Law & Order is coming back to Australia and why you should be watching it

It’s difficult to imagine Law & Order as “ground breaking” drama. Yet it was considered so when it first appeared on TV screens back in 1990. Before other procedural dramas like “CSI”, “Criminal Minds”, “NCIS” etc etc, Dick Wolf’s vision of police who investigate crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders was considered a risky venture for television networks.

I don’t remember the exact time when I first watched an episode of Law & Order. Maybe it was the mid-90s, when I was still in high school. It was never considered to be a “cool” show, most of my peers would be talking about shows like “90210″ or “Melrose Place”. Law & Order was rather nerdy – since it’s one of the few shows that my Dad and I could watch together.

However, I remember there were a couple of my classmates who also watched it. One of them was rather fond of the relationship between Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessey). Coincidence or not we eventually went on to study at the same law school, graduating at the same time. We didn’t end up being prosecutors (actually, I never ended up in the legal profession either) but I think there’s a part of us which hopes that there are others like Jack McCoy out there, fighting for justice, fighting for us.

I guess Law & Order is one of those shows we took for granted. The beauty of it is that you don’t have to religiously follow it every week to know what’s going on. It is a mini-movie each episode, in one hour we normally see someone getting killed, the police investigating and finding a suspect, then the lawyers would try to put him/her behind bars. For 20 years the formula remained the same. Its history (and the brand) would also eventually become its downfall.

Since the show requires no “long-term commitment” viewers would come and go, plus there’re always repeats – although this is not necessary the case in Australia – L&O (original) repeats are only on Foxtel channels 111 hits (seasons 1-5) or Channel W (seasons 6-18). People don’t associate L&O with “excitement” or “new”, but rather it’s seen as a tired old show which remained stagnated.

This is far from the truth.

Since Season 18 the show had undergone significant changes – including the promotion of long serving character Jack McCoy to District Attorney. He is now the boss overseeing the whole DA’s office including the work of Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) – who took over Jack’s previous position as Executive ADA.

Michael (Mike as he’s known) is like Jack McCoy’s younger self. He is the source of many headaches for Jack – much like Jack was for previous DAs. Karma is a bitch right? Their conflicts over the last 3 seasons were a delight to watch and between them, there’s also ADA Connie Rubirosa (the beautiful Alana de la Garza) – who tries to bring balance and sense when Mike goes off the rails, and proves that she’s not just window dressing by showing she also has the brains for this job.

The interesting storylines and the chemistry between this trio – Jack/Mike/Connie were the reasons why I watched every single episode of seasons 18 to 20. There’s the added bonus of the romantic tension between Mike and Connie, which spawned many fanfics of what “could have been”.

On Thursday October 6 Law & Order is coming back to Australia with “new” episodes. (Channel 10 – 10:30pm!) Channel 10 has been a pain for fans of L&O simply because they never bothered to give it a consistent timeslot. In 2011 it has been on Friday nights 9:30pm – they might’ve shown 5 or 6 episodes in June/July then took it off the schedule….. and then came back for another 2 weeks in August then disappeared again. Looking back through the archives at TV Tonight it seems this had been happening over the last 2 years. I was wondering why I had not previously seen any episodes from season 19 – that was probably because it was on at midnight! No advertising of course, just space fillers. Not the way to treat a quality show when all we get jammed down our throats these days are useless reality shows.

I sincerely hope this time at Thursday 10:30pm Channel 10 will really give some final respect to the original Law & Order. SVU repeats will be the lead-in this time so hopefully they can get some more viewers as well. There’re only 9 more episodes to go so here’s my message to Channel 10 – just show all 9 of them this time will you?

(oh btw – how about showing Law & Order: UK afterwards? I could write another post about the UK version and how Channel 10 really isn’t the right channel for it, it should’ve gone to the ABC….)

Although my favourite episode (20×09 For the Defense) is not amongst the remaining 9 to be shown, there’re still some gems there.

October 6 – 20×15: Brilliant Disguise
October 13 – 20×16: Innocence
(hopefully) October 20 – 20×17: Four Cops Shot
(hopefully) October 27 – 20×18: Brazil
(hopefully) November 3 – 20×19: Crashers
(hopefully) November 10 – 20×20: The Taxman Cometh
(hopefully) November 17 – 20×21: Immortal
(hopefully) November 24 – 20×22: Love Eternal
(hopefully) December 1 – 20×23: Rubber Room

My favourites in this list would be Innocence, The Taxman Cometh and Rubber Room.

Why? Innocence is all about Mike Cutter. Linus Roache does an excellent job in this episode – you can see his character slowly breaking down over the series of events here. As for The Taxman Cometh, personally – I love any mention of evil accountants because I am one (accountant that is, not evil!!! lol). Although I did find the plot a little confusing at first, it eventually made sense and even Jack was impressed by how Mike managed to ‘get’ the perpetrators.

When they filmed the final episode EVER Rubber Room they didn’t know the show was getting cancelled. Fate has it though, it was a real fitting end to the series. It doesn’t quite follow the same formula, but it was exciting, fast paced and gave each of the characters (including our beloved Jack McCoy and Anita van Buren) some shining moments. A MUST SEE.

For the other episodes in the list I would consider Four Cops Shot as a pretty ‘typical’ Law & Order episode, what you would expect but in addition Love Eternal was rather entertaining because of its characters.

Law & Order is not known to give away very much on its main characters but there’s a funny scene in Brilliant Disguise where recurring character Dr. Emil Skoda, Jack, Mike and Connie were discussing the psychological state of the suspect. The discussion eventually turned to Jack questioning whether Mike has the traits of a psychopath LOL. Brazil also contained a scene where we got to know a little more about Mike’s past – his childhood.

When I first had the idea for this post I didn’t imagine myself to be writing so much about it. But I guess even before this recent rekindle of my love for it Law & Order had always had this place in my past, in my childhood. It was a show I watched when I was a teenager and yet with the world changing around us there’s still a part of me which enjoyed it even with the passing of time. Yes – I’m getting a bit nostalgic about it!

However, given its long history Law & Order may sound ‘nerdy’ and ‘uncool’ – but its ability to produce stories inspired by the headlines will always make it current. Some of the issues raised are open to debate and you could be thinking / talking about them with your friends, family long after the episode ended. So hopefully – Aussies will take the chance to discover this show again and send it off on a high!