Approach The Bench: Law & Order General Discussion Thread

[Theli11]

I'll bite with ADA rankings
1. Claire - Her seasons were so good, I will say that her first season is a rough one, especially as a woman in a previously male dominated role. I will always love her. 
2. Connie - I found it interesting to me how much she was a powerhouse in an office with both Jack McCoy and Michael Cutter as her bosses. Unlike 
3. Abbie
4. Paul - So great, but he doesn't have as much characterization with him. Wish he got more epsidoes like other ADAs
5. Serena - She's not as bad as the entire fandom would think. I think she's a very important part of L&O, because of her sympathies towards the defense. 
6. Samantha - She might rise above Serena if she continues getting better in the current season. 
7. Alexandra - So boring, I can't remember a thing about her. 
 

[Raja]

 

There is no need to wonder how fast they can do the episode inspired by this big NY December 2024 murder of a health insurance CEO because they already have. It looks like a "ripped from a Law & Order episode" crime.

Edited December 6, 2024 by Raja

[Theli11]

5 hours ago, Raja said:

There is no need to wonder how fast they can do the episode inspired by this big NY December 2024 murder of a health insurance CEO because they already have. It looks like a "ripped from a Law & Order episode" crime.

I think I could write the episode.

[Raja]

15 hours ago, Theli11 said:

I think I could write the episode.

And then get sued for plagiarism 😉 

[wknt3]

On 12/6/2024 at 12:33 PM, Raja said:

There is no need to wonder how fast they can do the episode inspired by this big NY December 2024 murder of a health insurance CEO because they already have. It looks like a "ripped from a Law & Order episode" crime.

Unfortunately with all the OTT unrealistic flourishes like the words on the bullets and the Chief of Detectives giving away key details to "avoid panic", as well as the crime and suspect being caught on multiple cameras yet somehow not having good angles or enough detail to identify the perp it seems like they ripped it from the reboot and not the original run...

Edited December 7, 2024 by wknt3
fix typos

[Xeliou66]

I immediately thought of L&O when I heard about that murder - seems like something straight out of an episode. I was reminded of the season 12 episode about the guy who killed the insurance executive who voted against approving the treatment for his sick daughter, given that this real life victim was a healthcare company CEO. I also thought of the episode from last year about the tech big wig who was killed after replacing some jobs with AI. A few other episodes came to mind as well. I have a feeling revenge may be the motive in the real case as well. I have a feeling L&O will rip from the headlines with this sooner or later depending on how the real case shakes out. 

[Raja]

38 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

I immediately thought of L&O when I heard about that murder - seems like something straight out of an episode. I was reminded of the season 12 episode about the guy who killed the insurance executive who voted against approving the treatment for his sick daughter, given that this real life victim was a healthcare company CEO. I also thought of the episode from last year about the tech big wig who was killed after replacing some jobs with AI. A few other episodes came to mind as well. I have a feeling revenge may be the motive in the real case as well. I have a feeling L&O will rip from the headlines with this sooner or later depending on how the real case shakes out. 

My go to was the body armor executive with Detective Cassidy 

[Xeliou66]

12 minutes ago, Raja said:

My go to was the body armor executive with Detective Cassidy 

Yeah that’s another one with some similarities - Profiteer from season 17. 

[Stiggs]

When I saw the news about the health insurance CEO I sent a friend a message — Did Law & Order already do this one? 

I've been doing a rewatch now that Hulu has 20 seasons. I'm on Briscoe's second or third episode — and man did he come in hot on his first one. It was weird, and I'm glad they softened that up. Jerry Orbach is a treasure and I love Lenny. I think Briscoe/Green is my favorite cop partnership. They had just enough in common and just enough not in common to work. I really liked Logan, but Briscoe and Green just had the best chemistry. Then again, Green had chemistry with everyone except for Detective Beauty Queen, who I just like to not count. I loved Green with Lupo, and am in the minority who liked Fontana. He was such a peculiar character, acting like a mobster while being a cop, throwing around his Chicago accent, talking about his Benz and his expensive shirts, telling everyone he was authorized. He cracked me up. I feel like Green and Van Buren were amused by him, which was amusing to me? I dunno — he didn't bother me. 

