… because he kept relying on dramatic courtroom confessions. Then I realized it was becausew the judges in New York have this fetish hard-on thing for tossing out every last scrap of actual evidence. Heh.
I still hate Jack McCoy because he’s such a fucking hardass. Half the time I find myself wanting the defendant to get away with it, even when his/her guilt is obvious.
He’s no Stone, but I’ve grown to like his irracable, kick the box and see what falls out methods.
Oh, I don’t care about him being a hardass. I mean, the entire justice system of New York is out solely to make his life a living hell. Why wouldn’t he be a hardass? 
You’re right. He’s not self-righteous, he’s not preachy and he’s not prone to letting mob guys win their cases. He’s no Stone.
Yeah, Ben Stone may be the most annoying character in L&O.
It’s all about Briscoe/Logan/Van Buren & McCoy/Kincaid/Schiff.
Am I the only one who’s annoyed by his speech patterns? He’s either doing a really bad Christopher Walken or talks so much and so fast that he has to pause to take a breath in the middle of random sentences.
Yes, I too dislike his speech patters: especially the bulging eyes the too fast spitting out of sentences - I actually find it to be amateurish acting, because it is so evidently reading lines as fast as he can. But what I really dislike is the self righteousness and Torquemada like pursuit of a perpetrator when there really isn’t any evidence he is right. But then the writers do a 180 and the guilt is exposed. He also espouses some pretty repugnant positions and attitudes (like forcing sterilization on a grieving albeit disturbed mother). The writers are trying to give the character some rough edges, but a) they dont really understand guys like that, so it comes off as fake, and b) Waterston is just not the right guy. Dzundza was really good as a more traditionally masculine guy, in ways Waterston just cant pull off. For me the character echoes tough talking frat boys who are really wimps underneath, or even a Trump-like character - puffing up the chest pretending to be something they are not. McCoy is not a tough guy or a working class guy, he is a wannabe. And on top of it, he talks back to Schiff - I cant figure out why he doesnt fire him. Bottom line: I hate McCoy, every episode he does something so egregious, I hope he loses the case - and I am a conservative Law & Order type, who hates prosecutorial misconduct and overzealousness.