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Celebrating 25 Years Of The West Wing

Press Conference: The Law & Order Media Thread!

WendyCR72

By WendyCR72
in Law & Order

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

I’m very sad about Sam/Jack leaving, I can’t believe it really, it won’t feel like L&O without him. He’s a legend, and the face of the show. Even in his reduced screen time in the revival he was still awesome and it’s been a pleasure to see him each week. I wonder if this was planned from the beginning of the season, or if Sam is having issues and just can’t do it anymore, his voice has sounded weak this season. I hope his health is okay. His absence will really be felt, the legal side of the show is already shaky, and it’s impossible to replace him, hopefully the new DA played by Tony Goldwyn will be interesting enough, but it’s just impossible to replace a living legend. I know no character lasts forever but I was hoping Jack McCoy would - he’s my all time favorite L&O character.

As for his exit I hope they give him an onscreen goodbye, but not let his departure overshadow the case, maybe just have him say he’s retiring and then bid everyone farewell at the end of the episode, kind of the way Lennie Briscoe did at the end of season 14.

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GHScorpiosRule
GHScorpiosRule

Godspeed, Phil. You were one of my favorites. Say hey to Lennie. Paul Sorvino passes away at 83.

WendyCR72
WendyCR72

Renewed for S22!

Xeliou66
Xeliou66

Lennie will always be my favorite as well - but L&O’s still a great show in the non Lennie years, that’s what I’m saying, I’ve seen some people who say that the show didn’t become great until Lenn

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ML89

ML89

2 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

I wonder if this was planned from the beginning of the season, or if Sam is having issues and just can’t do it anymore, his voice has sounded weak this season. I hope his health is okay.

That's my question and worry as well. It's so bizarre how it's been announced. I hope he does get a good sendoff, not losing an election or something.

Also, again, Jack isn't the problem on that side. The court folks are where the problem is. Someone needs to go and, at this point, I'm fine with either of them. Although the writers can go first.

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baldryanr

baldryanr

In universe, Jack's position is big enough where it would be wildly irresponsible for him to just resign out of the blue unless there's a sudden health issue or other extraordinary circumstance.  The other way is by having him announce his retirement, then do a time jump between episodes.   Isn't he supposed to be estranged from his daughter?  Maybe he quits to mend fences with her, although she came across pretty poorly in her episode.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

Just now, ML89 said:

That's my question and worry as well. It's so bizarre how it's been announced. I hope he does get a good sendoff, not losing an election or something.

Also, again, Jack isn't the problem on that side. The court folks are where the problem is. Someone needs to go and, at this point, I'm fine with either of them. Although the writers can go first.

Agreed it’s very bizarre how he’s being written off midseason - especially with the milestone 500th episode coming up, no one from the first 20 years will even be around for it. I’m concerned that it’s Sam’s health, that he just physically can’t do it anymore, because it seems like he would be staying for at least the end of this season if he could. 
Jack carries the legal side still and the 2 ADA’s are just not all that - Price has soured on me a lot lately, including in this last episode, while Maroun is just kind of there for the most part and doesn’t get much of a reaction from me. I’m worried that without Jack the legal side will collapse completely. Hopefully the new DA will be good, but no one can fill Sam/Jack’s shoes, and the DA is the hardest character to write for and I don’t trust these writers to do it well.

I really hope they give Jack a satisfying exit and send him off into retirement on a positive note. I’ll be royally pissed if they screw it up, even more pissed than when they took a steaming shit on Jamie for no reason. 

2 minutes ago, baldryanr said:

In universe, Jack's position is big enough where it would be wildly irresponsible for him to just resign out of the blue unless there's a sudden health issue or other extraordinary circumstance.  The other way is by having him announce his retirement, then do a time jump between episodes.   Isn't he supposed to be estranged from his daughter?  Maybe he quits to mend fences with her, although she came across pretty poorly in her episode.

Hopefully it will just be kind of a time jump situation, maybe Jack will announce he’s stepping down near the start of the episode and then will leave at the end of the episode, with it being implied there’s a jump in time during the episode. Hopefully he’ll just decide to retire after his decades long career, without needing much more of an explanation than that. 

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Hopefully it will just be kind of a time jump situation, maybe Jack will announce he’s stepping down near the start of the episode and then will leave at the end of the episode, with it being implied there’s a jump in time during the episode. Hopefully he’ll just decide to retire after his decades long career, without needing much more of an explanation than that. 