I liked Ben Stone — it's interesting how Jack McCoy has become such a TV institution. I wonder if Ben Stone would have? I love McCoy and his sudden onset emotional yelling. Seeing him retire made me wander if he was still riding his motorcycle, heh. 

My favorite ADA was Abbie, but I also loved Rubirosa and really wanted McCoy to just fire Cutter and let Connie take over. Serena grated so much, but none of the others bothered me. Agree it's time we had a woman in the first chair. And wow I almost forgot about Claire. Looking forward to that era during my holiday binge. :)

The current show version ... I have an open mind? I really like Shaw, and the other one is growing on me. There's something weird about Hugh Dancy's performance that makes me oddly uncomfortable. He seems doomy? Or like he's hiding a big secret? It's weird. (But I'll take him over Cutter any day. That guy grated.) 

This show premiered when I was in college (I'm very old...), and rewatching the first two seasons reminded me how very 80s the early 90s looked. And it's just trippy how much has changed, starting with the pay phones and DNA being questioned a new, unreliable science. And I think every actor who has ever acted has been on this show... 

 

[Xeliou66]

1 hour ago, Stiggs said:

When I saw the news about the health insurance CEO I sent a friend a message — Did Law & Order already do this one? 

I've been doing a rewatch now that Hulu has 20 seasons. I'm on Briscoe's second or third episode — and man did he come in hot on his first one. It was weird, and I'm glad they softened that up. Jerry Orbach is a treasure and I love Lenny. I think Briscoe/Green is my favorite cop partnership. They had just enough in common and just enough not in common to work. I really liked Logan, but Briscoe and Green just had the best chemistry. Then again, Green had chemistry with everyone except for Detective Beauty Queen, who I just like to not count. I loved Green with Lupo, and am in the minority who liked Fontana. He was such a peculiar character, acting like a mobster while being a cop, throwing around his Chicago accent, talking about his Benz and his expensive shirts, telling everyone he was authorized. He cracked me up. I feel like Green and Van Buren were amused by him, which was amusing to me? I dunno — he didn't bother me. 

I liked Ben Stone — it's interesting how Jack McCoy has become such a TV institution. I wonder if Ben Stone would have? I love McCoy and his sudden onset emotional yelling. Seeing him retire made me wander if he was still riding his motorcycle, heh. 

My favorite ADA was Abbie, but I also loved Rubirosa and really wanted McCoy to just fire Cutter and let Connie take over. Serena grated so much, but none of the others bothered me. Agree it's time we had a woman in the first chair. And wow I almost forgot about Claire. Looking forward to that era during my holiday binge. :)

The current show version ... I have an open mind? I really like Shaw, and the other one is growing on me. There's something weird about Hugh Dancy's performance that makes me oddly uncomfortable. He seems doomy? Or like he's hiding a big secret? It's weird. (But I'll take him over Cutter any day. That guy grated.) 

This show premiered when I was in college (I'm very old...), and rewatching the first two seasons reminded me how very 80s the early 90s looked. And it's just trippy how much has changed, starting with the pay phones and DNA being questioned a new, unreliable science. And I think every actor who has ever acted has been on this show... 

