Deli and seeing it all play out. It’s probably been Scanavino’s greatest performance in the show in a good long while and he deserves his roses (and most definitely an Emmy Award nod) for this.
I could honestly use the same argument above with the flagship Law & Order reboot as well. The police side of the reboot seems to have really fleshed itself out finely. Maura Teirney, Reid Scott, and Mehcad Brooks make you able to keep up with the first half of the episodes and as of late the most interesting parts of it. I just wish they would work on the dialogue back-and-forth when it comes from the characters as it relates to social or political issues. It feels like its forced dialogue to show the writer’s point as opposed to the characters. The dialogue has to be natural, it’s like the writer’s (Rick Eid) can’t help but beat on a “political drum.” Dead blast it! We’re not tuning in to hear political talking points as gospel, that’s what CNN and/or Fox News is for.
Meanwhile as I said about SVU, the legal side on this show needs work too. And I’m going to be blunt, I can watch Hugh Dancy in most anything, but for some reason Sr. ADA Nolan Price is a piece of work, and that’s putting it mildly. It goes back to what I said about the dialogue and what I said last year about fleshing out characters. Now we’ve seen a couple episodes this season that put Dancy’s acting chops on display and it’s more than clear he’s got it: “Catch and Kill,” “The Perfect Man,” “Big Brother,” and “The Hardest Thing” to name a few. But it goes to question, why are the standalone episodes showcasing Dancy/Price better than the other episodes of the season? We’ve got Price’s personal story but, it doesn’t say Bo Didly about who he is as a prosecutor. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) was “Hang ‘em High McCoy,” Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) was “Boy Scout Ben,” and Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) was young and ambitious to the point of basically trying to fill the shoes of his predecessor – Jack McCoy. Price doesn’t consistently have any one of these qualities and I think it hurts the legal side of this show. After 4 seasons now, who is he as a prosecuting attorney? It seems like it keeps it in a loop literally every episode without much deviation; and that also goes towards the writers as well. Unless Price is going to get into argument with DA Nick Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) every week, the interest is out. Like SVU, we don’t see the legal side do more than “track down the usual suspects” if you will. It’s the same thing week-after-week and somehow these cases majorly get the “guilty” verdict. Price isn’t that good a prosecutor, while yes its television, some of these cases I could see them either not guilty, deadlocked or outright tossed out of court in an actual court of law – which I thought L&O wanted to depict as closely as possible.
On a side note, I can tell in certain scenes where Hugh Dancy is trying to enunciate a lot of his words in his United States English accent versus his British English accent, which I think plays on the delivery part. Legalese isn’t easy to speak quickly in any enunciation, but I can image it’s more difficult strung together in a full monologue like closing arguments, while having to maintain the one accent while trying to stifle another. Perhaps they should have let Price’s background have him from being UK born? Would have made an even more interesting back story I think!
In addition both broadcast L&O shows failed at this next point: Continuity and history. Where were returns from past characters/actors? Other than Kelli Giddish and Christopher Meloni, that is all we’ve seen repeatedly on SVU since S24. No one has returned to the mother ship since Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell) in “The Right Thing (21x01)” (which says a lot, about a lot), other than to be behind the camera (Elisabeth Rohm, Milena Govich). I actually expected Sam Waterston to just show up, if nothing but to have a 5 minute scene with Tony Goldwyn in his old office. With “Play With Fire,” they brought in Maria Recinos (Dani Montalvo) – who came back last year – only to kill the character off in the crossover episode, and to me it was basically for nothing because we got nothing out of it other than just a reason to crossover the 3 shows and bringing in Chris Meloni. We didn’t get depth in this storyline at all really. A brief scene of Lt. Brady (Maura Teirney) and Benson in a church is as much as we really saw of Benson “grieving” Maria. It should have been more, especially between Benson and Fin (Ice T), they needed a scene all their own as they saved Maria back in SVU S7’s “911,” an award winning episode itself. Continuity on-screen is a big thing that keeps the audiences interested and tuning in, just to see what happens next.
Related: 2024-25 Premiere Review: Can the Law & Order Franchise Deliver?
To close out, while this all may seem nit-picky, it carries weight when it’s all lumped together and you get the finished product. You get this hit-and-miss both shows seem to do every week now and with the franchise aging, it needs change to remain fresh and maintain what audience it still has. This year marks the 35th year of the franchise in it’s entirety; SVU is celebrating 27 seasons and the mothership touching 25 seasons with the new run and original run combined. That is a legacy that not many shows/show brands reach these days, and speaking of legacy – assuming the brand doesn’t all of a sudden garner a brand new TV audience in the millions – that’s what Dick Wolf, NBC and producers need to keep in mind, how these shows are going to stack up in TV history. Don’t let then just falter off the air and “churn out content” (as the internet age says) just to simply reach milestones. Go all out, as much as 20 year old shows can go all out. Budgeting restricts a lot, but not the storytelling. According to Dick Wolf a long time ago, the story is what makes Law & Order compelling, the story is everything. Well then, can this brand go back to investing in those stories? SVU and L&O reboot should be taking a page from John Shiban and Organized Crime, he understood his assignment. I can’t help but brag on it.
Law & Order Thursday will return in the Fall on NBC; new episodes of Organized Crime run into the summer on streaming service Peacock. In Canada, their version – Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent – also was renewed a 3rd season as well; episodes of it will be shown on the CW for the United States in the Fall.
What do you think? Does the Law & Order franchise need to shift it's focus?
See also: What Law & Order Thursday Could Look Like Next Season as Organized Crime Moves to Peacock
Any views submitted in this post are the opinions that belong to this blog's owner and are in no way reflective of anyone that is personally connected to the Law & Order franchise such as cast/crew members, Wolf Entertainment, and NBC/Universal/Peacock nor is this blog affiliated with anyone from those organizations. Source links are provided for any news/information disclosed above.
