For the first time since back in May 2023, fans of NBC's three Law & Order shows finally have some new episodes to look forward to in the coming weeks. After the long delays due to the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, the original Law & Order, SVU, and Organized Crime will be back in January in the 2024 TV schedule, and some new looks at the new seasons have released. Personally, though, I'm more intrigued by the new taglines than I am by the images.
All three shows (currently available streaming with Peacock Premium subscription) are expected to return for a 13-episode season, in light of the strike delays. This presumably means that any major crossover events like the one that started the 2022-2023 TV season are out of the question, and it remains to be seen if any mini crossovers – particularly between SVU and Organized Crime – will happen. With more questions than answers even after the killer promo for the series, let's dig into the new taglines!
Law & Order: "Truth Leads The Way"
Law & Order returns to the 8 p.m. ET time slot on NBC's Thursday nights, and the newly-released tagline for Season 23 is "Truth Leads The Way." The new season will take the show to the 500-episode milestone after Sam Waterston celebrated his own 400th episode back in the spring with the Season 22 finale. Change is coming in the form of a new character, and I can't help but wonder if the tagline is a sign of what he'll bring to the show.
News broke back in November that Jeffrey Donovan will not return to Law & Order as a series regular for Season 23, similarly to how Anthony Anderson departed between seasons the previous year. Like with Anderson's Kevin Bernard, the previous season didn't end with any sign that Donovan's Frank Cosgrove was going anywhere. Unlike with Anderson, however, Donovan's absence will be due to creative reasons rather than the actor deciding to move on.
Veep and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alum Reid Scott has been cast to fill Donovan's vacancy, according to Deadline, although details about his character aren't available just yet. In light of the "Truth Leads The Way" tagline, could he be a detective who sticks to the book as much as possible to make sure that the bad guys end up behind bars? Or the kind of detective who wants to pursue the truth, regardless of what is best for Price, Maroun, and McCoy as the prosecutors?
Or does the tagline have absolutely nothing to do with the newcomer, and I'm just reaching? We may have to wait until Law & Order returns to get a clear idea of what to expect from Reid Scott's new character, but it seems worth noting that the new look at the three L&O shows (seen below) features the full ensemble of Law & Order, which is not the case for the other two. And that brings us to...
Law & Order: SVU: "The Fight Never Ends"
Law & Order: SVU will be back at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday nights on NBC, and a bit more is known about the long-running show's return than what has been released about Law & Order. SVU hits a major milestone in 2024 with the premiere of Season 25, and leading lady Mariska Hargitay wasted no time in posting set photos to celebrate once the strikes were over and production could begin. After all, as the tagline states, "The Fight Never Ends" on SVU.
Former series regular Kelli Giddish will reprise her role as Rollins in the Season 25 premiere, and I can only assume that SVU will have to find a way to compensate for the departure of Det. Grace Muncy at the end of Season 24. There were other newcomers who could fill her vacancy, but in light of a shortened season, there's no guarantee that SVU will officially add a new series regular to join Hargitay, Ice-T, Peter Scanavino, and Octavio Pisano. Could Bruno and/or Churlish just recur, like they did in Season 24?
I honestly suspect that "The Fight Never Ends" is simply a reference to how SVU has been going strong with Mariska Hargitay for a quarter century, and the show will hit the 550-episode milestone in Season 25. If not for the shortened season, I'd also wonder if it could be a clue that more multi-episode arcs could be on the way. Fans got one in Season 24 with the BX9 arc that ran for three episodes, killed off a promising new character in Mike Duarte, and delivered a Benson/Stabler scene that had fans buzzing... to put it nicely.
With just 13 episodes, my guess is that the tagline is just a nod to the show's longevity with Olivia Benson becoming the face of the franchise. She is generally the one showcased the most in promotion for all three shows, and is solo in the new photo set. In light of the shortened season, I'd definitely settle for a mini crossover or two with Organized Crime, especially in light of some casting news for that show, which leads to...
Law & Order: Organized Crime: "Find Strength In Justice"
Law & Order: Organized Crime will be back on NBC Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. While the finale back in the spring ended on a pretty solid note for Christopher Meloni's Stabler and his relationship with SVU's Benson, that episode also delivered the death of Det. Jamie Whelan. There have been no announcements about a new detective joining the task force, but Breaking Bad alum John Shiban is on board as new showrunner. With "Find Strength In Justice" as the tagline, is moving on from Jamie's death why they'll need to find strength?
As a fan of Brent Antonello's character, I'd like to think that will at least be a factor, but a lot of time will have passed between Jamie's death in May and OC Season 4 kicking off. Plus, Organized Crime was always planned to run for just 13 episodes in the fourth season, with only L&O and SVU expected to return for the usual 20+ before the strikes. The task force doesn't exactly struggle to find cases that require them to summon all of their strength, and Stabler may be struggling again in his personal life.
While it remains to be seen if "justice" will be an issue in this storyline, Organized Crime is introducing two Stabler siblings for the first time for what could be my SVU dream come true. Dean Norris of Breaking Bad fame will play Randall Stabler, Elliot's older brother. Their relationship is tense due to some kind of incident with their father years ago, but with a shortage of details, I mostly just want to see Benson finally meet a Stabler bro. Depending on what happened with their dad, it's possible that Elliot will need to seek "justice," but I'm pretty confident he'll need some strength for this story.
Like Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni is standing solo in the new promo pic from NBC. Take a look at how all three Law & Order shows are being hyped:
The Law & Order first look is really the only one to visually shed any new light on the 2024 season other than the taglines, as Reid Scott has been added to the ensemble in that show's image. As for what else is on the way... well, tune in to NBC on Thursday, January 18 to see the franchise back in action. Law & Order Season 22 premieres at 8 p.m. ET, SVU Season 25 at 9 p.m. ET, and Organized Crime Season 4 at 10 p.m. ET.