 

Good post and I mostly agree with it. Briscoe/Green is also my favorite detective pairing, they had awesome chemistry and worked really well together. Lennie is a legend, he’ll forever be my favorite L&O detective. And yeah Jack is a legend as well, he was an awesome prosecutor. I think Ben would’ve been just as beloved if he had been on longer, both Ben and Jack were great but very different - Ben was stoic and business like and deadly serious, Jack was fiery and wore his emotions on his sleeve more and was visibly passionate about his cases, but both characters were great lawyers dedicated to justice. And yeah I love the Green/Lupo pairing as well, too bad they were only together for 14 episodes, Lupo gets forgotten about sometimes. Beauty Queen was awful. I found Fontana to be interesting but totally unlikable - arrogant, smug, a rule breaker, borderline shady and unethical at times, and lacking in empathy for people. I appreciated that they went with someone totally different from Lennie, but Fontana just had no likable qualities. 
Connie and Abbie are my favorite ADAs as well, although I love Claire, Paul and Jamie as well. Completely agree about disliking Cutter much of the time.

The revival is usually pretty good, not as good as the original run for sure but still good, I like it a lot more than most, I love the Shaw/Riley detective pairing, I like both of their personalities and they have nice chemistry. Nolan Price is rather hit or miss but I’ve liked him more lately. I enjoy Tony Goldwyn as Baxter as well, even if they don’t always use him properly. I really miss Dixon though, the new LT Brady is too abrasive and surly. Maroun can really drive me nuts in some episodes though the same way Serena could. The worst thing about this season has been the intro of more personal melodrama, 4 of the 6 characters have had personal plots directly in the episodes and we’re only 8 episodes in. I really hope they cut this out, I don’t know if there are new writers who’ve come in from SVU or Wolf’s Chicago soap operas, but L&O should be all case centric and the revival needs to get back to that. 

[Stiggs]

9 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Good post and I mostly agree with it. Briscoe/Green is also my favorite detective pairing, they had awesome chemistry and worked really well together. Lennie is a legend, he’ll forever be my favorite L&O detective. And yeah Jack is a legend as well, he was an awesome prosecutor. I think Ben would’ve been just as beloved if he had been on longer, both Ben and Jack were great but very different - Ben was stoic and business like and deadly serious, Jack was fiery and wore his emotions on his sleeve more and was visibly passionate about his cases, but both characters were great lawyers dedicated to justice. And yeah I love the Green/Lupo pairing as well, too bad they were only together for 14 episodes, Lupo gets forgotten about sometimes. Beauty Queen was awful. I found Fontana to be interesting but totally unlikable - arrogant, smug, a rule breaker, borderline shady and unethical at times, and lacking in empathy for people. I appreciated that they went with someone totally different from Lennie, but Fontana just had no likable qualities. 
Connie and Abbie are my favorite ADAs as well, although I love Claire, Paul and Jamie as well. Completely agree about disliking Cutter much of the time.

The revival is usually pretty good, not as good as the original run for sure but still good, I like it a lot more than most, I love the Shaw/Riley detective pairing, I like both of their personalities and they have nice chemistry. Nolan Price is rather hit or miss but I’ve liked him more lately. I enjoy Tony Goldwyn as Baxter as well, even if they don’t always use him properly. I really miss Dixon though, the new LT Brady is too abrasive and surly. Maroun can really drive me nuts in some episodes though the same way Serena could. The worst thing about this season has been the intro of more personal melodrama, 4 of the 6 characters have had personal plots directly in the episodes and we’re only 8 episodes in. I really hope they cut this out, I don’t know if there are new writers who’ve come in from SVU or Wolf’s Chicago soap operas, but L&O should be all case centric and the revival needs to get back to that. 

Oh, I so agree on the personal plots! I mean, I'll watch Shaw read the dang phone book while crying - much like Jensen Ackles from Supernatural, he's a pretty crier, heh. Do not mind the eye candy, but I like a little less personal drama from my L&O characters, thanks. Don't need to know about Maura Tierney's adult kids and their problems. (Though her character is growing on me...I don't mind her being abrasive, but I feel like they haven't gotten the balance right yet.)

Something that's struck me during the rewatch was that Ben Stone was ahead of his time when it comes to social issues that weren't terribly understood in the early 90s. I like how nuanced his approach to everything is. It's a contrast to. Motorcycle McCoy's louder approach. 