Or, maybe Lieutenant Dixon makes an announcement of Jack's retirement, including that she'd known about it for X number of [weeks, months, whatevers].
In keeping with the reboot manner of exposition, it would be a short throwaway line that we could miss if we sneezed.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

Sam has never minced words. If he says it's time for what's out there next, I believe him. Maybe he didn't want to stay for the 500th. Frankly, this show/revival was a poor poor shadow of the show in its original run, with the poor production values, and superficial plots.

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blackwing

blackwing

It's sad that he's leaving, but he hasn't seemed healthy in his brief appearances in each episode.  But it's weird that it's being done midseason... perhaps after filming a few episodes, Waterston realised he just can't do it anymore?

Not sure how I feel about Tony Goldwyn, maybe he can be good.  They definitely need to improve the legal side.  I hope his character gets involved a lot more than Jack did.  It's really too bad that Alana de la Garza is on FBI, because she'd be great as the DA.

23 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

In keeping with the reboot manner of exposition, it would be a short throwaway line that we could miss if we sneezed.

Hah.  Probably.  He's going to disappear during the commercial break.  When the show comes back from commercial, Price to Maroun: "oh yeah, Jack said goodbye, he's sorry he missed you."  Or maybe he will go to the bathroom and never come back.

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DXD526

DXD526

I got a bad feeling from Waterston's statement. It just seemed like he was leaving something out. I hope he's well.

I've always liked Tony Goldwyn, I think he has the potential to be a good fit.

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baldryanr

baldryanr

On 2/5/2024 at 3:51 PM, Xeliou66 said:

Agreed it’s very bizarre how he’s being written off midseason - especially with the milestone 500th episode coming up, no one from the first 20 years will even be around for it. I’m concerned that it’s Sam’s health, that he just physically can’t do it anymore, because it seems like he would be staying for at least the end of this season if he could. 

Unless Jack is dying there's no reason there's no reason why he can't appear in the 500th.  Maybe the episode isn't written yet, but they could film a quick scene now that can be dropped in regardless of the plot.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

So the new DA will be named Nicholas Baxter - interesting. Hopefully Tony Goldwyn does a good job in the DA role, but it’s impossible to replace the legendary Jack McCoy. I look forward to seeing Jack in the courtroom one more time tomorrow before he rides off into the sunset - really hope it’s a strong farewell. 
Also interesting that there will be no DA in next week’s episode - it says Goldwyn will join the cast in the March 14 episode, but there’s an episode airing February 29 - that will be really strange to have no DA in an episode, March 7 will be a rerun I see, so it will just be one episode, but that’s still weird. 

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Mellowyellow

Mellowyellow

Jack/Sam has always been the face of Law and Order for me. He’s always been so real to me, I feel like I’ve been along for the ride of his entire career.

 Law and Order did an amazing job of bringing their main characters to life, whilst simultaneously revealing fairly little about them.

I also loved Ben whom I discovered after Jack. As a devoted Jack fan, it was odd to find myself developing a huge crush on Ben! So strange! 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

7 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

Jack/Sam has always been the face of Law and Order for me. He’s always been so real to me, I feel like I’ve been along for the ride of his entire career.

 Law and Order did an amazing job of bringing their main characters to life, whilst simultaneously revealing fairly little about them.

I also loved Ben whom I discovered after Jack. As a devoted Jack fan, it was odd to find myself developing a huge crush on Ben! So strange! 

Agreed - L&O has usually done an awesome job of having strong main characters while sticking to the formula of being very case centric. Jack is my all time favorite L&O character as well, he’s the face of the show and he’ll be sorely missed. I really hope he gets a strong farewell - I’ll be royally pissed if they screw it up somehow. I think even the uneven writers of the revival know to do right by Jack McCoy, as he’s the face of the show and an iconic character.

I love Ben Stone as well for that matter, he was a great character too, very different style as a lawyer than Jack but a great character. However both of the lead prosecutors after Jack became DA, Cutter and Price, aren’t nearly as good as Jack/Ben. 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

8 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I hope they do a good job too. But I am concerned. L&O has a history of doing a bad job when someone leaves. Like Claire and Green.

