Watching Law & Order has been such a weird experience. I can say I really did enjoy season 22, whatever happened that made NBC basically shadow ban that season is beyond me. Now that I’m watching season 23 the writing feels odd, less thoughtful. I would really like to watch all three seasons and compare all of them. This show really has it’s good moments and it’s bad moments. It tries to be a show for the people but sometimes it’s really just a copaganda show and it’s glaringly obvious. If it actually wanted to focus on the injustices of the justice system I think they would have to make more episodes condemning their officers and about police brutality and unfair/ illegal policing! Which hasn’t been done to my knowledge but I once again need to watch all the episodes to make that claim. From what I’ve seen it’s not very well done.

It has potential to be a great show that focuses on the failures within the justice system but it uses police misconduct as normal police practices and the police face zero repercussions for their actions. They use techniques to create evidence instead of finding evidence, which usually means they have the wrong person or the evidence they obtain is illegal because they cannot wait to get search warrants EVER. They are always having the cops violate people’s rights and then face nothing for it, they don’t even get told off about it. NOT ONCE. The blame for it usually falls on the prosecutors who didn’t even collect the evidence. They are the ones who have to face the mistake. It’s very odd. It’s like the police are working against their own goals and allowing criminals to get away because of their terrible investigations and procedures. It’s ridiculous.

And not to mention that sometimes this show won’t take a stance on anything. They had an entire episode about the rise of antisemitism since October 7th, but it framed the pro Palestinian movement as hateful and dangerous. It couldn’t even acknowledge that there’s a genocide happening, it beats around the bush and condemns the movement without acknowledging its genuine fight for freedom. It’s a little ridiculous and totally exaggerated. It actually was such a politically dense episode that it missed the fucking point of the antisemitism and glorified hatred towards arabs and Palestinians. It did not achieve anything other than rage bait and sucking up to Zionists. They also conflated Zionism with Jewishness which made it so clear that the writing for this episode was just clinging to current news and doesn’t care about anyone who is getting hurt in this conflict. They never condemned Israel but what would you really expect??? ITS LAW & ORDER. This episode was also the opening of the season which was baffling and disgusting.

The other day while I was starting to fixate on this show again I thought of an episode they could make with the current American university encampments and police brutality that is happening and what a great way to have an emotionally intense episode to discuss police violence against students, Jews who are pro Palestinian, the violent counter protests by zionists and the current escalation of the genocide. They could make an excellent episode if there was love and thought put into it which would be a very interesting change for Law & Order but I genuinely don’t trust the writers or producers to make a decent episode covering this conflict at all. I also don’t think they would ever cover it. Letting it fall through the cracks is so much safer for them and they can just keep going on as they are without putting themselves in boiling water.

My disappointment for this show has been felt a lot as a big fan of SVU, I have enjoyed that show since I was literally 12 and too young to watch it. I found it so intriguing and hoped this show would deliver the same feeling. In some ways it does and in a lot of ways it handles conflict and police brutality poorly, never picking a side or having a stance on anything that isn’t completely based on emotions. The show is never genuine and everything falls through the cracks. When it attempts to care about the people, it ignores the people failed by the system.

The only reason I started this show at all was for Hugh Dancy. Being a big fan of him, I enjoy watching what he does and as Nolan Price I think he does a good job. He’s very emotional and tries to fight for the victims the best he can. He is constantly being held back either by the faulty cops or by the DA, the case can also go wrong or the defence has a better case than he does. He does his little faces twitches all the time and he always looks so sad. He really feels heavy with these cases. For me atleast he and the police team carry the show but the stories they try to tell around them fall apart. They also give none of these characters development or lives outside of their jobs or focus on how their job impacts their lives, tbh they attempted it in season 22 and I think it was successful. I would really like that deeper character development for all the characters and the police department too. The police as a whole are a character in this show, last season Jalen Shaw was literally racially profiled by policemen ON THE JOB and was almost shot before his partner had to intervene. This is just one example of them trying to tell stories of bad policing but it’s from the season that NBC won’t even put on their streaming service. So it’s like, why are you purposely suppressing these stories???? Also where’s the commitment to making this show feel connected and genuinely about the people and failures of the justice system.

It’s either they get better writers or they should stop making the show, but I also still want Hugh Dancy to get that bag (i actually want him to quit so badly so he can keep his beard tho, lmao I just love his beard and he has to shave it for this role which is such crap cuz he has an amazing beard. WHY WONT THEY LET NOLAN PRICE GROW A BEARD?? LET MY MAN BE CASUAL AND COMFORTABLE. HE NEEDS SOME HEALING AND PERSPECTIVE. Let Nolan grow as a character a little and to match that character growth, let him grow a beard) (PLEASE I BEG)