Oh, and I have another unpopular opinion - I couldn't stand Greevy. There were times when he was the sensible one in the room, but my god if something so much as thought about disagreeing with his personal dogmas he turned into a brat. However, he was a great contrast to young Logan, who was about as open-minded as a TV cop could get back then. 

IMHO Lupo goes down in L&O history as the most under-appreciated detective. I'm not Anthony Anderson's biggest fan, but I liked them together. I remember feeling like the show really got its legs back, and Van Buren had hot Bernie Hudson, and the show was on such a nice roll ... and then they killed it. Still crying, lol. I love the 30 Rock references to, "THEY CANCELED LAW & ORDER?" because I, too, felt like maybe we weren't America anymore, lol. People love SVU more and I have no idea why. I'm an original recipe purist, and my second favorite in the franchise is Criminal Intent (And I loved ALL the detectives they had - from D'Onofrio to Goldblum - it was always interesting. I still laugh at Logan's "major coffee" line...)

I saw Jeremy Sisto on another "cop" show - FBI, maybe? - and I was still remembering him fondly as we call him in our house (Detective Elton from Clueless), but realized WOW, yeah, his time on L&O was a while ago. It felt like in a blink he went from a young detective to the elder statesman - when really it was like, more than a decade ago. 

I wish they'd find a way to bring on Shambala Green for like, every third episode, lol. 

[Xeliou66]

1 hour ago, Stiggs said:

Oh, I so agree on the personal plots! I mean, I'll watch Shaw read the dang phone book while crying - much like Jensen Ackles from Supernatural, he's a pretty crier, heh. Do not mind the eye candy, but I like a little less personal drama from my L&O characters, thanks. Don't need to know about Maura Tierney's adult kids and their problems. (Though her character is growing on me...I don't mind her being abrasive, but I feel like they haven't gotten the balance right yet.)

Something that's struck me during the rewatch was that Ben Stone was ahead of his time when it comes to social issues that weren't terribly understood in the early 90s. I like how nuanced his approach to everything is. It's a contrast to. Motorcycle McCoy's louder approach. 

Oh, and I have another unpopular opinion - I couldn't stand Greevy. There were times when he was the sensible one in the room, but my god if something so much as thought about disagreeing with his personal dogmas he turned into a brat. However, he was a great contrast to young Logan, who was about as open-minded as a TV cop could get back then. 

IMHO Lupo goes down in L&O history as the most under-appreciated detective. I'm not Anthony Anderson's biggest fan, but I liked them together. I remember feeling like the show really got its legs back, and Van Buren had hot Bernie Hudson, and the show was on such a nice roll ... and then they killed it. Still crying, lol. I love the 30 Rock references to, "THEY CANCELED LAW & ORDER?" because I, too, felt like maybe we weren't America anymore, lol. People love SVU more and I have no idea why. I'm an original recipe purist, and my second favorite in the franchise is Criminal Intent (And I loved ALL the detectives they had - from D'Onofrio to Goldblum - it was always interesting. I still laugh at Logan's "major coffee" line...)

I saw Jeremy Sisto on another "cop" show - FBI, maybe? - and I was still remembering him fondly as we call him in our house (Detective Elton from Clueless), but realized WOW, yeah, his time on L&O was a while ago. It felt like in a blink he went from a young detective to the elder statesman - when really it was like, more than a decade ago. 

I wish they'd find a way to bring on Shambala Green for like, every third episode, lol. 

Yeah the personal stuff drives me nuts usually - one of my favorite things about original L&O is the minimal personal stuff. It’s the main reason I think the SVU spinoff is far inferior to the Mothership - SVU has a lot of personal crap and it’s only gotten worse over the years. CI is my second favorite L&O as well, I love Goren/Eames and of course Logan as well. 
Lupo is one of my favorites also, he was a good detective and I liked him with Bernard, they had nice chemistry. The show was very strong overall in season 20 and it’s a damn shame they took it off the air then because it was on a nice roll. Van Buren was leaving no matter what at the end of season 20 but L&O’s replaced every character at some point or another. I enjoy the revival and I’m glad they brought it back but the writing isn’t as good as it was when L&O went off the air after season 20.

