Law & Order: Organized Crime (TV Series) Gimme Shelter - Part One (2022) User Reviews

What In The Law & Order OC SVU Mothership Universe Was This?

[whoneedsascreenname · 9/10 · 23 September 2022]

Forgive yourself if you didn't know which show you were watching during any part of this Law & Order "crossover event."

Let's start by clarifying that 'Gimme Shelter Part 1' is the opening episode of Law & Order Organized Crime season 3 -- and also the opening episode of a single-night 3-show Law & Order universe season premiere.

However the first 45 minutes of the thing -- concerning a broad-daylight teen murder -- actually plays like an episode of the new regular Law & Order mothership reboot, with heavy emphasis on Det. Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan in an excellent performance) and his incoming partner Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks).

All good, but then why the heck call this OC?

The hour, which operated mostly as a set-up to 9:00 pm's SVU -- felt more like a weird backdoor pilot -- but in this case for a show that already exists!

This non-OC OC had its moments, particularly when Benson & Stabler pop up, and the interplay between Donovan and Brooks is much improved over Donovan's forced banter with Anthony Anderson last season.

The rest was a drawn-out attempt to turn what should have been a 20 minute set-up in to an hour.

And if the goal of this three-parter was to refamiliarize fans with the franchise, why on earth would Dick Wolf open with a long, gratuitous gun-battle among strangers in the Ukraine, rather than ANY scene featuring ANY established franchise character a casual fan might recognize?

Even when the action finally shifts from overseas bloodshed to a too-long NY lunch between Cosgrove and his 15-year-old daughter, viewers are left with the same question: WHO are these people?

A few might know Donovan joined the franchise last year, and it's understandable Wolf wants to showcase the Cosgrove character, but holy cow starting it off this way was terrible viewer strategy.

Elsewhere the mothership's Camryn Mannheim is still on board as the squad's steady 'Van Buren' and at about 35 minutes in the action does finally shift to Stabler's squadroom where the various teams fret over whose case it is and how it will be handled.

This last half of the hour also introduces a young CI mentored by Stabler for some patented Elliot-and-kids softness - and classic Stabler hovering over Benson's laptop so the two can share a screen with zero personal space.

By the time it wraps with a to-be-continued raid, it's clear the action is now in full swing for the SVU hour, but how Dick Wolf will ever re-assemble these pieces so they make sense when syndicated within the shows that these episodes actually belong to, is anyone's guess.

Rated this thing 9 stars based almost entirely on the acting. The writing and hack bait-and-switch within the universe rates at best a 6.

Good to see attention to Russia's genocide in Ukraine

[loriotlove · 7/10 · 8 November 2022]

Unfortunately the DVR cut the last few minutes off, but the storyline of this episode is certainly plausible. It opens with scenes of Ukranian defenders trying to protect civilians as the "little green men" (Russian military and FSB) everyone knows infiltrated Ukraine over 8 years ago and were illegally entering Ukraine attacking in droves in March as Russia started full invasion of all of Ukraine, overwhelming the Ukranian protectors and then shooting to kill what was clearly civilians. Obviously of course the tide has turned and the aggressor is now being pushed out of Ukraine in real life to the relief of a lot of innocent people. The rest of the episode could absolutely be true and kudos to the show bringing this to people.

What's completely confusing is where is part 2? Some comments indicate this is a 3 part story with episodes in other so now I will need to find those episodes on OnDemand to try to finish the storyline. Apparently part 2 is SVU season 24 episode 1, and part 3 is regular L&O season 22 episode 1.

We need more shows with stories about the atrocities of Russia harrowing in Ukraine, costing Americans all of currently about 25 cents a day each to give Ukraine the support to defend the country from what was shown at the beginning of the first episode. Good for the L&O franchise, and it's no problem at all following the storyline through the various parts of the franchise universe. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! 🇺🇦

Routine Homicide Becomes Even Greater and Beyond Worse

[shelbythuylinh · 8/10 · 23 September 2022]

It has to do with the criminal international wave. And that over in how to watch over not just nine million in NY City but the rest of the country or the world for that matter.

When in the trying to stop the crime wave as Elliott puts a young kid as his Confidential Informant or CI there. As the kid risks both his freedom and life on the line to get Elliott to close this case.

But when it seems the kid named Vince is found out there, Elliott must find a way to keep Vince safe. As Vince is trying to hook up to the phone of the.drug running going on.

