Law and Order (the original)

I was in New York recently with my mother and we did one of those bus tours of the city. As we entered the downtown core, the tour guide gestured over to his left. I looked and saw this.


I squealed a rather girlish squeal, which the tour guide heard and before he continued with his shpeal (sp? I just realized that I have no idea how to spell that, and neither does my Word program), he asked me what I was squealing about. In my excitement I just blurted out, “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups; the police who investigate crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”

He just stared at me for a few minutes before asking me how I knew that, to which I could only respond, “I… um… like Law and Order.”

My mother stared at me as if she’d never met me before.

So, it’s no secret, I do like Law and Order. A lot. I even watched that weird one about the juries. And I didn’t hate it – didn’t like it very much, but I was willing to give it a chance just based on the fact that Dick Wolf hasn’t failed me yet.

The original used to be my favourite of the series, but it’s now at the bottom… but I don’t think that’s because I like it any less, I think it’s just that the others have surpassed it.

There’s not much to say about the original, I like it a lot. It’s been through a lot of cast permutations – but I think that’s just a result of it being on the air for so long. I like the new lead detectives played by Jesse Martin and Milena Govich – it’s about time they had a female detective! And, yet again, it doesn’t hurt that I think she’s kinda purty. (Another one I was excited to see Dick Wolf kept around after Conviction went off the air… she played an attorney on that show.) But, honestly, I watched this show even with that horrible Fontana guy… man I couldn’t stand him. But in general, this is just a well written, well executed show that I’m glad has lasted so long.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been missteps… the most notorious of which is a scene I literally can’t watch without laughing – if you can, you’re a stronger person than I. I suppose I should give you some background, such as it is. Serena had been the assistant D.A. for a year… um, that’s about all you have to know, really. They never get into the character’s personal lives on this show. Anyway, watch and see.



I’ve heard it argued that this was an attempt to pacify those who had lobbied for a gay character on the show… to out a character in the last 6 seconds of her last episode… kind of a "Look, we had a gay character for an entire year... you just didn't know about it. So stop pestering us."

I have no idea if that’s what happened, I just know that it was ridiculous. I burst out laughing when I watched it alone in my living room, and I just burst out laughing watching it again.