Law & Order: UK - General Discussion

[WendyCR72]

I decided to create a topic for this. I know there used to be one but it went poof during a board update years ago. While in the middle of a Law & Order: Criminal Intent marathon on Sundance, there have been a number of commercials to watch the L&O: UK version on the streaming service AMC+, trying to entice people with the requisite free trial.

Anyone doing that? In the US, only two seasons out of eight were released on DVD, but seven over in the UK per Amazon's UK site. (For whatever reason, Season/Series 8 has yet to make it to DVD, much to the dismay of viewers per reviews.)

Figured if there are any fans of the "stiff upper lip" Brit take of the franchise, the show can be discussed here.

To note, it does still both fascinate and annoy me how the UK episodes used old American episodes. The fascination in how laws and such were changed to reflect UK laws and annoyed because of the proviso that the series had to use American episodes allegedly per contractual terms. I would have liked to have seen some UK cases and fresh material.

But as I said in the old thread, I liked Ronnie Brooks (the UK answer to Lennie Briscoe) and love how, like his American counterpart, he was the linchpin character of the series.

What say you all? Let's chat.

[Epeolatrix]

The one thing that caught my attention was when L&O: UK remade (as S3, Ep 1 'Broken') a US episode (S10, Ep 2 'Killerz') that was drawn from two UK homicide cases. I remember it being a big controversy because James Bulger's mother was all over all the news trying to get the episode removed from re-airings.

[SnarkShark]

I've only seen a few episodes, and I don't recall where, but enjoyed it.  Maybe I'll seek it out again. 

[WendyCR72]

If you are a Prime member on Amazon and watch Prime Video, AMC+ is now part of the Prime Video channels if anyone wants to use that service to watch this show or others on the service.

[dargosmydaddy]

Law and Order: UK is also free to watch (with commercials) on IMDb. I have been meaning to get around to rewatching Jamie Bamber's last season, and I never got to see any of the episodes after he left, so I might give them a try.

[AZChristian]

We binged everything available on Amazon Prime and IMDB.  It's my favorite variation of the franchise.

I always love it when a recurring character becomes known for something - like Ronnie Brooks ALWAYS eating.

[SnarkShark]

On 6/6/2021 at 11:54 AM, AZChristian said:

We binged everything available on Amazon Prime and IMDB.  It's my favorite variation of the franchise.

I always love it when a recurring character becomes known for something - like Ronnie Brooks ALWAYS eating.

Just got it, but man, the IMDB app sucks.  It's bad on Android, but even worse on my TV settop box (that version doesn't even have a search function). 

I will say that (so far) the commercial breaks Amazon uses to pay for the app aren't that bad.

[SnarkShark]

I'd seen some of Series 1, was impatient, and didn't want to hunt through the episodes too much, so skipped (for now) to Series 2.  It's a brutal episode with a 5 year old being killed, that I definitely remembered a version of, from the original show. 

I will say, while it's a strong plot, and the police portion is pretty good, the lawyer part is not as good. I can see the portions of the plot where I'm sure in the original Sam Waterston stood on a soapbox and moralized, but the guy doing it here isn't as good at that. 

On 6/2/2021 at 5:14 AM, Epeolatrix said:

The one thing that caught my attention was when L&O: UK remade (as S3, Ep 1 'Broken') a US episode (S10, Ep 2 'Killerz') that was drawn from two UK homicide cases. I remember it being a big controversy because James Bulger's mother was all over all the news trying to get the episode removed from re-airings.

Okay, that's the one I just watched.  

Strangely, it's under s2:e1 on the IMDB app.  

[Epeolatrix]

I used Wikipedia to find the episode date, but just now learned that in the US and Canada, British series 1 and 2 were merged into US Season One to make up for the small number of episodes per series (season), and the same was done for series 3 and 4 to create a longer US Season Two.

[krankydoodle]

I enjoyed this show, but it lost some of its appeal for me when Ben Daniels left since I didn't like his replacement. I stopped watching regularly when Jamie Bamber left and then gave up for good soon after Freema Agyemen's last episode. Those early seasons were great, though, and the chemistry between the actors was a lot of fun.

[wknt3]

On 6/8/2021 at 1:02 AM, SnarkShark said:

Just got it, but man, the IMDB app sucks.  It's bad on Android, but even worse on my TV settop box (that version doesn't even have a search function). 

I will say that (so far) the commercial breaks Amazon uses to pay for the app aren't that bad.

Except for the clumsy editing in their placement! It's minor in the grand scheme of things, but it really annoys me how often a scene ends, we get a title card and one "dun" then an ad beak before the second dun and the next scene. Can't any network/platform but TNT exercise some care in the syndicated/streaming presentation of any version of the franchise?

[momo]

On 6/5/2021 at 8:16 AM, dargosmydaddy said:

Law and Order: UK is also free to watch (with commercials) on IMDb. I have been meaning to get around to rewatching Jamie Bamber's last season, and I never got to see any of the episodes after he left, so I might give them a try.

I found it on tubi- it has commercials too 😤

Edited June 18, 2021 by momo
Actually watched an episode on tubi

[momo]

SOMEBODY ELSE leaves between S2 and 3, don't remember anyone talking about it in S3E1?

[Jenniferbug]

Amazon only has seasons 1-5. Does anyone know where seasons 6-8 might be found? 

[krankydoodle]

I think all the available episodes are on Amazon US, but they're grouped differently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order:_UK#Episodes

[Jenniferbug]

2 minutes ago, krankydoodle said:

I think all the available episodes are on Amazon US, but they're grouped differently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order:_UK#Episodes

You're absolutely right! Thank you! It didn't even occur to me to check that. 

[Dr.OO7]

On 6/10/2021 at 10:23 AM, krankydoodle said:

Those early seasons were great, though, and the chemistry between the actors was a lot of fun.

Absolutely. It wasn't the same after cast members started leaving.