I’m also not a Max Greevey fan, he had a few good moments but he was absolutely awful a couple of times as well. Cragen chewing his ass out when he wanted off the case in Prisoner of Love is awesome. 
I love both Ben and Jack, very different but both great. I like how L&O doesn’t try to replace characters with a clone of the previous character - the one thing I liked about Fontana is that he was not a Lennie clone, and fortunately L&O hasn’t tried to clone previous characters. 

[Chaser]

It’s funny. When it comes to the personal lives, I think less is more on the Original and SVU (especially SVU) But I’m okay with it on Criminal Intent. 

[andromeda331]

While I don't like the focus on persona lives I like that SVU started the show with it so you knew it was going to be part of the show. Instead of like the Originial suddenly showing that in season eight with Briscoe's daughter. It was out of the blue and hadn't been part of the show. Even when they killed off Schiff's wife (sobs) that was all in one episode and didn't take away from the crime and courts. 

Edited December 30, 2024 by andromeda331

[Xeliou66]

59 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

While I don't like the focus on persona lives I like that SVU started the show with it so you knew it was going to be part of the show. Instead of like the Originial suddenly showing that in season eight with Briscoe's daughter. It was out of the blue and hadn't been part of the show. Even when they killed off Schiff's wife (sobs) that was all in one episode and didn't take away from the crime and courts. 

Agreed, at least on SVU they let you know from the first episode it would have more melodrama than the Mothership. The Mothership is supposedly to be zero melodrama and minimal personal crap - that’s why I hate Aftershock, disliked the season 8 subplots such as Lennie’s kid, Anita’s lawsuit and Rey’s wife being sick, and strongly dislike the infusion of personal crap into the current episodes. I really hope they dial it back in the second half of the season but I don’t have a lot of trust in the current writers. 
The season 7 finale when Adam’s wife died was a rare example of a personal subplot done right - it didn’t take away from the compelling legal case and it gave Adam some great scenes, and it wasn’t dwelled on afterwards, her death was just referenced once or twice in future episodes. 

[andromeda331]

18 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Agreed, at least on SVU they let you know from the first episode it would have more melodrama than the Mothership. The Mothership is supposedly to be zero melodrama and minimal personal crap - that’s why I hate Aftershock, disliked the season 8 subplots such as Lennie’s kid, Anita’s lawsuit and Rey’s wife being sick, and strongly dislike the infusion of personal crap into the current episodes. I really hope they dial it back in the second half of the season but I don’t have a lot of trust in the current writers. 

I didn't like it either. It looks like they did a course correction on that. I prefered the way it was. Any personal information was just brief or brought up because of the case. Like Stone in the very first episode when Robinette asked how he knew the doctor would drink at lunch even though he was on trial trying to prove he wasn't drunk when his patient died. Stone mentioned his father drank. Briscoe's various remarks about his ex-wives or kids. It was just enough and I liked it that way.

Quote

 

The season 7 finale when Adam’s wife died was a rare example of a personal subplot done right - it didn’t take away from the compelling legal case and it gave Adam some great scenes, and it wasn’t dwelled on afterwards, her death was just referenced once or twice in future episodes. 

 

It really was. Despite never seeing her on the show her death was more impactful to me then Briscoe's daughter being killed or Alex later. It was all in one episode. IEspecially at the end when they take her off life support and you just hear silence. 

[Xeliou66]

42 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I didn't like it either. It looks like they did a course correction on that. I prefered the way it was. Any personal information was just brief or brought up because of the case. Like Stone in the very first episode when Robinette asked how he knew the doctor would drink at lunch even though he was on trial trying to prove he wasn't drunk when his patient died. Stone mentioned his father drank. Briscoe's various remarks about his ex-wives or kids. It was just enough and I liked it that way.

