I like to have a long-running drama I can binge with one eye while doing chores, grunt work or exercising. It has to be just compelling enough to keep my interest, yet not so complicated that I have to devote my full, undivided attention to it.
Since subscribing to a Peacock streaming deal, I’ve started watching L&O to fit that bill for me. First the original…but after awhile it started feeling a bit samey-samey to me: who the likely perp will be who faces prosecution is never much in doubt, although whether or not they are actually guilty or not is sometimes in doubt. Kind of unsatisfying, but sort of true to life, I guess.
So I tried ‘L&O: SVU’ (Special Victims Unit) but that one just felt icky to watch- nothing but one rape and murder victim after another.
Lately I’ve been watching ‘L&O: Criminal Intent’, which starts off from the criminal’s point of view, then switches to the cops who solve the crime. This one I’ve been enjoying the most so far. Sometimes they switch it up and there’s a twist as to who the real bad guy is, but most often the bad guy is not in doubt, and it’s up to Lt. Goren and his partner Eames to put the puzzle pieces together, It’s kinda like ‘Columbo Lite’. Vince D’Onofrio is great as part pit bull / part Columbo / part Sherlock Holmes, first deducing clues and then cajoling, belittling, and pissing off the suspects until they slip up.
I just recently noticed there is a ‘L&O: Organized Crime’. Is that one any good? Any other L&Os I’m not aware of?
My favorite was the original. I liked that it was just a new story every week, without (much) soapy workplace drama.
I liked D’Onofrio’s quirkiness in CO, but i didn’t find myself watching that one very often for some reason. I probably watched SVU the most over the years, but it became very tiresome. Like you said, weekly rapes and sexual assaults just feels gross, plus I just got sick of Mariska Harrgitay.
The original. I liked that we know almost nothing about these people’s personal lives. I know, we get snippets of some personal stuff every now and then, but for the most part the show is all business and I appreciate that.
Criminal Intent I enjoyed, but it was a very different show. I agree it was much more like Columbo-lite, as it took more of a “howcatchem” approach, and we usually knew exactly who the murderer was, because they show them doing it. The “catching” them at the end was always very satisfying, but hardcore realism kind of went out the window.
I think this is where the Original is the best. It’s got the perfect reoccurring structure to where you don’t have to pay super-close attention. You can even come in halfway through at the arraignment and still be okay. SVU goes all over the place, and I feel like with CI if you don’t give it 100% attention you get lost.
I like them all, but Criminal Intent has Vincent D’onofrio being a superb actor.
Runner-up: Raul Esparza.
SVU is spoiled for me by Detective Stabler regularly threatening and hitting suspects in interrogation and Detective Benson often breaking rules too - hiding her lover Detective Cassidy when he is wanted for murder; interfering in investigations when she is related to the victim (“Go home, Olivia!” … but she never does.)
I record both the original and the Criminal Intent episodes. I put them on when I want background noise or something to fall asleep to. It’s hard to choose between them. They both have things I like. I’m currently watching more of the CI but that’s only because there are fewer reruns for me.
I don’t like the SVU version at all. My daughter is a big fan of this one and I don’t understand it. She adores Mariska.
I’ve considered starting a thread asking who your favorite people were in the original, but I can’t choose between them myself, so I never did the thread. I loved them all for one reason or another. Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt and Jesse Martin are/were just perfect.
This is what causes me to stop watching a series: when they start injecting relationships and annoying innuendo in the tiny group of regulars, and when they start making each member of the main cast become victims of crime (“it’s personal now!”).
I lost interest in SVU very quickly. The acting was way too melodramatic. They didn’t act like real people let alone real cops.
I know It’s a bit contradictory to say CI because D’inofrio isn’t exactly realistic but he’s so good. It’s my favorite for that reason.
You can’t go wrong with the original for reasons already mentioned. Jerry Orbach might be the best tv cop ever. The original also often hit on actual real legal issues and made an attempt to be accurate with regards to New York law specifically. My main objection to the original was they would got to court with very weak evidence that no prosecutor would have the time or resources to proceed with. And of course they compress everything to make it seem like it takes weeks from beginning to end when it would probably take years in some cases.
I have not watched Organized Crime. It doesn’t interest me because of the close association with SVU.
The original is my fave. SVU, nope to rapes, child abuse, etc. I’ve seen only 1 epi of CI and it wasn’t compelling enough for me to seek out additional viewings.
I hate SVU. Too icky. And I think Un-Stabler should be arrested. I like Ice-T and I miss detective Mayhem.
