TV Talk: Original ‘Law & Order’ returns on NBC

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

After wrapping up its original, 20-year, 456-episode run, NBC’s “Law & Order” ended in cancellation in 2010 much to the displeasure of series creator Dick Wolf, who has long wanted to bring the show back.

“He was talking about it five years ago and I don’t think he’s ever stopped talking about it,” said series regular Sam Waterston, who returns as district attorney Jack McCoy for the show’s revival, premiering at 8 p.m. Thursday on WPXI-TV. “One of the reasons that we’re back is because of his persistence and determination and his complete conviction that it was a terrible mistake to stop in the first place.”

“The other reason that we’re coming back, though, is because we stopped making the shows, but the audience never stopped watching them,” Waterston continued. “The audience’s persistent appetite for ‘Law & Order’ is a major reason why we’re back.”

In addition to Waterston, actor Anthony Anderson (“Black-ish”) reprises his 2008-10 role as Det. Kevin Bernard.

“I called Dick once I found out the show was coming back, and he was excited to hear from me, to hear that I would be interested in doing it,” Anderson said earlier this month during NBC’s portion of the Television Critics Association’s winter 2022 virtual press tour. “Returning to the streets of New York, returning to our soundstages and that squad room and donning that badge, Badge No. 1901, was just like sitting in a well-worn saddle.”

Anderson’s Bernard is paired with a new colleague, Det. Frank Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan, “Burn Notice”), for the “Law” portion of each episode. Camryn Manheim (“The Practice”) takes over the lieutenant role made famous by S. Epatha Merkerson, who’s now a series regular on Wolf’s “Chicago Med.”

It’s not Manheim’s first “Law & Order” role. Or even her second.

“My first job out of NYU was on ‘Law Order’ back in 1991, 30 years ago. I came back as three different characters on ‘Law & Order’ through the years,” Manheim said. “It was a badge of honor to be able to be in an off-Broadway play or a Broadway play and say that you’d been on ‘Law & Order’ and then how many times you’d been on ‘Law & Order.’”

Waterston thinks Wolf deserves Tony Awards recognition for creating so many acting jobs.

“I wanted the Tonys to give Dick Wolf a Tony for what he had done for stage actors in New York City,” Waterston said. “So far, I haven’t succeeded, but I think it’s a great idea and I think they ought to do it.”

The second, “Order” half of the revival features a new pair of assistant district attorneys, Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy, “Hannibal”) and Samantha Maroun (“Odelya Halevi, “Good Trouble”), who report to McCoy.

Waterston and Anderson aren’t the only actors to reprise characters from the original series.

In the premiere episode, ADA Jamie Ross (guest star Carey Lowell) returns, albeit in a capacity that should get her fired (but doesn’t) in a ripped-from-the-headlines riff on Bill Cosby’s assault charges.

“We definitely want to find ways to bring back several of our alumni,” said executive producer Rick Eid, though he declined to name names.

Eid said the “Law & Order” revival will “reflect the world we live in now. The way people police is a lot different now than it was 10 years ago, even two years ago,” he said. “I think the way people prosecute cases and try cases is a lot different and they’re aware of certain things they weren’t aware of before.”

Waterston is happy with those efforts.

“There would be a way to dodge all the conflicts that are going on and I think he’s just walked straight up to one after another,” Waterston said of showrunner Eid.

Although Wolf has allowed his other series to change with the times and embrace more serialized storytelling, going home with the characters and learning more about their personal lives, Eid doesn’t expect “Law & Order” will follow that path in a significant way.

“Action is character. Characters are defined by the decisions they make and the choices they make,” Eid said. “In terms of specific backstories and sons, daughters, boyfriends, girlfriends – it’s possible, but it’s story first on this show. But I think you’ll see hints of personal backstories and how they inform decisions and choices that people make.”

As for the quality of the revived “Law & Order,” a lot of the dialogue seemed too on-the-nose and/or hyperbolic, especially in the “Order” scenes. The lawyer-turned-judge in my family watched the first episode with me and mocked the “bad lawyering” and things “a judge could [theoretically] do but would never do.”