Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 1 Review: Gimme Shelter — Part One
In a historical event, the three current Law & Order universe squads come together to solve a major case. On Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 1, “Gimme Shelter — Part One” Sargeant Bell and Detective Stabler get involved with Detectives Cosgrove and Shaw who are investigating the death of a young girl.
It turns out that a simple murder of a young girl in broad daylight is actually tied to a major case the Organized Crime Unit has been investigating for some time. The suspect has ties to Russia and by extension Putin.
Sounds exciting right? Wrong.
Unfortunately, Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 1, “Gimme Shelter — Part One” suffers from the story being about Cosgrove’s squad for over half the episode before Bell and Stabler are even brought in. If the case is going to start with the Law & Order: Organized Crime segment of the night then that squad needs to be more involved from the start.
Not only that, the story doesn’t pick up at all until the final few moments of the episode when they realize the girl had been part of a sex trafficking scheme so they also bring in the Special Victims Unit. Before this, the story drags and doesn’t scream an exciting, historic case to any of the viewers.
The writers could have created a situation for the Organized Crime Unit to get involved in the case much sooner and viewers wouldn’t feel as confused as we all do. I can understand why the Law & Order: Organized Crime segment of the night came first with regard to the progression of the story, but there is just too much Cosgrove at the start.
It’s quite unfortunate that “Gimme Shelter — Part One” struggled so much because the rest of the night is exciting and some of the best writing the universe has probably ever seen. The lack of Stabler, Bell, and Jet on this segment is more than made up for throughout the other parts.
By taking half the episode to even introduce Detective Stabler, Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 1, “Gimme Shelter — Part One” potentially loses interest for the rest of the story. If a crossover is going to start on one show then the characters of the story should initially be centered on that show’s mains.
It’s hard to say how the writing could have been altered to include the Organized Crime Unit sooner but altered it should be.
While it is nice to see Detective Cosgrove and Detective Shaw take well to each other on this episode, it seems misplaced considering they aren’t focal characters to Law & Order: Organized Crime. Another, issue with this is that it makes the Organized Crime Unit feel like nothing more than an afterthought.
Also, that initial interaction between Cosgrove and Stabler is everything fans could hope it would be. Taking the two most hot-headed detectives in the history of Law & Order and pitting them against each other — genius.
When Cosgrove accuses Stabler of not caring about the victim I personally wanted to reach through the TV and slap him silly. Does he not realize that there is compassion and then there is getting proper justice?
Even better is the progression of their understanding of each other throughout the rest of the crossover — especially on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 24 Episode 1, “Gimme Shelter — Part Two.” That development between them could be further explored in other cases should the showrunners and writers decide to go that route.
All in all, this episode was okay, but I’ve seen better writing for this show in previous seasons. I hope that doesn’t bode badly for the season to come. The final quarter of the episode does manage to make up for the lack of action in the first chunk.
Stray Thoughts:
- Jet will always own the Organized Crime Unit. I love getting to see her strut her stuff and this entire crossover really allowed for that
- That initial moment of Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson coming together for this young girl — ICONIC
- I’d love to see more interactions between Bell, Benson, and Dixon because they are all strong women in leadership roles in the NYPD.
What did you think of this episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Law & Order: Organized Crime airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Mads Misasi
Mads is a part-time entertainment journalist and full-time marketing content creator. They love any and all TV Dramas with a few sitcoms mixed in. Join in the fun talking about TV by following them on Twitter: @dorothynyc89.
3 comments
Utter garbage. What did the war in Ukraine have to do with anything. And to have a rich Russian building a bomb and shooting it out with the cops – ridiculous. Just an awful episode. Not worth the time to watch. I’d give it 0 stars if I could
Wished Elliot would have been in more and more with Benson and him but over all it was good
It would have been a good idea to inform the viewing public that part 2 was on SVU. 🫢
Comments are closed.