Help! We recorded the season’s first new episode of Law and Order (Paradigm) & our recording cut off right before the verdict. Paradigm is the episode about an Iraqi woman who kills a former U.S. prison guard. Would someone be willing to tell us what the jury’s verdict was? Details welcome. Thanks!
The verdict was
guilty
…and I think I’m going to like Dennis Farina’s character.
Thanks! I think I’m going to like “the new guy” too. Looks like he’s going to have layers–maybe it’s an onion thing.
Should be interesting indeed. Fontana has already gotten off on the wrong foot with Van Buren, lies like a hat, and flaunts wealth he shouldn’t have on a cop’s salary. Despite this, he’s a brilliant investigator. Should be a few episodes where IAB breathes down his neck.
And dang, that was a nice car.
I missed Law and Order a lot last season for various reasons. Tonight made me remember why I love this show so much. Two really good episodes. I like Detective Fontana too, he seems like there will be some interesting stuff happening there.
If last night’s episodes are any indication, it looks like they’re really going for it with the whole “ripped from the headlines” aspect this year. I really liked the second episode regarding the firefighter’s ex-wife. When the ferry crashed at the beginning I actually said “Whoa!” out loud. 
Another girly squeal for Detective Fontana.
What about parfaits? Ain’t nobody don’t like parfaits!
I felt just the opposite. Farina did an ok job, but I didn’t (and don’t) want to watch that character at all.
Luckily, I may be able to find an L&O rerun somewhere, if I look hard enough.
I think Fontana is going to be very interesting. Flashy car, nice clothes, big wad of cash, and just when you think you learn a little tidbit about him, (“I fought in Saigon, if my wife left me and my two boys, Tad and Eric, 10 and 12”) you find out he was lying to get info from a suspect/witness.
Considering L&O’s bent for focusing on stories rather than characters, I doubt we’ll ever know everything there is to know about Fontana. (Does Ed Green even still gamble?)
Including why he transferred from the Bronx PD.
Fontana is sort of halfway between Briscoe and Goran (from L&O:CI). He’s somewhat of the old-school legwork-and-streetsmarts detective and somewhat the psychological morph-yourself-into-someone-the-suspect-will-talk-to detective. I just hope he isn’t made into too much of a central character–this should be an ensemble, with the 4 main characters dividing up the spotlight evenly (with occasional bits for Van Buren and Branch).
Did Bloomberg actually play himself in the press conference? If he does that sort of thing, the reall DA will want to take away Thompson’s role.
I missed that bit. What was his ride?
My thumbs up to the new guy. I liked him. He will NEVER be as good as Lenny but he will do.
I don’t know, I’m not a car guy at all. Looked like some kind of convertible Mercedes sports car.
Why did Farina appear before Martin in the opening montage? Martin deserved to have the pole position; he’s been on the show for years!
Nope, Farina was listed first in the credits. (looking in IMDB, man has he been in lots of movies!)
I liked Fontana’s character. Like ivylass, I’m hoping it will be a running joke that whatever he says to give himself backstory (“I was in 'Nam”) just turns out to be BS for a suspect.
I missed the season finale last season - how did they handle Lenny’s departure? They didn’t even mention him last night.
Also, it appears they’re planting the seeds for explaining how Elizabeth Rohm’s character is leaving - first the DA bitching her out for her liberal views and suggesting she doesn’t appear at the press conference, then McCoy suggesting she not stay for the verdict.
Now, for that 2nd episode: what the hell happened with the crash? One housewife just happened to murder the other one seconds before a completely coincidental Ferry crash? That’s one pretty big coincidence and seemed kinda sensational for L&O. And what happened with the driver? If that wasn’t his flask of gin, then whose was it? And if he wasn’t drunk, why did he leave the scene and try and kill himself?
I think they did mention Lenny last night. Not by name, but something like “your old partner sure got lucky with that new job.”
Farina probably received top billing because of his contract. But the tradition in L& O has always been to show the cast this way: Old cop, young cop, lieutenant, star DA, assistant DA, head DA
Lennie (the official L&O spelling) just quietly retired in last year’s final episode. It was very sweet and typically understated. Early in the episode Lt. Van Buren asked him if he’d told Ed yet, and he hadn’t. Then he joked with her about how they’d been together for eleven years (“that’s the longest I’ve been with any woman”). Throughout the show Ed kept making comments about the future, and Lennie just looked wistful. Finally Ed confronted him about what was up, and he said that he’d put in his papers. The look on Ed’s face and his, “Damn, Lennie,” were great, but of course they were immediately interrupted by a development in the case. Finally at the end of the episode Lennie was packing up his desk (“I’ve got twelve year’s worth of ketchup packets in here”) and Ed came in and gave him a gift – a caricature of Lennie/Jerry playing pool signed by everyone at the station (presumably it was really signed by the L&O cast and crew). He mentioned that he might pick up some work as an investigator for the D.A.'s office (alluding to the new L&O series that will start in mid-season on which Jerry-as-Lennie is scheduled to appear), and Ed said that they would be getting the best. Lennie replied, “No, I’m looking at the best,” to Ed and Van Buren, and then walked out the door. The final shot was of his nameplate on his desk.
O.K., so I still have my tape of that episode and have watched it a dozen or so times over the summer. Everyone knows that L&O episodes are infinitely rewatchable.
As for last night, initially I was disappointed that they had replaced Lennie with such an unlikeable character, but he started to grow on me after a while. I thought some of his wisecracks in the second episode were worthy of Lennie (“I never heard a woman talk so sweet about a man who done her so wrong”). I didn’t like the first episode much because I don’t like when they get so political, but I loved the second episode. I felt for the suspect so much that I was actually rooting against Jack during the trial.
I’m just glad to have original Law & Order back.