Exits have truly been a mixed bag on L&O - like I said, Lennie and Van Buren got the best exits, Curtis got a decent one as well, while Green got the worst, and of course the 3 they killed off, particularly Claire. It still pisses me off how they dragged Green through the dirt in his final episode.
I’m nervous about Jack’s exit tonight, I really hope he gets a strong farewell, but I don’t exactly trust the writers, particularly when it comes to exits. Regardless Jack will be missed.

Can someone start the thread for tonight’s episode BTW?

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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

On 2/6/2024 at 5:03 PM, blackwing said:

It's sad that he's leaving, but he hasn't seemed healthy in his brief appearances in each episode.  But it's weird that it's being done midseason... perhaps after filming a few episodes, Waterston realised he just can't do it anymore?

He seemed fine on this NBC Today Show interview.

https://www.today.com/video/sam-waterston-talks-leaving-law-order-thanks-fans-for-support-204612165767

In it, he said that he always planned on leaving when he came back, he just didn't know when. 

I suspect he made the decision to leave during the hiatus/strike but wanted to give TPTB the opportunity to give him a good sendoff instead of just having him just disappear like Cosgrove and Anderson's character.   

 

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TakomaSnark

TakomaSnark

Sam Waterston Leaves ‘Law & Order’: How Jack McCoy Exits – The Hollywood Reporter

Quote

 

You and Jerry Orbach were designated as “living landmarks” in New York for your long association with Law & Order and the city. Does that give you any special privileges — better tables at restaurants or anything like that?

I don’t think so. And anyway, I’m only half a living landmark. Jerry Orbach is the other half. Mostly when they named living landmarks, they just give it to one person, but they gave it to us as a duo. I’m completely content with that. Any association with Jerry Orbach is OK with me.

 

 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

13 minutes ago, LizDC said:

TV Insider - Meet the New DA: ‘Law & Order’ Star Tony Goldwyn Previews His Debut

I’m looking forward to meeting DA Baxter - I’m glad it seems they are making him different from McCoy - from this it sounds like Baxter may have a mix of Adam Schiff and Arthur Branch in him - Adam was well acquainted with a lot of prominent people in the city and had to deal with them, and Arthur was very good at the political aspects of being DA and had ambition and charisma. Obviously no one can replace the legendary Jack McCoy but I think Tony Goldwyn is a good actor and hopefully Baxter will add some intrigue into the legal parts of the show - Price and Maroun are very low key most of the time and so hopefully Baxter will add a new spark to the show. 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

8 minutes ago, ML89 said:

Well, I guess despite her press for last week's ep, either she wasn't happy or Wolf wasn't. Again, he keeps fixing the things that aren't wrong...

 

Camryn Manheim Out

This sucks. I’ll miss Lt Dixon, she was a good squad leader even if we didn’t get enough of her. I have a feeling this was another cost cutting move by the show if I had to guess, if it was done for creative reasons then it’s fucking stupid because anyone can see it’s the legal side that needs a shake up more than the detective side. Really wish that if someone was leaving it was Maroun or Price. Oh well, L&O has always had lots of cast turnover, hopefully they’ll find someone good to be the new squad leader - they’ve done good with the detective side - Shaw and Riley are awesome and have been excellent additions to the show, so hopefully the new Lieutenant will fit right in. But I’ll miss Dixon, and if anyone needs to go, it’s Maroun or Price. Maroun is my least favorite, she was barely on last night and it made the second half better. 

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

8 hours ago, buttersister said:

Look what I found. (Skip if you hated Scandal.)

Tony Goldwyn’s big idea.

He must have forgotten that she already appeared on this show during its original run-season 12-"Dawg Night".  And whoever wrote the article is stupid for not doing research to know that she had, to say if Kerry did agree, it would be her second appearance.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

On 7/16/2024 at 4:50 PM, Irlandesa said:

I'm surprised we haven't heard about who will replace Camryn Manheim (sigh, I'm going to miss her) yet. 

Agreed, I’m surprised we haven’t heard either, I don’t know if the Mothership has started filming yet or not, I know SVU started this week. I hope we find out soon. Regardless I’ll miss Kate Dixon - she was a good squad leader who added to the show. Really wish it was Maroun who was exiting instead - it’s not a coincidence that most of the episodes that had the legal scenes I enjoyed the most were episodes with minimal Maroun. 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

4 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

Sounds as if Maura Tierney is stepping in to replace Dixon. 

