Oh, Say it Isn't So!
The bottom just dropped out of my TV world. That’s right. NBC announced last week that it was cancelling Law & Order. This show has been on TV for most of my life, I’ve probably seen almost every episode, and I don’t know what I’m going to watch now.
Though the show had been on for years by this point, I first discovered it when I was in college, and we used to have Law & Order parties. Jerry Orbach was on the show then, and still is my favorite of all its detectives. Though the focus of this show has always been the cases, the moral issues raised by some of the cases featured on the show led to great discussions. And then there were the characters. It’s changed recently, but the various characters on the show were professionals first, with private lives only hinted at. This dynamic worked very well, and we speculated endlessly over whether Jack McCoy and Claire Kincaid in particular were an item(most of us thought they were – some thought she was even The One).
In law school, I discovered all the old reruns from the first season of the show – the pre-Sam Waterston years. And these were great! The tone is grim, and not so many of the cases were “ripped from the headlines”. The law behind them was solid, though, and my criminal law professor even smiled upon our use of reruns as combined study break/study aid.
The show did lose a little steam, and I’ll admit I got tired of the over-the-top, “ripped from the headlines” formula for a bit. But, just when I thought it was on its way out, Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson came in as police and we got new ADAs, too. Sisto and Anderson as a pair just worked and I’ve been looking forward to more years of watching them investigate. The shakeup in the DA’s office came off well also, and breathed new life into the courtroom scenes.
Then the ax fell. I’ve seen reports that the show might not be dead yet. I certainly hope this is true! I’d watch Law & Order whether it’s on NBC or sent to another network.
Besides, there’s still one big thing that Law & Order has left to do. After all, isn’t it about time that one of the female ADAs got to take the lead in court rather than being the earnest young apprentice?
– Lynn Spencer
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The thing that has always world for me is that Law & Order is like a real work place. So many shows have the actors with private lives so dramatic no sane person could maintain a real job through them. Or the characters spend all their lives talking about their lives. In L&O you see people with demanding jobs do those jobs. This has to be one of the only shoes on television where that happens.
Didn’t USA pick up Criminal Intent? I bet they will pick up the mother ship too.
The real question is: will L&O:LA even be worth watching?
maggie b.
I went the other way and did a dance of joy when I heard the news. I don’t want to see them go on another season just to trash Gunsmoke’s record, and it really should have gone off the air a few years ago.
I literally cringe when I see shows trying to eek out one more season, then another…just to keep earning a paycheck. It took a lot of guts for Seinfeld to say that they were tired, and it was time to go. Same with Tim Allen and Home Improvement and Ray Romano and Everybody Loves Raymond. As a fan of many shows over the years, I don’t want them to stick around just because I’m in the habit of watching. It’s much better to go off with grace and dignity, NO cliffhangers and fond memories.
We had a woman DA — Dianne Wiest. (I know, you all mean an ADA who takes the lead in prosecuting the cases as opposed to second chair.)
Here’s why I love love love L&O as much now as ever: chemistry. They’ve been giving S. Epatha Merkerson more to do — love it. Anthony Anderson is awesome, albeit alliteratively. I didn’t think I’d like Jeremy whasisname (“Lupo”) most because his role on Six Feet Under was so creepy, but he’s okay and his chemistry with Anderson is perfect.
Same thing with our current prosecutors — Alana de la Garza was spineless on CSI: Miami but is wonderful on L&O. I’m a huge fan of Sam Waterston (ever since The Killing Fields and even the fake moon landing movie with OJ Simpson, although I can’t be bothered to go look up the title), so even though his acting is so over-the-top he’s getting the Vincent D’Onofrio Award for scenery chewing.
Here’s the thing — all these people are fine actors, but there’s an alchemy at work that makes them sparkle. I think that’s true of all three flavors of L&O, but particularly Original Flavor. Dick Wolf is a genius — he made sure that we could survive all the cast changes, and we did.
I hope he can pull another rabbit out of his hat and get it on A&E or USA. I don’t want to stop watching these people.
(And, while I’m thinking of it — anyone else loving Jeff Goldblum & Saffron Burrows on CI? I thought I’d miss Goren — I’m a sucker for the Sherlock Holmes trope, like House & Goren — but I’m fine with it. And having seen Saffron Burrows in Brit movies, she’s doing a great job with the American accent & sensibility. If anything, it’s Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio who needs to turn the New Yawk down a bit.)
@Lynda X – I’ll agree with the writing not being so strong as in the past, but it’s been coming back to life. I definitely see potential for the show given that it’s been on the upswing lately. And yes, I’d love to see a complicated female ADA leading off in the courtroom. I know they exist. I’ve seen them in real life! :-)
I think I’ve seen every L&O since its inception, so I’m distraught. I do believe, tho, that the writing now is no where near as good as it was in the past, and I personally don’t like the “ripped from the headlines” emphasis. It also is an incredibly sexist show, with its women characters lacking the complexity of the men, and it’s ABOUT TIME for a woman DA. That being said, its list of memorable characters and actors is long and memorable. I hope NBC reconsiders.