The Right Thing

Anthony Anderson and Sam Waterston are back, with a guest star Carey Lowell. Add to them. Jeffrey Donovan - best know for Burn Notice, but he did two guest star appearances in Law & Order - and Camryn Manheim, known best for The Practice, but many other things as well, including three previous appearances on Law & Order.

I am not sure if Carey Lowell will be a recurring character, given that she seems to be back in the prosecution's office.

Of the two new faces, Hugh Dancy and Odelya Halevi stand out. Note that they are ADA's, not detectives.

This episode leans more on the courtroom side, with discussions among the lawyers and the trial as the main focus. When is the last time a Law & Order show focused on the courtroom?

I an not sure about Jeffrey Donovan's character. They seem to have made him "that guy", the abrasive, unlikable character that seems to be common on many series these days.

Of course, there is the well-known political comments of the current Dick Wolf shows, which some will hate.

We will have to see if the rest of the show makes getting through those moments acceptable.

Not impressed. The actor playing Cosgrove is really getting on my last nerve. Too aggressive, too ignorant, too hard ass & not believable. I think Sam Waterston, although great, is past his prime for this part. I think Anderson is mis-cast. The others are ok. I'll give this a couple more chances, but I'm not optimistic.

I'll not write this new season completely off yet, but....something doesn't quite gel.

I absolutely love original L&O. Something about this new episode isn't landing for me. And I can't put my finger on it. And I'll probably get hated for my critique.

Bernard should be the Lieutenant. In the L&O timeline, that's where he'd be by now. I like Camryn Manheim, but really? And seriously, when we last left Jamie, she was a defense attorney. And for a homicide division, this was very SVU heavy, which really didn't make sense since SVU is still on the air.

For the most part, I like the casting. BUT, I do not care for the casting of the new detective. I've never liked that actor in anything. But that's personal preference.

Overall, this first episode feels disjointed. I'll give it a couple of episodes, but...I don't know if I can pick this up again.

If they want to save this series they need to replace the two detectives. The greatest team Law and Order ever had was Briscoe and Green. Old school and new school but they respected each other and learned from each other. And they both had the sense of humor that you need to do that job. The new team is like oil and water. They don't respect each other at all and both are in a perpetual state of anger. I expected them to each break out in a lecture at any moment. I thought the rest of the cast was great and props to Hugh Dancy for doing a credible job of the old McCoy slot. I loved that he tried to do things "ethically" and found that sometimes doesn't result in justice being served. I've never cared for Jeffrey Donovan because he always over acts but since Anderson did a credible job when he worked with Jeremy Sisto in the series I have to believe it's the writers' fault. Hopefully they get back in the groove of great storylines, plot twists and McCoy pulling a rabbit out of his hat at the very last minute.

Returning with about 80% of the formula that made the original great, this first episode of the 21st season was a great disappointment. Every actor (save 1) is a seasoned veteran, but their performances were wooden and uninspired. The writing is completely disjointed, and in the aggregate just didn't make sense. The "original" L&W took great pains to make points, to argue both sides, to setup a dilemma or two, but this has none of that. By the end, I didn't care for guilty or not - I was bored.

Another issue is that the average cut time for this was about two seconds. We have over the shoulder cut-to wide shot cut-to over the other shoulder cut-to dolly shot - cut to crane shot. I got dizzy watching this. The director had a complete obsession with style while dumping substance down the drain.

But it's the first attempt. I'll watch the second episode and hope someone trims Sam Waterson's eyebrows.