I like CI, but “howcatchem” isn’t quite accurate. What CI does is delve into the mind of the perp. It’s all about the why. And the trouble with that is sometimes the perp is too sympathetic. Or. like the episode “Want” the perp is so trapped by his own mind that you want to feel sorry for him, despite the murders and drilling holes into women’s heads and giving them brain damage, and the leg eating.
Mothership is very good, but some episodes just make me want to skip them. But there are enough good ones to make up foir it.
L&O:LA and L&O:UK are fun variations if you can get them. Especially UK. The first season used some American L&O plots but tweaked them for the UK legal system, and attitudes. If you’re familiar with Mothership, it’s fun to play spot-the-plot.
I watched Trial By Jury, but it was pretty meh.You got Lenny’s final episodes, but I’m not sure it is worth it. (L&O) Conviction I called Young Lawyers In Love. I’m not sure there was any law and not much order.
This thread would not be complete without a link to the classic Mulaney L&O bit. I know Mulaney is probably talking about general tropes here, but has anyone else kept an eye out for the exact “guy continues to unload crates from a truck” episode, as I have? I have seen episodes that were close, with the witness/suspect still going about their business, like being questioned by the “murder police” happens to them all the time. But not the ‘crates’ episode, exactly.
Why yes, I do have a touch of OCD, why do you ask?
I only watch Original Recipe L&O, and though it’s great to have that one back, it’s updated a bit for contemporary TV, but also where it hasn’t it’s a bit lame; The IT techy bits are especially awful, in that dated “enhance enhance” kind of way, something that it used to sidestep but now is in every episode.
Also they had a UK adaptation of it about ten years back that I much preferred, so it was a shame that didn’t last.
I prefer the original, especially the Briscoe years.
I like that it doesn’t dwell on their personal lives, but it’s fun to watch for those times that personal things are mentioned. It’s like finding an Easter egg. Don Cragen’s wife was shown once, but only for a few seconds. It would be interesting to compile a list of just those sorts of moments.
I’ll keep an eye out for him. Kevin Smith was in an episode, moving beer kegs around a warehouse, but he stopped to talk to the detectives.
I have a bit off a trivia question for all the L&O fans. Lots of actors (lots and LOTS of actors) have played multiple characters across the L&O-verse, but I can only think of one who died twice. Can anyone think of who it is (or come up one that I haven’t thought of)?
the thing with ay law and order series is itheyre usually extreme what if scenario s
the original was courtroom/lawyer part tended to be more compelling than the criminal part
Svu is ok but it annoys me when it takes 2 or 3 “hot topics” and tries to cram them together like a few years ago there were blown-out-of-proportion rumors of a “pregnancy club” where this group of girls thought it would be cool to all have babies at the same time in a high school and online bullying had just started to be a hot topic …
The writers said “lets combine both of them in a single story !” and it was such a stretch to combine the two topics that it just sounded silly …
The appropriate question is “What’s your favorite ‘Law & Order’ version after the original?”. I’d have to answer SVU even though I watch it just to point out that it’s the worst version of L&O. I don’t care enough about the other ones enough to bother with them at all.
When I wrote the OP I said “Criminal Intent” was my favorite of what I’d seen so far, but now that I’ve watched many more episodes it’s starting to grate on me a bit. I used to enjoy D’Onofrio’s acting in it, but his character seems to be getting more and more eccentric and tic-driven with every episode.
Early on they were pretty much showing who committed the crime at the start, so then it became a 'Columbo-lite howcatchem"-- a matter of how Eames and (mostly) Goren would nail the bad guy. Which I liked. But they fairly quickly abandoned that to the typical “which of the 3 or 4 people they interview is it?” formula, usually with a red herring twist.
And sometimes the way they (or again, really just Goren) nail the bad guy is fairly clever, like Goren gets the guy to admit to or do something thinking it will cement his alibi, when it actually points to his guilt. But more often it seems that Goren just goads or browbeats the bad guy into confessing.
I continue to adore the original recipe. My interest flags a little during the middle of its second decade, but I was genuinely impressed with the Cutter/Rubirosa/Bernard/Lupo retooling and wished that that lineup had enjoyed a lengthier run. I have yet to sample the revival. Part of me feels like it would besmirch the awesomeness of the first go-around. I would say Criminal Intent is a close second. The post-Carver era doesn’t interest me as much, though. Part of me is just annoyed that they gave up on the “Law” part of the title. They brought in a replacement for Carver who showed up twice and then basically decided that it was really just a cop show now and that was that.
