Post by NikkiGreen on Nov 5, 2008 17:22:52 GMT -5
zap2it.com
What's your favorite 'Law & Order' cast?
November 4, 2008 - Rick Porter
Four hundred-plus episodes and what has to be tens of thousands of cable reruns into the life of Law & Order, it's easy to take the show for granted.
Yes, it still has the same cops-and-lawyers format as it had when it debuted in 1990. Yes, the prosecution still wins almost every case. And yes, the chunk-chunk sound is still there.
And you know what? Law & Order, which begins season 19 on Wednesday night, still a pretty darn good show. The Losts and Sopranos-es of the TV world can have their narrative complexity; where Law & Order has always excelled is in its ability to be concise, which also isn't easy.
Consider the show's approach to doling out its characters' back stories. As L&O creator Dick Wolf put it in a conference call last week, "we do give character information, but we dole it out with demitasse spoons, not soup ladles. If you are a regular watcher of the show ... you know an enormous amount about these characters. ...
"You'd be surprised if you took the back of an envelope and you consider yourself a regular watcher, how much you know about [Sam Waterston's DA Jack McCoy], from the fact that he's had a daughter that he was semi-estranged from to the problems he's had with the Ethics Committee." (Also, his dad was a cop, he slept with a couple of his second chairs and he used to keep a flask of Scotch in his desk.)
Another hallmark of Law & Order over the years has been cast turnover. The new season will be the first full one with Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto teamed up as detectives (Anderson joined midway through last season, replacing Jesse L. Martin), while in the court, Linus Roache and Alana de la Garza are in year two under Waterston, who's now Manhattan's elected district attorney.
I have to admit, the current cast has helped revive my interest in the show after a couple of seasons where it flagged badly. The Sisto-Anderson/Roach-de la Garza core may yet enter my personal pantheon of favorite Law & Order ensembles -- but not yet. Here, then, are a few of my favorite combinations (I'm talking only about the L&O mothership here, not the spinoffs):
Season 5 (Cops: Jerry Orbach, Chris Noth, S. Epatha Merkerson; Lawyers: Sam Waterston, Jill Hennessy, Steven Hill). This combination was only together for one season, with Waterston stepping in for Michael Moriarty at the beginning and Noth leaving the show at the end. But the dynamic of Hennessy's Claire Kincaid trying to figure out her new boss and the chemistry between the intense Noth and the more laid-back Orbach made this one of the show's best.
Seasons 7-8 (Cops: Orbach, Benjamin Bratt, Merkerson; Lawyers: Waterston, Carey Lowell, Hill). The seventh season brought Law & Order its lone Emmy for best drama series and also featured a rarity for the show: a three-part arc about the murder of a movie executive that still stops me in my tracks every time I see the rerun on TNT. Orbach and Bratt, for my money, were the best grizzled veteran-savvy younger guy pair in the show's history.
Seasons 2-3 (Cops: Noth, Paul Sorvino, Dann Florek; Lawyers: Moriarty, Richard Brooks, Hill). Moriarty's weird intensity buoyed the show as it found its footing in season two, and Sorvino, who replaced George Dzundza after the first season, meshed well with Noth. I also really liked Florek (now on SVU) in his first turn as Capt. Don Cragen. He could have been just another uptight higher-up, but the way Florek played the role -- a little bit resigned but always willing to go to bat for his guys -- helped make the role into something more than that.
Which Law & Order casts have been your favorites?
What's your favorite 'Law & Order' cast?
November 4, 2008 - Rick Porter
Four hundred-plus episodes and what has to be tens of thousands of cable reruns into the life of Law & Order, it's easy to take the show for granted.
Yes, it still has the same cops-and-lawyers format as it had when it debuted in 1990. Yes, the prosecution still wins almost every case. And yes, the chunk-chunk sound is still there.
And you know what? Law & Order, which begins season 19 on Wednesday night, still a pretty darn good show. The Losts and Sopranos-es of the TV world can have their narrative complexity; where Law & Order has always excelled is in its ability to be concise, which also isn't easy.
Consider the show's approach to doling out its characters' back stories. As L&O creator Dick Wolf put it in a conference call last week, "we do give character information, but we dole it out with demitasse spoons, not soup ladles. If you are a regular watcher of the show ... you know an enormous amount about these characters. ...
"You'd be surprised if you took the back of an envelope and you consider yourself a regular watcher, how much you know about [Sam Waterston's DA Jack McCoy], from the fact that he's had a daughter that he was semi-estranged from to the problems he's had with the Ethics Committee." (Also, his dad was a cop, he slept with a couple of his second chairs and he used to keep a flask of Scotch in his desk.)
Another hallmark of Law & Order over the years has been cast turnover. The new season will be the first full one with Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto teamed up as detectives (Anderson joined midway through last season, replacing Jesse L. Martin), while in the court, Linus Roache and Alana de la Garza are in year two under Waterston, who's now Manhattan's elected district attorney.
I have to admit, the current cast has helped revive my interest in the show after a couple of seasons where it flagged badly. The Sisto-Anderson/Roach-de la Garza core may yet enter my personal pantheon of favorite Law & Order ensembles -- but not yet. Here, then, are a few of my favorite combinations (I'm talking only about the L&O mothership here, not the spinoffs):
Season 5 (Cops: Jerry Orbach, Chris Noth, S. Epatha Merkerson; Lawyers: Sam Waterston, Jill Hennessy, Steven Hill). This combination was only together for one season, with Waterston stepping in for Michael Moriarty at the beginning and Noth leaving the show at the end. But the dynamic of Hennessy's Claire Kincaid trying to figure out her new boss and the chemistry between the intense Noth and the more laid-back Orbach made this one of the show's best.
Seasons 7-8 (Cops: Orbach, Benjamin Bratt, Merkerson; Lawyers: Waterston, Carey Lowell, Hill). The seventh season brought Law & Order its lone Emmy for best drama series and also featured a rarity for the show: a three-part arc about the murder of a movie executive that still stops me in my tracks every time I see the rerun on TNT. Orbach and Bratt, for my money, were the best grizzled veteran-savvy younger guy pair in the show's history.
Seasons 2-3 (Cops: Noth, Paul Sorvino, Dann Florek; Lawyers: Moriarty, Richard Brooks, Hill). Moriarty's weird intensity buoyed the show as it found its footing in season two, and Sorvino, who replaced George Dzundza after the first season, meshed well with Noth. I also really liked Florek (now on SVU) in his first turn as Capt. Don Cragen. He could have been just another uptight higher-up, but the way Florek played the role -- a little bit resigned but always willing to go to bat for his guys -- helped make the role into something more than that.
Which Law & Order casts have been your favorites?