Elliott and the other cops and DA's from OC, SVU, and the Original show there while working on a task force despite he and Cosgrove butting heads for control.

While busting this ring and protecting a young girl from those that may wish her harm or death.

Part One

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 7 October 2022]

Broadcast networks need to do everything they can these days to get eyeballs on the screen and these crossover episodes are an easy way to generate buzz.

This was action-packed off the bat and yet the cop from Law and Order made some very glaring flaws in how he should have approached and handled this situation.

This was not a particularly memorable episode, but this is good popcorn TV. My only complaint is this did not feel like an authentic Organized Crime episode like it should have been. This was just one hour of a three hour movie on NBC that featured the Law and Order characters in my opinion.

The height of Ridiculousness

[docjoque · 5/10 · 23 September 2022]

This is my 2nd time trying to watch this show, and I remember why I gave up after the first try. I've been a big fan of Law and Order and SVU, but this show is just ridiculous. It seems it was written by a bunch of Frat Boys who were either drunk or just plain stupid. Every character seems to be placed in a ridiculous situation, and make ridiculous decisions, compounded by their ridiculous actions. Beginning in minute one and continuing till the end. The Shaw character is the only one who seems to have a brain. And what is stabler's fascination and idolatry of his CI, who is probably the most impetuous and ridiculous of all the characters. Get a room already. And the worst part is this show is a tie-in to the season premieres of the two other Law and Order series. Urgh.

Terrible!

[BirdzOfParadise · 2/10 · 27 September 2022]

What is wrong with this episode? Let me count the ways...

This was the 1st part of a 3 parter whose writing got increasingly worse. It was so bad, the scenarios so contrived, the dialogue so ridiculous, that I came here specifically to see who wrote these and if they had done any other L&O episodes. I had a good hunch they had not as no episodes have ever been written this poorly before, and I was write. I surely hope she (Gwen ___) is never allowed to write another.

And when did IMDb start this 600 character review requirement? I couldn't post the above as is because I needed to add another 132 characters. So here you go. Smh.

Embarrassing

[bkkaz · 2/10 · 23 September 2022]

The criticism against the Law and Order franchise for glorifying the police while creating the illusion that criminals are doggedly pursued by a crack team of overachievers is alive and well with this season. And so is the pandering.

Once more, we get SuperBenson, champion of the downtrodden sex crimes victim (read: White women) against those evil men who are guilty without a trial (and in this case, "foreign"). It's the sort of ugly trope that makes us believe accusers never lie, you can "just tell" when someone is guilty, an accusation equals proof, and the police are judge and jury. SuperBenson is going to ride atop a golden stallion right after she gets a decent 'do.

Jeffrey "Derp Derp" Donovan is in full derp this episode, going toe to toe (or should we say no-chin to chin) with Stabler, who even after all these years likes to mix it up with other cops. A 15-year-old victim is involved, you see -- remember, she's White, which means they're giving 100% this time -- so it's really just a long SVU episode with some guests from the other shows. He's got a new partner whose name I didn't even bother to learn. He's a big, hulking guy with a voice like he's in a beer commercial, and of course, everybody immediately loves and respects him. Not me. You gotta do more than just show up.

The best part of this episode is Christopher Meloni, who never gives a bad performance despite some of the awful scripts he gets handed. If he wasn't in this, it would get no stars. He's helped by the cast from his own show, all of whom except the annoying ghostly computer geek are enjoyable. I wish Organized Crime had better scripts because it's really the only of these Law and Order shows worth watching anymore.

This is just the opening for a multi-part festival of disappointment, so we'll see how the others work.

just awful

[BirdmanT7 · 1/10 · 2 October 2022]

I have tried to watch this show because Meloni but the show's casting is among the worse when it comes to Law & Order. I think Dick Wolfe is really losing touch when it comes to casting quality actors, the most annoying cast in this show is "Danielle Moné Truitt", she can't act to save her life. I just don't get why among all the talented beautiful Black women actresses in Hollywood they picked her? How many hairdos changes and that FAT ass that they are constantly trying to hide when she is walking.

Meloni did a series on Netflix called "Happy" last year and it was hillerous and he really surprised me with how funny he can be; I thought he was done with Law & Order and I was glad he had moved on to new projects. When I heard about this show I thought they are doing something new and different that's why he came back; but this show is truly awful, it's like a parody of Law & Order. If you go back to the original L&O it is still far superior when it comes to acting and content, but this is like every cliche of our current culture wrapped into a show, how they made it into a second season is really a surprise?!