It really was. Despite never seeing her on the show her death was more impactful to me then Briscoe's daughter being killed or Alex later. It was all in one episode. IEspecially at the end when they take her off life support and you just hear silence. 

I’m hoping they shift away from the personal melodrama for the rest of season 24. It felt so forced in and cheapened some of the episodes this season. I disliked almost all of the personal stuff from this season, such as Price’s dad, Maroun being overly emotional, Brady’s kids, Riley’s brother etc. The only personal stuff this season that went fine was Shaw talking about his experience in foster care, and Baxter being on the board of the school where the dean was killed - both of those were done in a natural way that gave us some insight into the characters without detracting from the case at hand or being too melodramatic. I hope they dial it back in the second half of the season - I like the revival’s cast minus Maroun (Brady started growing on me in the fall finale, I hope that marks a shift for her) and they can still write strong cases, but please dial back the personal crap and leave it for SVU. 

Yeah the death of Adam’s wife was well done, it was really sad and the pain on Adam’s face when he took her off life support said it all. Adam hadn’t really gotten much personal stuff until then and it was an example of a personal subplot that didn’t detract from the case of the week. 
Another example of a personal story done right was the season 5 episode where Anita was robbed at gunpoint and killed one of the robbers, that episode deviated from the formula but was pulled off really well and gave us a good case plus good character moments. 
On the revival an example of a personal plot done right was when the gang tried to assassinate Baxter in last season’s finale - it was a bit of a shift from the norm of the show but it was handled well overall and never became soapy and gave us some good character moments. So even the revival’s writers can do a personal story right on occasion. 
But overall it’s best when the show does very minimal personal stuff and sticks to the cases. 

[Stiggs]

I've been down with a gnarly flu for the last 4 days, so my re-watch turned into a re-binge? I'm now halfway through season 9. A few things that struck me that never struck me before:

• I really liked Jamie back in the day, but on rewatch, she's just ... I didn't enjoy her at all. IDK if they meant for her to, but she seemed like she could barely contain her disgust for McCoy. She seemed to hate him from the jump and it just kept getting worse. 
• Speaking of McCoy, who I love ... watching the episodes back to back makes me wonder if he ever actually runs a clean and successful case lol. 
• Wow, I do not remember Adam being so yell-y. Jesus god he yelled a lot. 
• Rey Curtis is insufferable and I'm looking forward to Ed Green when I hit season 10. 
• My love for Briscoe might have grown a little more...

Biggest surprise - I friggin' LOVE Abbie. I liked her the first time around, but she's a bit of a Greek chorus, she's reasonable (most of the time), and she's hilarious. In one episode they were trying to get a coke dealer to talk. He kept saying he wasn't a coke dealer (they had found a huge amount of coke in his apartment), and Abbie's response was: "So you're just a collector of rare cocaine?" Nearly spit out my ginger ale. She also seems to take first chair on cases far more than the others. 

 

 

Edited January 12 by Stiggs

[Xeliou66]

3 hours ago, Stiggs said:

I've been down with a gnarly flu for the last 4 days, so my re-watch turned into a re-binge? I'm now halfway through season 9. A few things that struck me that never struck me before:

• I really liked Jamie back in the day, but on rewatch, she's just ... I didn't enjoy her at all. IDK if they meant for her to, but she seemed like she could barely contain her disgust for McCoy. She seemed to hate him from the jump and it just kept getting worse. 
• Speaking of McCoy, who I love ... watching the episodes back to back makes me wonder if he ever actually runs a clean and successful case lol. 
• Wow, I do not remember Adam being so yell-y. Jesus god he yelled a lot. 
• Rey Curtis is insufferable and I'm looking forward to Ed Green when I hit season 10. 
• My love for Briscoe might have grown a little more...

