Press Conference: The Law & Order Media Thread!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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. 

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[TakomaSnark]

Quote

I really hope they give Jack a satisfying exit and send him off into retirement on a positive note.

He'll be attacked in his sleep by a robot.

Reference:

 

[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.

[LizDC]

 

Edited February 21 by LizDC

[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. 

[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! 

[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. 

[andromeda331]

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.

[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?

[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.   

 

[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.

 

 

[Xeliou66]

10 minutes ago, TakomaSnark said:

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

 

Sam/Jack and Jerry/Lennie are the 2 faces people associate most with L&O, and understandably so - two icons who can’t be replaced. Sure the show can be good in episodes without them but they can’t be replaced. 

[ML89]

Sam's first and last appearance as Jack - great photos:

 

https://x.com/WolfEnt/status/1761088594351943845?s=20

Edited February 23 by ML89

[ML89]

Preview of tonight's ep with Mehcad Brooks - SPOILERS within!

Tonight's episode and how the season is going so far

[LizDC]

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

[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. 

[Xeliou66]

L&O and SVU have been renewed - so season 24 of L&O and season 26 of SVU are coming in the fall!!

[shapeshifter]

Tony Goldwyn interviewed on Jimmy Fallon last week, includes a funny bit: