Dean Norris Explains The Breaking Bad Reunion That Convinced Him To Join Law And Order: Organized Crime: 'I Could Trust What Was Gonna Happen'
Law & Order: Organized Crime has explored some new directions in the current fourth season, under the guidance of new showrunner John Shiban. He came to the Law & Order world with plenty of TV experience, notably including Breaking Bad. It's no coincidence that OC added another Breaking Bad alum for the 2024 TV schedule, with Dean Norris playing Randall Stabler. When I spoke with Norris, he weighed in on what it has been like to reunite with Shiban and only had good things to say about the former Breaking Bad writer and producer.
Dean Norris played the mineral-loving DEA Agent Hank Schrader across all five seasons of Breaking Bad, as well as a couple episodes of Better Call Saul. His storyline on Organized Crime involves drugs, although heroin rather than blue meth this time, and his attempt to investigate his youngest brother's shady dealings hasn't resulted in any deaths... yet, anyway. While chatting with Norris about Randall's attempted intervention on Joe Jr., he also explained what it has been like to work with John Shiban again:
It was fantastic. I mean, other than Chris Meloni, that's the reason for doing the show. John called and he said that we were going to be exploring the family relationships and stuff like that, and he certainly has come through with some great writing in that regard. And he proved his word to be true, and [there] continues to be great stuff, by the way. I've already seen almost to the end. I've only got one more script to read. So yeah, it's been great. I felt that I could trust what was gonna happen. We were talking in some interviews about our [Stabler family] dinner scene. That's a quintessential kind of John Shiban type thing, and it was great.
Considering that Breaking Bad is considered by many to be one of the best TV dramas of the 21st century, is it any surprise that Dean Norris felt he could trust whatever direction John Shiban wanted to take Organized Crime? The Stabler family drama – up to and including Michael Trotter's Joe Jr. shouting at Ellen Burstyn's Bernie in a rage – has added more context to Christopher Meloni's Elliot, and both Norris and Trotter addressed what it has been like to flesh out the Stabler family.
Since I'm confident that the Stabler family dinner will go down as one of the most memorable scenes of OC Season 4 (and sent me down an SVU research rabbit hole about Elliot's history), it's interesting to hear Norris describe it as a "quintessential kind of John Shiban type thing." I for one would love to see more of it in Season 5, assuming Shiban doesn't exit early as showrunner like so many of his OC predecessors did. (Shiban is Organized Crime's fifth showrunner.)
Unfortunately, Law & Order: Organized Crime has not yet been renewed for Season 5, despite Law & Order being guaranteed Season 24 and SVU getting a renewal for Season 26. While there haven't been many updates since L&O and SVU (along with the three One Chicago shows) were renewed back in March, there reportedly is the possibility that NBC will pass on OC Season 5 and it will instead be picked up as a streaming series for Peacock Premium subscribers.
As of the time of writing, neither the network nor the streamer have released any official updates on if/when OC Season 5 is on the way, but fans can show support by continuing to watch new episodes live on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. For now, check out the promo for what's next:
This next new episode on NBC will air on May 2. You can also stream episodes next day via Peacock, if you can't watch live. As for Dean Norris, you can always revisit his time as Hank Schrader with John Shiban as writer/producer with all five seasons of Breaking Bad streaming with a Netflix subscription.