Biggest surprise - I friggin' LOVE Abbie. I liked her the first time around, but she's a bit of a Greek chorus, she's reasonable (most of the time), and she's hilarious. In one episode they were trying to get a coke dealer to talk. He kept saying he wasn't a coke dealer (they had found a huge amount of coke in his apartment), and Abbie's response was: "So you're just a collector of rare cocaine?" Nearly spit out my ginger ale. She also seems to take first chair on cases far more than the others. 

 

 

Interesting takes

I liked Jamie overall, I didn’t find her overly disagreeable or irritating, I thought she was usually reasonable. 
Abbie is one of my favorites as well, she was a really good prosecutor, and yeah she could have some good one liners - my favorite Abbie one liner is from Trade This in season 10, when the mob boss says “my son’s a moron, not a murderer” and Abbie replies “so he’s only half a chip off the old block!” - that was hilarious. Abbie and Connie are my two favorite female prosecutors, they added a real spark to the show.

Jack and Lennie are my favorite characters, they are L&O’s two most iconic characters and rightfully so, both are awesome. Adam is great as well, I didn’t think he yelled too much but he was a grouchy old guy but also very wise and cared deeply about justice.

100% agree about jackass Rey Curtis - At times I’ve wondered if they wanted Rey to be unlikable or controversial because he was so self righteous and smug and frequently a huge hypocrite. 

[Stiggs]

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Interesting takes

I liked Jamie overall, I didn’t find her overly disagreeable or irritating, I thought she was usually reasonable. 
Abbie is one of my favorites as well, she was a really good prosecutor, and yeah she could have some good one liners - my favorite Abbie one liner is from Trade This in season 10, when the mob boss says “my son’s a moron, not a murderer” and Abbie replies “so he’s only half a chip off the old block!” - that was hilarious. Abbie and Connie are my two favorite female prosecutors, they added a real spark to the show.

Jack and Lennie are my favorite characters, they are L&O’s two most iconic characters and rightfully so, both are awesome. Adam is great as well, I didn’t think he yelled too much but he was a grouchy old guy but also very wise and cared deeply about justice.

100% agree about jackass Rey Curtis - At times I’ve wondered if they wanted Rey to be unlikable or controversial because he was so self righteous and smug and frequently a huge hypocrite. 

Angie Harmon just has the best delivery of those pithy one-liners. I also think Abbie and Jack had the best chemistry. And maybe that’s the heart of my issues with Jamie? She and Jack just didn’t jibe. 

Adam has this way of starting sentences low and then yelling the last words. After watching this show so often over the years, I can’t believe it surprised me.

Also, clearly this show never anticipated binge watching because you’ll have a dude as a murderer and 5 episodes later he’s a defense attorney, lol.

[ByTor]

On 1/12/2025 at 9:57 AM, Stiggs said:

Wow, I do not remember Adam being so yell-y. Jesus god he yelled a lot. 

The more I watch L&O in reruns, the more Adam and the "cantankerous old man" bit works my nerves. But nothing works my nerves NEARLY like Cutter and his smug face, blech.

[Xeliou66]

37 minutes ago, ByTor said:

The more I watch L&O in reruns, the more Adam and the "cantankerous old man" bit works my nerves. But nothing works my nerves NEARLY like Cutter and his smug face, blech.

I love Adam - he was hilarious, he could be just as funny as Lennie with his snarky one liners, and yeah he could be a grouch but he was also a very upstanding DA who did a great job and had a lot of wisdom to offer. He might be my 3rd favorite character behind Jack and Lennie. 
Cutter drives me up the wall, he was an egomaniac and borderline unethical, and he seemed to only care about “winning” and his ego. I just want to knock the smirk off of Cutter’s face much of the time he’s on screen. Him and Rey Curtis are probably the two most annoying characters in L&O history. Cutter benefitted from having a very strong cast around him and being paired with the awesome Connie. No one can match Jack or Ben as lead prosecutor, but Cutter was just so damn egotistic and didn’t seem all that concerned about justice. I like Nolan Price on the revival better than I like Cutter.