Law & Order: Organized Crime Fans Find It Baffling That Stabler Can Still Go Undercover
When you break it down, doing undercover police work is very similar to acting in a TV series. Both need to play a certain role that is usually completely different from who they are in real life, and they surely need to make it believable. Both the undercover cop and the actor need to embody the character they are playing, otherwise, death could be a consequence. Of course, for the cop, it could be actual death. For the actor, it could spell the execution of their career. However, the most important similarity between the two jobs is the payoff, with both receiving rewards for being as convincing as possible. For some fans of "Law & Order: Organized Crime," watching this type of police façade can only last so long before it stops becoming realistic.
The TV drama faux pas that's bugging viewers revolves around Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). Before this spinoff series premiered, Meloni previously starred in "Law & Order: SVU" as the same character for 281 episodes. It goes without saying, the character of Stabler has seen his share of criminal cases, several of which have been under a public spotlight in the fictional "Law & Order" world. Of course, this type of spotlight makes it difficult to continue any more undercover work, since Stabler has been publicly outed as a law enforcement agent. However, that hasn't stopped the writers from throwing Meloni's character into another undercover situation, and some fans are not buying it.
Law & Order writers are ignoring Stabler's recognition issue
For some time, the "Law & Order" franchise has given fans the perfect balance of realism and entertainment, therefore a common-sense misstep seems unacceptable. This is fiction and there are plenty of shows that require a stretch of the imagination, but that's not how these multiple "Law & Order" series have been presented. That's why when fans notice an unbelievable plot choice, they are going to be vocal about it. Such is the case with the current storyline involving Detective Elliot Stabler, who, despite being in the public eye when handling multiple past cases, has still gone undercover, assuming no one will ever recognize him.
The power of social media is in the palm of "Law & Order" fans and they used it to call out this realism misstep. Twitter user @TVFan43 wondered, "How is Elliot still able to do undercover work when his face was plastered everywhere after he testified against those cops?" Meanwhile, @FabulouslyYoung rightly declared, "The fact that Elliot can still go undercover is baffling to me."
Over on Reddit, conversations reflected the same opinion with u/savagemom10 pointing out, "I'm still at a loss of how someone like Stabler who has been all over the news is never recognized by the bad dudes when undercover. Do they all need their eyes checked or something?" And U/bestplumdumplings sarcastically called for deserved recognition with, "How are these cops not on the undercover hall of fame?! They stay not getting recognized."