Law & Order: Organized Crime fans got some bad news back in the spring with the reveal of a shorter-than-usual fourth season, well before the beginnings of the WGA strike and SAG-AFTRA strike. There was also the question of who would be running the show when it did return, as Sean Jablonski departed as showrunner before the end of Season 3, leaving Law & Order: SVU's David Graziano to pull double duty and finish the spring season. Now, the new showrunner has been revealed, and I’m way too excited about who was chosen.
The showrunner for Season 4 – who becomes the sixth person to hold that role over the course of four seasons – is John Shiban, according to Deadline. The news come shortly after the showrunners were confirmed for the other eight shows in the Wolf Entertainment TV universe. Those selections seemed to point toward Organized Crime getting a showrunner with experience in the Wolf shows, but that’s not the case. Shiban is not credited with work in a Law & Order, FBI, or One Chicago series. So, why am I excited that this L&O newcomer is becoming the new OC showrunner?
Well, John Shiban may be a newcomer to the Law & Order franchise, but he’s certainly not a newcomer to the television industry. He has worked on some truly iconic TV shows from the last thirty years as a writer, director, and producer. Shiban is credited with more than 100 episodes of The X-Files alone, and had multi-season runs on Supernatural, Breaking Bad, and Ozark with episode counts in the double digits. Throw in shows including Star Trek: Enterprise, The Vampire Diaries, and Hell on Wheels, and Shiban has a lot of experience across genres.
And as somebody who was hooked on The X-Files, Supernatural, and Breaking Bad back in their day, I’m definitely optimistic about what Shiban will bring to Organized Crime. Plus, it’s worth noting that all three of those shows could include compelling character development to go along with the plot, to the point that I think it’s safe to say that The X-Files is remembered for Mulder and Scully, Supernatural is remembered for Sam and Dean, and Breaking Bad is remembered for Walt and Jesse.
I always find the Law & Order shows the most interesting when the characters are developed in lasting ways beyond the case of the week; if Shiban can bring more of that to OC and characters like Stabler, Bell, and Jet, what’s not to get excited about? Between his long list of credits on the small screen and history of working on extremely successful series, Organized Crime fans can be optimistic about his arrival, even if he hasn’t been part of the franchise over the past 30+ years.
Unfortunately, we won’t get to see John Shiban’s take on Law & Order: Organized Crime for some time. Although the WGA writers strike has ended, the SAG-AFTRA actors strike continues, and earlier speculation suggested that television’s biggest shows might not be back any earlier than midseason, a.k.a. the early months 2024. While OC wasn’t expected before midseason anyway, fans normally would have at least gotten new episodes of Law & Order and SVU by this point in the 2023 TV schedule.
For now, you can always revisit earlier seasons of Law & Order and SVU streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription, with SVU also available for Hulu subscribers. Organized Crime unfortunately is not currently available on a streamer.
