Christopher Meloni And Dean Norris Have Playing Siblings On ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ Down

While they aren’t actually brothers, Christopher Meloni and Dean Norris definitely have that vibe.

As the two sit side-by-side, waiting for our interview to begin, Meloni chides Norris, saying, “They’re trying to light me so that Dean just kind of fades into the background. I’m just naturally so bright that they need to, like, jack it up for him to bring him to the level of the big star.”

Norris, smiles for a moment, and then responds, “Oh ok. Are you done now? Are you done with your little modeling there?” Meloni openly laughs at this retort.

Given this exchange, one might think that the duo are starring in a comedy series when in fact they’ve actually have been cast as siblings on the gritty drama Law & Order: Organized Crime.

The series follows detectives in New York City who tackle extreme criminal enterprises, with Meloni’s character Elliot Stabler as a team member. Norris plays his older brother Randall, with Danielle Moné Truitt, Ainsley Seiger, and Rick Gonzalez as Stabler’s colleagues, and Ellen Burstyn as the Stabler family matriarch, Bernadette.

Meloni, whose character originated on Law & Order: SVU, now works as lead detective for the Organized Crime Control Bureau. The season covers “the dangerous worlds of cross-border smuggling, high-tech domestic terrorism and a crime family intent on repaying Stabler for a previous injury.”

Having played Stabler for nearly two decades, Meloni says that, “With Elliot, I know what I’m doing for the most part, but what has made it continuously fun and a challenge for me is that I’ve been given the ability to explore the inner workings of this character more now where in the past we were just usually busy solving crimes.”

Meloni explains this shift in the narrative, saying, “Now we’re getting to see a little more of Elliot’s backstory, his personal life, how he lives, how he thinks, how he engages that reality. We’re also getting a little more information about why he reacts in certain ways.”

This season, that exploration, says Meloni, is expressed in the themes of ‘trauma and loss.’

“I think we show a lot about how traumas stay with you, and how they manifest themselves and inform your behaviors in your relationships that are happening now. It’s really about how mistakes from the past can harm your present and how you handle that.”

Norris says that Elliot’s current relationship with his brother is an example of this. “Randall hasn’t been around for 18 years, and then he pops back into Elliot’s life. So, it’s a bit of these brothers getting to know each other again, for better, and for worse. But there is a strengthening of the brotherly bond over the course of the whole season, and [that happens] in a way that I think people will find pretty interesting.”

In additional to leading the series on-screen, Meloni also serves as an executive producer, and, for the first time, has a writing credit on an early season, pivotal episode.

“Yeah, it happened because I’m usually asked about ideas at the start of the writers room. They ask what I’d like to see happen, or if I have any ideas of storylines, and I pitched a basic premise of if something happened that leaves Stabler unconscious, and then that situation could be used as a way for the characters who surround Stabler to be able to say things that they never would say to his face in normal circumstances. And, I also thought that during that time we could explore what goes on in Stabler’s mind.”

Attempting to express some accolades for Meloni, Norris quickly says, with a not quite serious tone, “Yeah, he wrote me a some great scenes as well. I’m not going to give them away or anything, but they’re really great.”

This attitude continues when the men are queried about what they’d haven’t been asked, but want viewers to know, about the series. Norris doesn’t hesitate for a even a split-second as he responds, with a straight face, “Yeah, I don’t really understand it, but no one has asked, ‘How does it feel to be better looking than your co-star? I didn’t want to, but sometimes I’ve got to be kind of like, ‘hey, no, no, you’re good looking too,’” he says as he puts a consoling hand on Meloni’s shoulder.

Both men then dissolve into laughter, which seems appropriate, as it feels exactly like what real brothers would do in this moment.

Season 5 of ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ premieres Thursday, April 17^th on Peacock. Previous seasons of the series are also available for streaming on the platform.