Well there it is. I hope she does a good job - L&O has done a good job of casting with the revival IMO - I really like Mehcad Brooks and Reid Scott as the detectives, so hopefully this will continue a good trend of casting for the police characters. I’ll still miss Dixon, she was a good character. 

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wknt3

wknt3

On 7/22/2024 at 6:41 PM, Xeliou66 said:

Well there it is. I hope she does a good job - L&O has done a good job of casting with the revival IMO - I really like Mehcad Brooks and Reid Scott as the detectives, so hopefully this will continue a good trend of casting for the police characters. I’ll still miss Dixon, she was a good character. 

 

19 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

She's a good actress but I have residual Abby hate from ER.  Then again, that dourness may play well for this part. 

 


I agree that she is a good actress. And if there is any role where there is little hazard of falling into the trap ER did with Abby - excessive focus on them and their personal lives at the expense of more interesting elements - the Lt. on the Mothership would have to be it...

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marc20

marc20

don't know much about Tierney, didn't watch ER, but didn't think Manheim brought anything to the role...way below Florek and Epatha...hard to believe those two held down that role for all 20, and both were great...think many took that role for granted, that anybody could play it, but it's integral and I hope they did indeed improve it

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

7 hours ago, marc20 said:

didn't think Manheim brought anything to the role...way below Florek and Epatha

But if we looked at Mannheim’s scripts beside the others’, I’m pretty sure we’d see Mannheim had significantly less to work with.

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buttersister

buttersister

17 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Mannheim had significantly less to work with.

As they’ve struggled with writing Order, they never bothered much with the Lt. She was better written in a guest star role OG.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

Ugh - bad news L&O fans - Olivia Benson is crossing over from SVU for an episode this fall. I’m not happy about this - St O has ruined SVU and I really am not happy about her appearing here, I’m certain she’ll ruin the episode with her crap. Everything she touches turns to garbage. 

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Morrigan2575

Morrigan2575

On 8/26/2024 at 4:18 PM, Xeliou66 said:

Ugh - bad news L&O fans - Olivia Benson is crossing over from SVU for an episode this fall. I’m not happy about this - St O has ruined SVU and I really am not happy about her appearing here, I’m certain she’ll ruin the episode with her crap. Everything she touches turns to garbage. 

I quit watching years ago because of her and, I quit Organized Crime because if all the crossovers and Benson/Stabler ship (which just seemed do insulting to his dead wife).

 

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

11 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

I quit watching years ago because of her and, I quit Organized Crime because if all the crossovers and Benson/Stabler ship (which just seemed do insulting to his dead wife).

 

Join the anti Olivia Benson club!! I no longer find SVU to be very good because of St O, and I have also quit OC, that show is nothing but a ridiculous Stabler family soap opera and its sole purpose is to bring Stabler back so he can inevitably hook up with Benson. 
I’m dreading seeing Benson on the Mothership, mainly because I’m afraid it will just be the Mothership characters bowing down to her and acknowledging she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and an all knowing beacon of truth and wisdom. She’s never wrong about anything anymore and I can’t imagine Mariska would agree to crossover unless it was all about making her/St O look good - her ego is enormous. I’ll be sickened but not surprised if she comes in and starts bossing around the squad of the 2-7 and the DAs office. Everything St Olivia is involved with becomes garbage. At least Jack McCoy retired without ever becoming a Benson puppet.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

Yeah I saw the new promo, look forward to L&O being back and to meeting the new LT - I’ll miss Dixon, hopefully the new squad leader will be good as well. I really like Shaw and Riley as the detectives, I also look forward to seeing how the relationship between DA Baxter and Price/Maroun continues to develop. I look forward to season 24.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

I look forward to seeing Maura Tierney’s character and how she interacts with Shaw/Riley - I’ll miss Dixon but hopefully the new LT will be cool as well. I do NOT look forward to seeing Olivia Benson on the Mothership, she stinks up everything she touches, and I’m afraid her appearance on the Mothership will end with the 2-7 and the DAs office bowing to her and telling her just how special she is, I kind of doubt MH would agree to crossover if it wasn’t about making Olivia look saintly. I hope I’m wrong, but I dread it regardless - I have a strong disdain for Olivia Benson - she sucks the life out of everyone around her just about.

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